[Senate Hearing 116-551]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




                                                        S. Hrg. 116-551
 
                 COVID	19: GOING BACK TO SCHOOL SAFELY

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                     ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                                   ON

      EXAMINING COVID-19, FOCUSING ON GOING BACK TO SCHOOL SAFELY

                               __________

                             JUNE 10, 2020

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions
                                
                                
                                
 [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]                                
                                


        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
        
        
        
                          ______                       


             U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
 45-221PDF           WASHINGTON : 2022 
         
        
        
        
        
          COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                  LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee, Chairman
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming                  PATTY MURRAY, Washington, Ranking 
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina                    Member
RAND PAUL, Kentucky                       BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont
SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine                   ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania
BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana             TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas                       CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska                    ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts
TIM SCOTT, South Carolina                 TIM KAINE, Virginia
MITT ROMNEY, Utah                         MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
MIKE BRAUN, Indiana                       TINA SMITH, Minnesota
KELLY LOEFFLER, Georgia                   DOUG JONES, Alabama
                                          JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
                                      
               David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
         Lindsey Ward Seidman, Republican Deputy Staff Director
                  Evan Schatz, Minority Staff Director
              John Righter, Minority Deputy Staff Director
              
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               STATEMENTS

                        WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2020

                                                                   Page

                           Committee Members

Alexander, Hon. Lamar, Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, 
  Labor, and Pensions, Opening statement.........................     1
Murray, Hon. Patty, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from the State 
  of Washington, Opening statement...............................     4

                               Witnesses

Schwinn, Penny, Commissioner of Education, Tennessee Department 
  of Education, Nashville, TN....................................     7
    Prepared statement...........................................     9
    Summary statement............................................    15
Blomstedt, Matthew, Commissioner of Education, Nebraska 
  Department of Education, Lincoln, NE...........................    15
    Prepared statement...........................................    17
Cordova, Susana, Superintendent, Denver Public Schools, Denver, 
  CO.............................................................    23
    Prepared statement...........................................    25
    Summary statement............................................    28
King, Hon. John B. Jr., President and CEO, The Education Trust, 
  Washington, DC.................................................    29
    Prepared statement...........................................    30
    Summary statement............................................    35

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.
    American Federation of Teachers, Prepared Statement..........    57
    National Education Association, Prepared Statement...........    71
    National Association of School Nurses, Prepared Statement....    72

                         QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Response by Penny Schwinn to questions of:
    Senator Scott................................................    74
    Senator Murkowski............................................    75
    Senator Sanders..............................................    75
    Senator Warren...............................................    76
Response by Matthew Blomstedt to questions of:
    Senator Scott................................................    78
    Senator Murkowski............................................    78
    Senator Warren...............................................    79
    Senator Sanders..............................................    81
Response by John B. King, Jr. to questions of:
    Senator Murkowski............................................    82
    Senator Sanders..............................................    82
    Senator Warren...............................................    84


                 COVID-19: GOING BACK TO SCHOOL SAFELY

                              ----------                              


                        Wednesday, June 10, 2020

                                       U.S. Senate,
       Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 
SD-430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Lamar Alexander, 
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Alexander [presiding], Enzi, Cassidy, 
Murkowski, Scott, Braun, Loeffler, Murray, Casey, Baldwin, 
Murphy, Warren, Hassan, Smith, Jones, and Rosen.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ALEXANDER

    The Chairman. Good morning. The Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions will please come to order. This 
may be a little bit of a historic milestone for our Committee's 
work. Every single one of us are remote today. This is a 
completely virtual hearing. We had a little technical 
difficulty with the cameras in the hearing room last night so 
there are no Senators in the hearing room. Our witnesses are in 
their hometowns and we are in our offices and other places like 
that. Actually, that is all that has changed. We will all be 
able to participate. We will all be able to see each other.
    The media will be able to follow what we do and so will the 
people who by and large tuned in to our website. Just a few 
administrative matters to get started. As I just explained, 
everyone can tune in to www.help.senate.gov. That is our 
website. And I am grateful to everyone for working late into 
the night to try to make sure that we were all together this 
morning. Senator Murray and I will each have an opening 
statement and then we will turn to our witnesses. We thank you 
very much for being with us today. We will ask you each to 
summarize your comments in about 5 minutes, which will leave 
more time for the Senators to ask questions.
    I will ask each Senator in rank and seniority, going back 
and forth, Republican and Democrat, until we finish. On May 28, 
on the Memphis Commercial Appeal, there was a story about 
schools planning for the 2021 school year and included a 
bittersweet image. There was a young girl reaching her hand out 
to touch her teacher who is standing in line to welcome 
students to the first day of school in 2019. As the Commercial 
Appeal reporter wrote, ``the first day of school in August 2019 
would flunk 2020's course on social distancing.'' Today's 
hearing is about how we reopen schools safely this fall and 
that means teachers welcoming students back without hugs or 
high fives, I am afraid.
    The opening of schools in 2020 is not going to look like 
2019. But today's witnesses will talk about their work to help 
56 million students from kindergarten to 12th grade go back to 
the 100,000 public schools and 34,000 private schools and to go 
back in the fall as safely as possible. In doing so, they will 
help our country take its surest step toward normalcy.
    Our witnesses today are Dr. Penny Schwinn, Commissioner of 
Education for Tennessee Department of Education, Dr. Matthew 
Blomstedt who is the Commissioner of Education of Nebraska and 
partially he is the President-elect of all the State Chiefs 
School Officers, Ms. Susana Cordova, Superintendent of the 
Denver Public Schools, and John King, President and CEO of The 
Education Trust. John is very familiar to us because he was the 
United States Secretary of Education for President Obama. The 
question for Governors, school districts, teachers and parents 
is not whether schools should open but how to do it safely. Any 
teacher can explain the risk of emotional, intellectual and 
social damage if a child misses a school year. Schools need to 
assess how this year's disruption has affected our children and 
how we get learning back on track.
    At our hearing last week on the reopening of colleges, we 
heard about a variety of strategies that colleges are using to 
help keep campuses safe, including keeping class sizes small so 
students can stay six feet apart, creating campus-wide policies 
for wearing masks, and rigorous hygiene improvements.
    As with colleges, k-12 school plans will vary for each 
community and will also depend on the prevalence of the virus 
in the fall in the various communities. Excuse me just a 
minute. I have got my pages out of order. The goals for schools 
working to reopen are fundamentally the same as the colleges we 
heard from last week. Some mentioned social distancing, 
aggressive hygiene, face masks where appropriate, systems for 
testing and contact tracing.
    In order to accomplish those goals, it is clear that school 
boards, superintendents and principals need to be focused on 
the following. Creating an environment where students and 
teachers can socially distance. Making modifications to the 
school year calendar and daily schedule. Preparing to integrate 
more distance learning. Restructuring classrooms and 
extracurricular activities. Planning how to provide meal 
services safely. Making sure the school has enough protective 
equipment such as gloves and masks. Protecting the students and 
adults in school buildings who are at a higher risk. To 
accomplish this, schools will also need to create a strategy 
for testing and tracing students who may have been exposed.
    My advice is you want your school to be a part of your 
state's monthly plan for testing needs. The availability of 
widespread testing will allow schools to identify teachers and 
students who have the virus or have been exposed to it and 
trace them and their contacts. Widespread testing not only 
helps contain the virus, it builds confidence that the schools 
are safe. Fortunately, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, 
Admiral Brett Giroir, told our Committee there will be 40 to 50 
million tests available per month by September. That is 4 to 5 
times the number of today's number of today's tests.
    Today's number in the United States is twice as many as any 
other country. And Dr. Francis Collins, who once led the Human 
Genome Project and now leads the National Institutes of Health, 
leads the competitive Shark Tank enterprise at the NIH to 
discover new ways to conduct tens of millions of quick and 
accurate and inexpensive diagnostic tests. Schools' COVID-19 
plans should last for at least a year. The Government is 
pursuing vaccines at what it calls warp speed, faster than we 
have ever done that before, but no one expects a vaccine this 
August. In the second half of the school year, schools should 
be better able to provide more tests, more treatments, better 
contact tracing and hopefully, we should begin to have 
vaccines. It will likely be the Fall of 2021 though before we 
begin to approach normal.
    There are several reasons schools have an advantage in 
providing a safe environment for students and faculty. The 
first reason is that younger people have been less hurt by 
COVID-19 than older people, although Dr. Anthony Fauci told our 
Committee that we should be careful about cavalierly assuming 
that young people are not at some risk. Second, schools are 
generally small communities that are closely supervised and 
monitored.
    Third, outbreaks can be traced. If a child becomes sick, 
that child's classmates can be tested. And fourth, individual 
schools can close to control the spread of the virus while 
other schools are able to remain open. Schools are not 
unfamiliar with outbreaks of flu, for example, or other 
illnesses that have resulted in the temporary closure of 
individual schools while other schools continue to be open. But 
school environments pose challenges as well. First, there is 
not much extra space in our elementary and secondary schools 
are there is on most college campuses. That makes social 
distancing more difficult. Second, school administrators face 
more rigid rules as a result of state and local and union rules 
and regulations. So making changes to the academic calendar and 
the class size and the school schedules will be more difficult.
    Third, creating a mask-wearing culture will be harder 
specially with the youngest children. Seeing facial expressions 
is also important for young children. They learn to socialize 
and self-regulate, so obscuring faces with masks prohibits some 
learning for early elementary school-aged children. Fourth, 
rigorous hygiene isn't always easy with children. Fifth, 
children go home at night, potentially exposing older adults. 
And sixth, even systematic testing of 50 million children, or 
55 million children, is a lot of tests.
    Today 9 out of 10 families with children have at least one 
parent employed. And among married parents, families with 
children, two-thirds had both parents employed, according to 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And many children live in 
environments where the school is the safest place they will be 
in all day.
    It is also the place where almost 30 million students 
receive a school lunch. More than 70 percent of those students 
qualify for free or reduced-priced meals. Administrators have a 
responsibility to make our schools among the safest small 
communities in our country this fall. And in doing so, it will 
help our country move back toward normalcy.
    Senator Murray.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY

    Senator Murray. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, 
and I really appreciate all of our witnesses being with us 
today as well. And as always, thank you to our Committee staff 
who worked really, especially extra hard today to make this 
hearing possible so we could be safe and socially distant. 
Before we begin I just want to say again how inspired I am by 
the young people protesting against police brutality and 
systemic racism nationwide. They are calling for change and 
accountability and justice, and I hope their urgency and 
resolve will be an example to all of us here in Congress.
    Now, we are here today to discuss something else this 
country owes all young people and children and that is a 
quality of public education even in the middle of a global 
pandemic. COVID-19 has upended schools in ways that are truly 
unprecedented, creating chaos for educators and support staff, 
parents, and of course our students. As this crisis was first 
hitting my home State of Washington, I got a text from my 
daughter telling me the North Shore School District in 
Washington State had closed because of the Coronavirus 
outbreak.
    My daughter didn't know what to do and what that meant. Who 
was going to take care of her kids when she was still working 
or what that meant for their learning. And even as a United 
States Senator, I didn't have any answers for her and it wasn't 
long before nearly every school district, every educator, every 
parent, and every student in this country had many of the same 
questions. The challenges schools and families across this 
country have had to overcome this past school year were 
unimaginable a matter of months ago. Schools and school 
districts are now facing some of the biggest cuts to state and 
local revenue that we have seen in a long time while facing 
increased costs as a result of this pandemic. And it is 
especially important to recognize that while this hasn't been 
easy for anyone, school districts, communities, and families 
with more resources have had more capacity to adapt than those 
who have less.
    As we talk about ways to reopen our schools safely for 
students and educators and school staff, our response must not 
only ensure that public health and science is driving 
decisionmaking but also ensure every child can access a high 
quality public education during this pandemic whether in person 
or online. We know COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact 
on the health of Black communities and communities of color, 
and research is already showing how it has exasperated the 
inequities that existed in our education system before this 
pandemic stroke.
    Data projects that Black students could lose over 10 months 
of learning, Latino students could lose over 9 months of 
learning compared to white students who are projected to lose 6 
months of learning. Because of this, estimates show achievement 
gaps could grow by 15 to 20 percent in this country. We can't 
let COVID-19 continue to make things worse when it comes to the 
education of students of color and the same goes for students 
from families with low incomes, LGBTQI students, students 
experiencing homelessness, students in foster care, English 
learners, migrant students, students with disabilities. So when 
it comes to reopening building safely, as I have said before 
and cannot say enough, schools and school districts must follow 
the advice of local public health officials and let science 
drive decisionmaking.
    At a minimum, public health experts say before reopening 
classrooms, states should be able to provide widespread testing 
and contact tracing to follow-up in every single case of the 
virus. The Federal Government should also start planning now 
for the distribution of a safe and effective vaccine, which 
will be critical for schools ultimately returning to normal. 
But until we have a safe and effective vaccine, I am glad to 
see so many states and school leaders engaged in detailed 
scenario planning. Because before families send their children 
back to the classrooms, educators return to teach, they need to 
know schools have thought through every possible scenario.
    Given how much we don't know about how children transmit 
this disease, we need to look at it, how safe it is for 
medically vulnerable parents and guardians to send their kids 
back to school. There are countless questions schools have to 
answer before they can physically open safely. But school 
districts and schools can't do this alone. They need in-depth, 
actionable guidance from the Federal Government on best 
practices to ensure the safety of students, educators, school 
staff and the broader community. They need additional resources 
to measure and address learning loss among their students, to 
implement public health protocols to protect students and 
staff, and to outset dramatic declines in state and local 
revenue.
    But whether schools are able to open physically, operate 
virtually, or use a hybrid of both, we have to ensure school 
districts deliver quality and equitable educational, social, 
emotional and health, including mental health services to 
students. And we have to address the ways this virus has 
further exacerbated inequities that long existed within our 
education system. I recently heard from a mom and Yakima 
Washington who told me that her children are sharing one iPhone 
to learn and she is not even sure if she is going to be able to 
afford that phone bill and that is just one small example of 
this digital divide.
    For school districts that are under-resourced in areas 
without Internet access, distance learning may just consists of 
a few links to online material. For the over 1.5 million 
students experiencing homelessness across the country, finding 
transportation to pick up school meals is not always an option. 
And for students across the country experiencing trauma and 
stress to say the least from this pandemic or reckoning with 
centuries-long racism, it has never been more important to 
ensure that every child has access to mental health and trauma 
services and supports, particularly students from communities 
bearing the brunt of this virus and those affected by police 
brutality and systemic racism. And when it comes to delivering 
these services and supports, we have to do better because if we 
don't, the achievement gap that we strived so hard to close 
will undoubtedly widen and we can't let that happen.
    To address all of these problems, we need a massive 
investment in our schools right now. The American Federation of 
teachers has estimated that schools will need billions more on 
top of what we already know is needed for basic things like 
cleaning supplies and PPE. And we also know thanks to the work 
of the National Education Association, without a significant 
investment, the US could lose approximately 1.9 million 
education jobs. We could have begun negotiations on this and 
countless other COVID-19 priorities weeks ago and I am 
extremely frustrated that has not happened yet, and I am going 
to continue to push for action.
    I also want to note that while I am glad we have the 
opportunity to hear from these witnesses today, we do need to 
hear from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, especially about 
her efforts to push her privatization agenda in the K-12 system 
and her flawed interpretation of the equitable services 
provision in the CARES Act. As we all know, K-12 public schools 
are truly the bedrock of our communities.
    Each of us here and at the U.S. Department of Education 
need to be all in on ensuring schools have the resources and 
support to rise to the massive challenge in front of them. I 
know I am and I look forward to that those conversations today. 
And Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask consent to include in the 
hearing record a plan from the American Federation of Teachers 
for safely reopening our schools and a letter from the National 
Education Association about state and local budget cuts and the 
need for additional resources from the Federal Government to 
meet our students' needs. Thank you.
    The Chairman. So ordered.
    [The following information can be found on pages 57 and 71 
in Additional Material:]
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Murray, for your opening 
statement. I am now pleased to welcome our witnesses to today's 
hearing focused on getting back to school safely. First, Dr. 
Penny Schwinn, the Tennessee Commissioner of Education. Under 
the leadership of Dr. Schwinn, the Tennessee Department of 
Education has developed a number of resources for use by local 
districts, including school closure toolkits, family friendly 
instructional guides for programming on PBS, and a school meal 
website for families.
    Dr. Schwinn will be convening a COVID-19 child well-being 
task force to support local leaders in communities. Our second 
witness is Dr. Matthew Blomstedt, Nebraska Commissioner of 
Education. He has also been chosen to serve as President-elect 
of the Board of Directors on the Council of Chief State School 
Officers. Under his direction, Nebraska Department of Education 
has created a website, launchne.com. It suggests several 
options for districts to consider for ensuring schools open 
safety this fall.
    The third witness is Ms. Susana Cordova, Superintendent of 
Denver Public Schools. Under the leadership of Superintendent 
Cordova, Denver public schools have announced that they expect 
to begin on time in August and has been exploring a variety of 
options for safely bringing students back to school. And I will 
now turn to Senator Murray to introduce our fourth witness.
    Senator Murray. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today we are 
lucky enough to have Hon. John King, former Secretary of 
Education under President Barack Obama as a witness. During Dr. 
King's tenure, I had the pleasure of working closely with him 
to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act. Dr. King has been 
a steadfast champion for students, public education, and giving 
every child the opportunity they deserve, and I am really glad 
we have the chance to hear from him today.
    Before becoming Secretary of Education, Mr. King served on 
the Department of Education's Equity and Excellence Commission 
as Acting Deputy Secretary of Education and as the New York 
State Education Commissioner. He began his career as a high 
school social studies teacher and middle school principal.
    Currently, Mr. King is the President and CEO of the 
Education Trust. That is a national nonprofit that uses 
research and advocacy to identify and close opportunity and 
achievement gaps from preschool through college. Mr. King holds 
a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, a JD from Yale Law, 
and M.A. in teaching, and a Doctorate in education from the 
Teachers College and Columbia University. His personal life 
story is a testament to the power of public education and the 
importance of caring educators in a student's life. So, thank 
you so much, Dr. King, for being here and I look forward to 
your testimony.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Murray, and welcome again, 
Dr. King. Now we will hear from our witnesses. We ask each of 
them to summarize their testimony in about 5 minutes, which 
will leave more time for questions from Senators. Let is begin 
with Dr. Schwinn.

    STATEMENT OF PENNY SCHWINN, COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, 
        TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, NASHVILLE, TN

    Ms. Schwinn. Good morning, Chairman Alexander, Ranking 
Member Murray, and Members of the HELP Committee. Thank you for 
inviting me to testify at today's hearing. This has been an 
unbelievable period of time in Tennessee for our students and 
families. As educators and students spent a spring navigating 
learning, we must now consider the challenges ahead with 
reopening school. To be clear, this is complicated.
    Any decision we make has significant costs. No easy answers 
or one-size-fits-all solutions. What might be best for one is 
not for the other. In our state, we have a metro region that 
experienced significant spread of the virus, and we also have a 
county with its first positive case last week. So as we look 
ahead to school reopening, I would like to share the major 
challenges we are facing in Tennessee and nationwide, and some 
of the ways we plan to address them. One, health and safety of 
our school communities. Two, bridging the digital divide. And 
three, high quality academics and resources.
    First, school reopening must put the health and safety of 
our children, their teachers, and our communities front of 
mind. Under Governor Lee's leadership, Tennessee has been a 
national leader when it comes to testing for COVID and we will 
work to coordinate testing efforts with districts and ensure 
that any school personnel or any families interested in testing 
have the opportunity to do so. To support districts, the 
Department will work with agency partners to provide PPE and 
no-touch thermometers, along with resources to help with 
planning how to implement safe and healthy practices in our 
schools. But kids are kids and we need realistic solutions for 
areas like nutrition, classroom supports and procedures, and 
transportation.
    The Department is committed to providing resources and 
working with teachers and kids. There are almost 1 million 
students in public schools in the State of Tennessee, two of 
them are mine, and we have a responsibility to support all of 
them as if they were our own. We made promises to families 
every day that their children will be safe in our care and have 
access to a high-quality education. We must do everything we 
can to keep that promise.
    Second, we must address the digital divide for teachers and 
students. Districts need 21st century technology solutions, 
access to devices, access to broadband, access to professional 
development for educators. Our own Governor often references 
not having Internet on his farm. That is a reality that is all 
too true for many of our students and their teachers but it is 
especially true for our rural community, our most vulnerable 
populations, and those who required distance teaching and 
learning from a health perspective.
    The Department is devoting significant CARES Act funding to 
support greater access to technology because this is no longer 
a nice thing to have. For many, it is a necessity for a free 
and appropriate public education. Finally, we must accelerate a 
child-centered strategy rooted in our commitment to high 
quality academic opportunities for every student. We must stay 
committed to identifying and addressing any gaps that we see in 
student achievement. We know the impact of lost learning, 
especially for children who tend to experience the greatest 
gaps. We must also be especially focused on literacy for our 
youngest student, knowing that reading proficiency is one of 
the most important indicators for future success. And literacy 
instruction at a distance is incredibly hard to do. Ask any 
kindergarten teacher.
    The Department recently released the reopening framework 
and will continue to release over 20 additional tool kits for 
districts and educators to use. Our students and our teachers 
must be given the resources and supports they need. It cannot 
just be about helping them get through. It must be about 
helping them thrive. As a Commissioner and a mom to three very 
young children, I have been inspired every day, day after day, 
by the way that our teachers and our schools have come together 
in Tennessee, whether it is working with teachers to problem-
solve how to setup socially distanced classrooms in elementary 
schools.
    We are talking to superintendents about high schoolers 
continuing to get access to dual credit and work-based learning 
opportunities. Tennessee has shown our collective commitment 
for opportunities for kids and I realize that all of these are 
not small things but they matter deeply to us because they 
matter for kids. So, I wish these were clear-cut decisions, but 
they are not. The challenges that we face are large. We must 
keep people safe and we must keep kids educated, and our job 
and our responsibility is figuring out how to do that well.
    We are deeply appreciative of the CARES funding to help 
jump-start the necessary needs that we have in our schools and 
districts across the state. And as we head into next year, I 
hope we are all able to appreciate what has been done, what is 
in front of us now, and what still lies ahead. And in these 
challenges I see opportunities.
    Our kids, my own included, need us to meet those challenges 
head-on with optimism and courage. Our kids are counting on us. 
Thank you so much, and I look forward to your questions later 
in the hearing.
    [The prepared statement of Penny Schwinn follows:]
                  prepared statement of penny schwinn
    Good morning, Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray and Members 
of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Thank you for 
inviting me to testify at today's hearing, ``COVID-19: Going Back to 
School Safely.'' I very much appreciate the opportunity to share 
Tennessee's story, and incredible work that continues to be done by our 
districts, educators, and department of education on behalf of our 
students.

    As commissioner at the Tennessee Department of Education, I feel 
strongly that our agency must work to support high-quality educational 
opportunities for the nearly one million students in our care. While 
this is true every day, it is even more important to set a clear focus 
on this work now, so that we can ensure no child is more disadvantaged 
by the current COVID-19 pandemic and that our schools and districts are 
supported moving into and throughout next year and beyond. Although I 
have the privilege of serving as commissioner, I am also a mother of 
three children, with one whose adoption was finalized last week. I have 
seen first-hand the impact of this pandemic at the classroom level, 
specifically for my school age daughter's learning and for her teacher 
in our local public school system. Yet I also know that even with the 
challenges we face, we must collectively seize opportunities to excel.

    To understand where we are headed, we must look back to when this 
pandemic began, and how our state has collaborated and come together 
along the way to ensure our children are safe, healthy, and like every 
year, ready to face the challenges and seize the opportunities of a new 
school year.

    On March 16, 2020, Governor Bill Lee urged public school districts 
in Tennessee to close to protect the health and well-being of Tennessee 
students, teachers, and communities across the state. On April 15th, 
Governor Lee recommended extending public school closures through the 
end of the school year. In each instance, all public-school districts 
in Tennessee followed the Governor's recommendation.

    This launched an unprecedented need for COVID response work for 
Tennessee schools, districts, and the State Department of Education.

