State Board of Education

Public Hearing

School Reopening

August 18, 2021

I am Valerie Jablow, a DCPS parent who finds it ironic that this hearing is being held virtually on the subject of kids soon returning to school in person.

If we are here virtually due to what the state board’s own website says is a “public health emergency,” it seems only fair to ask what we hope to achieve with in person learning during a public health emergency in which our city has thus far refused to mandate covid vaccinations and testing for all in all our schools.

I am sympathetic to parents who see their children (and/or themselves) unhappy and frustrated at home. I am also sympathetic to parents who fear vaccinations. But just as we know not all children learning from home are unhappy, frustrated, or not learning, we also know that children can, and do, get covid; get sick; and die of it.

Without much cost or effort, DC can do more to protect families:

DC can have vaccine mandates for all staff and eligible students. As someone who became very ill as a child with a vaccine-preventable illness, I fail to understand what public health benefits anyone thinks not mandating covid vaccination will achieve. Ditto for regular testing of all in all our schools, and uniform and robust quarantine protocols that do not depend on whether one was masked or not.

DC also can have a robust and widespread virtual option using the tools of the last 18 months and the information we have gleaned through that experience. In person learning is wonderful and great—but right now, we know it is not safe for everyone. [We have heard about in person learning from SY20-21 and this summer and the reporting of cases. What we have not heard are estimated and/or expected numbers of reported cases with all students back in person]

Indeed, the urgency here is acute, as in less than 2 weeks, in classes and hallways, DC will see more than 50 THOUSAND unvaccinated public school kids every single day in close proximity with untold numbers of unvaccinated staff. [Based on the audited enrollment from SY20-21 of DC public school kids from preK3 through grade 6, all of whom would be less than 12, the current threshold for vaccination].

That’s on top of what is happening right this minute, as DC has rising case loads, including kids. [DC is hardly alone in the rising cases: Over 4 days this past week, the United States saw more than 2400 deaths from covid—more than all US military deaths in Afghanistan.]

And all of that comes with a frightening context in DC, as we continue to have no clear safety mandates for all our publicly funded schools, including universal testing and vaccination. Whose freedom does that represent? [It represents the freedom of DC charter operators, who are exempted from following any testing protocol that DCPS follows. Indeed, a pandemic is a terrible time to come to terms with the fact that DC’s publicly funded schools have widely variable health and safety requirements, whether for sexual assault, lead in school water, or COVID. Some charters may institute regular, universal testing. But some may not. Some may elect to adopt weak sampling akin to what DCPS did in SY20-21, well below the goal of 10% (see the story here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-schools-covid-tests-audit/2021/08/16/ace31f76-febb-11eb-85f2-b871803f65e4_story.html). Dealing with covid isn’t a highly individual choice, like wallpaper or ice cream—it’s a public health emergency and needs to be treated that way everywhere, especially as families may have kids in both charters and DCPS.]

For instance, DCPS’s testing plan provides for only a small portion of unvaccinated students will be tested—and only those who opt in for testing. [The form that parents are required to fill out charmingly has a liability waiver for the city in case a child contracts covid. Who’s being protected here? See the form here]. It costs the same amount to have an opt-out-only form, which would ensure a greater participation rate. As it is, we know that vaccinated people can have covid and transmit it—so why limit testing to only the unvaccinated? [The point may be to limit the numbers of tested, to artificially ensure that reported positivity rates remain low, which is politically much more appealing than the alternative. This goes directly to what many conservative political leaders have stated: the more you test, the more cases you have. Of course, that’s sophistry, because the more you test, the more cases you KNOW you have—and the greater the political problems.]

There is also the reality that DCPS has struggled to have equitable conditions across its schools, whether with fully functioning HVAC and plumbing, windows that can open, warm water, and adequate supplies of soap, paper towels, and toilet paper.[Last night during a meeting of the Ward 6 public school parents’ organization, DCPS representative Bijan Verlin stated, in response to concerns about masses of kids eating together in a cafeteria, that schools “may” be allowed to have outdoor lunch. So what is it: charters can do whatever they want, while DCPS staff “may” protect their students if they determine it’s for the best? The reality is that DCPS schools have never been encouraged to be creative or free except in getting rid of beloved staff (the vaunted “flexibility” in the face of intractable budget cuts). There are many ways to ensure safety: cohorting; specials in classrooms via Teams; lunch in classrooms; specialized instruction in classrooms via Teams; staggered arrival and dismissal; no use of shared spaces like gyms and cafeterias; strategic hallway and bathroom use; limiting class sizes; limiting staff interacting with each cohort; developing a plan B for simulcasting and other, quarantine-based learning. Are any of these freely adoptable by any DCPS school? We literally have THOUSANDS of professionals in DCPS whose thoughts and experiences are rendered mute in this, less than 2 weeks away from school.]

