BALTIMORE — As back-to-school approaches, the question remains: how will kids get back in the classroom safely?
Former Connecticut Education Commissioner and current U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona spoke in Baltimore Wednesday on the Biden Administration's Return to School Roadmap.
It's a set of guidelines to help schools across the country reopen this fall.
The guidelines include vaccinations for those 12 and over, summer learning, safely reopening schools, mental health support and addressing lost instructional time.
The roadmap operates around three landmark priorities:
- The health and safety of students, school personnel and families
- Building school communities and supporting students' social, emotional and mental health
- Accelerating academic achievement.
To get kids back to school safely, COVID-19 and the rise of the delta variant is a serious concern.
However, Secretary Cardona said that with the science, experience and lessons the U.S. has learned over the past year, they are more prepared to reopen schools than they were in fall of 2020.
Adjunct to these lessons is the encouragement from the Secretary for students to get vaccinated, social distance and wear masks while indoors this fall.
"This is our number one line of defense, and I encourage every student age 12 and over to get vaccinated as they they head back to school," Sec. Cardona said. "Our children shouldn't have to compromise any more of their educational experience or time in school due to the increase in community spread. So get vaccinated."
He emphasized that the Biden Administration's plan for reopening schools was not focused on getting back to the "old normal" but on improving the education experience as a whole.
"The goal is not March 2020. That's a low bar. We have to make sure every student gets an excellent education that they deserve. So far more than 180 million people in America have been vaccinated against COVID, including millions of students 12 years and older. That's key to winning the fight against the pandemic," Sec. Cardona said.
The roadmap acts as a resource for schools across the country, helping mitigate COVID-19-based issues by following CDC guidelines and navigating the use of the American Rescue Plan and other federal funds to address those landmark priorities.
"We must fight COVID as strongly as we fight complacency. The resources are there, the urgency is there. We need strong leadership to continue to make sure that our schools are places where all students can achieve at high levels. And we can't stop until we get there," Sec. Cardona said.
To build upon the roadmap strategies, he promoted President Biden's proposed Build Back Better agenda. It includes a $23.1 billion funding proposal for Title I schools to promote equitable education.
This agenda, Sec. Cardona said, would help build schools and communities back stronger than they were before by addressing inequities that were exacerbated by the pandemic.
The message from Sec. Cardona to educators, students and families was not to look back, but to look forward to their education.
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