    Prioritizing both the health and safety of students as well as 
academic instruction, the Tennessee Department of Education team 
responded swiftly and began working diligently to communicate with 
districts and issue guidance to help them make plans and decisions to 
ensure a continuation of academic instruction as well as critical meal 
and other services for students during times of school closure. Central 
to this work has been the department's engagement with stakeholders, 
specifically with school superintendents, educators, and policymakers 
to seek input and feedback both to inform the response and to help 
prioritize urgent needs of districts, schools, educators, and students 
during a public health crisis. At the department, we knew we needed--
and will continue to need--this input to formulate the most effective 
ways to help school districts address student, family, and educator 
needs resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

    On March 16th, the department began hosting three times per week 
conference calls for superintendents, which continue to this day. These 
regular conference calls have fostered close coordination with 
superintendents across the state and been a valuable tool for the 
department to provide updates, answer questions, and solicit feedback.

    The department began sharing health and safety resources developed 
by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Tennessee Department of 
Health, and developing a series of guidance and toolkits focused on the 
specific needs, challenges, and decisionmaking that school and school 
district leaders had to address, including:

 
 
 
 
     Guidance Documents
   Cleaning Guidance.......   Handwashing Best Practices
   Coronavirus: A Guide for   Infection Control Tips for
   Schools.........................             School Buses
   Emergency Plans &          Instruction, Assessment,
   Procedures for Schools..........       and Accountability
   Federal Programs and            Nutrition
   Funding.........................
   Guidelines for Health      Special Populations
   Care in a School Setting........
     ..............................   Staffing, Educators, and
                                               EPP Resources
 


 
 
 
 
School Closure Toolkits
   Academics and                   Nutrition
   Instruction.....................
   Early Childhood.........   Safety and Operations
   Finance.................   School-administered Before/
                                         After Care Programs
   Fine Arts...............   Special Populations
   Health and Wellness.....         Staffing
   IT and Distance Learning
 


    The department also developed school closure toolkits for families, 
made available in English and Spanish, to assist families in 
identifying resources and making plans to support the academic and 
nonacademic needs of children while out of school. Utilization of these 
resources was robust, with over 250,000 views of our COVID19 website, 
but the needed response to address the impacts of coronavirus went far 
beyond the capacity of many districts in Tennessee, especially those 
that are small or rural.

    With the passage of time and conversations moving past the 
immediate response to COVID-19 and the resulting school building 
closures, we began to sense how the pandemic is elevating known gaps 
and required even more acceleration of a child-centered strategy.

    To support districts and schools as they were navigating an 
unprecedented challenge, the department began work to develop 
partnerships that provide resources and supports for students and 
educators.

    The department brokered several critical partnerships which, in 
true Volunteer State spirit, led to a variety of free, optional 
resources to support educators, principals, families, and students 
across the state.

    These include:

          Partnership with all 6 Tennessee PBS stations to 
        deliver up to 30 hours per week of daily academic instruction 
        and educational content to first through eighth grade students 
        during times of school closure. Developed by the department in 
        collaboration with Tennessee teachers, three hundred and 20 
        lessons on math and English language arts were broadcasted 
        statewide. These videos are also posted on the department's 
        YouTube page where they have received over 77,000 views. 
        Accompanying lesson plans for educators and student work 
        packets are available on the department's website.

          Partnership with the University of Tennessee's Center 
        for Educational Leadership to support principals at no cost as 
        they lead their staff and schools in addressing student needs. 
        The Tennessee Principal Professional Learning Series leverages 
        the intellectual resources of the university, as well as other 
        external expertise, to address the most pressing problems of 
        practice facing school principals. As of June 6th, more than 
        500 principals representing 82 of Tennessee's 95 counties have 
        completed this training.

          Partnership with Trevecca Nazarene University to 
        offer free professional development for Tennessee teachers to 
        help them prepare for digital teaching and learning. As of June 
        6th, over 14,000 Tennessee principals have participated in this 
        training.

          Partnership with the ReadyRosie early education 
        platform to provide Tennessee families with free and easy 
        access to critical early literacy lessons. Around 2 minutes 
        long in both English and Spanish, the video ``moments'' feature 
        real families demonstrating instructional activities that 
        parents can then replicate with their own children and are 
        rooted in learning goals for children on topics such as 
        literacy, early math, health and well-being.

          Partnership with Hoonuit to provide families with the 
        most up-to-date information on meal pick-up locations closest 
        to them through SchoolMealFinder.com. Hoonuit utilizes an 
        interactive map to allow users to search by city, zip code, and 
        address to locate the nearest food pick-up site.

          Partnership with the Tennessee STEM Innovation 
        Network (TSIN) to develop the STE(A)M Resource Hub to provide 3 
        weekly challenges to promote critical thinking and career 
        exploration that can all be done in the home. The challenges 
        are ideal for students grades 3-12, but younger students can 
        also participate with parental assistance.

    While we know these partnerships and the resulting resources helped 
to fill some gaps that emerged following school building closures, more 
significant challenges within our field have become apparent. In some 
cases, there are new challenges that we must face together. In other 
cases, they are challenges that have been brought to the forefront of 
the public consciousness and demand to be addressed.

        Achievement Gaps: We are incredibly proud that Tennessee was 
        the fastest improving state from 2011-2015. Still, achievement 
        gaps have not closed and school building closures will likely 
        serve to widen those gaps further. This is not a new challenge, 
        but the pandemic has served to poignantly highlight existing 
        gaps in student achievement and opportunity. As educators and 
        students navigate a new distance learning environment, there is 
        a need for innovative resources to support learning.

        Rural Communities: School building closures have continued to 
        highlight the disparity related to connectivity and broadband, 
        access to more community resources, and opportunities to raise 
        and use local funds in support of public schools in our rural 
        communities.

        Early Literacy: In Tennessee, just over 33 percent of 3d 
        graders and 27 percent of 8th graders are reading proficiently. 
        Reading proficiency in 3d grade is one of the most important 
        indicators for future success and must continue to be an area 
        of focus. School building closures will likely exacerbate this 
        challenge, especially for children in our youngest grades.

        Mental Health: The pandemic has highlighted the significant 
        challenges that districts, schools, and educators face related 
        to student mental health and behavioral needs. School building 
        closures have brought this conversation to the forefront as 
        children and families struggle with the anxieties associated 
        with the pandemic, and in some cases additional familial 
        struggles that would normally be identified and addressed 
        earlier by schools.

    We know for certain that our education community will work to 
support our students. By working collaboratively with educators and 
district leaders, investing in high-quality materials and supporting 
the implementation of best practices, we will continue to accelerate 
the work that moves our field forward. We must invest in both resources 
and people.

    While there are some policy conversations that need to take place 
to address the impacts of the pandemic, we have also seen that 
educators will step-up to fill the space.

    However, merely stating the expectations does not mean people can 
meet them. We have seen that schools and districts are rapidly trying 
to pivot to address the current needs, with minimal time for 
development or meaningful support. We must create opportunities to 
provide resources and professional development opportunities to our 
educators and system leads.

    To be clear, this is complicated. Any decision we make has 
significant costs and there are no easy answers. There is no one-size 
fits all solution for a state as regionally varied as Tennessee. This 
is why the role of the state education agency is so important--it is 
the critical link between policy and practice. It considers the broader 
landscape of policy decisions and then works to determine how to make 
those applicable and real for practitioners that are making important 
school reopening decisions for their local communities.

    Given that, as we plan for school reopening this fall, we must ask 
ourselves: What is in the best interest of students and staff, as we 
balance the needs of community health with the needs of children to 
have access to strong educational opportunities, families to 
financially support themselves, and critical services to be delivered 
to students?

    School reopening must put the health and safety of our children, 
their teachers, and our communities front of mind.

    Tennessee has been a national leader when it comes to testing for 
COVID-19. Already, 7.3 percent of Tennesseans have been tested, with 
sites available across the state. Tennessee ranks in the top 12 states 
for testing per capita and in lowest percentage of positive cases. The 
department of education will continue to work closely with Governor 
Bill Lee's COVID-19 Unified Command group \1\ and the Tennessee 
Department of Health to coordinate testing efforts with districts and 
ensure that any school personnel or any families interested in testing 
have the opportunity to do so.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\  The Unified-Command Group is a COVID-19 response tactic that 
merged the Department of Health, Department of Military and Tennessee 
Emergency Management Agency to streamline COVID-19 response efforts
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Further, in close partnership with Tennessee Emergency Management 
Agency (TEMA) and Unified Command, the department will be able to 
provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like masks and no-touch 
thermometers to our districts at no cost to utilize if and how they 
choose. The department is coordinating efforts geared toward reducing 
some of the financial burden associated with health and social 
distancing recommendations.

    Considering that and the recent guidance from the U.S. Centers of 
Disease Control, the department will continue to offer a suite of 
resources to districts. In the first weeks of school, we are 
encouraging districts to monitor key statistics to manage the success 
of reopening. Those include: availability and use of PPE; reported 
virus cases and spread statistics in the school, district, and 
community; frequency of disinfection of materials and shared areas; 
quarantine/illness space needed vs. available; physical and virtual 
attendance of staff and students; and other metrics comparable to prior 
years (ex. counseling, staffing, nutrition, etc.).

    We have also identified significant operational needs that may 
exist in our districts, which cover a range of topics, including:

          Procurement of disinfecting and personal hygiene 
        supplies

          Classroom reconfiguration to maximize the ability of 
        students and staff while socially distancing from one another

          Cohorting consistent small groups of students for 
        recreation and eating

          Elimination of assembly and mass gathering

          Procurement of signage to communicate policies and 
        procedures to staff, students and families

          Implementation of daily symptom checking of students 
        and staff, to include non-contact temperatures upon arrival 
        when feasible

          Need for additional janitorial service to perform 
        regular and frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces in 
        restrooms, hallways and classrooms

          Bus ridership for costing out additional or multi-
        trip routes, if needed

          Minimized community entry into the school and 
        exposure to students, including parent drop-off and 
        consideration of staggered drop-off times and

          Isolated illness spaces and protocols for immediate 
        removal of symptomatic individuals

    These are just a handful of the significant operational and 
logistical considerations that must be taken at the school and district 
level. While schools are not typically built for this level of 
operational emergency and health response, districts are working 
diligently to make the changes necessary to keep people safe. As such, 
our systems must also remain flexible enough to make changes as the 
data indicates.

    School reopening must include a series of scenarios from which 
local districts may operate, in the best interest of local needs.

    Broader policy conversations have discussed the three ways in which 
schools can reopen: physically in person, in a distance format, or in a 
hybrid format. However, our schools require much more guidance than 
that. Many of our schools do not have the physical capacity to house a 
full student body and maintain social distancing but may also have the 
need or desire to ensure all children receive a commensurate high-
quality education in-person (as able). Over the last month, I spent 
time setting-up example demonstration classrooms in regions across the 
state. Depending on the classroom size, intended capacity, and student 
needs, both myself and the teachers who provided feedback were struck 
by the various ways teaching and learning may need to adjust.

    To support this local decisionmaking, the department released 
guidance that added options within those broad categories. For physical 
return to schools, the department has suggested that districts consider 
a traditional return, a staggered return over a set period of time, a 
staggered schedule to minimize physical occupancy, or a year-round 
schedule to reduce physical capacity.

    For virtual or distance options, there are the possibilities of 
virtual synchronous models as well as asynchronous models where 
students learn at a self-pace during the day with the support of their 
teachers. As noted in the spring, the universal access to technology 
and internet is a significant concern for many districts and families, 
especially those in rural communities, serving less resourced 
populations, or vulnerable student groups. These are significant 
considerations that districts must discuss at a local level, and for 
which the state would encourage application of the U.S. Coronavirus 
Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) funding to support.

    For those districts considering a split model, the department has 
provided alternatives for split days with morning and afternoon 
cohorts, alternating days or weeks, or attendance based on need to 
accommodate children with disabilities and those requiring additional 
services.

    The department has also presented a category related to cyclical or 
intermittent distance education based on staff and family choice or a 
virus resurgence. Regardless of the options selected, students and 
staff with personal or household health risks must have a viable option 
for maintaining their education or employment from home.

    The decision on how to reopen schools is a challenging one which 
balances health and education. Both are important to the future of our 
children and all facts must be included in the discussion as it 
progresses. Each of the scenarios listed above include opportunities 
for flexibilities and options within the model. What is most critical 
is that local needs, resources and statistics drive decisionmaking 
within the framework and boundaries outlined through the Departments of 
Health and Education.

    School reopening must include supports for our local districts, as 
needs increase and resource efficiencies become critical. This must be 
done with a child-centered strategy.

    We must address students' academic and physical and mental health 
needs. Regardless of the reopening option(s), districts will still need 
ways to determine the academic, physical and mental health needs of 
returning students. Districts should ensure that there is a whole child 
plan in place to address the different social and mental health needs 
that may exist for some students due to school closures and resulting 
from the impact of the pandemic and recent events.

    We must provide a virtual option for the most vulnerable students 
and staff members. Until there is a vaccine for COVID-19, there is 
still a risk of seasonal waves of the virus. So, the most vulnerable 
students and staff (those with underlying health conditions or 
undergoing disease treatment) may not be able to return to a school 
campus. Social distancing is difficult in public spaces and even more 
challenging in the typical classroom or campus setting. Districts may 
identify and provide high-quality distance learning to vulnerable 
student populations and should clearly communicate the options to 
families.

    We must provide strong opportunities for students requiring at-home 
care. Students who are diagnosed and/or live in a home with a confirmed 
positive case may be required to isolate for days on end and there will 
need to be accommodations made to support that student.

    We must stay committed to identifying and addressing any gaps that 
we see in student achievement, which will necessitate a beginning of 
the year progress check. Districts should ensure that any diagnostic 
(or optional checkpoint tool provided by the state at no cost) used in 
the fall is aligned with state standards and is accompanied by quick 
turnaround. These assessments should be used for information purposes 
only, to better capture student learning and needs and to ensure 
educators and families have information to provide an understanding of 
where their students are starting for the year.

    Guidance documents are being developed by the department to support 
that locally driven effort.

    The department is in the process of developing and finalizing over 
20 school reopening toolkits, which will cover many of the same topics 
as school closure toolkits did. Over the course of the next few weeks, 
these resources will be provided to district leaders, many of whom 
contributed to the content and framing of this work as a reflection of 
what authentic and meaningful partnership can look like in times of 
uncertainty.

    These school reopening toolkits will include:

          Academics

          Procedures

          Assessing Student Learning

          Professional Development

          Childcare

          Public Charter and Non-Public Schools

          Communications

          Safety and Operations: Emergency

          Consolidated Funding Applications Operations, 
        Pandemic, Post-recovery

          Counseling Evaluation

          Equitable Access and Opportunity

          School Improvement

          Finance

          Social Distancing at Schools

          Governance and Management

          Special Populations

          Health and Public Health

          Staffing

          Nutrition

          Technology

          Policy and Legal Considerations

          Transportation

          Postsecondary Transitions

          Well-being and Mental Health

    While we sincerely hope and believe these resources will be 
critical for districts as they make the best decisions for their local 
communities, we must acknowledge that beginning a new school year this 
year might be different. Children and educators have experienced a 
global pandemic; their lives or livelihoods may have been impacted; 
they need to feel safe; and they will still face the exciting 
challenges and opportunities of starting a brand-new school year.

    No different than the past several months, the work of reopening 
schools and addressing the academic and whole child needs of all 
children will be like never before. We are navigating the very fabric 
of education and how we build critical relationships, deliver excellent 
instruction, and provide opportunities for all of our children to 
thrive.

    This is difficult work and I have been inspired day after day by 
the way that Tennesseans have come together and shown our collective 
love for children and commitment to their well-being. As a 
commissioner, a former teacher, and a mother, I applaud and appreciate 
the hard work of our school communities.

    We must continue to pull together, work hard, and keep pace. Our 
commitment to our children is unwavering, and I also know that in many 
ways doing this is a marathon that we have all been running at a full 
sprint. I am confident that we will be stronger after this, and that we 
will use the innovative spirit of our Tennessee educators and districts 
to continue accelerating the achievement of our children.

    I hope we are all able to appreciate what has been done, focus on 
what is left to do and remember what still lies ahead.

    Thank you and I look forward to answering any questions from the 
Committee Members about the great work being done in the Volunteer 
State.
                                 ______
                                 
                  [summary statement of penny schwinn]
    Good morning, Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray and Members 
of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Thank you for 
inviting me to testify at today's hearing, ``COVID-19: Going Back to 
School Safely.'' I very much appreciate the opportunity to share the 
Tennessee story, and incredible work that continues to be done by our 
districts, educators, and department of education.
    As commissioner at the Tennessee Department of Education, I feel 
strongly that our agency must work to support high-quality educational 
opportunities for the nearly one million students in our care. While 
this is true every day, it is even more important to set a clear focus 
on this work now, so that we can ensure no child is disadvantaged by 
the current COVID-19 pandemic and that our schools and districts are 
supported moving into and throughout next year and beyond. Although I 
have the privilege of serving as commissioner, I am also a mother of 
three children, with one whose adoption was finalized last week. I have 
seen first-hand the impact of this pandemic at the classroom level, 
specifically for my school age daughter's learning and for her teacher 
in our local public school system. Yet I also know that even with the 
challenges we face, we must collectively seize opportunities to excel.
    To understand where we are headed, we must look back to when this 
pandemic began, and how our state has collaborated and come together 
along the way to ensure our children are safe, healthy, and like every 
year, ready to face the challenges and seize the opportunities of a new 
school year.
    No different than the past several months, the work of reopening 
schools and addressing the academic and nonacademic needs of all 
children will be like never before. We are navigating the very fabric 
of education and how we build critical relationships, deliver excellent 
instruction, and provide opportunities for all of our children to 
thrive.
    This is difficult work and I have been inspired day after day by 
the way that Tennesseans have come together and shown our collective 
love for children and commitment to their well-being.
    We must continue to pull together, work hard, and keep pace. Our 
commitment to our children is unwavering, and I also know that in many 
ways doing this is a marathon that we have all been running at a full 
sprint.
    I hope we are all able to appreciate what has been done, focus on 
what is left to do and remember what still lies ahead.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Schwinn.
    Dr. Blomstedt, welcome.

  STATEMENT OF MATTHEW BLOMSTEDT, COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, 
         NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, LINCOLN, NE

    Mr. Blomstedt. Members of the Committee, thank you for the 
opportunity to testify at this important hearing today. I am 
honored to participate with this distinguished panel in this 
critical discussion of where we need to go as a country with 
our education system this fall. Nebraska, like all states, 
experienced the arrival of the pandemic with little advanced 
understanding of the dramatically long-term impact it would 
have on the Nation and our education system. This pandemic is 
an inflection point for the challenges my state and this 
country face.
    This crisis has laid bare the persistent inequities of our 
education system and of every system and sector across the 
country, from healthcare to justice. I want to take a moment to 
say I mourn the loss of George Floyd and every other Black life 
lost because we allowed inequities to permeate our society for 
far too long. I have worked my whole career believing that 
education is the right place for society to make progress to 
ultimately ensure equity. Closing schools statewide was never 
something I anticipated as part of my role as Commissioner of 
Education.
    In our earliest days of closing, I knew the more difficult 
tasks would ultimately be reopening schools. In late March and 
early April, we identified summer learning as a time to focus 
energy on the recovery reopen and reopening scenarios. By April 
16th, I was publicly announcing efforts that were underway to 
plan for the fall semester. On Friday May 8th, we announced 
Launch Nebraska as a way to organize a recovery and reopening 
approach organized around three major pillars, leadership and 
planning where we would focus on Government operations and 
technology, conditions for learning really focused on 
facilities and wellness, and then continuity of learning with a 
real focus on instructions and transitions back into education. 
Schools in Nebraska are diverse. Nebraska's small school 
districts have under 100 students in the most remote areas of 
the state while our largest in Omaha exceeds 53,000 students.
    Additionally, Nebraska has counties that have yet to 
officially experience their first COVID-19 positive case, while 
other areas have been affected at rates similar to the worst 
per capita cases in the country. We have organized several 
working groups including nearly every school across the state 
that are developing regional and local plans with local public 
health officials School leaders are committed to balancing this 
difficult task of safe opening with the needs of students, 
families, communities and staff in mind. There are few one-
size-fits-all moments in these planning efforts.
    It has become increasingly clear that large-scale guidance 
needs to be available for local school and health officials to 
customize for local conditions and environments, and that is 
what we are attempting in Launch Nebraska. Although I believe 
most schools in Nebraska are planning to open in the fall, we 
are concerned that many will face extensive disruptions and 
interruptions across several communities. As school buildings 
closed across Nebraska this spring, educators and school 
district officials were rightly concerned about their capacity 
to appropriately meet the obligation--such services were not 
pandemic proof. I continue to engage in productive dialog with 
parents and disability advocates to provide a path forward.
    I expect that as restrictions are lifted, schools will need 
to provide necessary compensatory education. Although I know 
that broadband is not in the jurisdiction of this Committee, it 
is apparent that a lack of broadband access is a huge inequity 
for many of our students and households. I am concerned that 
the economic impact of the pandemic will result in necessary 
and sustained cuts in PK-12 education funding, perhaps to 
exceed 20 percent in Nebraska. This is a perfect storm as we 
face increased needs and decreased resources.
    I cannot express enough how proud I am of Nebraska--amazing 
talented individuals. But in recent months, they have all 
stepped up in incredible and unprecedented ways to serve our 
students. While we have many challenges ahead, I remain 
confident in the abilities of local Nebraska educators to make 
the impossible possible. But we also must protect our 
educators. Our teachers will continue to be on the front lines 
and we must address individual accommodations that will also 
limit an already strained workforce. This will require 
additional contract time for some teachers and educational 
staff that may be asked to provide supports beyond the normal 
school day. I want to thank this Committee and all Members of 
Congress for the relief funding through the CARES Act.
    Schools are addressing many of the barriers with these 
funds and securing critical services and infrastructure for the 
recovery. At a state level, we continue to partner across the 
education and health sector to build state and regional 
supports to address conditions for and continuity of learning. 
I understand and share the concern that many have expressed 
regarding the Secretary's equitable services provision 
interpretation of CARES.
    I urge Members of Congress to clarify this as soon as 
possible. I want to ensure that both public and non-public 
schools are able to move forward quickly without lingering 
doubts about the proper use of these funds. In closing, we must 
seize this opportunity to address the systemic inequities that 
have persisted for decades. It has become a bit of a mantra 
with our partners in Nebraska that we need to build back 
better.
    In fact, they tell me radically build back better. I truly 
believe that education is and must be a substantial part of the 
effort to erase inequity in society, but it will take a whole 
societal approach to address these challenges in this time. 
Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Matthew Blomstedt follows:]
                prepared statement of matthew blomstedt
    Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray, thank you for the 
opportunity to testify at this important hearing, ``COVID 19: Going 
Back to School Safely.'' I am Matt Blomstedt, Commissioner of Education 
in Nebraska and incoming President of the Council of Chief State School 
Officers. I am honored to participate in this critical discussion to 
reflect and begin to address our next steps as a Nation and the 
supports needed for state and local education agencies to continue on 
the path of response and recovery.

    Nebraska, like all states, experienced the arrival of the pandemic 
with little advance understanding of the dramatic effects that the 
pandemic was to have on the Nation. In mid-February, a few short months 
ago that feels like a lifetime, I, like others, struggled to comprehend 
the enormity of the emergency that was about to hit Nebraska and the 
country. The warning signs seem obvious to us now, in retrospect, but 
rapid onset at the time left schools with little time to respond. We 
are still experiencing a wave of current challenges that we have to 
fully grasp, and must prepare to overcome.

    I especially appreciate the opportunity to provide testimony with 
my colleagues at this hearing and ask that these times be a moment of 
unity for our country rather than further division. Nebraska, like many 
states, is diverse in views, populations, and impacts. This pandemic is 
an inflection point for the challenges my state and this country face, 
including persistent inequities that manifest in communities across the 
Nation. The tragic consequences of a failure to address inequities in 
education, health, housing, income, and opportunity is amplified in 
current events as we witness our own citizens suffer injustice and 
discrimination and an apparent disregard for Black lives.