I hope we can agree that all of these are basic, and necessary for safety, in a public health emergency.

I hope we also can agree that in this public health emergency, virtual instruction is not just a stopgap for a tiny number of kids with specific health conditions or an impediment to “real” learning, but a basic and necessary tool to safeguard DC students and teachers. [The mayor’s press conference around school re-opening underscored the degree to which DC political leaders are determined to have in person learning at ANY cost. For example, the mayor declined to answer a reporter who asked under what conditions she would re-evaluate in person learning. On p. 34 of the slide deck presented, an outline of quarantine procedures made clear that if a student’s quarantining is not for school, but for another reason, parents are required to provide a written note that “must include the date of COVID 19 exposure; the length of time the student has been directed to quarantine by a medical professional or contact tracer; and the name, organization, and contact information of the medical professional or contact tracer.” Not surprisingly, the same press conference noted that 150 families applied for a medical exemption in DCPS for virtual instruction–and 98 were granted it. That’s out of more than 50,000 students. Ensuring no virtual option for most no matter what, and presenting hurdles for quarantine, is not a path to safety—at least for the public.]

I hope that as the only directly elected education oversight body in DC, you agree with a clear path forward for DC school safety: universal vaccine and testing mandates; robust virtual instruction for all who want it; guidelines that apply to all DC’s publicly funded schools; and DCPS ensuring equitable physical conditions. Thank you.

State Board of Education

Public Hearing

School Reopening

August 18, 2021

Hello, I am Stefany Thangavelu, a 4th grade DCPS parent and former LSAT member. My comments today pertain to access and choice pertaining to virtual learning while also mobilizing to ensure all in person learning is safe for children in DC.

While I strongly believe that in person learning is a more effective way to educate children and this is supported by tons of research, I also know that staying home prevents COVID and the majority of DCPS students are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. I believe everyone should have the choice to receive a high quality virtual instruction with DCPS and there is currently a petition that shows a strong demand for this option. (https://www.change.org/p/mayor-muriel-bowser-chancellor-lewis-ferebee-dc-schools-must-provide-a-virtual-option-until-children-under-12-can-be-vaccinated?) Given the alarming surge in Delta, many families are concerned about rapid spread in school. DCPS should take multiple mitigation efforts and ensure that a Virtual Learning Academy is available to all families in DC who are not able to return to in person learning for any reason. Meanwhile, next door in Arlington Public Schools they have invested $11 million into their Virtual Learning Program to ensure all families can have a robust high quality program with teachers trained to create healthy academic and socio-emotional learning environments. (https://www.apsva.us/school-year-2021-22/virtual-learning-program/) Unfortunately, many DCPS families are begging pediatricians to sign off on forms and scrabbling to find alternatives to in person learning. While I appreciate that IPL is more effective and the evidence supports the need to have students learning in person, I strongly believe that all families should have the right to receive a quality virtual learning opportunity until vaccines are available to all ages. 

My next point is that in addition to masks, DCPS should have mandatory COVID testing of kids and teachers weekly regardless of vaccination status to ensure containment and data on risk in the school community. We know that there are breakthrough cases with the Delta variant and that vaccinated individuals can transmit the virus to peers. There should be testing and quarantining protocols regardless of vaccination status when contact tracing indicates you are at risk of being infected. Vaccinated people can get and spread COVID, and be just as infectious. The window to prevent someone from spreading COVID forward starts 24 hours after exposure. Not asking vaccinated and masked kids to quarantine, and not notifying the whole class to get tested, seems likely to lead to more infections and more harm to our community as a whole.

