This Week in Pandemic Education Policy: Vaccines for Young Children Could Land Next Month, Why ‘Hold Harmless’ Hurts Budgets of Growing Districts & More Updates

This is our weekly briefing on how the pandemic is shaping faculties and training coverage, vetted, as all the time, by AEI Visiting Fellow John Bailey. Click right here to see the total archive. Get this weekly roundup, in addition to rolling day by day updates, delivered straight to your inbox — enroll for The 74 Newsletter.

Food and Drug Administration Sets June for Potential Decision on Vaccines for Children Under 5: FDA declares tentative schedule for vaccine advisory conferences: June 8, 21, 22: Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech in youthful populations.

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The Big Three — May 6, 2022

California: Some college districts that grew through the pandemic really feel shortchanged.

• “The decision to hold districts harmless for declining enrollment came from a well-intended solution,” stated Peter Birdsall, president of lobbying agency Education Advocates. “Even at the time, the concern was raised that some districts were growing. ‘Hold harmless’ actually hurt them.”
• “Education Advocates and the Small School Districts’ Association, an advocacy group … estimate that 169 school districts, mostly small and rural, weren’t funded for all their students last school year.”
• “According to a CalMatters analysis, 189 of the state’s 940 school districts grew between the 2019-20 and the 2020-21 school years. The combined enrollment at those districts is about 10% of California’s total public school enrollment.”
• For instance: “San Benito High School District in Hollister, about 30 miles east of Monterey Bay, gained 160 students between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. It grew by an additional 142 students this year. Since the start of the pandemic, enrollment has increased by nearly 10%. Superintendent Shawn Tennenbaum estimates the district should have received about $1.2 million more in funding for the 2020-21 school year.”

Kaiser Family Foundation

Most Parents with Children Under 5 Years Old Will Wait and See on COVID Shots: Via KFF COVID Vaccine Monitor

• Only 18% of dad and mom are desperate to get their little one vaccinated straight away
• 38% say they plan to attend some time to see how the vaccine is working for others.
• 4 in 10 are extra reluctant to get their little one vaccinated, with 27% saying they are going to “definitely not” and 11% saying they are going to solely achieve this if they’re required.
• Among dad and mom of 5- to 11-year-olds, who’ve been eligible for vaccination since October, about 4 in 10 (39%) say their little one has gotten vaccinated, whereas a big share say they are going to achieve this provided that vaccines are required for college (12%) or say their little one will certainly not get the COVID-19 vaccine (32%).

Education Department: Announced $220 million in investments from authorities, personal and public sectors to help scholar restoration. 

• The American Camp Association and the National Summer Learning Association will create 10 new summer season studying packages, in collaboration with 10 public college districts, for low-income college students as they put together for the following college 12 months. 
• The National League of Cities is partnering with the Afterschool Alliance to supply an interactive map, highlighting how districts and municipalities are investing in afterschool and summer season programming utilizing varied American Rescue Plan funding streams,
• $17 million funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for high-impact tutoring.
• $14.4 million in grants from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation all through 2022 to help afterschool throughout the nation. 
• $10 million funding from the Raikes Foundation to help organizations geared toward accelerating studying and increasing entry to psychological well being helps. 
• See the total listing.

City & State News

Connecticut: The legislature gave last passage Tuesday to three wide-ranging measures that may broaden entry to and increase sources for youngsters’s psychological well being, with some lawmakers calling it the defining problem of Connecticut’s 2022 legislative session. 

• The Senate accepted House Bill 5001, a proposal that focuses on companies in the medical sector and in the group. 
• The House handed Senate Bill 1, “which features resources for schools.”
• The House additionally handed Senate Bill 2, “which concentrates on early childhood interventions. All three now head to the governor’s desk for his signature.”

Kansas: A Kansas City college adopts year-round studying to assist fight COVID studying loss.

Massachusetts: New ballot from MassINC Polling Group

• 22% of dad and mom consider their youngsters are nonetheless behind grade degree. That’s unchanged since October 2021
• 74% of dad and mom who see their youngsters as behind grade degree additionally reported psychological well being considerations, way over dad and mom of youngsters with fewer tutorial challenges (41%).
• Black dad and mom are most involved about an infection in school, with 69% considerably or very involved, in contrast with 45% of white dad and mom.
• 80% of Black dad and mom help a masks mandate, in contrast with 50% of white dad and mom. Asian American dad and mom help the total vary of mitigation measures, with not less than 70% help for every. Two thirds or extra of Latino dad and mom are on board with every measure apart from a scholar vaccine mandate.
  

Michigan: Without state management, Michigan’s patchwork tutoring packages wrestle to handle studying loss.

Mississippi: Imagine Learning, Gale, Discovery Ed prime listing of new statewide Ed Tech expenditures by Mississippi ED.

Rhode Island: Students will want 3 to five years of accelerated studying to recuperate from COVID.

Texas: New Texas 2036 report on broadband.

Washington: “Pasco School District is partnering with Hazel Health to provide mental health services for students in grades K-12.”

Federal Updates

Treasury: Released up to date FAQs for Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. 