    I feel like I was born into a better place after the historic 
efforts of the 1960's to establish civil rights legislation led by 
civil rights giants. (Among this legislation, as you know, was the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which remains a key 
pillar of the Federal role in promoting educational opportunity for 
all.) Yet today, I see how fragile that balance has been and the 
curtain pulled back proves we have chipped away at necessary progress 
for civil rights and equity while civil rights expectations in 
education are at risk of being limited by the pandemic and further 
weakened by blatant and obvious actions of violence and racial 
injustices. I mourn the loss of George Floyd and every person who has 
been lost as a result of the failures of this country to recognize and 
act on the inequities that we have allowed to permeate society.

    In my view, the role of the Federal Government is to set a tone and 
direction for the country that establishes an expectation of equity. I, 
as a state official who understands his state well, freely admit that I 
alone am not strong enough to overcome the larger injustices that our 
students of color and their families face. I have worked my whole 
career believing that education is the right place for society to make 
further progress to ensure equity, but our collective failure as a 
Nation to successfully confront the pandemics of poverty, racism, and 
injustice has left us more vulnerable to the pandemic of COVID-19 and 
its generation-shaping consequences.

    Impacts on students and communities: Closing schools for any reason 
is not in my normal job description as Commissioner of Education in 
Nebraska. Education leaders must be necessarily adept at understanding 
local conditions and responding appropriately based on the community 
needs and norms, however, especially in unprecedented circumstances.

    On February 27, when I received the first call from a school 
district superintendent asking how we were going to lead through the 
impending impacts of the pandemic, I responded, ``That's funny; you've 
never asked me to tell you what to do before.'' My ``tongue-in-cheek'' 
response was quickly followed by calls with medical and infectious 
disease control experts, including the Chancellor of the University of 
Nebraska Medical Center, our Governor's office, and other state and 
local education leaders and policymakers. We sprung to action with the 
primary realization that schools would potentially have to close 
suddenly to contribute to the efforts to contain the invisible threat 
of the virus. Make no mistake; there was very little understanding at 
this point of the scale of this threat except through the valiant 
efforts of a few health officials and infectious disease experts that 
had little other reason to engage with school leaders before. The 
situation was a fast-moving challenge for leaders.

    Nebraska's first COVID-19 case was identified on March 6. It had a 
broad impact because the person identified was a participant at a 
widely attended Special Olympics event. The event assembled athletes 
and communities from multiple school districts across a wide geographic 
area. By March 9, we had at least three school districts temporarily 
announce school building closures and many others who were about to 
begin spring break and chose not to return to school.

    By March 12, I had met and spoken with dozens of local school 
leaders and the Governor as well as the Chancellor of the University of 
Nebraska Medical Center. By Monday March 16, I had been involved in 
three statewide press conferences and numerous stakeholder meetings 
announcing that schools would soon take steps to physically close 
buildings and would soon be closing with no clear sense of when or how 
they would know how to open again. In 10 short days, COVID-19 went from 
being a fringe concern to the primary focus of my agency and state.

    Our state's first concerns were for the role that schools could 
play in containing the virus and broader public health issues. It was 
immediately necessary to understand the impact of schools in promoting 
food security and the general well-being of school age populations 
across the state, and there was little time to understand the enormity 
of the disruption that was taking place.

    School administrators, teachers, and food and nutrition staff, 
shifted to an emergency relief mission where health, safety, and food 
security were the first concerns. But it was also quickly apparent the 
broader routines for children were also critical, particularly for 
students already at risk. For example, several administrators reached 
out to me to express concerns about students that had been on suicide 
watch and were already suffering from trauma and being further 
traumatized by school closures. We also know that reports of child 
abuse and neglect are down primarily due to the role schools play in 
the reporting system. Additionally, we know that students and families 
have suffered from extended out-of-school time for multiple social and 
economic reasons as well.

    The challenge we face, in Nebraska and the Nation, is to better 
understand the balance of the health risks and broad societal costs. 
That is a burden we are all going to share as we make decisions about 
how to safely open schools.

    Closing and Reopening: As the impact and likelihood of sustained 
closures to in-person schooling were becoming clearer, Nebraska 
established a clear approach to guiding schools through the pandemic. I 
sought to make clear with local public and non-public school leaders 
that a first priority was community health and well-being and 
educational opportunities were part of that need. Schools were truly 
remarkable in shifting to these priorities and establishing remote 
learning. Schools were asked to submit basic continuity of learning 
plans to the Department that answered two basic questions, `` How do 
you plan to serve students?'' and specifically, ``How do you plan to 
serve students with disabilities?'' (See more at http://
www.education.ne.gov and https://cdn.education.ne.gov/wp-content/
uploads/2020/03/Statement-on-Continuity-of-Learning---3.27.2020.pdf).

    I am confident in the abilities of local Nebraska educators to 
adjust educational practices when there is clarity about the learning 
environment. Our NDE team and partners established Launch Nebraska as a 
way to organize a recovery and re-opening approach organized around 
three major pillars:

        1. Leadership and Planning: Government, Operations and 
        Technology

        2. Conditions for Learning: Facilities and Wellness

        3. Continuity of Learning: Transitions and Instruction

    We have organized several working groups across the state that are 
developing regional and local plans with local public health officials. 
This effort started early on as our Educational Service Units (Nebraska 
intermediate education agencies) helped to organize regional 
conversations with public and non-public schools to create a feedback 
loop directly to me as well as to the Governor regarding their needs. 
We maintain weekly calls statewide to discuss re-opening efforts and 
have further pursued intentional planning efforts at a regional and 
local level among schools. Additionally, organizational leaders have 
developed plans among like-sized districts to understand how to best 
open schools. Our local health officials are collaborating to create 
easily understood local risk assessment and develop communication 
tools. Each effort to share and review these plans advances the 
conversation to open schools.

    There are some things that are becoming clearer in the effort as 
well. There is a substantial desire and pressure to open schools in the 
fall as normally as possible. At the same point, there is an 
uncertainty about how to best weigh and mitigate risk. The Launch 
Nebraska resource allows us to break up the conversations among 
stakeholders and groups to review feasibility and determine tradeoffs. 
For instance, today there is an increasing belief that wearing masks is 
a necessary step in maintaining the most normal environment. There is 
also an understanding that social distancing is dependent on many 
circumstances. Although frequent handwashing, cleaning, and masks seem 
feasible in many classrooms, spacing desks at least six feet apart and 
other tradeoffs are very difficult.

    School leaders are committed to balancing this difficult task of 
safe opening with the needs of the students, families, communities, and 
staff. There are few ``one size fits all'' moments in the planning 
efforts. Instead, it is important to shape broad guidance, with 
specific examples, that contribute to specific local plans. The efforts 
have been immense to date and we will soon have decisions made by 
schools based on this work.

    Additionally, the NDE has provided and will continue to provide 
supports to schools including professional development for the 
environment we are now in. Thus far, we have offered eight sessions 
focused on professional learning for addressing content areas and 
equity in a remote learning environment. We will continue to shape 
professional learning in partnership with our LEAs and intermediate 
agencies. Additionally, we are advocating to expand digital resources 
collectively with schools as part of the effort to fill gaps that have 
become obvious for some learners and for some schools. Schools across 
the state are planning to address these challenges by building local 
plans and we will continue to support these efforts from a state level 
as well as help facilitate best practice development and exchange.

    Serving Students with Disabilities: In these early days and weeks 
of the COVID-19 pandemic, meeting the needs of students with 
disabilities in extraordinarily challenging circumstances was my 
primary focus. As school buildings closed across Nebraska and the 
Nation, educators and school district officials were rightly concerned 
about their capacity to appropriately meet their obligations to 
students with special needs. As a result, many school districts became 
temporarily paralyzed, in effect, by fear of litigation and were 
resistant to providing services that were necessarily inconsistent with 
the expectations of Individualized Education Plans developed before the 
pandemic made the provision of planned services functionally 
impossible.

    I refused to allow fear of litigation to dominate our actions and 
understood the need to guide responsible action. NDE staff and I 
encouraged our school districts (and school attorneys) to understand 
the obligations of the law while also encouraged them to provide the 
best services possible. Teachers teach, and that is what I committed us 
to do during this national emergency. Instead of retreating and viewing 
parents and advocates as a potential threat, and that costly litigation 
under IDEA as inevitable, I sought to facilitate communication and 
engagement with stakeholders in support of students and families. 
Because the NDE is also responsible for Nebraska Vocational 
Rehabilitation as well as Disability Determinations, we have a 
tremendous set of partners in the disability community that helped us 
set a tone and direction for school services. We will continue to do 
this work. In some cases, we are finding that schools are still 
struggling to provide services especially for those students who need 
in-person services. But what is clear, and remains clear, is the 
importance of communication with the most effected students and their 
families. We continue to issue guidance and have most recently issued 
summer learning guidance and specific guidance for students with 
disabilities. (https://www.launchne.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/
SPEDGuidanceFinal2020.pdf ).

    We continue to engage and listen to these important groups and hear 
from concerned parents and parent representatives. This helps us better 
understand the concerns of parents for whom school is a lifeline for 
necessary developmental support. We take seriously the concerns of 
advocates and attorneys seeking to protect hard-won legal protections 
for students who have been ill-served in public education systems 
across the country.

    My intent is to continue to build relationships between educators, 
parents, attorneys, and advocates that will ensure that we are all on 
the same side of the table, working together on the same mission of 
ensuring that all students succeed in Nebraska schools. These 
partnerships, forged during times of crisis, will continue to help move 
forward the reopening of schools and the reimagining of public 
education in Nebraska.

    English Learner Students and Families: Nebraska has approximately 
130 different languages spoken in schools across the state and some of 
our communities were struck especially hard by the impacts of the virus 
in the meat packing industry. We continue to see communities that have 
suffered a greater impact as a result. Because schools were closed so 
suddenly, we did lose a normal communication approach with families. 
Certainly, English Learner students become a critical communication 
link to families who may not speak English. As this became obvious, 
schools began to organize and communicate through schools about 
critical health and safety issues. In a few cases, students themselves 
helped to organize messages in multiple languages to help ensure that 
the non-English speaking populations would understand the threat of the 
virus. This work is still ongoing but it has been clear that we face 
some barriers in working with our refugee and new immigrant populations 
without schools.

    Systems Involved and Homeless Youth: I have substantial concerns 
for our students who are in treatment, detention, foster care, and 
those who are homeless. Though we typically face challenges to serve 
these populations properly, it has become evident that these students 
have, and will have, further challenges due to the pandemic. I have met 
regularly with our treatment centers and facilities that serve systems-
involved youth in treatment and rehabilitation centers. I have also 
benefited by working with our Supreme Court, court system, Department 
of Health and Human Services, Foster Care system, and other public and 
private providers. Nebraska is in the middle of efforts to reform parts 
of this system and the pandemic has been a substantial setback for the 
attention needed for these vulnerable youth. I intend to continue 
efforts in this moment that expand access to appropriate digital 
resources, and better track and sustain progress for these students. In 
my view, we need to be especially mindful of investing in systems that 
eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline and find strategies that 
address the inequities these students face in school and society at 
large. If not for the pandemic, this would be my primary focus for the 
summer. Now it will be a primary focus as part of the larger recovery 
effort. We really cannot miss an opportunity to improve the system 
dramatically that is already disproportionately represented by students 
of color, poverty, and disability.

    Summer Learning / School Building Reopening: Nebraska has provided 
guidance to schools for the summer and fall through an effort called 
``Launch Nebraska'' (www.launchne.com). It combines strategies from 
across the state and is informed by a variety of partners including 
state and local health officials and experts from the University of 
Nebraska Medical Center and College of Public Health as well as 
national efforts in partnership with Opportunity Labs, LLC. This work 
originated in the need to provide guidance for schools during the 
pandemic around remote learning for the spring, summer, and fall. As my 
staff began to address needs, it was clear that guidance from CDC and 
other national sources was only beginning to trickle out while schools 
needed to gather, explore, and share best practices.

    It has become increasingly clear that large-scale guidance needs to 
be available for local school and health officials to customize for 
local conditions and environments. Schools in Nebraska are diverse. 
Nebraska's smallest school districts (Pk-12) have under 100 students in 
the most remote areas of the state while our largest district in Omaha 
exceeds 53,000 students. Additionally, Nebraska has counties that have 
yet to officially experience their first COVID-19-positive case while 
other areas have been affected at rates similar to the worst per capita 
cases in the country. This has proved to be an extremely complex 
environment as Governor Ricketts and health officials have worked to 
keep track of the capacities of hospitals as to not overburden the 
health care system. However, explaining to lesser-impacted communities 
the role in reducing the spread is a challenge. Yet, as the virus 
persists, the likelihood of affecting communities without any health 
care providers and only volunteer emergency medical technicians is also 
a challenge.

    Federal Role: Thank you for the bipartisan congressional efforts to 
provide relief and for including education in the CARES Act. The 
availability of funding for our state and schools has cut through much 
of the immediate concern for schools as we addressed this unprecedented 
challenge. Although I was personally concerned that there was not clear 
guidance and direction available from the CDC about reopening, I am 
appreciative of the efforts of CDC officials to release what was 
eventually permitted. Like one can expect, the scale of the challenge 
is real and providing guidance that can be customized for state and 
local use is appreciated. I compliment the USDA and USED for rapid 
responses on waivers for various programs including the regular 
communication from our USDA field offices and the ability to shape 
programs as quickly as possible to meet the food security needs. I also 
appreciate the quick responses by USED on flexibility around existing 
funds and waivers for annual assessments and accountability as well as 
the turn-around on applications for ESSERS funding and GEERS funding 
provisions.

    We need a level of trust among and between agencies across Federal, 
state, and local government. This is not a moment of national divide, 
but instead a necessary time to manage a crisis collectively. I cannot 
emphasize enough need for leadership and unity. Nebraska has taken this 
to heart, and I hope and expect that Congress will also. I continue to 
work regularly with Governor Ricketts and the agencies under his 
Nebraska Constitutional executive branch control. The Nebraska 
Department of Education consists of a separately elected State Board of 
Education and this independent, nonpartisan Board appoints the 
commissioner of education. As such, some might expect division and 
divide, but in Nebraska, we are constantly working together for what is 
best for our state and constituents. The divide at this point is 
primarily between those who want to work fast and those who want to 
work even faster. We have weaknesses and we have made mistakes along 
the way in this crisis. However, I am proud to continue to balance the 
needs of our state with all of the energy to do what is best. There are 
differences of opinion and the importance of proper investment in 
public health and capacity for local governments is clear. During the 
historic flooding of 2019, we witnessed the same spirit but nothing in 
my lifetime compares to the challenges we face in this pandemic. 
Unfortunately, I feel that the country does not have that same 
unabashed willingness to lock arm-in-arm to address the challenges we 
face. That is Nebraska's greatest risk at this point, and the Nation's.

    CARES Act: Nebraska is still finalizing approaches for the CARES 
Act (ESSER and GEER) and we are guided by our survey of schools and 
communities as well as parents. The results have informed preliminary 
decisions based on the top-five areas identified as priorities for our 
schools and communities:

        1. Enhance technology infrastructure (e.g., broadband, devices, 
        platforms, data privacy, etc.) for students and families

        2. Build supports for planning for possible interruptions upon 
        returning to school and student and staff reentry

        3. Ensure student nutritional needs are met

        4. Provide professional learning to support an inclusive remote 
        learning environment and engagement, along with best practices 
        for different student groups

        5. Create or expand mental, behavioral, and social emotional 
        supports (e.g., telehealth)

    In addition to the CARES Act funds, we have been working across 
agencies and with our non-profit partners to establish a community 
response. This effort started early in the pandemic and we have been 
working with communities across our state to leverage multiple partners 
to respond to community needs. We are working across agencies including 
Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services, the Nebraska 
Department of Education, the Nebraska Department of Labor, and numerous 
entities and agencies as well as nonprofit sectors. We have benefited 
from an effort organized to address children and family needs through 
``Bring Up Nebraska'' under the Nebraska Children and Families 
Foundation and assisted by Nebraska's First Lady, Susanne Shore. There 
continues to be a high level of coordination across the state with 
multiple community partners and agencies.

    Equitable Services Conflict: One major, unexpected challenge in the 
implementation of the CARES Act has been the U.S. Department of 
Education's non-regulatory guidance on equitable services for non-
public schools. Before the Secretary released this guidance on April 
30, we were planning in Nebraska to implement equitable services under 
the plain language of the CARES statute, which expressly requires 
districts to follow the traditional Title I approach to equitable 
services. When ED released its guidance, however, which advances an 
interpretation that conflicts with statute and would provide much more 
funding to private schools in Nebraska and nationwide, including 
wealthy schools that serve no low-income students, it caused much 
confusion.

    I understand and share the concern that many have expressed 
regarding the Secretary's interpretation of CARES. By requiring school 
districts to calculate the share of CARES funds based upon all students 
and not just the low-income students considered under Title I, this 
could have the effect of diluting CARES funds and directing them away 
from kids who need the most help in both public and private schools. I 
also understand, however, that students in private schools are also 
affected by COVID-19, and they also deserve appropriate supports of 
state and Federal Government to manage this crisis. This has presented 
a conundrum and a major implementation challenge in my state and many 
of our school districts.

    Some students do need more support than others. It is my role to 
promote equitable educational opportunities for all students and bridge 
opportunity gaps that plague our system. Without thoughtful approaches 
in this moment, we may limit our state's success as we emerge from this 
pandemic. As we have worked to implement equitable CARES services in my 
state, I have refused to allow us to be paralyzed, even temporarily, by 
confusion at the Federal level while students across my state need 
immediate support.

    I have led engagement statewide with nonpublic schools in support 
of a real-world solution that works best for all kids in my state who 
need support, whether they attend public or private school. I have 
encouraged private schools with limited student needs to carefully 
assess those needs to better deploy CARES Act funds that Congress 
targeted to public school districts on the basis of student poverty. At 
the same time, I am working with our Governor to use state-level CARES 
funding to provide improved broadband internet access, devices, and 
digital resources to all students including those who attend nonpublic, 
as they are also deserving of support in this crisis.

    It is my responsibility as Commissioner to connect students and 
families in need with the resources they need to survive this pandemic 
and succeed in school and in life. I am working to successfully balance 
our unique state and local needs with Federal rules and to engage my 
longtime state and local partners on an effective path forward in 
Nebraska. Nonetheless, I urge Congress to step in to further clarify 
its intention regarding CARES Act equitable services and resolve 
uncertainty and discord currently present in states across the country.

    Additional Federal Funding and Ongoing Flexibility: I do not know 
what we may yet face as a state and Nation but I believe we will have 
even greater challenges ahead. It is imperative that Congress and the 
Administration act with a unified regard for the challenges that are 
happening in our local communities, counties, hospitals, public health 
districts, and schools.

    Our Nation's schools and communities will face untold challenges 
this summer and into fall. Although I believe we will see that most 
schools in Nebraska are able to operate this summer, we will face 
extensive disruptions and interruptions. One ongoing effort where we 
need more Federal support is in providing broadband access to the homes 
of students and teachers. Although I know that broadband is not in the 
jurisdiction of this Committee, it is apparent that lack of broadband 
access it is a huge inequity for many of our students and households. 
We in public education can no longer simply accept the educational 
result of being forced to overcome every inequity in society based in 
housing, labor, health, and infrastructure policy. It is critical that 
we as a Nation address inequity where it persists if we are to overcome 
the inequities in schools and results that surface.

    I appreciate the waiver approach for assessment and accountability 
for the past year but we also need to hold accountable the efforts of 
sectors beyond education for the future. Nebraska intends to measure 
the amount of unfinished learning and the persistence and potential 
growth in an educational gap that is a matter of this circumstance. 
However, I cannot stand by an artificial notion that education will 
solve this challenge without a much more substantial lift of other 
sectors overseen by the Federal Government including your Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. I have a great deal of respect 
for Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray and deeply appreciate 
the work of this Committee.

    Future of Education: I do not believe that we should miss an 
opportunity in the midst of this crisis to build back to the same 
systemic inequities that have persisted for years and made visible in 
educational assessment and accountability. Instead, as has become a bit 
of a mantra with our partners in Nebraska, we need to ``build back 
better.'' I truly believe that education is and must be a substantial 
part of the effort to erase inequity in society but it will take a 
whole societal approach to address these challenges. I believe we need 
to redirect efforts to meet the most pressing needs of our students and 
families while marking a new expectation of individual progress and 
growth for each student.

    Nebraska will need additional supports to manage the ongoing crisis 
for our students and families. I am very concerned that we lack the 
technology infrastructure to provide remote learning for sustained 
periods of time as well as make the investments in the appropriate 
resources and supports. Without additional Federal support dedicated to 
K-12 education in future supplemental appropriations legislation, it 
may be difficult for states that are already strapped for funding in 
several sectors to meet the critical needs to keep schools open.

    I am concerned that the economic impact of the pandemic will result 
in necessary and sustained cuts in my state's K-12 education funding to 
exceed 20 percent while at the same time our costs of providing 
multiple platforms for learning will increase the need for teaching 
staff time. This is a perfect storm as we face increased needs and 
decreased resources. Recovery in Nebraska will require expenditures to 
address compensatory education for months of lost services which will 
strain the already limited resources for special education services.

    Additionally, I am very concerned that teachers on the front lines 
of the pandemic will not have the proper protections for conditions 
that they may experience. Protecting teachers from the effects of 
COVID-19 will require addressing individual accommodations that will 
also limit an already strained workforce. This will require additional 
contract time for some teachers and educational staff. This goes across 
several areas including maintenance, custodial, food service, nursing, 
mental health counseling, and every support service imaginable.

    Conclusion: I cannot imagine a more challenging time in our society 
than we currently face. However, I am optimistic because what I find in 
Nebraska is a spirit of collaboration and cooperation; a desire to work 
together to address challenges and a sense of urgency to establish what 
is ultimately best for students and families.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Blomstedt.
    Ms. Superintendent Cordova, welcome.