The consent to test should also bemandatory, the same as immunizations. Families should be allowed to opt out but the default should be to consent. As part of enrolling your child in a public institution there should be a default to protect all children and this also keeps your child and your family safer by knowing if there is asymptomatic spread or infection. We can’t see this virus and it doesn’t even present symptoms in many people, the only way to trace and contain the spread is through testing. Why not test every child on the first day to get a handle on just how much COVID is coming to schools, and where clusters currently are located, this is invaluable intel for our health department. We can easily test and should test weekly to monitor and protect the entire community.

Finally, outdoor eating and learning should be scaled and investments made to close down streets or utilize public spaces beyond the school building as needed. We have done this for restaurants, why not for our kids??? There should be additional staff, tents and other supports for facilitating healthy outdoor learning and eating spaces. 

I thank all the educators and families who are working to support the safe and healthy learning at DCPS.

State Board of Education

Public Hearing

School Reopening

August 18, 2021

            My name is Suzanne Wells, and I am the president of the Ward 6 Public Schools Parent Organization.  I want to thank the State Board of Education for holding this evening’s hearing on school reopening.

            Last night our organization held its monthly meeting, and we spent much of our time discussing concerns about school reopening.  While we had been hopeful for school reopening, the Delta variant has changed how we must approach reopening.  We know the Delta variant is more transmissible, that young children can become very sick or die from it, and that people who are vaccinated can become sick.

            Parents want their children to be back in school, but they want them to be safe.  Families spent the past year and a half being careful, and don’t want to take unnecessary risks when sending their children back to school.  While we appreciate the work DCPS has put into reopening schools, certain aspects of the plan do not appear to be driven by safety.  We listened to Mayor Bower’s situational briefing this morning, and were extremely disappointed by how little had changed in the plans to safely reopen DCPS.

            Virtual Option.  The greatest concerns are with parents who have children under the age of 12 who currently are not able to be vaccinated.  One parent of a young student said she didn’t feel comfortable sending her child back to school, and felt “boxed in” because there is only a virtual option for those who can get a medical exemption.

            Allowing more families of children under 12 to have a virtual option until they can be vaccinated would reduce the number of students in the school building and lower the risk of covid transmission.  I believe if the restrictions on a virtual option are lifted, most parents would support virtual instruction that is provided at a central level.  The Mayor’s briefing today did not expand virtual learning beyond medical exemptions, and even incorrectly implied that because they received a low number of medical exemptions that there was little interest in virtual learning.

            Lunch.  We all felt it was extremely low hanging fruit to change the current lunch plans.  The Mayor’s office wouldn’t host a banquet for a hundred adults right now so why risk students eating indoors in a cafeteria when there are many safer options available?  Students could eat outside where the risk of transmission is much lower.  Students could eat in their classroom with the same cohort of students they are spending most of their day with.  Parents who are able could pick their child up at lunch so they can eat at home. The Mayor’s briefing this morning pivoted slightly on students eating in the cafeteria, and said students could eat outdoors “where feasible. “  While we’re relieved eating in the cafeteria isn’t going to be mandated, we hope DCPS will go further to encourage school principals to actively pursue safer options. 

            Testing and Safety Protocols.  The current plan is woefully inadequate in its safety protocols.  The Mayor’s briefing today didn’t provide any enhanced testing and safety protocols.  Currently, there are plans to test only a percentage of students who opt-in for testing.  As others have said, “denominators matter.”  There should be a robust number of teachers, staff and students tested each week so covid cases can be quickly identified, and fully vaccinated people should be included in the testing.  The testing plans should be based on an opt-out policy.

            Given the close proximity most students will be in, it is recommended that the quarantine procedures be revised to include entire classrooms quarantining when a positive covid case is detected.

            Providing schools with high grade masks rather than the simple disposable masks they currently are given will also help reduce transmission.

            We understand we are all balancing risks.  The risks of keeping children out of a normal school situation versus the risk of a child or teacher or family member getting covid.  We must work to reopen schools safely within the bounds of what is possible.  Giving more families a virtual option is possible.  Eating lunch outdoors or in a classroom is possible.  Having more stringent testing and safety protocols is possible.  The Mayor clearly hasn’t listened to parents concerns about safely reopening.  We ask the SBOE to use its voice to help safely reopen schools.