• Fiscal restoration funds will pay for the “full salary and benefits of many school and child care staff,” in addition to to coach potential staff to fill in-demand roles in little one care and training, together with as college bus drivers, college vitamin employees, paraprofessionals and different employees.
• Projects to enhance college power effectivity and air air flow will also be financed with the funds. 
• “Recipients may use [the] funds to invest in broadband infrastructure that, where practicable, is designed to deliver service that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical upload and download speeds of 100 Mbps to households or businesses with an identified need for additional broadband investment. ‘Businesses’ in this context refers broadly to include non-residential users of broadband, including private businesses and institutions that serve the public, such as schools, libraries, health care facilities and public safety organizations.”
• Recipients should obligate all funds by Dec. 31, 2024 and spend down the cash by Dec. 31, 2026.

Federal Communications Commission: Opens third and certain last spherical of funding to handle homework hole.

COVID-19 Research

1,000,000 Deaths: U.S. coronavirus demise toll surpasses 1 million.

Study Finds COVID Vaccine Materials Written at Too-high Reading Level: Mayo research.

• COVID-19 vaccine informational materials is written at greater than a Tenth-grade studying degree and thus is way too troublesome for the typical American to know.
• At least 25% of the U.S. inhabitants has very low-level studying abilities and is unable to understand a bus schedule or treatment and cleaning-product labels, the authors stated.
• ” ‘Our study demonstrates that a significant portion of the U.S. general public is unable to comprehend the available vaccine information in the documents we studied,’ the authors concluded. ‘Given the importance of these documents to inform and build trust within the community regarding COVID-19 vaccines, greater effort must be applied to improve the readability of these information documents.’ “

COVID-19 Precautions in Schools: Via EdNext:

BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 May Escape Antibodies Generated by BA.1 Infection: New research.

COVID Hospitalization May Affect Thinking Similar to twenty Years of Aging: Study / Press launch. More through The Guardian and Bloomberg.

COVID-19 Tied to Adverse Maternal Outcomes, Preterm Birth: A research of greater than 6,000 ladies who gave start in Canada through the pandemic means that these contaminated with COVID-19 have been at larger threat for hospitalization and intensive care unit admission than these of nonpregnant ladies of childbearing age. More through CIDRAP.

• “Infection, even if mild, was tied to a significantly higher risk of preterm birth (less than 37 weeks’ gestation) than no infection. Of 175 preterm births with detailed delivery data, 46% were spontaneous and 54% were induced.”
  

Why is U.S. National Data So Terrible?: Katelyn Jetelina interviews the CDC’s Caitlin Rivers.

How Coronavirus is Getting Closer to the Flu: Via Stat 

Sensitivity of Home COVID Rapid Antigen Tests Peaks 4 Days After Illness Onset: “The sensitivity of home rapid antigen COVID-19 tests peaks 4 days after symptom onset, suggesting that a negative antigen test should be followed by a second test in 1 or 2 days, according to a prospective study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.”

Paxlovid: “Paxlovid’s failure as a preventative measure raises questions, but doctors still back it as a therapeutic,” Stat studies.

Why Are Vaccines Still Important If So Many Kids Have Already Had COVID-19? Via Fox 7 Austin

• “The CDC and other public health experts overwhelmingly say that ongoing safety monitoring shows that COVID-19 vaccination continues to be safe for children and that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks. It also helps to reduce the virus’ chance of mutating into new, more worrisome variants.”
• “Vaccines have absolutely changed childhood survival in this country and around the world, and the COVID vaccine is no exception. There is, in my mind, no reason not to get a potentially life-saving, preventative vaccine,” stated Melissa Marx, an assistant professor and epidemiologist on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
  

Viewpoints

Society for Human Resource Management Backs Alternative Credentials: In new report and article. 

• “Training certificates, course completion certificates, industry or professional certifications and other types of ‘alternative credentials’ can help employers further their hiring diversity, equity and inclusion goals as well as bolster career development.”
• “Alternative credentials can be defined as any microcredential, industry or professional certification, acknowledgment of apprenticeship (registered or nonregistered) or badging that indicates one’s competencies and skills within a particular field. Alternative credentials do not include traditional academic degrees or required occupational licensures.”

School Districts’ Post-COVID Strategies for Summer Learning: “Nearly 60% of the nation’s school districts and charter organizations expect to spend a portion of their federal American Rescue Plan funding on summer learning or on a combination of summer and afterschool programs, according to a FutureEd analysis of spending plans for more than 4,100 local education agencies compiled by the Burbio data services firm.”

A Third of U.S. College Students Consider Withdrawing: Via Gallup.

Mental Health Problems Among Children and Adolescents During COVID-19 Pandemic: A scientific assessment. Coverage from Kaiser Health News.

• The research “found unusually high rates of anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, suicidal behavior, stress-related disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other mental health problems during the pandemic. Individual behaviors such as hobbies, praying and listening to music were associated with positive mental health, the studies also found.”

Parent Perception Barometer: Via Bellwether.

• A majority of dad and mom wish to see faculties change to handle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Parents’ concern for their youngsters’s tutorial progress stays excessive in 2022.
• Two years after the pandemic started, a majority of dad and mom stay frightened about their youngsters’s psychological well being.
• Worry about sending youngsters to in-person education is down, however some dad and mom stay involved.
• In most states, public college enrollment has but to recuperate to pre-pandemic ranges.

How Social and Emotional Learning Became a New Front in the Culture Wars: Via Rick Hess

The Education Culture War is Raging. But for Most Parents, It’s Background Noise: Via NPR 

… And on a Reflective Note

It’s May!: 

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Weekend Reads: In case you missed them, our prime 5 tales of the week:

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Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which offers monetary help to The 74.

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