  STATEMENT OF SUSANA CORDOVA, SUPERINTENDENT, DENVER PUBLIC 
                      SCHOOLS, DENVER, CO

    Ms. Cordova. Good morning. Thank you. Chairman Alexander, 
Ranking Member Murray, and Senators, I want to thank you for 
the opportunity to share the Denver public schools experience 
with COVID-19 public health crisis. As I reflect on the events 
in our city and country over the past 3 months, and 
particularly over the past 2 weeks, it is increasingly clear 
that our systems, education and policing, healthcare and 
housing, are fraught with inequities and systemic racism. We 
now have the unique opportunity, unlike any other in our 
lifetimes, to address these inequities and create a better 
solution for our students and our communities.
    On March 20th, we closed our schools for what we thought 
would be an extended spring break. We then began to get a clear 
indication of how highly contagious and deadly COVID-19 is. 
With only 2 weeks until school resumed, we immediately focused 
on building a full-time remote learning program for 93,000 
students and 15,000 employees. In addition to keeping our 
students and teachers connected for academic and social 
development, we also focused on providing wraparound supports, 
including serving over 732,000 meals and distributing over 
55,000 laptops to students who needed them for remote learning.
    Given the number of low-income families in Denver, ensuring 
equitable Internet access for remote learning continues to be 
one of our biggest unmet challenges. We go into next school 
year knowing that some of our highest priority students, those 
who need extra instructional attention, are falling further 
behind during this extended remote period. In mid-May, we put 
together a working group of principals and teachers to help us 
plan together for the new school year. We surveyed our families 
and staff, asking them for their input to help focus our 
planning. The message we heard from that survey was loud and 
clear, prioritize health and wellness first, then get kids back 
into class.
    As a result, we partnered with our local health experts to 
create guidelines that have served as the foundation for all of 
our return to school planning. Based on the current health 
guidance, we are planning for a mix of in person and remote 
learning when the school year starts in August. We have shared 
three draft options that offer a mix of in person and remote 
learning with all students having a minimum of 40 percent in 
person learning and each of our options priority learners.
    Students with disabilities, English learners, students who 
are not on track to graduate will receive a full additional day 
of in-person instruction each week. This is an important equity 
measure that will help mitigate the impact of lost learning 
from remote time. I am incredibly proud of the hard work and 
relentless focus on equity and serving our families and 
community over the past 3 months. And we received invaluable 
support from colleagues across Denver, Colorado and the Nation, 
including Chiefs for Change the Council of Great City Schools 
whose partnership and sharing plans ideas and advocacy has been 
invaluable. Governor Jared Polis in Colorado and his health and 
education teams have been especially valuable partners. They 
recognize the immense challenges we faced in developing remote 
learning programs amidst the anxiety and rapidly changing 
conditions of the COVID crisis.
    I know we could not reopen school without the help we have 
received from the Federal Government through the CARES Act. We 
are currently facing a $61 million budget shortfall due to the 
economic impact of COVID. The CARES Act will provide some help 
in recovering lost revenue and the additional costs related to 
COVID but we still have a lot of work to do to balance our 
budget and ensure we have the resources to educate all of 
Denver students while maintaining our focus on equity. At a 
time when our kids and our community need us the most for 
education and all of the support that our schools provide, we 
are having to make massive cuts.
    I appreciate Congress's efforts to provide additional 
Federal funding for education and I would like to stress that 
while it is very helpful, we know that our students will face 
incredible challenges over the coming years and will need 
critical and required compensatory services that we will be 
obligated to provide despite our budget challenges. Our 
educators are working hard for our kids and our community 
during these challenging times.
    Additional funding will be essential to make sure that our 
kids grow academically and come through this pandemic with a 
great future still ahead of them. Additional funds will help us 
provide Internet and counseling, therapies and tutoring, 
training for our staff, and technology for our students. We 
must double down for those who have been most impacted by the 
COVID crisis if we are to deliver on the promise of education 
to create a more equitable society. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Susana Cordova follows:]
                  prepared statement of susana cordova
    Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the challenges that our 
community in Denver has come together to work through and adjust to the 
COVID-19 public-health crisis.
    On March 12, facing the clear signs that the virus was beginning to 
spread more quickly and getting closer to our campuses, we made the 
decision to close schools 2 weeks ahead of our scheduled spring break.
    At that time, as strange as it seems now, we were planning on 
returning to our regular school calendar and operations during the 
first week of April.
    On March 20, with an even clearer indication of how potent and 
deadly COVID is, we came to the realization that it would be a long 
time before we could resume in-person instruction.
    Then, with roughly 2 weeks to go until school resumed after spring 
break, we turned our full attention, resources, and collaboration to 
putting together a remote-learning program for 93,000 students--
children from around the globe, with a wide range of socio-economic 
status and access to technology, and speaking many different languages 
at home.
    Because of the varying needs, backgrounds, and resources among our 
families, we built a remote-learning plan that gave our educators some 
flexibility to decide how best to connect with their students.
    That turned out to be an effective approach, as we feel like we had 
a strong last 2 months of the school year as 100 percent remote 
learning.
    Throughout the final 8 weeks of the 2019-20 school year, we save 
average attendance rates around 87 percent, which is just a few 
percentage points below the previous year's.
    In addition to working hard to ensure we kept our teachers and 
students connected for academic growth, we also focused on providing as 
much of the wrap-around support and service we could, even with our 
buildings closed.
    Over the past 3 months, we've distributed over 732,000 meals, 
through our own Food Services Team and in partnership with the city and 
our DPS Foundation and its philanthropic partners.
    The city-run health centers that operate in our schools have 
remained open for telehealth and in-person appointments throughout the 
spring at three DPS locations, providing care for all students who need 
it at no cost to families.
    We sent a technology survey to our families to ask them what they 
needed to help with remote learning, and we purchased an additional 
9,000 laptop computers to help meet the need.
    To support our families with remote learning, we ended up 
distributing over 55,000 laptops and 2,700 wifi hotspots.
    Given the number of low-income families in Denver, ensuring 
equitable internet access for remote learning continues to be one of 
our biggest unmet challenges.
    We go into next school year knowing that some of our highest-
priority students--those who need extra instructional attention--have 
fallen further behind, because of our buildings being closed and not 
being able to assure internet access across the city.
    In mid-May, we put together a Workgroup of educators--primarily 
principals and teachers--to help us put together a plan for the new 
school year.
    To help ensure we put together a plan that was attentive to the 
priorities and needs of our family and staff, we sent out a community-
wide survey asking them what they wanted us to focus our planning on.
    The message to us from that survey was loud and clear: prioritize 
health and wellness.
    As a result, we partnered with the leadership of Denver Health and 
the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment to put together 
a set of health standards that served as the foundation for all of our 
return-to-school planning.
    Those health standards include:

          Wellness screenings upon arrival.
          Health measures enforced throughout the school day: 
        wearing of masks; frequent hand-washing; continuous, thorough 
        cleaning and disinfecting of the entire school facility.
          Classroom occupancy limited to allow for a minimum of 
        6 feet of physical distancing.
          Limited student movement in the school throughout the 
        day and no large gatherings.

    On top of those measures, we will be creating policies that provide 
an extra level of protection and care for the DPS Community.
    That will include creating specific policies for staff and students 
who are at higher medical risk, either because of their own health or 
because they live with someone who is at a higher medical risk.
    If there is the possibility of a resurgence of cases in a 
classroom, due to a student or staff member testing positive, health 
officials are advising that it is likely that classroom will stop in-
person instruction immediately and move to entirely remote learning for 
at least 14 days.
    To help our families understand and start to get comfortable with 
how different school will look under these health guidelines, we put 
together a video in multiple languages to show how schools will look 
and operate when they reopen.
    With health and safety as our highest-priority, we are planning at 
this time for a mix of in-person and remote learning when the school 
year starts in August.
    As much as we'd like to have a full return to full-time in-person 
learning, we remain committed to following the advice of our health 
experts and keeping health and wellness as the overriding priority in 
our plans.
    On Friday, May 29, we shared with our community 3 scheduling 
options for a mix of in-person and remote learning:
          A 2-day block each week (Tuesday-Wednesday or 
        Thursday-Friday, for example) of in-person learning, with the 
        remaining 3 days offering remote learning.
          An alternating 2-day schedule (Tuesday-Thursday or 
        Wednesday-Friday) of in-person learning each week, with the 
        remaining 3 days offering remote learning.
          And an alternating-week scheduling option, which 
        would provide four continuous days of in-person instruction in 
        1 week, along with 1 day of remote learning, followed by a full 
        5-day week of remote learning the following week.

     Option 1: 2-Day Block (AA/BB) Schedule for In-Person Learning.
      Students will have remote learning the remainder of the week.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Monday *       Tuesday       Wednesday       Thursday       Friday
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional In-      Group A        Group A        Group B       Group B
       Person
             Learning for
     Priority
     Students
------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Option 2: Alternate-Day (AB/AB) Schedule for In-Person Learning.
      Students will have remote learning the remainder of the week.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Monday *       Tuesday       Wednesday       Thursday       Friday
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional In-      Group A        Group B        Group A       Group B
       Person
             Learning for
     Priority
     Students
------------------------------------------------------------------------


                    Option 3: Full-Week Rotating (AAAA/BBBB) Schedule for In-Person Learning
                          Students will have remote learning the remainder of the week.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Monday *           Tuesday           Wednesday           Thursday            Friday
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Week 1        Additional In-            Group A            Group A            Group A            Group A
                   Person Learning
                     for Priority
                         Students
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Week 2        Additional In-            Group B            Group B            Group B            Group B
                   Person Learning
                     for Priority
                         Students
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The day that's set aside for additional in-person learning for priority students may be switched to a different
  day of the week.

    It's important to note that in each of those options, students who 
we consider to be priority learners--those who need additional 
attention--will receive a full, additional day of in-person instruction 
each week.
    Those priority students are students with disabilities and students 
who are in the early stages of learning English.
    And then each school will work on including as many additional 
student groups as possible for the extra day of in-person learning, 
including:

          Students who are not on track to graduate
          Students from historically underserved populations
          Students from low-income households

    We feel that this is an important equity measure that will help 
mitigate the effects of learning loss from the switch to remote 
learning at the end of last school year.
    Overall, each option provides for every student to receive at least 
40 percent of their overall learning through in-person instruction, 
with priority students receiving up to 60 percent in-person 
instruction.
    To get feedback from our staff and community, we sent another 
followup survey with the details of these options.
    That survey closes on Friday, and we will review the feedback from 
the survey and some targeted focus groups we're doing this week to help 
us reach the best decision on the final plan for returning to school in 
August.
    I'm extremely proud of Team DPS's hard work and relentless focus on 
equity in serving our families and our community over the past 3 
months.
    We've remained both steadfast in our values and nimble in our 
execution. And we've received invaluable support and collaboration from 
our partners across Denver and Colorado.
    Governor Jared Polis and his health and education teams have been 
especially valuable partners.
    They have provided strong leadership on the priority of community 
health and limiting the impact of the virus. And they have been 
responsive to and understanding of the immense challenges we've faced 
in developing remote learning programs amidst the anxiety and rapidly 
changing conditions of the COVID crisis.
    We are also grateful for the help we've received from the Federal 
Government through the CARES Act.
    We're currently facing a $61 million budget shortfall due to the 
economic impact of the COVID crisis, and the CARES Act will provide 
some help in covering lost revenue and additional costs related to 
COVID.
    But we still have a lot of work to do to balance our budget and 
ensure we have the resources to devote to educating all of Denver's 
students while maintaining our priority of health and wellness and our 
focus on equity.
    Under normal conditions, we are stretched thin on resources.
    We've had to go to Denver's voters 4 times over the past 15 years 
to ask for additional local tax revenue in order to meet the needs of 
our schools and students.
    We're now, despite the highest unemployment since the Great 
Depression, very likely going to still have to go back to voters to ask 
for more local taxes on this November's ballot.
    At a time when our kids and our community needs us the most--for 
education and all of the support our schools provide--we're having to 
make massive cuts.
    We're doing our best to tighten our belts and streamline 
operations.
    The last thing we want to do is have staff reductions. We just went 
through that last year, and we need our people to be able to provide 
the best schooling and backup support we can right now.
    That's why we're so appreciative and supportive of Governor Polis's 
efforts to bring in additional Federal funding for education, through 
these two pieces of proposed legislation:
    The Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund would provide 
Colorado with $44 million for grants to help local educational agencies 
(LEAs), institutions of higher education (IHEs), and other education-
related entities that have been most significantly impacted by COVID-
19.
    The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund would 
provide $121 million to school districts with a focus on equity and 
prioritizing the school districts that serve students with the highest 
needs.
    Our schools and our educators are working so hard to step up for 
our kids and our community during these challenging times.
    Additional funding with flexibility is essential to us and to our 
families to make sure their kids are continuing to grow academically 
and come through this pandemic with a great future still ahead of them.
    As we look to next year, it will be essential for us to prioritize 
the dual imperatives of supporting the social emotional needs of our 
students, many of whom have been highly impacted by COVID-19, as well 
as their academic needs. We know that in Denver, 70 percent of the 
people who have contracted COVID-19 have been LatinX , and as a 
district serving 60 percent LatinX students, we anticipate that, when 
our students return at the end of the summer, we will be on the front 
lines of supporting them as they process their experiences from this 
long period of remote learning.
    Thank you.
                                 ______
                                 
                 [summary statement of susana cordova]
    Since mid-March, Denver Public Schools has turned its full 
attention, resources, and collaboration to designing a completely 
revamped instructional model in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The 
overriding priority in this work has been and continues to be the 
health and wellness of our students and staff, coupled with meeting the 
academic and social emotional needs of our students.
    In roughly 2 weeks at the end of March, we built a new, 100 percent 
remote-learning program for Denver's 93,000 students.
    We now go into next school year knowing that some of our highest-
priority students--those who need extra instructional attention--have 
fallen further behind. We have focused our efforts to create and share 
with our community 3 scheduling options for a mix of in-person and 
remote learning for the fall, but we all know that our students learn 
best when they are in school full time.
    It's important to note that in each of those options, students who 
we consider to be priority learners--those who need additional 
attention--will receive a full, additional day of in-person instruction 
each week. Overall, each option provides for every student to receive 
at least 40 percent of their overall learning through in-person 
instruction, with priority students receiving up to 60 percent in-
person instruction.
    At a time when our kids and our community needs us the most--for 
education and all of the support our schools provide--we're having to 
make massive cuts.
    We're appreciative of the Federal Government's relief efforts to 
date and urge you to allocate additional resources and support to help 
our educators and families recover from the COVID-19 crisis so that we 
can realize the promise that education offers to all.
    Our schools and our educators are working so hard to step up for 
our kids and our community during these challenging times.
    As we look to next year, it will be essential for us to prioritize 
the dual imperatives of supporting the social emotional needs of our 
students, as well as their academic needs. We know that in Denver, 70 
percent of the people who have contracted COVID-19 have been LatinX, 
and as a district serving 60 percent LatinX students, we anticipate 
that, when our students return at the end of the summer, we will be on 
the front lines of supporting them as they process their experiences 
from this long period of remote learning.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Superintendent Cordova.
    Welcome, Secretary King.

  STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN B. KING, JR., PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE 
                EDUCATION TRUST, WASHINGTON, DC

    Mr. King. Thank you so much, Chairman Alexander, Ranking 
Member Murray, and Members of the Committee. Thank you for the 
opportunity to testify on how we can ensure students, 
educators, school staffs and their families are prioritized as 
we consider the safest, most equitable way to reopen our 
Nation's schools in the mist of COVID-19. Before discussing 
this in more detail, however, I am compelled to lift up that 
when our students return to school buildings, they will need 
additional support as they grapple with the continued reality 
of racism in America and the legacy of over 400 years of anti-
Black--the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the 
Ahmaud Arbery have once again sent the message to Black 
students that their lives are devalued.
    As schools reopen, our Nation's students of color and their 
families also find themselves during a pandemic that 
disproportionately impacts their health and safety mired in an 
economic crisis that disproportionately affects their financial 
well-being and living in a country that too often still 
struggles to recognize their humanity. School closures due to 
the pandemic, although unquestionably necessary to protect 
public health, had a disparate impact on students of color, 
students from low-income backgrounds, students with 
disabilities and English learners.
    Historically, underserved students have disproportionately 
experienced less access to devices and to Internet service, 
teachers with less support around online learning in under-
resourced districts, parents less able to telework and support 
their learning during the day, and more so emotional stressors. 
Despite the heroic efforts of many educators, many students and 
families have not received the academic or social emotional 
support they need. As we look together as a Nation toward the 
2021 school year, we must ensure that all students, and 
especially our most vulnerable, have the educational resources 
they need. We urge Congress to take the following actions.
    First, increase Federal investment in education. State and 
local education budgets have been and will continue to be 
devastated by the loss of tax revenue. Without Congressional 
action, there will be no conceivable way to avoid layoffs and 
hiring freezes disproportionately impacting educators and staff 
in high poverty schools. And the public health requirements to 
ensure safe reopening of schools won't be able to be met in too 
many places. Over 70 stakeholders have called on Congress to 
allocate at least $500 billion for state and local Governments, 
including at least $175 billion for K-12 education.
    Second, ensure states and districts do not walk away from 
the students who have been hit hardest by the crisis. New 
Federal stimulus funding should include a strong maintenance of 
effort for vision and add a maintenance of equity provision to 
apply to both states and districts. Together, these 
requirements would maintain education spending at the same 
percentage of state spending as before the pandemic and shield 
the highest needs schools and districts from the worst cuts.
    Third, ensure distance learning if possible for every 
student. Before the pandemic, 79 percent of white households 
had broadband access compared with only 66 percent of Black 
families and 61 percent of Hispanic families. To ensure home 
access to broadband for students as possible, Congress should 
allocate at least $4 billion to the FCC's E-Rate program to 
provide hotspots and access to bandwidth. Fourth, help schools 
and teachers address the significant learning loss caused by 
the pandemic.
    Congress should allocate dedicated funds to help schools 
add more learning time such as through summer school and 
extended school day for school year or after school programs. 
Fifth, address students' nutritional, social, emotional and 
mental health needs. Congress must extend and expand the 
pandemic EBT program to enable more children to receive meals 
while not in school and ensure educators' social, emotional and 
mental health needs are met through funding additional 
counselors and mental health professionals.
    Finally, Congress must not step back from its important 
role in protecting students' civil rights. ESSA and IDEA exist 
because the Federal Government wanted to ensure all students 
have equitable access to a high quality education. That goal 
has not changed even with the current crises. Permitting 
blanket waivers to either law is dangerous and unnecessary. We 
also urge Congress to ensure that the Department of Education 
follows congressional intent in applying the Title I Equitable 
Services provision of the CARES Act.
    The Department's current interpretation would steer money 
away from low income public school students and into the hands 
of wealthier private schools, an idea rejected by several 
states and one the Committee should reject as well. We have the 
public health data to help drive decisionmaking on when 
students return to school. Now, we need to target the 
appropriate resources and supports to help students, educators, 
and school staff recover and prevent any further widening of 
inequities.
    Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today, and 
I look forward to your questions.
    [The prepared statement of John B. King Jr. follows:]
                 prepared statement of john b. king jr.
    Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray, and Members of the 
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on how we can 
ensure that students, educators, administrators and staff, and their 
families are prioritized as we consider the safest, most equitable way 
to reopen our Nation's schools in the midst of COVID-19.

    Before discussing this in more detail, however, I'm compelled to 
lift up that when our students return to school buildings, they will 
need additional supports as they grapple with the continued reality of 
racism in America and the legacy of over 400 years of anti-Blackness. 
The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have 
once again sent the message to Black students that their lives are 
devalued. Over the past several weeks, our Nation has viewed the 
strength and message of the Black Lives Matter movement on full 
display. Many of our Nation's kids have been on the forefront of this 
movement in their communities and in their classrooms prior to this 
pandemic. As schools reopen, we face more than keeping students and 
staff safe during a pandemic--we face a moment where our Nation's 
students of color and their families also find themselves enduring a 
pandemic that disproportionately impacts their health, mired in an 
economic crisis that disproportionately affects their financial well-
being, and living in a country that too often still struggles to 
recognize their humanity.

    While our Nation faces this pandemic together, it is important to 
recognize that we do not confront it with an equitable distribution of 
resources, and the impact of the virus does not impact all communities 
and groups of people in the same way. Relatedly, we see the coronavirus 
has only intensified inequities in education, in employment, in 
healthcare, and in other areas that already disproportionately impact 
people of color and low-income families.

    From access to a strong and reliable internet connection, to the 
more than 20 million students who depend on schools for access to 
meals, we know how much our children rely on the resources and supports 
that their schools and educators provide to them on a day-to-day basis. 
The pandemic has crippled this vital structure as our kids know and 
depend on it.

    We also know that not everyone has the privilege to work from home 
in accordance with social distancing or states' stay-at-home orders, 
and that those who are deemed ``essential'' and are required to place 
themselves at risk are disproportionately individuals of color or those 
from working-class, low-income backgrounds. Only roughly 1 in 5 Black 
workers and 1 in 6 Latino workers are able to work from home, compared 
with nearly 1 in 3 White workers. Research shows that predominantly 
Black counties account for over half of coronavirus cases in the United 
States, and nearly 60 percent of total deaths. It also shows that 
social determinants--including employment, access to health insurance 
and medical care, and poor air and water quality--are more predictive 
of infection and death from COVID-19 than are underlying health 
conditions. In Chicago, while Black residents are about 30 percent of 
the city's population, they account for nearly 70 percent of COVID-19 
deaths.

    The economic impact on communities of color has been substantial. A 
new Associated Press poll finds that over 60 percent of Hispanic 
Americans say they have experienced some household income loss as a 
result of the pandemic, including job losses, unpaid leave, cuts in 
pay, and fewer scheduled hours compared with 46 percent of Americans 
overall. While 37 percent of Hispanic Americans and 27 percent of Black 
Americans say they've been unable to pay at least one type of bill as a 
result of the coronavirus outbreak, only 17 percent of White Americans 
say the same.

    Inequities do not exist in a vacuum. They are the result of racism 
and bias baked into our institutions and our structures, from 
employment to housing to the healthcare system to the education system. 
We know, for example, that even prior to the pandemic, K-12 students 
who attend high-need schools were already receiving less of everything 
that research and experience show are vital: from access to qualified 
teachers, to school counselors, to rigorous coursework, to other 
supports necessary for their success. Across the Nation, we're seeing 
schools that are struggling with the capacity to move to distance 
learning, and teachers and administrators who may not have familiarity 
with learning management tools. Parents and educators alike are 
searching for promising practices related to online instruction, and 
there are several schools and districts that lack large-scale 
experience with education technology. This spring, we saw many high 
school students take Advanced Placement tests from home with the hope 
of using those tests for college, but not every student has the same 
chance to take an AP course or test. Additionally, not every student 
has a compatible device or access to high-speed internet to make online 
learning viable. In states where schools are closed for months or even 
longer, students' learning loss, particularly students who are already 
vulnerable, will carry far into the future, unless directly addressed 
through expanded learning opportunities.

    Confronted with the uncertainty about the nature of COVID-19 and 
how long it may prevent the full resumption of in-person learning, 
parents and families are understandably concerned not only about their 
children's health and well-being, but also about their education at 
this unprecedented time. The Education Trust just conducted polls of 
parents in New York, Washington, Texas, and California. These polls 
show that nearly 90 percent of parents are worried that their children 
will fall behind academically because of school closings. This is a 
valid concern in the transition to distance education when we know that 
before the pandemic, 79 percent of White households had broadband 
access, while only 66 percent of Black families and 61 percent of 
Hispanic families had home broadband service.

    The Education Trust is grateful that many educators across the 
country have made one important shift during this crisis--to show their 
students even more clearly that they care, from asking about their 
students' well-being and connecting families with resources to 
providing some levity through fun virtual interactions with their 
students. This relationship-building between teachers and students was 
already happening in many places, but it was not happening nearly 
enough in places that served a majority of students of color and 
students from low-income backgrounds. That connection is essential. Ed 
Trust's parent poll in New York revealed that 95 percent of parents 
reported it would be helpful to have regular contact with or access to 
their child's teacher, but only 52 percent said their child's school 
has made that available. Our California poll revealed that Black 
parents were less likely to have been contacted by their child's 
teacher than parents of all other racial groups. We need to make sure 
this is something that is cherished in places where students face the 
most obstacles.

    We have work to do and a responsibility to insist that the Federal 
Government, state governments, local governments, and school districts 
invest resources in mitigating the effects of this crisis and that they 
do so with a focus on equity. Although the CARES Act (S. 3548) 
allocated roughly $31 billion for education purposes, it will not be 
enough to fully address the challenges that students, districts, and 
schools are currently facing, and will continue to face.
   More Federal Investments in Public Education Are Needed to Reopen 
                             Schools Safely
    States and localities--which provide the vast majority of K-12 
education funding--are bracing for major budget cuts as revenues 
continue to plummet. After the Great Recession in 2008, over 300,000 
educators lost their jobs, and inflation adjusted state funding per 
pupil was still lower in 2017 than 2008. The cuts this time may be even 
larger. Our partners at the Learning Policy Institute estimate, based 
on projected state revenue losses during the end of this fiscal year 
and next, that K-12 systems might need as much as $230 billion to 
stabilize their budgets. And those estimates are focused solely on 
making districts whole; they do not incorporate the additional costs 
districts face as a direct result of responding to COVID-19, including 
sanitizing schools and providing devices and materials for distance 
learning.

    That is why over 70 education stakeholders have demanded Congress 
allocate at least $500 billion for state and local stabilization, and 
require that a proportional amount of these funds be directed toward K-
12 spending. As K-12 education makes up, on average, 35 percent of 
state general funds, Congress should allocate at least $175 billion for 
K-12 education.

    These targeted Federal stabilization funds, as well as the 
additional provisions below, are necessary to ensure that schools are 
able to reopen safely by ensuring that states and districts can provide 
all schools--particularly underfunded, high-poverty schools--with the 
resources they need to implement the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 
considerations or local health authority's guidance for keeping 
students and staff safe (e.g., adequate testing and contact tracing, 
use of PPE, protections for at-risk staff and students, social 
distancing, etc.).
Ensure States and Districts Do Not Walk Away from the Students Who Have 
                    Been Hit Hardest by This Crisis
    This Federal stabilization money must be accompanied by strong 
requirements to ensure that states maintain their investments in 
education; to require that states and districts minimize cuts to their 
highest need districts and schools; and to prevent the U.S. Department 
of Education from steering funding away from low-income, public school 
students.

