Thread by @BringKidsBackMA

Students may be back inside school buildings, but there's lots more work to do: view our testimony to the @MASchoolsK12 Board of Elementary of Secondary Education today to hear re: the concerning experience inside those school buildings:

Thread🧵(1/)

All along, we had said our first goal was to get children back in buildings; then, we would focus on “picking up the pieces” of what’s going on inside of buildings. Sadly, there is quite a bit to “pick up”...

Here are examples from districts across the state:

(2/)

Children’s’ school libraries still closed, books that must quarantine upon return, and children unable to perform upper‐level science labs because they aren’t allowed to touch the lab materials. (3/)

Children eating lunch on towels or buckets on the floor, being told not to speak; some districts showing movies during lunch to deter children from speaking, others purposely separating friends so they’ll be less tempted to talk. (4/)

Children unable to drink water at their desks since
they’re only 3 feet apart; sometimes parents of children with chronic medical issues have had to file 504 simply so their child has permission to drink water at their desk. (5/)

Children with no recess happening at all. Students being told they cannot stand up to help a friend at another desk - if they want to collaborate, they should open a zoom breakout room to do so. (6/)

Students required to clean their own desks with warm, soapy water between classes in middle school – doing this upwards of 6‐7x per day; districts where mask breaks cannot happen on inclement weather days and some districts where children do not get any mask breaks at all. (7/)

And finally, children being restricted from accessing education all together because some districts still require a full class to quarantine because of a positive case (despite masking, distancing, or updated DESE close contact guidelines) (8/)

So what can we do to rectify this?
First, the entire framing & tone from @MassEducation & @MassGovernor around children, COVID, & schools must change to reflect relative risk *and* acknowledge that every protocol implemented comes with a trade‐off to children’s education. (9/)

Second, we need to strongly consider what the purview of @masseducation local control is with respect to public health matters. Why are matters of public health & pandemic protocols, as it relates to a State of Emergency, in the purview of local district control? (10/)

And finally, we must manage now what happens with existing and future guidance from @MASchoolsK12 - they need to simplify the language, focus on the evidence, & allow families to play a role in choosing how to manage their child’s risk. (11/)

What may count as “access” to in‐person learning, does not necessarily constitute a proper school experience, particularly in light of updated knowledge on the virus, a highly effective vaccine for adults, & a deeper understanding of how this year has impacted children (/end)