Education Policies In A COVID-19 Environment

By Michelle Merriweather and T’wina Nobles

Both the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and the Tacoma Urban League understand what a high-quality education means to the children and families in this city. For decades, we’ve fought for equity and excellence in classrooms as well as mentorship and support to the children and youth in our communities and throughout the state of Washington.

But we would be remiss to overlook how COVID-19 has changed the lives of our youth. Some have lost family members, teachers, and friends in the months that they have been isolated under an unprecedented quarantine. While we believe that high-quality in-person instruction is ideal for student learning, the health and safety of our youth must come first.

In the first week of reopening’s across the country, a high school student was suspended for posting a photo of her school failing to provide adequate social distancing and enforce face coverings. The same school closed after nine students tested positive for COVID-19.

While it’s worth noting that children under 19 represent 22 percent of the population, but only five percent of coronavirus cases, there has been a 90 percent increase in the number of COVID-19 cases among children in the United States since July, according to a new analysis by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. And while the risk of children dying or becoming critically ill is low, one recent study suggests that older children can transmit the virus just as much as adults – raising even more doubts about their role in transmissions.  

Moreover, Black and Latino children have disproportionately higher rates of coronavirus infections and are more likely to develop severe symptoms requiring hospitalization than White children impacted by this virus. Based off of data in May 2020, across Washington state the Latino population is 13% but 31% of confirmed cases are directly impacting Latino communities. The Black population is only 4% of the total population of the state but 10% are being directly impacted by COVID-19.

Because of this, the National Urban League Movement believes that any school-reopening decisions (whether they include in-person instruction, virtual learning, or a hybrid) must be conditioned on meeting the following four principles.

• Health & Safety First—The decision to reopen must be consistent with the guidance of public health authorities to keep students, educators, school staff, and families safe.

• Family & Community Input—The decision to reopen must be made in ongoing collaboration with parents, families, and community stakeholders.

• An Intentional Focus on Equity—Reopening plans, whether in-person, virtual, or a hybrid version of the two (and any decision to alter that plan) must specifically promote equity by ensuring that every child has access to a high-quality, well-rounded education regardless of his or her race, income, or zip code.

• Resources & Funding—States must ensure that schools have adequate resource levels and flexible funding policies that are necessary to provide equitable access to safe, supportive, and high-quality learning.

 If these principles cannot be met, we believe school buildings should remain closed. School systems should redouble their efforts to that ensure every child has the resources, opportunities, and supports necessary to succeed in an online learning environment.

 At the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and the Tacoma Urban League, we stand ready to partner with state, district and school leaders. We want to ensure policies and practices are adopted, investments made, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We must be up to the challenges and opportunities of the moment and be transparent. The policies must explicitly tie to equity strategies and principles that are informed by and accessible to students, families, educators, and community stakeholders. We also want to ensure that data is routinely collected throughout the year to monitor impact, progress and shortcomings to guide support and intervention for students, families, and educators across all learning environments, whether distanced, hybrid or in-person.          

Our goal will always be to have the communities we serve as our top priority. We will continue to work diligently to get our community’s youth the safest opportunity for school and to continually work to provide a positive impact on their learning, development and growth.

Michelle Merriweather is President/CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, and T’wina Nobles is President/CEO of the Tacoma Urban League.