    Specifically, the Federal Government must include maintenance of 
effort provisions that require state education spending to remain at 
least the same percentage of the state's total spending, even if the 
state's overall budget shrinks. Further, if spending cuts are 
necessary, the Federal Government must protect our highest-need schools 
by requiring both states and districts that receive additional Federal 
funding to show that any necessary cuts are smaller per student in the 
highest-need districts and schools than the rest of the state or 
district.

    Finally, we've already seen the U.S. Department of Education advise 
states and school districts to steer Federal funding away from low-
income, public school students into the hands of wealthier private 
schools. Therefore, we urge Congress to prevent forthcoming regulations 
that would allow ED's misinterpretation of the Title I equitable 
services provision within the CARES Act to be used to direct over $1.3 
billion more to private schools, as forthcoming data from Learning 
Policy Institute will show, regardless of whether those schools are 
serving students from low-income backgrounds. Several states have 
already rejected this approach. The Education Trust thanks the 
committee leadership for expressing opposition to this idea and urges 
action to prevent that outcome.
      Ensure That Distance Learning is Possible for Every Student
    Before the pandemic, 79 percent of White households had broadband 
access, while only 66 percent of Black families and 61 percent of 
Hispanic families had home broadband service. More than one-third of 
all households with school-age children that earn less than $30,000 
annually lack high-speed internet access. Additionally, Microsoft 
estimates that as many as 163 million people do not use the internet at 
broadband speeds, burdening students even further.

    It is likely that distance learning will continue through the 
summer, the beginning of next year, and intermittently if new cases of 
the virus emerge. And the data we have from this spring is alarming. 
For example, data from California showed that 38 percent of low-income 
families and 29 percent of families of color are concerned about access 
to distance learning because they don't have reliable internet at home, 
and 50 percent of low-income and 42 percent of families of color lack 
sufficient devices at home to access distance learning. Therefore, 
states and districts must have a plan in place to ensure that all 
students, including students from low-income backgrounds, have access 
to reliable, high-speed internet and devices and IT support to connect 
to virtual learning opportunities, and that educators have the support 
they need to effectively teach, assess, and connect with their students 
remotely. The lack of equitable access to broadband is not only a 
distance learning issue, but also an emergency preparedness issue in 
the event of further widespread closures.

    Congress must allocate at least $4 billion through an Emergency 
Connectivity Fund via the FCC's Federal E-Rate program to expand access 
to broadband services, Waif hotspots, and devices to ensure all 
students have the ability to access online learning at home in the 
event of continued disruptions, and Congress should encourage districts 
to implement multilingual digital learning platforms to be fully 
inclusive. Congress should also encourage private companies to enable 
home broadband access for the students in the communities they serve 
during the pandemic at no cost.
     Address Learning Loss Through Expanded Learning Opportunities
    Students will likely return to classrooms with significant learning 
loss, which schools and teachers must be prepared to assess and 
address. Schools serving larger populations of students from low-income 
backgrounds are far less likely to be able to provide online learning 
opportunities for all students and, therefore, must find a way to make 
up for lost instructional time.

    The stabilization funding described above--meant to make districts 
and schools whole--will not be sufficient to accelerate learning to 
make up for the billions of hours of instructional time that students 
lost this spring. That is why Congress should allocate dedicated funds 
to help schools facilitate expanded learning time, including summer 
school (online or in-person based on the most recent public health This 
additional funding must be targeted to prioritize the equity gaps we 
know have been exacerbated by COVID-19 and to prioritize students, 
including students from low-income backgrounds, students with 
disabilities, English learners, and students experiencing homelessness 
or foster care, who have been most directly impacted by lost in-person 
instructional time. Additionally, educators will need sufficient time 
to prepare for the next school year and the substantially different 
work environment that they will be faced with, including altered or 
expanded school schedules, additional remote instruction, and 
curricular changes. This professional learning and planning time comes 
at a cost; Congress must allocate funding to cover these costs.
    Address Students' and Educators' Social, Emotional, Mental, and 
                             Physical Needs
    All students are experiencing stress, anxiety, and learning 
obstacles due to school closures and other COVID-19 related-stressors. 
Every family is feeling the strain of ensuring students receive the 
care, attention, and educational resources they need to thrive. Parents 
and guardians are scrambling to maintain their own jobs, meet their 
families' basic needs, identify childcare, and help engage their 
students in meaningful online learning. And while these challenges may 
be universal, they are even greater for some students, including 
students from low-income backgrounds and students of color, who already 
face steep economic and health inequities previously mentioned. 
Therefore, in addition to academic learning, schools must prioritize 
and center the social, emotional, mental, and physical health needs of 
these historically underserved students upon return to school.

    At a minimum, we must ensure students' basic needs are met, 
including the more than 20 million students who depend on schools to 
get meals every day. Congress can directly address food insecurity of 
students and their families through the Pandemic Electronic Benefits 
Transfer (P-EBT) program to ensure students' nutritional needs are met 
throughout this summer and into the next school year. The program must 
also be expanded to cover children under 5 years old who are not 
currently included in this program due to the free-and-reduced-price 
lunch eligibility metric.

    Beyond these basic needs, we know that over 75 percent of students 
rely on schools for mental health supports. In order to provide these 
supports to students, schools must provide a positive and welcoming 
school climate, as well as quality dropout prevention and re-engagement 
programs--especially for the most vulnerable students. Therefore, it is 
critical that Congress allocate additional Federal funding to support 
school counselors, mental health workers, psychologists, and social 
workers in the highest-need districts, and allocate resources to train 
teachers to understand and address the negative impacts of COVID-19 on 
students, especially those of color and from low-income backgrounds.

    In addition to student health, it is critical to remember that we 
must ensure the safety and well-being of administrators, educators, and 
support personnel. Educators are experiencing greater stress and 
anxiety during COVID-19. When educators were asked in a recent survey 
conducted by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence about the most 
frequent emotion they felt each day of remote learning, their top five 
responses were: ``anxious, fearful, worried, overwhelmed and sad,'' 
with anxiety being the most mentioned emotion. These emotions can often 
lead to teacher burnout. Therefore, we must support our educators by 
providing them with emotional support and mental health resources.
              Congress Must Protect Students' Civil Rights
    Finally, it is important to note that during this hectic and 
uncertain time, Congress must not step back from its important role in 
protecting students' civil rights. Therefore, Congress must not provide 
blanket waivers of critical requirements under the Every Student 
Succeeds Act (ESSA) or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 
(IDEA) that protect all students' civil rights. ESSA and IDEA were 
designed to ensure all students have equitable access to a high-quality 
education. That goal has not changed even with the current crises this 
country faces. Permitting blanket waivers to either law is dangerous 
and unnecessary.

    The existing waiver authority within ESSA provides sufficient 
authority for the U.S. Department of Education to meet states' needs. 
As ED has already acknowledged, the impact of COVID-19 will affect each 
state differently; therefore, case-by-case consideration of each 
state's needs remains the most appropriate path moving forward.
                               Conclusion
    In closing, we cannot underestimate the impact that this crisis 
will have--and has already had--on our children, particularly our 
children of color and children from low-income backgrounds. They and 
their families are already bearing the brunt of the crisis.

    In a national survey by Hunger Free America, 37 percent of parents 
reported cutting the size of meals or skipping meals for their children 
because they did not have enough money for food between mid-March and 
mid-April, when the survey was released.

    More than 111,000 people in the United States have died of the 
coronavirus, and more than 33 million Americans have filed for 
unemployment during the pandemic. Both in terms of deaths and lost 
jobs, people of color are disproportionately impacted.

    When students do eventually return to brick-and-mortar buildings, 
there will be students sitting next to each other with very different 
progress in learning--one whose parents had the resources and 
flexibility to help them continue to learn while school was closed, and 
one whose parents had to work, possibly on the front lines, to make 
ends meet during the crisis, who may not have had high-speed internet 
or an appropriate device at home, and who could not focus on their 
education because of other responsibilities they had to juggle at home. 
If after this pandemic, we go back to ``normal''--obscuring the 
inequities we know exist--we will have learned nothing. ``Normal'' 
should not be what we aim to return to--we have to provide the 
resources and supports that ensure equity gaps are closed for good.

    If we fail to educate and protect students of color and students 
from low-income families, we have failed as a Nation. We can choose to 
continue to shut out communities of color and low-income communities or 
we can make changes to allow for a more inclusive America--one that 
protects the most underserved and allows everyone to reach their full 
potential.

    Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
                                 ______
                                 
                [summary statement of john b. king jr.]
    Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray, and members of the 
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on how we can 
ensure that students, educators, administrators and staff, and their 
families are prioritized as we consider the safest, most equitable way 
to reopen our Nation's schools in the midst of COVID-19.
    This pandemic has intensified already existing gaps in access to 
equitable education. As we approach the upcoming school year, we must 
acknowledge the reality that not every school will be able to reopen 
and operate as normal. There are massive challenges confronting schools 
and families--severe looming cuts to education budgets nationwide, a 
lack of consistent student broadband access to enable distance 
learning, and substantial learning loss that must be measured to 
understand how we can remedy it for our kids.
    In response to these challenges, we urge Congress to take the 
following actions:
    First: Increase Federal investment in education. State and local 
education budgets have been--and will continue to be--devastated by the 
loss of tax revenue. Without congressional action, there will be no 
conceivable way to avoid the same patterns we saw during the last 
recession, including layoffs and hiring freezes disproportionately 
impacting educators and staff at high-poverty schools, and the public 
health requirements to ensure a safe re-opening of a school won't be 
able to be met in too many places. The requirements to ensure a safe 
re-opening of school--modified transportation, restructured school 
schedules, personal protective equipment, regular deep cleaning, and 
more--will also require additional resources. Over 70 stakeholders have 
called on Congress to allocate at least $500 billion for state and 
local governments, including at least $175 billion for K-12 education.
    Second: Ensure states and districts do not walk away from the very 
students who have been hit hardest by this crisis. New Federal stimulus 
funding should include a strong maintenance of effort provision and add 
a maintenance of equity provision to apply to both states and 
districts. Together, these requirements would maintain education 
spending at the same percentage of state spending as before the 
pandemic and shield the highest need schools and districts from the 
worst cuts.
    Third: Ensure distance learning is possible for every student. 
Before the pandemic, 79 percent of White households had broadband 
access, compared with only 66 percent of Black families and 61 percent 
of Hispanic families. The lack of equitable access to broadband is not 
only an immediate distance learning issue and an obstacle to effective 
implementation of hybrid models in the fall, but an emergency 
preparedness issue in the event of further widespread closures. To 
ensure home access to broadband for students is possible, Congress 
should allocate at least $4 billion to the FCC's E-Rate program to 
provide hotspots and devices for students who require them. Congress 
should also encourage districts to implement multilingual digital 
learning platforms to be fully inclusive, and encourage private 
companies to enable home broadband access for the students in the 
communities they serve during the pandemic at no cost. This investment 
should also be partnered with professional development for educators so 
they can effectively teach, assess, and connect with their students 
remotely.
    Fourth: Help schools and teachers address the significant learning 
loss caused by the pandemic.
    Congress should allocate dedicated funds to help schools add more 
learning time, such as through summer school, an extended school day or 
school year, or afterschool programming.
    Fifth: Address students' nutritional, social, emotional, and mental 
health needs. Congress must extend and expand the Pandemic EBT program 
to enable more children to receive meals while not in school, and 
ensure students' and educators' socioemotional and mental health needs 
are met through funding additional counselors and other mental health 
professionals in schools.
    Finally: Congress must not step back from its important role in 
protecting students' civil rights. ESSA and IDEA exist because the 
Federal Government wanted to ensure all students have equitable access 
to a high-quality education. That goal has not changed even with the 
current crises. Permitting blanket waivers to either law is dangerous 
and unnecessary. We also urge Congress to ensure that the Department of 
Education follows congressional intent in applying the Title I 
equitable services provision to the CARES Act. The Department's current 
interpretation would steer money away from low-income public school 
students and into the hands of wealthier private schools, an idea 
rejected by several states and one the committee should reject as well.
    Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I look 
forward to taking your questions.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. King, and thanks to all the 
witnesses. We will now move to a round of questions from the 
Senators. I would say to each of the Senators and the 
witnesses, there is a small box in the bottom of your screen. 
There is a time clock and has 5 minutes on it. If you would 
stay as close to that as possible, then all the Senators will 
have a chance to talk with the witnesses. Let me begin with you 
Dr. Schwinn.
    We talked about testing. Tennessee, as you said, has been a 
leader in testing. It is in the top 12 or 13. Tennessee has 
tested about more than 1.5 million Tennesseans for COVID-19. 
But as we come up on the school year, we have 1 million 
children going back to school. Governor Lee tells me that the 
demand for COVID tests is down in Tennessee, maybe because it 
is so available.
    His motto is if in doubt, get a test, and people can get 
one wherever they want one at their public health center. What 
plans are you making for systemic--for systematic testing of 
the 1 million children in Tennessee?
    Ms. Schwinn. Thank you for the question and letting me 
highlight I think the great work happening in Tennessee related 
to testing. Yesterday we had one of the highest number of folks 
come out and get testing and I think we have seen some 
incredible efforts across the state. A couple things I would 
love to highlight. So Tennessee has been in the top 12 in terms 
of per capita testing and in the bottom 12 in terms of 
positive----
    The Chairman. I only have 5 minutes so what I am trying to 
get--I have got several questions. What I am trying to get to 
is what are you going to do about the 1 million students?
    Ms. Schwinn. So having that testing available across the 
state, we will continue will be able to work closely with 
unified command and our Tennessee National Guard to be able to 
make that available for staffs and students. And then we are 
also working to partner to provide free PPE and thermometers to 
any school district who wants them for all students and staff.
    The Chairman. Okay. The--you and I talked yesterday about 
your plan for what would take for each of your 1,800 schools to 
go back to school safely. Have you figured out about what the 
cost per school district would be for that?
    Ms. Schwinn. Sure. So we have spent some time looking at 
the variety. We have districts as small as a 130 and as big as 
over 100,000. What we have found is that the per student cost 
for hygiene, disinfecting materials including wipes, potential 
face masks, etc., is anywhere from $100 to $150 per student 
depending on the decisions at the local level. On top of that 
you have nutrition, transportation services, and custodial 
services, which will vary depending on whether districts have 
their own bus fleet or contract out.
    The same thing with custodial. What we are finding is that 
for districts that are approximately 3,000 to 4,000 students, 
early estimates, which are consistent with other national 
organizations, is that it would be anywhere from one to $1 to 
$1.75 million for a district for the year.
    The Chairman. That is fairly consistent with what the 
national study by the administrators is. So the total for 
Tennessee, did you add that up what the total bill might be for 
the state?
    Ms. Schwinn. Yes, sir. So when we looked at that again 
acknowledging the fluctuations based on local decisions and 
contracts that they may or may not have, the cost of Tennessee 
will be somewhere in the $100 million, $175--I am sorry, $100 
million to $175 million. Certainly the CARES Act funding that 
is coming to our districts will help to support some of that 
but it is a significant need.
    The Chairman. Well, would you do me a favor and I am going 
to ask Dr. Blomstedt to do the same in his capacity as the 
national head of the Chief State School Officers. Congress has 
already appropriated $13.5 billion, $216 million came to 
Tennessee for K through 12. The states have gotten $150 
billion. Usually about a third of the state budget or more goes 
for schools.
    So what I am interested in is how much of the money we have 
already given you can be used to help that $1.5 to $1.8 million 
per school district and how much more is required? One more 
question of you before I go to Dr. Blomstedt. Liability. What 
do you need for the Federal Government to do about liability 
for teachers or school, personnel. Let's say a kid takes off 
his mask and coughs on a student, and the student comes down 
with COVID, and the parent sues the teacher or the principal. 
Does there need to be some sort of Governmental action for 
liability protection?
    Ms. Schwinn. Sir, so in Tennessee teachers are covered 
under the tort liability per state law. Our legislature is 
currently exploring legislation on expanded qualified immunity 
specifically related to COVID so I think continuing to support 
districts and feeling confident to welcome students back to 
school is going to be incredibly important and I am incredibly 
proud of our legislators for taking up that work.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Schwinn. Dr. Blomstedt, I am 
out of time, but let me ask you if I may following, if your 
organization would submit to our Committee about what you think 
it would cost to help all the school districts go back to 
school safely, just those specific things, and how much of that 
can be covered by the $13 billion that we have already given 
directly to K through 12 and $150 billion we have already given 
to states? I think we would all agree that there is not much of 
anything we could think of to do that would help all families, 
all students, especially minority students, than to be able to 
open school in August. And I want to make sure that the Federal 
Government does its part. Senator Murray.
    Senator Murray. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank 
you to all of you for your testimony today. You know, due to 
the continued impact and potential spread of COVID-19, it is 
likely that some schools will need to keep their physical 
buildings closed either fully or partially for all or some as 
our states and districts and schools and educators move to 
adjust quickly in the face of this unprecedented pandemic.
    But we do have to acknowledge the support for quality of 
distance education provided to students this spring varied 
significantly across classrooms or schools or districts and 
states, and some of the recent research and media reports 
indicate that students facing some of the greatest challenges 
during COVID-19 are low-income students, students of color, 
students with disabilities, English learners, homeless, youth 
in foster care, migrant children. Also received less access to 
high-quality instruction in many instances.
    Secretary King, let me ask you, what are the lessons we can 
learn from the successes and failures of distance learning over 
the past several months and what should states and districts be 
doing now to plan for the likely need for distance learning 
this fall?
    Mr. King. I think what we have seen is that devices remain 
a challenge--access to devices remain a challenge for families, 
yet as you described you often have the situation where maybe 
there is one device in the home, but there are multiple kids 
and they need to be able to use devices simultaneously----
    Senator Murray. Or parents, they need the device too.
    Mr. King. Exactly, exactly. Bandwidth remains a challenge 
and certainly Commissioner Schwinn pointed out the challenge in 
rural communities. We also see in lots of high needs urban 
communities a lack of bandwidth. We also see places where cable 
companies won't allow the family to access Internet services if 
they have an unpaid balance on their cable bill. The result is 
those families are without Internet access.
    Tackling the digital divide is essential. We also know that 
teachers in under-resourced areas didn't have the professional 
development and support they needed and so we need to make an 
investment in teacher professional development this summer so 
that we can prepare for the next school year effectively. I 
think given the public health context and students with pre-
existing health conditions, it is almost certain that every 
school district will need some degree of hybrid learning and so 
we should prepare for that eventuality.
    Senator Murray. Okay. You know, estimates show that 
students in grades 3 to 8 could return to school this fall, 
only retaining 70 percent of their reading progress from the 
previous school year and lose anywhere from half to all of 
their academic growth in math.
    This brings closures and the inconsistent support for 
distance learning programs are projected to cause achievement 
gaps that existed before this pandemic to rise significantly.
    Secretary King, let me have you speak to what policies can 
states or districts and schools put in place now to measure 
learning loss, whether schools are physically open or providing 
distance learning, and what types of promising practices can 
you talk about to help tailor academic intervention?
    Mr. King. Well, we certainly need diagnostic assessments to 
have a sense of where kids are and what ground they have lost. 
And Commissioner Schwinn in Tennessee and Commissioner Muras in 
Texas are making available state funds to support those 
diagnostic assessments that will be very helpful to districts. 
But once we know students are behind we have to do something 
about it.
    What some of our international peers have done is open 
school early for the highest needs students, students with 
disabilities, students who are significantly behind 
academically. That may be a part of the strategy. Summer 
distance learning may be a part of the strategy. Randi 
Weingarten and I wrote an op-ed calling for a significant 
investment by districts in summer learning.
    We also know that next school year students will need more 
time to make up for what they have lost and that will mean 
adapting the school schedule to allow for extended learning 
time. We also know intensive tutoring has a very strong 
evidence-based. One of the reasons why I am very supportive of 
efforts to expand Americorps to provide more tutors in schools 
to support kids learning.
    Senator Murray. Okay. Thank you. Finally, let me just start 
this question by first saying thank you to all the educators 
and support staff that have been navigating this crisis. 
Surveys are showing that nearly two of every three educators 
have health concerns about resuming in person instruction this 
fall. 18 percent of educators, 27 percent of principles are 
over the age of 55 and according to CDC the older adults are at 
increased risk.
    Many educators have pre-existing conditions. They are 
worried about the health of their family members. They face 
childcare and hardships related to the virus and I heard 
someone suggested older educators, many of whom are very 
passionate about their work, should retire early. Well that is 
callous and unacceptable to me as an answer. So maybe Dr. 
Schwinn or Dr. Blomstedt. I just have a few seconds left. I 
will go with Dr. Blomstedt. What steps should school districts 
and states take to make sure all educators feel safe and 
secure?
    Mr. Blomstedt. First of all, it is absolutely critical that 
schools that are working on the reopening plans or working with 
their teachers, we actually have kind of embedded safety 
committees that include teachers so that is imperative. But 
really working with each teacher. I really have a people first 
strategy working with our agency. I have really tried to 
promote that with our schools as well, that they are asking 
each teacher about what their concerns are and making those 
accommodations as best they possibly can to come back to the 
school facility.
    Senator Murray. I am out of time but maybe there are other 
witnesses who could respond to me in writing and talk to me 
about how schools are dealing with that.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Murray.
    Senator Cassidy.
    Senator Cassidy. Thank you. Thank you all for all you are 
doing. I have always observed that children have the lowest 
risk for significant complications of coronavirus but in terms 
of opportunity cost, they are bearing the highest cost. You are 
only five once to be able to understand a word without 
definition and yet to know the definition--all our brains are 
like that now but they are not. But those children are so thank 
you for taking this on.
    I am a physician and so I am kind of approaching this from 
twofold. One, as a physician and talking about public health, 
and second as someone who is trying to help a school reopen 
back in Louisiana. Now, Ms. Cordova, one issue with your block 
testing Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Monday and Friday--a lot 
of parents work, that was part of the opening testimony. What 
do you do for those kids whose parents work, but the child 
would not be in school two to 3 days a week? Is there any 
accommodation or is it just kind of the way it is working out?
    Ms. Cordova. Yes, thank you for the question. It definitely 
is one of the complexities that we are grappling with. We know 
it is going to be important for kids to be in school for 
parents to be able to go back to work. Right now our state is 
under a safer at home order where businesses are only allowed 
to have 50 percent of their working force in a building at a 
time.
    Our hope is that in addition to trying to partner with 
childcare organizations that we can help sync up schedules for 
families so that when families are working from home, their 
children can also be at home. Obviously our goal is to try to 
get as many kids into school as possible----
    Senator Cassidy. So let me ask you--I have limited time, 
let me ask you, I suspect many of your parents though cannot 
work from home if it is a typical kind of public school 
setting. And so to what--who is going to pay for their child 
care, for example? Would that be the school's responsibility or 
do parents have to do that?
    Ms. Cordova. We are trying to work with local partners to 
see how we can provide more childcare. We are really stymied by 
the size of our buildings to be able to have the number of 
students in our classrooms given the health----
    Senator Cassidy. Got it. Mr. Blomstedt, or Dr. Blomstedt I 
am sorry, you mentioned that there are some areas of Nebraska 
in which there has not yet been a case. Is this to say that in 
those areas that there would be no disruption at all to the 
school? Because really what I read from the public health 
experts, if you have an extremely low incidence, then you 
actually continue life as normal, particularly when it is 
returning to schooling. Is this the practice pattern that you 
have taken?
    Mr. Blomstedt. Yes. Across Nebraska we are working with our 
local health officials and coming up with essentially a risk 
dial. If there is evidence of spread that there will be at 
certain levels of risk essentially a green, yellow, orange, red 
type of risk dial.
    If we see extensive spread, it is going to need additional 
accommodations for health and safety. If there is very little, 
there is more of an attention to the individual health and what 
is happening in the school. So our intention is to be able to 
balance that based on the conditions locally.
    Senator Cassidy. But if locally there is no spread the 
schools would open as it normally would open, correct?
    Mr. Blomstedt. We actually have had those conversations. 
Many of those places are doing that. We believe masks and other 
accommodations are going to be necessary all the time just to 
continue on that limited spread.
    Senator Cassidy. I will tell you that is probably not what 
your health expert would recommend but that is up for you and 
your public health expert. I could ask this of any of you but I 
will ask it maybe to you, Ms. Cordova. Senator Menendez and I 
have put together something called the Smart Act which would 
help state and local Governments restore tax dollars lost 
because of the economic shutdown requested by the Federal 
Government.
    I am gathering with all this expense and with the economic 
lockdown that you suggest is still going on in Denver that 
without such aid, it will be difficult to rehire--excuse me, to 
do these programs, but let me ask specifically, also I have 
read that a lot of educators have been laid off. It is unclear 
to me whether or not they have just been furloughed, they are 
out for the summer, or no, you are laid off, we don't have any 
money and we are not bringing you back.
    The program that you outlined seems like it is going to 
require more personal not less. Do you have the financial 
capacity? And if there is time I ask this of the other 
panelists as well.
    Ms. Cordova. Absolutely. We do not have the financial 
capacity to do everything that we would like to be able to do. 
And in fact, we are looking at pretty significant cuts.
    Senator Cassidy. Anybody else have a little bit of time? 
Tennessee or Nebraska? Y'all's kind of experience?
    Ms. Schwinn. So our state budget--our state budget 
continues to fully fund our school funding formula that is a 
commitment that was made by the Governor. And so we are very 
grateful for that and we will continue to want to look for 
investments as our economy bounces back.
    Senator Cassidy. Okay. Well, thank you all. I appreciate 
your testimony. I yield back.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cassidy.
    Senator Casey.
    Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, thanks very much for this 
opportunity. I want to thank our witnesses for their 
appearance. My questions will be directed to Dr. King, 
Secretary King and I wanted to thank the other witnesses as 
well and they can certainly chime in if they have a response to 
my questions. I will have two. One will focus on the question 
of learning loss.
    I know that Senator Murray asked a similar question. But I 
wanted to start by noting what Secretary King just said in the 
outset of his testimony with regard to what we have just been 
through and I am quoting from his statement, I am glad that he 
referred to this earlier, ``both the murders of George Floyd, 
Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery have once again sent the 
message to Black students that their lives are devalued, ``and 
he also outlined the disparities and challenges that are faced 
by communities of color in education and focused on what that 
means in the midst of a pandemic mired in'' an economic crisis 
that disproportionately affects the financial well-being of 
these students living in a country that too often still 
struggles to recognize their humanity.'' On all these issues we 
have to bear in mind these inequities, these disparities which 
should be the subject of action.
    I wanted to focus as well on students with disabilities 
because they face barriers as well. I just spoke last week, and 
as I have done a number of times the last few weeks, with 
parents of children with disabilities, students with 
disabilities, and they shared with me that in Pennsylvania they 
have been provided sometimes hundreds of pages of instructional 
material that can be overwhelming for a parent. And now we have 
to consider that if the outbreak or the virus itself rears its 
ugly head again, another outbreak that lead to closures again.
    Secretary King, I would ask, how can we minimize some of 
the disparities, some of these many disparities in this context 
of students with disabilities to ensure that these students who 
have additional instructional needs can continue to be provided 
with a high quality education by way of distance learning?
    Mr. King. Such an important question, Senator Casey. We 
have to start with getting the distance learning infrastructure 
right. So we have to make sure that the low-income students 
with disabilities have access to devices and Internet service 
for starters. We have got to make sure that schools have the 
resources to provide compensatory services for missed learning 
this spring, no question. That we already had gaps, as you 
pointed out.
    The graduation rate for students with disabilities in high 
school, for example, is some almost 20 points below that of 
students in general education. So we have got to make sure that 
we make up for the lost time this spring and then we have got 
to have the resources for schools to provide additional 
intervention.
    There may be some opportunities with existing the CARES 
Act, but our view is it is not sufficient to address the scale 
of learning loss that we are seeing, particularly for students 
with disabilities. They are going to need more time. Maybe 
starting early, maybe a longer school day, and maybe a longer 
school year in order to make up the ground.
    Senator Casey. Thank you. We look forward to working with 
you on this issue. I wanted to close with a question pertaining 
to learning loss, and Senator Murray has mentioned and others 
have in their testimony. We are told by the Center on 
Reinventing Public Education that only 44 percent of districts 
are both providing instruction online as well as monitoring 
students attendance and their progress by way of distance 
learning. Lack of funding plus lack of assistive technology 
compounds in equities and exacerbates these achievement gaps 
that we have been discussing today. How can we assess learning 
loss and work to close these achievement gaps?
    Mr. King. Well, we are certainly going to need diagnostic 
assessment as students return to school to get a sense of where 
they are. For students with disabilities in particular we are 
going to need to assess their IDA goals and whether or not they 
have made progress toward those goals and what it will take to 
help them make progress. And I worry that there are some who 
have called for setting aside the protections of IDA.
    That strikes me as a mistake and potentially jeopardizing 
the progress we have made over the last few decades in 
supporting students with disabilities, particularly those who 
are from low-income families or communities of color who are 
most vulnerable. So we, I think, have to make sure that states 
and school districts honor students IDAs. If they have missed 
services, they need to get those when they come back to school.
    Senator Casey. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you, Mr. 
Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Casey.
    Senator Murkowski.
    Senator Murkowski. Am I there now?
    The Chairman. You are, welcome.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you. Thank you, and thank you to 
the witnesses. Thank you for this hearing. I will tell you I 
have so many worries and I am listening to you all sharing your 
concerns, sharing your worries. I am thinking about kids that 
really are going to need the assistance of our school nurses, 
of our school counselors. I am worried about those kids who 
were doing okay before COVID but now they are going to be 
looking at a school year where they are part of the 
homelessness group. There are families now that are homeless.
    I think about our Anchorage school district, for instance, 
where we have over 90 plus different languages that are the 
home languages in the Anchorage school district alone. How 
these non-English learners are going to be adapting to this. I 
want to begin my question first and this is probably directed 
to you, Dr. King.
    Much of the success, if we are in a truncated school week 
or school year, so much of what we have dealt with has relied 
on the fact that our kids are able to take a laptop, have 
access to their teachers through the Internet here. Well in my 
state and in many rural states, Internet is spotty at best and 
we can give the kids as many laptops as they want but if it 
doesn't connect, if you will. It doesn't get them anywhere, and 
we know that E-Rate, and I appreciate what you have raised Dr. 
King, this is what provides this critical support to our school 
districts in so many of our rural areas, but when school is 
closed and the E-Rate program is limited to providing Internet 
at the school, kids can't get access after that. They don't 
have the connectivity that they need.
    We have been pushing on this. We have been talking with 
folks at the FCC. They have appropriately pushed to expand the 
E-Rate program to reach the entire campus so kids can go to a 
parking lot at school and log on but what we are told is that 
without changes to statute, they can't provide support for 
tele-education into students' homes.
    This is really problematic for us in Alaska. I am sure it 
is not the only obstacle that our school districts are dealing 
with. Ours are getting really creative, putting literally a 
dish up on top of the school buildings. We know that we have 
seen great support from many of our telecom providers providing 
her pre-Internet two families during this initial COVID launch, 
but will they be there to provide that support in the fall if 
this is indefinite.
    I guess the question is whether or not there is any 
integrated review of the issues that are going on to provide 
some recommendations to this Committee for reforms in a future 
bill? Because with the school's coming on in August, no answer 
in sight for so many. I am just not sure how you make it happen 
because it looks good on paper, but again, if you haven't 
connected, these kids are left out. Dr. King?
    Mr. King. You are exactly right about these School Health, 
Libraries, Broadband Coalition has suggested a sort of 
comprehensive strategy that would cost I think $5.25 billion to 
try to make sure that every student has access to the Internet. 
I think there is an important role for the FCC to play here 
with the Internet service providers to try to make it as simple 
as possible for folks to access Internet service and ideally to 
make it possible for school districts to make bulk purchases of 
Internet service for families.
    I think about the Cleveland school district that has 
committed over the next few years to work with their Internet 
service providers to ensure that every household in Cleveland 
has access to Internet service. And from the school districts 
and point, it is a question of protecting kids' access to 
distance learning, it is closing the homework gap so students 
can use the Internet even if we are past COVID-19 to do their 
homework.
    But also today the Internet is foundational to accessing 
post-secondary opportunities to accessing job opportunities. 
And so we do need, I think you are exactly right, a 
comprehensive solution here, and long-term particularly for our 
rural areas that may mean also infrastructure investment.
    Senator Murkowski. I think we recognize we are lacking. To 
the Superintendent Cordova from Denver, I have a question that 
I have of you as it relates to the homelessness and the 
emergency needs that our families and youth in our communities 
in the wake of COVID, the community partners inside and outside 
of the schools can help stabilize these children and youth.
    I have introduced a bill just today related specifically to 
this. I am quite concerned that there is this gap in services 
when it comes to our homeless kids, our homeless families. I am 
out of time. I want to respect the Chairman's directive here.
    Perhaps I could have a conversation offline with you if you 
have any suggestions, but it is something that I would hope 
that we have further discussion on, and I will submit that 
question for the record, Mr. Chairman, as well as others. Thank 
you.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Murkowski.
    Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to begin 
by associating myself with the remarks of Ranking Member 
Murray, our witnesses, and colleagues who have acknowledged the 
unquestionable call from people all over this country, 
including so many young people, for racial justice, racial 
equity, and the change that our country so desperately needs.
    I hope this Committee, in fact I hope every committee in 
the Senate will look for ways that we can move this 
conversation forward and this cause forward, and especially for 
us in the HELP Committee to look deeply within the jurisdiction 
of this Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to 
see where we can do more. So I really think everyone who has 
drawn attention on this very important hearing on how we can 
safely reopen our schools and provide high-quality education to 
all of our children.
    We also have to, on this topic, consider how students can 
safely go back to school but also ensure that these 
environments are safe for faculty, for administrators, for 
support staff. And I would note as others have that this 
population are sometimes at higher risk for severe illness from 
the COVID-19 disease. For example, according to Federal data, 
nearly a third of all K through 12 teachers are over the age of 
50. So I am confident that all of our school districts want to 
reopen safely, but I believe that they need clear rules of the 
road about how they must protect their employees and educators 
so that they feel confident that they will be safe at work. It 
is why I introduced the COVID-19 Every Worker Protection Act, 
which requires the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration to issue emergency temporary standards that 
covers all workers and requires workplaces to implement 
infectious disease exposure control plans to keep workers safe.
    I believe it is critical for the safety of educators as 
well as the students they serve that an OSHA standard be in 
place before schools begin to open in any fashion in the fall. 
Now, this spring we saw schools across the country forced to 
make an unprecedented shift to distance learning on an 
extraordinarily tight timeline. Among other critical issues, 
this shift underscored the need to help educators effectively 
integrate a wide range of technologies into their teaching and 
use them to educate those who may have quite wide range of 
specific needs.
    Dr. Blomstedt, you noted in your testimony that Nebraska 
has identified professional development for teachers to support 
remote learning as a priority for your use of the CARES Act 
fund, and I would like to ask you to spend a little bit more 
about how you identified this as a priority and what additional 
Federal funding to support this type of professional 
development, particularly with regard to distance learning 
technologies, help you better ensure that the educators are 
prepared to use these tools to help all students.
    Mr. Blomstedt. Yes, I would be glad to and thanks also for 
the question. The reality underneath what we have done 
underneath Launch Nebraska, we really started thinking about we 
need to find what our weaknesses are in the distance learning 
environment. We knew some of it from technology standpoint, but 
we didn't realize that many of our students in urban areas and 
rural areas alike did not have adequate broadband at home. And 
so we really looked at everything from infrastructure to 
devices to the type of educational content that is available 
that also needs to be addressing students with disabilities and 
students with other types of challenges that they might have 
relative to accessing that technology, and then ultimately 
training teachers to be able to use that effectively, became 
really critical.
    We have actually had a series of professional learning, at 
distance by the way, for our students--for our teachers, excuse 
me, across the state and we have had, I think we are going to 
be up to about 15 different trainings that we have done in 
content areas and otherwise. And we also need to distribute 
high quality content as well. And that has been a big part of 
our conversation.
    We find some of the content being used by schools does not 
immediately translate to a digital environment so we are 
looking actually the use CARES Act funding to make those 
investments all the way through that important cycle.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Braun.
    Senator Braun. Thank you, Chairman. I was on a school board 
for 10 years from 2004 to 2014. And I must say that this is in 
a category in and of itself, trying to imagine how we navigate 
through it. I am anxious to get back with my friends, some of 
them are still on the board, but I got several questions and I 
am going to limit them to two. And the first is going to be for 
Drs. Schwinn and Blomstedt, and Ms. Cordova, and it would in 
regard to the issue of liability in terms of trying to reopen 
schools.
    I know that it has been a sensitive topic among business 
owners in Indiana worried about if they want to robustly try to 
get their businesses going as part of getting the economy 
restarted and especially among the conference, the Republican 
conference, that is a concern. Would each of you give me your 
opinion on, is that something that is tangible, measurably 
being discussed as a concern and trying to do something that 
looks like it is going to have a lot of acrobatics to it, a lot 
of guidelines.
    Indiana, by the way, just released a 37 page guideline for 
reopening in the classroom. Came out on June 5th and paging 
through it, it looks very comprehensive if any of you choose to 
look at it. But give me a comment on whether you think that is 
a concern or whether that is something that has not been on 
your minds.
    Mr. Blomstedt. So from my perspective, in Nebraska we 
certainly have had those conversations with school board 
members and administrators and those types of concerns. Here is 
my concern that we can't have individuals waving their rights 
to general liability concerns. We have actually had some 
conversations in the state on that front. I don't have a great 
answer on how we would go and provide some type of umbrella 
protections for these environments, but I do believe that is a 
worthy and worthwhile conversation.
    Ms. Schwinn. In Tennessee, our two priorities are to ensure 
that we keep people safe and we keep kids educated. That is 
what this is about. And so for us, we know that our teachers 
are covered for tort liability through state law. We are 
currently having ongoing conversations, but we want to make 
sure is that when educators are in the classroom, that they are 
focused on keeping their kids safe and that teaching and 
learning can take place.
    Certainly we want to make sure there are enough protections 
that they are not so over focused on some of the whether or not 
little Johnny has his mask on in a kindergarten classroom, that 
they are able to really focus on teaching literacy and 
Mathematics and supporting the whole child. And so that is 
where our focus is going to be.
    Ms. Cordova. Speaking from a school district lens, this is 
definitely something that we have been discussing both in terms 
of how we can implement the health guidance around entering 
into our school buildings and our workplaces as well as 
thinking about some of the needs that we have to require 
compensatory services, which is less on the health side, but 
certainly is a very large liability that we are very concerned 
about.
    Senator Braun. Thank you. And Dr. King, there have been 
recent developments in understanding the disease itself. The 
fact that the World Health Organization just came out with the 
kind of fine-tuning of transmissibility. We do know that 
probably in the equation, protecting the teachers and staff 
that are going to fit into that category that have been ravaged 
by the disease itself.
    With what we have learned recently about what we may need 
to do to fight this peculiar challenge off in general, have you 
found--have you come across anything that you do differently 
now with what we have learned recently and also discuss a 
little bit about what we can do to protect teachers and staff 
that fit into that category of being most susceptible to the 
disease.
    Mr. King. Yes, certainly I think looking back as a country, 
we ought to have moved more quickly in response to the pandemic 
and certainly move more quickly to put in place testing and 
contact tracing which is really foundational to any public 
health effort around a pandemic. And we still need to do that 
work.
    There are still places in the country where testing remains 
inaccessible and we don't yet have the contact tracing 
infrastructure we need and that is going to be foundational. I 
think we know now from public health expertise, some of the 
things that schools can do structurally from ensuring physical 
distance and to the use of masks to improving cleaning to 
having a strategy to physically isolate a student who becomes 
ill until they can be picked up, needing to follow-up with 
contact tracing within the school building.
    Some of our international peers are using temperature 
checks as a way to identify students who may be asymptomatic. 
But all of those steps, as we talked about earlier, are going 
to require additional resources and school districts are going 
to have to do this in close consultation with local public 
health experts.
    I also should note that there are kids, in addition to 
having staff who are particularly vulnerable because of pre-
existing conditions, there are also kids who have pre-existing 
conditions that might make them more vulnerable. And certainly 
kids who are living in homes with family members who may have 
conditions that make them particularly vulnerable.
    Senator Braun. Thank you. I yield.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Braun.
    Senator Murphy.
    Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thanks 
to our panelists. Let me join in Senator Murray's request to 
have the Secretary of Education appear before our Committee. I 
think that is absolutely essential given all of the questions 
that we are raising today. We need the Nation's top education 
official before us.
    Second, let me express alarm at the prospect of leaving for 
a 2-week recess in July without appropriating additional 
funding for schools. The CARES Act put in about as much money 
for the airline industry as it did for the entire American 
public school system. Now, the airline industry is important, 
but it is not more important than all of the schools in the 
Nation and we got a letter back in May from about 62 school 
superintendents of major cities forecasting that they are going 
to be looking at 15 to 25 percent cuts in school funding even 
with the CARES Act funding, because when you spread that money 
around, it just doesn't get as far as the need.
    We need, we need to get additional funding to states and, 
or to school districts before the July recess because the 
planning that is going to need to be done in order to make sure 
that schools can reopen safely is going to be done this summer. 
And that leads to my first question and I will direct it to 
Secretary King.
    There was a question raised by Senator Casey about how 
schools get ready for students with learning disabilities and I 
am panicked about this because many of them have not been able 
to engage in any distance learning because they can't learn 
without support services--so talk to me about the need for 
schools to be able to plan and hire now in order to be able to 
set up the support services that they are going to need around 
these students. And what is the impact of a 25 percent cut in 
funds for a school district on students with disabilities when 
they return?
    Mr. King. Well, Senator Murphy, I think this is exactly the 
right question. Unfortunately, what we are seeing in a lot of 
places is a degree of paralysis, because if you are 
anticipating a 20 to 30 percent cut in state aid, that will be 
devastated. That will mean layoffs, program elimination, and so 
districts are in a sense stuck waiting to see if Congress will 
help states with state stabilization dollars that might prevent 
those kinds of cuts. So even as people are doing that scenario 
planning, they are hampered in that work because of fear of 
cuts.
    There is no question that students with disabilities will 
need particularly intensive support when they return. They may 
be well served by returning earlier, but that would be in very 
small groups. Those teachers will need a tremendous amount of 
support to plan for how they make up for the loss learning 
time. And then, many of the students have not only disabilities 
that might affect learning needs but they also have at times 
disabilities that affect their social and emotional needs.
    We already know that schools have too few counselors, too 
few mental health resources. That will be critical to 
supporting students with disabilities and their families, many 
of whom have really struggled because as you note, over these 
over these several months, without access to school and the 
support that school often provides.
    Senator Murphy. I would just--this as an example, Laurence 
Township in New Jersey where they have already laid off 80 of 
their school aids. Many of those agents are those that serve 
the existing population and they are gone and likely not coming 
back. Let me switch gears and direct a question to you, Ms. 
Cordova, because I saw an announcement regarding a vote that is 
perhaps upcoming to remove police officers from schools in 
Denver.
    When we think about how to create safe schools, we are 
obviously talking about making sure that students don't get 
infected with the virus. But we are also talking about making 
sure that students aren't targeted because of their race. And 
the reality is that while police officers have made a lot of 
students feel safe, they have frankly made a lot of other 
students feel unsafe. In Virginia for instance, Black students 
are about 40 percent of the state student population, but they 
are 75 percent of arrests.
    In my state, the basic same statistics hold. And so I am 
intrigued by the decision that you have made. I think security 
officers are appropriate but police officers often end up 
targeting students of color for discipline and arrest. Just 
talk me through your decision.
    Ms. Cordova. Thank you, Senator Murphy. So our school board 
is taking this up in fact tomorrow to determine if they will 
end our contract with the police and I think it aligns with the 
values that they have for making the statement about the need 
to create environments where students feel, safe, nurtured, 
welcomed, affirmed for their identities, while still 
recognizing the important need to create safe spaces with the 
kind of security that we know is important in this day and age.
    Senator Murphy. Thank you. I am over my time. Thank you, 
Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Murphy.
    Senator Loeffler.
    Senator Loeffler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you 
all for being here today. One of the challenges that quickly 
became apparent during the pandemic was the need to provide 
food to students that are--many of whom are dependent on the 
school meal programs. And as students begin to return to school 
in the fall, many may only attend a few days a week, and I know 
and thank the USDA for providing certain waivers and 
flexibility to school lunch and EBT programs.
    Based on the experiences that you have had in recent weeks, 
how are your states and districts preparing to support the 
nutritional needs of students when they are not able to be on 
campus going on certain days? And I know for a fact that in our 
State of Georgia, our farmers have stood ready to help provide 
resources. I would love to hear from you on this important 
topic.
    Ms. Schwinn. So in Tennessee, we know that some of the most 
important work that has to be done is around school nutrition. 
Kids rely on schools to be fed breakfast, lunch, snack and 
sometimes supper. And so we led in terms of the number of ways 
or waivers and how quickly we submitted waivers. We put up a 
website, schoolmealfinder.com, so that families could put in 
their addresses and get the closest meal possible.
    But something I do want to highlight is that we are giving 
out fewer meals because of school closures, because of the 
expenses and costs of distributing that food, staff costs, 
etc., maintains stability. So some of the CARES Act funding 
will go toward that but it is certainly something that I think 
our districts are bringing up, but our commitment stands firm 
that kids need to be fed. It is incredibly important and the 
State of Tennessee will continue to do so going into next year.
    Mr. Blomstedt. In Nebraska it is very similar. We have 
really worked with our community partners to understand food 
security at a community level. We have worked with a 
partnership that we call them Nebraska Children and Families 
Foundation and Bring Up Nebraska to really regionalize the 
state. And leverage what we are doing in schools with private 
providers as well to ensure that we can find some ways to do 
this. And so this has really been--our initial effort was 
critical and it has continued to take place statewide and we 
know it needs to stay in place for food security for our needy 
families.
    Ms. Cordova. Speaking from the school district lens, we 
will continue to provide food even on the days when students 
aren't in school, when they are engaging in remote learning 
because we know how critical that is. We have been able to 
reach about half as many students as typically eat on a school 
day and that is with tremendous effort to try to get it to get 
it to kids. I talked with families who say even having it in 
the neighborhood with distribution routes, but they simply 
don't have the gas money to go pick it up.
    Mr. King. Just quickly that the electronic benefits 
transfer card through pandemic EBT I think has the potential to 
be very useful here, but it will be important to extend that 
into the summer and next school year, particularly as school 
districts consider hybrid schedules where students will be away 
from school some days, that the pandemic EBT card will be even 
more important to make sure that kids have access to it.
    Senator Loeffler. Right. Well that concludes all--I yield 
my time. Thank you, each of you, for your attention to this 
really important matter, and I think as we learn going forward, 
continuing to share that information about how to address this 
would be great. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Senator Kaine is not available.
    Senator Hassan.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you 
and the Ranking Member for holding this hearing. Thank you to 
all the witnesses for your work to meet the current 
unprecedented challenges that our Nation's children and 
educators are facing. And just before my questions, I also want 
to associate myself with the remarks of our Ranking Member 
about the ongoing work we need to do to address issues of 
institutional racism throughout our country and how important 
our education system is as part of that effort. Dr. King, I 
want to direct my first question to you.
    As Congress has worked to respond to COVID-19, I have 
advocated for additional funding and flexibility for state and 
local Governments to help backfill your budget shortfalls. And 
budget shortfalls have been mentioned by all the witnesses 
here. We know that some of the greatest implications of these 
shortfalls will be on school budgets at a time when schools are 
being asked to completely rework education delivery and address 
student learning loss.
    Dr. King, do you agree that Congress should prioritize 
getting states and local Governments to support that they need 
so that educators have the necessary tools to meet students' 
needs at this critical time?
    Mr. King. It is absolutely essential, Senator, that 
Congress put additional resources toward state stabilization 
dedicated to education. We have called for at least $175 
billion just to make sure that districts don't have to make 
devastating cuts to personnel and programs. You need additional 
funds on top of that to address learning loss and social and 
emotional needs, but those state stabilization dollars are 
vital. We saw this during the Great Recession that districts 
all over the country lost personnel, lost programs, and the 
consequences were worse for the students who are most 
vulnerable, for low-income students.
    Senator Hassan. Thank you. And, certainly. I simply hope 
that we have bipartisan effort, as Senator Cassidy was talking 
about it as well, to do just that. I also want to talk to you 
about another particular group of students that face unique 
challenges during this crisis and really following up on 
Senators Casey and Murphy on this issue.
    At a time when we have to meet the needs of all of our 
students who have struggled to access a quality education 
during remote learning, students who experience disabilities 
have been disproportionately impacted by changes to education 
delivery necessitated by COVID-19. And you have spoken about 
that. Under the IDA, students who experience disabilities have 
a right to access the same educational opportunities as their 
peers. And that has been particularly difficult as schools have 
shifted in person to remote learning.
    In many cases, these disruptions will result in students 
with disabilities experiencing learning loss and missing the 
education goals outlined in their individualized education 
plans. Dr. King, as schools experience increased demands to 
respond to COVID-19, can you please speak to the value of 
Congress providing additional dedicated funding to the IDA?
    Mr. King. Yes. We already know that for many school 
districts, they are not getting nearly their level of ideal 
funding they need to provide services and they are very reliant 
on local dollars. And as states deal with budget cuts, it will 
be even more challenging for them to ensure that they are 
serving students well. Some of the things they will need, we 
know assistive technology will be vital for some students be 
able to access distance learning.
    We know that in some cases additional staff will be needed 
in order to be able to potentially provide services at home to 
students in a socially distant way that might get supports to 
those students. Parents need additional support. In many cases 
parents are very reliant on school to help them support 
students, particularly those with the most significant 
disabilities, and they will need more support, social and 
emotional support as well as the instructional support for 
their kids.
    This is a critical area. We got to make up for what 
students have lost and we have got to be in a position to 
support students in what may be a distance learning or hybrid 
learning environment into the school year.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you for that. And I wanted to 
ask Commissioner Schwinn and Blomstedt a question as well. We 
have talked about all the different things that we are going to 
need to do to get our schools ready for students to return 
there physically, but we know that even in places where public 
health officials believe that schools can safely reopen, some 
families have faced increased health risks at home.
    They feel uncomfortable with their child going back to 
school until there is a COVID-19 vaccine. So, can you share how 
your own state school reopening plans address the needs of 
students who may request to continue remote learning due to 
ongoing health concerns?
    Mr. Blomstedt. Yes, and actually it has been a very 
important conversation across the state that, again I kind of 
go back to my people first approach, right, that when students 
are asking and families are feeling that it is not safe, we 
want to make sure that there are protocols in place. If they 
can't feel safe in that environment or they have real medical 
conditions that are a big concern for that family, especially 
students with disabilities that we know have medical 
vulnerabilities on top of this.
    We want schools to be accommodating for all of those 
different settings. We want to find unique ways. We are asking 
schools to find those unique ways and work with parents on IEP 
plans and work with them relative to each plan and each 
individual concern that parents may have. And so we see that 
taking place across the state.
    There is a lot more to do and we will probably have 
challenges yet like we always may experience. But from my 
perspective and from our philosophy at the state, we need to be 
working with each of them on those concerns.
    Senator Hassan. Thank you. Commissioner Schwinn, do you 
have anything to add? I know I am over time.
    Ms. Schwinn. Yes, I will be brief. I think we have 
prioritized this work in Tennessee. We put out a 60 plus page 
LEA guide and we are putting out 20-plus toolkits over the next 
7 days specifically on issues like this. But we have 
prioritized children with disabilities of $5 million 
compensatory education fund for our districts, $1 million in 
assistive technology, and $3 million plus an innovative grants 
so districts get supports they need specifically for students 
who are unable to return to school.
    Senator Hassan. Thank you very much. Thank you all and 
thank you, Mr. Chair.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hassan.
    Senator Smith.
    Senator Smith. Thank you, Chair Alexander and Ranking 
Member Murray, and all of our panelists for being here today. I 
want to start out by addressing the issues that our Ranking 
Member raised early on in this hearing. You know, Mr. George 
Floyd was a constituent of mine. He was murdered by Minneapolis 
police officers. It is my hometown. His death is a tragedy and 
it never should have happened and we cannot look away from the 
deep injustice it represents. It reveals a systemic racism and 
inequity that exists throughout our society, including in 
policing.
    What is happening in my state and around the country, I 
believe, is that people are rising up to demand justice for Mr. 
Floyd and his family, but they are also marching in the streets 
because they are demanding more. They are demanding that we 
address the systemic inequities that we see in every part of 
our community. My constituents are demanding that we address 
this everywhere and I want to think about what this means for 
education. I want to talk about what is difficult to talk about 
in my state.
    Over the past 20 years, Minnesota schools have grown more 
not less segregated. My state has over 200 schools where 
students of color make up 90 percent of the enrollment, the 
bulk of those schools are in the Twin Cities area. The Black-
White achievement gap in Minnesota remains unacceptably large, 
regularly 30 points or more in Math and English proficiency 
tests. This dynamic is so bad that it has been given a name, 
the Minnesota Paradox by a professor at the University of 
Minnesota Humphrey school.
    Colleagues, these disparities exist in my state and they 
are shameful, but they exist in every one of our states. I 
believe so strongly that in this moment we all have a moral 
responsibility to not look away from this but to grapple with 
it and deal with it really directly. So I want to address my 
questions in the time that I have here on this issue today and 
especially as we think about how to safely reopen our schools.
    Secretary King, let me ask you about this. One particular 
area that I would welcome your thoughts in the whole area. You 
know, we know that the COVID-19 epidemic has created such 
significant stress on families and we also know that it is not 
the great equalizer. That it disproportionately affects 
families and kids of color, indigenous communities, and Black 
families.
    That this is a burden on top of this sort of trauma and 
inequity and under investment in these communities. We have all 
of these kids who we need to figure out how to bring safely 
back to and I am thinking about the mental health challenges 
that these children have been grappling with on top of 
everything else that has been happening.
    It feels to me like the scale and the scope that we are 
thinking about for this is just completely missing the need. 
Secretary King, could you address this and talk a little bit 
about how we need to be urgent about this as our schools are 
trying right now to figure out how to safely reopen?
    Mr. King. Yes. I mean, I worry tremendously about this. You 
know, you think about kids from the relationship with adults 
and peers at school is the thing that gives them a sense of 
hope and stability. Now that they have been without that for 
months, think about kids who are in families where there may be 
addictions or domestic violence or where their families are 
going through an economic trauma because of COVID-19 or their 
families are affected by the disparate health impact COVID-19.
    There is a lot that kids are carrying and we will need to 
address when kids return to school. And we know that even 
though the American School Counselor Association says we should 
have a ratio of 1 counselor to every 250 students, we have 
states where the ratio is more like 1 to 400, 1 to 500, 1 to 
600. There is no way--there is no way that counselors can 
provide adequate support.
    We also know we have done polls of parents around the 
country and one of the things we are seeing is skyrocketing 
stress amongst parents. So I am very worried about parents and 
their need for social and emotional supports and access to 
mental health services. So that is a vital area. I think of 
additional investment that schools will need to make. Again, 
that will be very difficult in a context where they are facing 
significant cuts.
    Senator Smith. So even before COVID-19, we have had a 
disinvestment in counselors and mental health services in 
schools. Schools right now are actually looking at cutting 
rather than investing. And where do they cut? They typically 
tend to cut not in classrooms because that raises alarm bells 
for everyone.
    They tend to cut in other places. This is my great worry 
that in a moment when we should be investing, we are going to 
be seeing cuts because Congress apparently feels no urgency in 
addressing this issue as schools are trying to get ready for 
what is arguably the most important beginning of a school year 
that will happen in the lifetimes of these children. Thank you, 
Mr. Chair.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Smith. Senator Jones. I 
think he is still in another committee hearing. Senator Rosen. 
We have Senator Kaine and Senator Jones are in another hearing. 
I think we are ready to conclude the hearing. Senator Murray. 
Do you have some additional remarks or questions before we 
close the hearing?
    Senator Murray. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have 
one question and then some closing comments. Secretary King, I 
did want to ask you, there are over 1.5 million students who 
are experiencing homelessness enrolled in our public schools. 
And this number is going to grow because of the increase in 
unemployment and other financial stresses on families right 
now.
    I am really concerned that due to inequitable Internet and 
device access, we have just talked about school budget cuts 
that are coming, staggered school schedules, ongoing distance 
education, the schools are going to find it really difficult to 
prioritize the needs of students who are experiencing 
homelessness.
    Dr. Blomstedt and Dr. Schwinn, maybe I will direct this to 
you, what actions did you take to make sure schools in your 
state were in regular touch with students and families who are 
experiencing homelessness, and what are schools doing in your 
state now to make sure they have the capacity to provide high 
quality instructional services to these students?
    Dr. Blomstedt, let me start with you and then Dr. Schwinn.
    Ms. Blomstedt. Yes. Thanks for the question. And we have 
been very concerned about our homeless students. Our systems 
are involved in students right now. And at this moment in time, 
many of our schools really worked hard to contact each family 
and started to find ways that they were able to do that. I was 
very impressed to see teachers really, even though they might 
have been teaching remotely, doing evening phone calls, making 
those close contact type of connections, making sure folks are 
all right.
    We did food drops and as part of that was trying to ensure 
that those families were being recognized. Our homeless 
population is obviously a huge, huge concern and so I don't 
know that we have every strategy down, but I know there was an 
intentional effort by schools to check in on every single 
student on their rolls. And then in some cases there were some 
concerns where we couldn't find necessarily what might have 
happened, and really some intentional efforts to track down 
students if they weren't being responsive to the schools.
    Senator Murray. Dr. Schwinn.
    Ms. Schwinn. Yes, ma'am. So to start out, Governor Lee 
announced the child well-being task force with the specific 
intent of considering the full needs of our students when 
school buildings are closed. That continues through the summer 
and we are continuing that through this coming school year 
understanding the challenges. When I think about other things 
that we have done, we put out the tool kit specifically for 
highly mobile students who might be homeless and in foster 
care, etc. so that we can have additional supports for those 
kids who need it the most.
    Frankly, I think about places like Shelby County in 
Memphis, Nashville, and our first Tennessee region in the far 
East, and when I think about what those districts are doing, 
they are making sure that they are doing calls every day. We 
are setting up and working closely with our state board of 
education to ensure that learning plans for next year require 
and support that level of contact with our kids because we have 
to make sure that whatever school looks like and whatever 
community of those locally driven decisions, that we are able 
to focus on the two most important things, our kids are safe 
and healthy and they are getting a high quality education.
    Senator Murray. Thank you. Superintendent Cordova, does 
Denver have Mckinney-Vento liaison in place with the capacity 
to make sure students who experience homelessness get equitable 
access to education?
    Ms. Cordova. We do but I do want to really stress the 
intensive effort that our teachers and support staff have to go 
into during this time of remote learning. Our students who are 
experiencing homelessness were definitely some of the hardest 
to reach students. There were students who lacked consistent 
access to Internet. There were families that were experiencing 
multiple issues and at very high risk of infection. And so we 
know that it was an intensive effort. And sometimes successful, 
sometimes very challenging to keep those students engaged in 
school.
    Senator Murray. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you to all of 
our witnesses today. And as students and families and educators 
and staff across the country wrap up this school year and begin 
to look to the next one, there are a lot more questions than 
there are answers. I know that schools and districts are not 
only grappling with how to provide students with the high 
quality public education, whether in person or virtually, but 
they are also grappling with some of the biggest cuts to state 
and local revenue that we have seen in a very long time.
    Schools and school districts shouldn't be on their own. 
They need support and resources from the Federal Government. 
They need in-depth, actionable public health guidance on best 
practices to ensure the safety of students and educators and 
school staff and the broader community, and they need a massive 
investment in our public school system so schools have the 
resources they need to implement public health protocols, to 
measure and address learning loss among their students, and to 
offset the declines that we are going to be seeing in state and 
local funding.
    What they don't need is Secretary DeVos using this crisis 
to push your privatization agenda and compound the difficulties 
they are facing. So before I close, I just wanted to emphasize 
once again how crucial it is that this Committee and the 
American people actually hear from the Administration and from 
Secretary DeVos so as students and educators prepare for the 
incredibly challenging school year ahead, they deserve to know 
that all of us, including Secretary DeVos, are doing everything 
we can to support them. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you 
for the hearing.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Murray, and thank you to 
all our Senators and the witnesses and to the staff for 
creating this virtual environment. Just a couple of areas I 
would like to comment on. It would be, especially at a time 
when the whole nation is focused on racial discrimination and 
disparity in trying to understand what in terms of laws or 
change in behavior we can do about that, I think this hearing 
has emphasized that it would be hard to think of anything we 
could do to both help the country move back toward normalcy and 
to help minority children and children who are disadvantaged or 
who are from single-parent families, hard to think of anything 
more we could do than to help them get back to school safely.
    Any teacher can tell us and all of our witnesses have 
reminded us of the emotional, intellectual and physical damage 
to children if the schools aren't open, and of the difficulty 
it creates for families. So this has been a very important 
hearing. One thing I would ask of each of our witnesses, and I 
mentioned it to all of them, it would be helpful to me and I 
think to other Senators if you could provide some specifics to 
the Committee about exactly what it would take in terms of 
financial support to open our schools safely.
    Now, as Dr. Schwinn said, there are two goals here, one is 
to open safely and then there are all the questions that have 
to do with how the students thrive and how they learn. I think 
the National Administrators Association did us a favor, the 
American Federation of Teachers did the same, when they tried 
to estimate the cost per district of just the basic things that 
would take to help schools to open because of administrators 
are reluctant to take a risk to open a schools.
    That means a child is going to be left at home and suffer 
all those disadvantages. So Dr. Schwinn said that in Tennessee, 
she thought that the cost might be about $1.5 to $1.7 million 
for an average school district. The AFT mentioned $1.8. I think 
was the figure. So that would be very helpful to have, 
especially from the Council of Chief State School Officers, Dr. 
Blomstedt, if you can provide that to us.
    Then second, I would like to see some analysis, if you can 
give it, of why the money we have already appropriated can't be 
used for some of that. For example, $213.5 billion was 
appropriated just for kindergarten through the 12th grade on 
March the 27th. Tennessee, for example, got $260 million of 
that. I would assume some of that could be used to prepare to 
open the school safely at the end of the summer and in the 
fall. We appropriated $25 billion for testing. If you spent $3 
or $4 billion of that on hiring contact tracers, you could hire 
100,000 of them.
    I would--so I would assume some of that could be used. Then 
there is $150 billion that has been given to the states. About 
a third of the state budget or more goes for education. So I 
would assume some of that could be used and one of the 
complications we may have is that money was restricted, the 
statute restricted the way states could spend the money.
    It would be helpful to me to hear from the Council of Chief 
State School Officers. Do you think that changing the law to 
give states more flexibility in using the money to help 
children go back safely to school would be one way to help? So 
all of that would be helpful and it would be most helpful if 
you could segregate going back to school safely from all the 
other things that many people suggest we should be doing help 
children learn. And the other thing is testing.
    I had a conversation with Dr. Schwinn about testing. I am 
intrigued--I have been very focused on diagnostic testing. I 
think we need to do everything we can. I think it is important 
for the country to know that the current plans are to have $40 
to $50 million tests available by about the time school starts, 
and that every month, states are submitting their plans to the 
Federal Government about what their testing needs are. And if 
they can't meet them, the Federal Government is helping them 
meet those tests. And in addition, there is an effort at the 
National Institutes of Health to create new ways to create 
diagnostic tests, which can be given frequently and if 
necessary.
    I think all that is important not just to contain the 
disease, but to build confidence among parents and teachers and 
students that it is safe to go back to school. So what I am 
getting around to saying is I hope that you will convey to your 
100,000 schools and all the school districts, they should be a 
part of their state plan for testing so that as they look 
toward July, August and September, if they need x number of 
tests and they don't have the capacity for that, that they can 
get some help in finding those tests because they should be 
available for systematic testing.
    This has been a very helpful hearing. I thank the 
witnesses, Dr. Schwinn, Dr. Blomstedt, Ms. Cordova, Secretary 
King, I thank you for taking time from your demanding schedules 
and busy days to giving us your opinion. The record will remain 
open for 10 days. Members may submit additional information for 
the record within that time if they would like.
    The Chairman. Our Committee will meet again next Wednesday, 
June 17th. At that time we are going to focus on telehealth, 
lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. We have crammed about 10 
years of experience into 3 months in terms of telework, 
telelearning and telehealth. And next Wednesday, we are going 
to focus on the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on telehealth 
and what we should be doing as a result of it. The Committee 
will stand adjourned.

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

                    american federation of teachers
       A Plan to Safely Reopen America's Schools and Communities
    Guidance for imagining a new normal for public education, public 
health, and our economy in the age of COVID-19
                                Summary
    People across the United States are eager to return to some 
semblance of ``normal.'' To do so, we must meet a Herculean challenge: 
remaking our society and the places in our lives we hold dear--public 
schools and colleges, places of worship, workplaces, restaurants and 
more--in ways that hold paramount our ultimate priorities: the safety 
and well-being of our children, families and communities; the safety of 
our members and every frontline worker; and the health of our economy 
and economic well-being of working families.

    Physical distancing efforts have slowed the rate of COVID-19 
infections, but no expert believes we will eradicate this virus without 
a vaccine. Reopening prematurely by relaxing stay-in-place restrictions 
and resuming large public gatherings runs the risk of undoing the work 
of the last 2 months. A premature return to full commercial activity 
risks a second surge of infections and second lockdown as is happening 
in Singapore right now. Even once public health officials deem it safe 
to reopen, doing so without the necessary precautions could be deadly.

    This document provides a roadmap for navigating the next steps. It 
provides specific guidance for transitioning from lockdowns to other 
public health tools to limit the transmission of COVID-19. It focuses 
on reopening school buildings in particular, because the safe reopening 
of public school buildings means students can go to school, and 
parents, who work outside the home, can go to work. That is key to the 
reopening of the broader economy. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\  School systems have been operating throughout this pandemic. 
By reopening schools, we mean having regularized access to school 
buildings and other physical learning and service delivery locations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    We expect the plan to evolve and adapt over time. It rests on five 
pillars that draw on the best available science and public health 
guidance, and the expertise of educators and health practitioners. 
Gradually, responsibly and safely reopening society requires:

          1. Maintaining physical distancing until the number of new 
        cases declines for at least 14 consecutive days. Reducing the 
        number of new cases is a prerequisite for transitioning to 
        reopening plans on a community-by-community basis.

          2. Putting in place the infrastructure and resources to test, 
        trace and isolate new cases. Transitioning from community-
        focused physical distancing and stay-in-place orders to case-
        specific interventions requires ramping up the capacity to 
        test, trace and isolate each and every new case.

          3. Deploying the public health tools that prevent the virus' 
        spread and aligning them with education strategies that meet 
        the needs of students.

          4. Involving workers, unions, parents and communities in all 
        planning. Each workplace and community faces unique challenges 
        related to COVID-19. To ensure that reopening plans address 
        those challenges, broad worker and community involvement is 
        necessary. They must be engaged, educated and empowered.

           5. Investing in recovery: Do not abandon America's 
        communities or forfeit America's future. These interventions 
        will require more--not less--investments in public health and 
        in our schools, universities, hospitals, and local and state 
        governments. Strengthening communities should be a priority in 
        the recovery.

    The AFT held its first press conference on COVID-19 on Feb. 1A\2\. 
Our union has worked to ensure the safety and well-being of our 
communities and our members, and we've been particularly fixated on the 
frontline workers who are risking their lives to combat this pandemic. 
Early on, we worked to alert our members and allies of the risks of an 
impending pandemic; unfortunately, the Trump administration gave little 
and often conflicting guidance. We have remained steadfast in our 
efforts to keep people safe, while also fighting to keep our public 
schools and universities functioning, and for economic security for 
workers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\  Caitlin Rivers et al., ``Public Health Principles for a Phased 
Reopening During COVID-19: Guidance for Governors,'' Johns Hopkins 
Bloomberg School of Public Health, April 17, 2020, https://
www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/publications/public-health-
principles-for-a-phased-reopening-during-covid-19-guidance-for-
Governors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    There are no magic elixirs to simply reopen. Reopening demands 
comprehensive, transparent action and forthright communication by 
Federal and state authorities, and will take the dedication, voice and 
forethought of frontline providers and educators and their unions, 
school districts, hospitals, local governments and communities. The 
alignment in every school and workplace of public health, instruction 
and operations is absolutely imperative.

    COVID-19 has exacerbated the deep inequalities in our society and 
underscored the need for additional public investments to combat this 
inequity. As we face growing recessionary forces, we can't simply limp 
out of this crisis or revert to a status quo. We need a renewed sense 
of national urgency to reimagine a better America and a pathway to a 
better life for all.

    The challenges facing us should not be underestimated. For example, 
even as Governors relax physical distancing requirements (after 
observing a reduction in the number of new cases), some communities may 
not reflect the statewide trend. Moreover, each workplace faces a 
unique set of challenges for preventing the spread of the virus. 
Additionally, we must consider the possibility of a resurgence of the 
virus in the fall. Communities must be engaged, educated and empowered 
to exist under this pre-vaccine new normal.

    No one knows our public schools, universities and hospitals better 
than AFT members, many of whom will face great risks in carrying out 
their jobs. That is why our members and leaders must be at the table in 
envisioning and implementing plans to reopen our society at the local 
level.

    Our commonsense approach requires real partnerships with employers 
and community stakeholders on state and local levels. School districts, 
universities and hospitals should look to unions and the collective 
bargaining process as opportunities to provide genuine participation, 
communication and buy-in from the workers ultimately responsible for 
ensuring the health and safety of our students, patients and those we 
serve. In the absence of collective bargaining, other consultation 
processes must be established. There is no substitute for eyes and ears 
on the ground in the case of public health and safety.
    1. Maintaining physical distancing until the number of new cases 
               declines for at least 14 consecutive days.
    While projections vary, we are likely at least a year away from a 
widely available vaccine. Adherence to physical distancing protocols 
has flattened the curve, showing early signs of reducing the number of 
new cases. Flattening the curve is not a panacea; it does not mean no 
additional cases. Its goal is to reduce the number of new cases, to 
reduce illness and to ensure the healthcare system is not overwhelmed 
by critically ill patients.

    Unless and until we have adequate testing capacity, there is simply 
no way to know whether we have sufficiently reduced the number of new 
cases to consider reopening society. Once we have reduced the number of 
cases for at least 14 days with adequate testing in place, reopening 
plans can go into effect on a community-by-community basis.

    Decisions to phase in less stringent physical distancing 
requirements and to begin expanding allowable activities should be 
based on established criteria such as a sustained decline of infections 
combined with protocols for protecting high-risk populations. This must 
be coupled with a robust public health infrastructure with the capacity 
for effective disease surveillance, tracing, isolation of those 
infected and quarantine.

    While most physical distancing requirements come from state 
authorities, local decisionmaking has a critical role to play. Even if 
a state determines that it can ease or altogether lift physical 
distancing requirements based on the 14-day trigger, the number of new 
cases in a specific community may not reflect the statewide trend. That 
is why it is critical for unions to be in regular contact with their 
employers, and with their local and state authorities, as well the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to assess their particular 
situation. Unions and employers need to determine whether there is (a) 
adequate testing in their community, given the number of confirmed 
cases, and (b) then, once there is adequate testing capacity, a 
reduction in the number of new cases for at least 14 consecutive days 
to make a decision to transition to reopening. This information must be 
transparent and available.

    Active surveillance of new cases that develop once reopening has 
started will identify clusters of disease. Prompt action must be taken 
to prevent the widespread resurgence of COVID-19 in a community. It may 
be necessary to resume sheltering in place for shorter periods of time 
in communities where there is disease resurgence, and plans must be in 
place so schools and other workplaces are prepared if they must close 
again.
  2. Putting in place the infrastructure and resources to test, trace 
                         and isolate new cases.
    Transitioning from community intervention to case intervention 
requires the capacity to test, trace and isolate new cases as they 
emerge. As Governors and public health experts have repeatedly said, 
this capacity to test, trace and isolate every new case of COVID-19 
must be built now. People with confirmed infection should quarantine 
for at least 14 days (or based on the latest CDC guidance). Anyone in 
contact with confirmed cases should be traced and tested. Since there 
is ample evidence of both asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread, it 
is necessary to test contacts to ensure the virus is contained. In 
addition, anyone who exhibits symptoms consistent with COVID-19 should 
be tested immediately.

    Serological testing--a test that looks at people's blood for trace 
evidence of whether they have come into contact with the virus--also 
provides some hope. With serological testing, we may be able to 
identify people who have developed immunity and may be less vulnerable 
to infection. Concerns about reliability, privacy and government 
oversight warrant close consideration by unions in determining whether 
and how serological testing is appropriate for the workforces we 
represent.

    Public health departments are leading testing and tracing efforts, 
but they have been defunded for years and are stretched thin for 
resources. Estimates suggest that the United States needs to deploy 
somewhere between 100,000 and 250,000 contact tracers to adequately 
move from community intervention to case intervention.

    However, local communities cannot hold their breath for a day that 
may never come or the scale that we need. Unions, in partnership with 
employers and state and local authorities can help public health 
departments in their efforts to test, trace and isolate new cases. And 
to contribute to this effort, unions, working with employers and 
others, should also consider creating and training in-house contact 
tracers and rapid response resource coordinators. These roles would 
serve to help people with confirmed diagnoses, and provide available 
health and financial supports and resources during quarantine, to 
mitigate the isolating and other effects of the experience.

    Again, alignment of strategies, logistics and operations is 
essential. What we are facing is complicated and unprecedented. 
Testing, tracing and isolation must be done in conjunction with other 
public health tools and interventions like physical distancing, proper 
hand-washing, the use of personal protective equipment like masks, and 
other supports and services (for example, food and mental health 
services) that communities need.
  3. Deploying the public health tools that prevent the virus' spread 
  and aligning them with education strategies that meet the needs of 
                               students.
    Reopening society and the economy hinges on successfully reopening 
schools. While there is general guidance on how each community should 
respond to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus, public education, 
higher education and our healthcare system each face unique challenges. 
We must take every precaution to ensure that students, teachers and 
support staff are safe at school and not transmitting the virus. This 
requires: adopting evidence-based public health measures at every 
school and workplace; aligning those measures with necessary 
instructional and well-being strategies that meet the needs of students 
and staff; and recognizing that this may be a rollercoaster because it 
may be necessary to resume physical distancing at certain times and on 
a rolling basis, to address community-specific outbreaks. Even without 
COVID-19, there are many programmatic considerations for educators as 
they plan for every school year. Elementary schools program far 
differently from high schools, so incorporating public health measures 
takes planning and resources. The alignment of logistics, educational 
strategies and public health tools really matter, which is why the eyes 
and ears of frontline workers must be respected.

    The following framework for assessing methods for controlling 
exposure to hazards in the workplace was initially developed by the 
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and later 
modified by Johns Hopkins University in response to the COVID-19 
pandemic. It is a good starting point.

          Physical distancing--Allowing people to work from 
        home and/or restructuring work to minimize the number of 
        workers physically present in a workspace.

          Screening--Utilizing screening measures at work and 
        school sites. This could include temperature-taking, if still 
        recommended as an effective screening measure by the CDC.

          School-based programming and organization--Among many 
        things discussed below, redistributing work responsibilities to 
        reduce contact between people.

          Personal protective equipment and sanitization--
        Providing medical-grade masks for health professionals and 
        nonmedical-grade masks for all others, and disinfecting schools 
        on a regular basis, in addition to providing hand-washing and 
        sanitizing stations.
                        A. Reopening Our Schools
    First and foremost, we must do all we can to ensure students, 
teachers and support staff are safe at school and are not unknowingly 
transmitting or contracting the virus. This will require a number of 
steps that anyone who has consumed any news has heard repeatedly: 
screening and testing, contact tracing, and isolation and quarantine 
measures, as well as ongoing prevention measures like frequent hand-
washing and some degree of physical distancing. There won't be a one-
size-fits-all process, or a hard open where every school in every 
district immediately turns the lights on; we may be opening and closing 
for a number of months while we secure these measures and develop ways 
to keep everyone safe. In addition to the immediate public health tools 
and interventions, we must plan for a curriculum-based academic year, 
and for the panoply of appropriate educational and social-emotional 
supports our students need. We must be prepared for the trauma, the 
transition and the many instructional issues--including the effects of 
learning loss and the digital divide.

    Revisiting the community school model is a way to do all of the 
above. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, community schools created a 
community hub where students and families could get access to health 
services, where marginalized communities received support, and where 
necessary services were available in one place. This model is needed 
even more now, given the effects of the pandemic--from the inequalities 
that have been exacerbated, to the need for care before and after 
school so that essential workers can continue to work and other parents 
can return to work.

    If experts deem it safe, summer may be a way to start planning a 
community school model that incorporates the collaborative partnerships 
and community resources families have used, including meals and medical 
care, while schools were closed. \3\ Summer is a way to try things 
other countries are doing, including Denmark, Germany, Israel and 
Norway, which are bringing in small groups of students who need 
instruction first, including students with special needs whose needs 
were hardest to meet during closure.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\  John King and Randi Weingarten, ``What Comes Next for Public 
Education?'', The Hill, April 24, 2020, https://thehill.com/opinion/
education/494521-what-comes-next-for-public-schooling.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A voluntary multiweek summer session could provide enrichment and 
``catch-up'' time. It also would enable trying, on a smaller scale, 
protocols that may work when schools open more broadly, including 
staggered scheduling, increased hand-washing, and nightly school 
cleaning. And summer can be an opportunity to expand grab-and-go 
nutrition programs, as food insecurity remains a pressing issue for far 
too many students.

    Now is the time for unions and employers to work on all issues for 
returning to school. This includes programming, space, operations, 
logistics, calendar, and aligning all the public health interventions 
with all the schooling interventions: ensuring students' healthy 
social, emotional and academic development; nurturing productive 
relationships; building resilience; supporting diversity and inclusion; 
and rebuilding the school community.

    While COVID-19 has upended much of our lives, it has reinforced the 
value and importance of public schooling. Teachers and school staff 
across this country continue their heroic efforts to make distance 
learning work and support their students--with many parents working 
valiantly to support them as well. This experience has made clear that 
there is no substitute for a safe and welcoming neighborhood school.

    And while our public schools have been woefully under-resourced, 
and we must continue the fight to change that, this next 2 years is an 
opportunity to visualize what schooling looks like in a post-pandemic 
era, to ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive.
              i. School-Based Public Health Interventions
    Even after shelter-in-place orders are lifted, physical 
distancing--including limiting the number of people who can be in a 
school, a hall, an auditorium or a classroom--will play an important 
role in school safety. Physical distancing measures are the most 
effective intervention but also the most disruptive. It is a real 
possibility that even after schools open, targeted building closures 
could happen around the country in response to community outbreaks. 
That is why, even though online education is not a substitute for the 
in-person learning and socialization that happens in schools, schools 
must prepare for hybrid measures: both in-school and remote education.

    Handling emergent cases:

    Districts, in partnership with unions, will need to develop 
protocols for the referral, tracing and isolation of students and staff 
who are exhibiting COVID-19-related symptoms or with confirmed 
diagnoses. Any plan should, at minimum, include:

    Entry process/screening:

          Hand-washing on entry to all schools, with soap and 
        water or hand sanitizer;

          Screening for symptoms in children and staff, 
        including temperature-taking if recommended by the CDC;

          An isolation room;

          Clear protocols for communicating with students, 
        parents and staff who have come into close/sustained contact 
        with confirmed cases;

          Limiting access to the nurse's office and creating a 
        secondary area for triage for other student illnesses or 
        injuries;

          An ability to transfer healthcare staff to sites with 
        more cases, without diminishing support available to students 
        elsewhere in the district; and

          Communicating directly and immediately with parents 
        and community regarding cases and how the district responded.

    Protections for at-risk staff and at-risk students: COVID-19 
disproportionately affects people 65 and older and those with 
underlying chronic health conditions. Reopening plans should consider 
providing these workers with the option to deliver instruction remotely 
while students are in the building, with students under the supervision 
of qualified staff. At-risk students should have a similar option to 
learn remotely while their teachers and peers are in school.
             ii. School-Based Public Health Reorganization
    Prolonged physical distancing practices may prove impossible for 
certain populations. Schools serve diverse populations, from very young 
children, to students with severe behavioral issues, to others with 
physical limitations that may make strict adherence to a six-foot 
distancing standard difficult. This will require efforts to reorganize 
the school day and school operations to maintain health and safety 
standards.[3]

    It is critical to recognize that different schools, different 
districts and even different rooms will require tailored solutions.

          Smaller class sizes. One of the most important 
        measures districts can take is to reduce class sizes. Class 
        sizes of 25 or more students in a small classroom pose obvious 
        risks to student health and safety. Class sizes of 12-15 
        students will, in most circumstances, make it possible to 
        maintain physical distancing protocols.

          Split scheduling. Alternating days of the week or 
        times of the day may offer schools a way of limiting the number 
        of students physically present in the building at any given 
        time. Knowing that split scheduling may cause disruption for 
        parents and guardians, schools should consider putting in place 
        after-school care with safety protocols for students and 
        families most in need.

          Monitoring access to school facilities. Schools 
        should closely monitor access to school facilities and limit 
        the number of visitors granted access to school facilities.

          Transportation. Districts should consider modifying 
        transportation to provide staggered arrival times and multiple 
        arrival locations to limit large gatherings of students.

          Staggered lunch and meal times. Meals should be 
        staggered throughout the day, and schools should consider 
        having students eat in classrooms with appropriate protocols to 
        keep the classroom clean.

          Special student populations. Additional 
        considerations and planning will be needed for students with 
        disabilities, underlying health conditions, asthma or 
        respiratory illness, and special education requirements.

          Training for staff, students and parents. Districts 
        should consider providing up-to-date education and training on 
        COVID-19 risk factors and protective behaviors.

          Alternative plans for after-school programs, sports, 
        recreation and physical fitness. These activities may need to 
        be adjusted using the above protocols.

          Space and time considerations. This includes the need 
        for portable classrooms or additional space if schools are 
        overcrowded.

          Additional supports. This includes professional 
        development, small-group instruction, and all the other social-
        emotional and academic programmatic supports necessary during 
        this transition.
                       iii. PPE and Sanitization
          Availability of and training on how to effectively 
        use PPE. Educators and support staff need appropriate PPE and 
        training on how to properly put on, use, take off and dispose 
        of it.

          Hand-washing stations and protocol. Schools should 
        set up hand-washing stations upon entry to school buildings. 
        Hand-washing recesses can be integrated into the schedule 
        throughout the day for all students and staff.

          Daily sanitizing. School facilities should be 
        thoroughly sanitized on a daily basis to prevent transmission 
        of the virus, increasing staff as necessary.
                iv. Mental Health Supports for Students
    Our collective response to COVID-19 requires much more than 
limiting the spread of the virus. Prolonged physical distancing, death 
and illness in our families and communities, and economic dislocations, 
will leave many students and faculty with ongoing trauma and mental 
health issues, and it is incumbent on us to meet their needs now more 
than ever. We know from brain science that lack of psychological safety 
and the impact of adverse childhood experiences impede and even prevent 
learning. These impacts will be widespread. This will require 
additional staff with expertise in mental health, to provide trauma and 
sensitivity training for all staff, students and parents. All staff 
should be trained on how to identify students struggling with trauma 
and refer them to mental health professionals for additional support.
                      v. High-Quality Instruction
    Teachers and school support staff have responded to the crisis with 
verve and creativity, creating an entirely new educational delivery 
system remotely with no advanced notice and little, if any, training. 
If anything, the pandemic has proven that teachers, when given the 
freedom to teach, will rise to the occasion to deliver high-quality 
instruction to their students.

          Blended in-person and distance learning models. When 
        school attendance is not possible or is limited, districts 
        could consider a temporary blended model that distributes 
        educational time between in-person learning and distance 
        learning or fully remote instruction. Recognizing the dangers 
        of excessive time on devices, especially for young students, 
        districts should develop age-appropriate student learning 
        schedules with teacher input.

          Expanded access to broadband and technology to close 
        the digital divide. Districts should identify students and 
        educators who lack sufficient access to the internet and the 
        hardware that has become critical to distance learning, and 
        determine solutions for equal access to learning opportunities 
        for those who are unable to connect with the school digitally.

          Professional development. Professional development 
        and collaboration time for teachers--before the school year 
        begins, and ongoing--will be more important than ever. This 
        should include not only relevant content, but should address 
        teaching in the new instructional environment, and trauma-
        informed practices.

          Rethinking student assessments. An extensive review 
        of all assessment programs to limit the loss of learning time 
        to excessive testing, and to prioritize assessments that 
        provide teachers critical information. Special effort will be 
        needed for appropriate diagnosis of students' learning levels 
        and needs given the truncated traditional school year. These 
        diagnostics should be teacher-friendly and accompanied by 
        access to relevant instructional resources and supports to fill 
        gaps.

          Performance evaluation. Districts should put formal 
        evaluations on hold during the reopening period until they 
        develop new expectations for the possibility of instruction 
        that alternates between in-person learning and distance 
        learning. Informal evaluation focused on helpful feedback 
        should continue.

          Role of data. Beyond refocusing schools on the 
        fundamental values of public schooling--a focus that has been 
        lost over the years--it is also time we repurpose the role of 
        information and data in our schools. For too long officials 
        have used school and student data solely for accountability 
        purposes. As we reopen our schools, we need to primarily use 
        these data to guide instruction, identify and share best 
        practices, and help collectively solve mutual problems.

          Teaching and learning. The considerations laid out 
        above must be placed in the context of the overall 
        instructional program as well as supplemental services and co-
        curriculums--all of which will require significant adjustment. 
        Consideration of the needs of students--particularly students 
        with disabilities and special needs, economically disadvantaged 
        students, and English language learners--will help ensure that 
        the program works for all.

    As the CDC guidance suggests, schools can be information hubs and 
places to practice key protocols to help stop the spread of the virus. 
We are facing a new normal, and at least in the near future, schools 
will not be the same. In the short term, this new normal requires more, 
not fewer, resources--nurses, mental health professionals, and 
additional instructional and other support. This crisis provides an 
opportunity to reimagine America's public schools as inclusive and 
welcoming places for all children to thrive and learn.

    Perhaps, out of crisis, we will put our children's and their 
educators' well-being first. That means, just as we must listen to the 
healthcare experts to help ensure everyone's safety through this 
outbreak, we must listen to frontline educators, staff and 
administrators to ensure children's new normal is one that meets their 
needs.
               B. Reopening Our Colleges and Universities
    Institutions of higher education have been essential to our defense 
against this pandemic, and they will be essential to economic recovery 
in the new era. American colleges and universities have produced many 
of the people who have helped us through this crisis--physicians, 
nurses and other frontline medical professionals, as well as supply 
chain logisticians, information technology personnel, materials science 
engineers and innovators, and more, who will be urgently needed at 
every step of what is to come.

    College campuses are, historically, exceptionally open physical 
environments, with most spaces, including buildings, accessible to the 
public virtually all day, and with a wide range of students, faculty, 
staff, community members, vendors, outside organizations and other 
people--all of whom are potential COVID-19 vectors--moving in and 
through the work site, and to off-campus locations both near and far. 
The extended duration of daily campus operations--7 a.m. to 10 p.m. 
daily is not at all uncommon--allows minimal or no window for deep-
cleaning procedures.

    All of this means that the dislocations caused by the COVID-19 
crisis pose a unique existential challenge to American higher 
education. Because of decades of disinvestment, many institutions--
public and private--are revenue-dependent, and are currently not 
situated to survive even a 10 percent or 20 percent decline in 
enrollment, or the closure of campus housing for a semester or two. 
While prospective students at elite institutions consider taking ``gap 
years,'' the students who would and should attend public colleges and 
universities are in danger of dropping out of college entirely. And 
college and university workers rightly fear that this confluence of 
factors will combine with an aggressive transition to online modes of 
instruction to result in institutional collapse.

    It is critical to remember that the higher education workforce 
skews older than average, and is, by the CDC's definition, at 
heightened risk from coronavirus. And they are, in the majority, 
struggling financially. Most teachers in higher education are gig 
workers. Seventy-five percent are employed 1 year or semester at a 
time. One-third of them are making less than $25,000 per year, one-
quarter of them are food-insecure, and 43 percent of them have put off 
seeing a doctor for financial reasons in the past year.

    To keep these institutions afloat, and to grow the educational 
infrastructure we will need in order to come back as a nation from the 
coronavirus, a program of investment similar to the grant program that 
has helped to stabilize small businesses in this time is needed. We 
must invest in our institutions of higher education like never before, 
with the college equivalent of Title I: $50 billion in funding to 
public institutions of higher education and minority-serving 
institutions. This money should flow through states with a formula that 
emphasizes enrollments of low-income individuals, and encourages 
greater support for institutions that derive larger shares of their 
operating budgets from state and local sources.

    Specific recommendations for our colleges and universities include:

    i. Physical Distancing

          Faculty must decide whether and how online 
        instruction is possible and, with the guidance of campus and 
        public health officials, how any in-person or hybrid 
        instruction can be conducted safely.

          As much as possible, college and university staff--
        both professional and classified--must be afforded the 
        opportunity to continue telework.

          To encourage the greatest extent of physical 
        distancing, institutions must do everything possible to close 
        the digital divide for faculty, staff and students, thereby 
        lessening the need for anyone to be in shared space in order to 
        access the internet.

          Residential colleges and universities must implement 
        physical distancing measures for both residents and staff in 
        campus housing, dining facilities and other common areas 
        including libraries, if they remain open. Institutions should 
        consult with, or employ, public health specialists to advise in 
        an ongoing way about how to accomplish this.

          To prevent fear pushing faculty or students into 
        physical proximity when physical distancing could and should be 
        maintained, institutional leaders must expeditiously work with 
        institutional accrediting agencies, programmatic accreditors, 
        and union and employer sponsors of workforce training programs, 
        to assure students and faculty that the responsible movement of 
        instruction into remote/online and hybrid space will not be 
        penalized.

          Create and utilize campus public health teams to 
        evaluate and recommend action on potential problem areas on 
        campus, and to assess and improve the institution's capacity 
        for testing, tracing and isolation.

    ii. Campus-Based Solutions

          Flexible graduation requirements. Be flexible about 
        program and graduation requirements, course timelines and 
        sequences, requirements for professional certification, and 
        other areas of historic stringency that may conflict with the 
        need for physical distancing. Consider adjusting upper-level 
        courses to account for changes in the preparedness of students 
        who have taken lower-level courses online during this interval.

          Protections for academic freedom. Attend to academic 
        freedom and student/faculty privacy in a remote learning 
        environment. The safety of open discussion in a contained 
        classroom could be compromised by the possibility of recordings 
        that get widely circulated.

          Data security. Establish rules, including contract 
        language, that reassure faculty and students that corporate 
        education vendors will not be using this crisis to enhance 
        their data mining and in turn appropriate that data to expand 
        prefabricated curriculum.

          Prepare for ongoing disruption. To the extent an 
        institution is reopening, make and propagate plans for 
        disruptions to in-person instruction caused by surges in COVID-
        19 cases.

          Protections for at-risk populations. Create and 
        enforce policy and practices to prevent replicating and 
        worsening the virus's disproportionate impact on older people 
        and people with underlying health conditions that place them at 
        greater risk. Be especially attuned to the needs of older 
        faculty and staff, or those with underlying health conditions 
        or with household members who have underlying health 
        conditions, to be able to work out of proximity to others.

          Adjust compensation for additional instructional 
        time. To maximize educational value and ensure compliance with 
        physical distancing, plan to pay teachers, particularly adjunct 
        teachers and graduate assistants, for the time they are asked 
        to spend meeting either in person or virtually with smaller 
        groups of students than had met in the past.

    iii. PPE and Sanitization

          Identify and provide appropriate PPE for employees 
        and students.

          Establish cleaning regimens; properly protect and 
        train the custodial staff who conduct the cleaning.

          Appropriately and regularly sanitize public 
        buildings, especially campus residential and dining facilities.

    iv. Physical and Mental Health Considerations

          Community health liaisons. Add trained nurses and 
        counselors to oversee the handling of identified cases of 
        illness in the college or university community, and to direct 
        those in need of resources.

          Protocol for new cases. Expand campus health 
        resources, including isolation rooms for students identified 
        with COVID-19 symptoms. Establish criteria for when residential 
        students with COVID-19 symptoms, or who are diagnosed as COVID-
        19 positive, will be excluded from regular campus activities, 
        and identify the procedure that will be followed to relocate 
        the student either on or off campus.

          Resources for degree completion. Strengthen and 
        expand existing programs to help students maintain continuous 
        enrollment and progress toward degrees--e.g., small-dollar 
        grant programs, transportation and child care assistance.
              C. Readying Our Hospitals and Health Systems
    The lessons of this pandemic demonstrate the dangerous consequences 
of being ill-prepared. The inability of our decimated public health 
infrastructure to handle a pandemic puts the problems with our 
corporatized healthcare system on full display. In the absence of 
widespread immunity to COVID-19, new infections could surge once 
shelter-in-place orders are lifted and society begins to reopen. 
Experts additionally talk about a possible second wave of outbreaks in 
the fall. Without a robust public health infrastructure, and absent 
enforcement of strong protective guidelines and a supportive response 
plan by the Federal Government, union leaders in the health sector must 
engage in meaningful ways of holding employers accountable.

    The gap between our public health system and private healthcare 
corporations must be addressed. A lack of transparency and a funding 
model that has starved resources from the public health system not only 
reward pharmaceutical and large healthcare corporations. They also 
establish a power imbalance that minimizes the voices of patients and 
workers in setting standards of care and in helping shape how care 
should be delivered. Notwithstanding the challenges with our current 
system, evidence-based practices, enactment and enforcement of 
protective regulatory standards, and collectively bargained terms are 
necessary to ensure healthcare workers can care for patients without 
fear of harm to themselves and their family, should a resurgence of the 
virus occur.

    Worker safety is patient safety. Our healthcare workforce has borne 
the brunt of workplace infections and deaths related to COVID-19, owing 
in large part to the crisis rationing of PPE and the diminution of 
Federal standards and guidelines that conform with the highest 
standards of patient safety. It is imperative that nurses and other 
health professionals are at the table during employer debriefs and when 
preparedness plans are evaluated and modified, to ensure our healthcare 
workforce is not working in hazardous conditions. Health and safety 
issues must be addressed before another surge in infections occurs. PPE 
supplies must be adequate in number and quality, and all staff should 
be fit-tested and fully trained for use of PPE.

    State reopening plans phasing in the return of elective medical 
procedures and routine care require a hard look at where we have failed 
to keep our patients and healthcare workforce safe. With COVID-19, 
nurses and healthcare professionals are working in conditions where 
protective measures of infection control have failed and their 
expertise and training have been overlooked. Infection control measures 
in patient care environments have necessarily been adjusted during the 
pandemic and will require ongoing adjustment as reopening occurs. 
Factors like patient flow, room setup, and visitor policies will 
influence the ability to limit transmission in clinical settings. And 
union leaders will need to press healthcare employers to ensure they 
are ready to quickly implement preparedness plans in the event of a 
resurgence.

    There is a need to stabilize the healthcare workforce, as areas 
hard-hit by the virus have seen an increased need for critical care 
nurses, but a decrease in need for other nurse specialties. Resulting 
layoffs and substantial job loss in healthcare contribute to the 
overall unemployment rates, prompting the need for effective deployment 
of our healthcare workforce; this is a key component of reopening and 
preparation for a second surge in infections. Nurses on medical floors 
with low patient counts, for example, could be trained to augment 
staffing in critical care areas where staffing numbers are low due to 
infection rates among clinicians. Rather than tactics like recruitment 
from abroad, we should first implement retraining to redeploy existing 
staff based on patient needs.

    Mending well-being and emotional resilience among the healthcare 
workforce will also be a necessity. Stressors abound for healthcare 
workers caring for acutely ill COVID-19 patients in isolation in 
hospitals and other healthcare settings. Whether related to stressors 
like employment of strict biosecurity measures, the isolation from 
family and friends, the heightened workload demands, or even the risk 
of disease, our healthcare workforce will require a period of 
reintegration--even though most of their facilities have remained open. 
The systematic failure of employers and the Federal Government to 
prepare for a pandemic resulted in an extraordinary level of 
unnecessary trauma across the healthcare workforce, and those things 
must be addressed.
 4. Involving workers, unions, parents and communities in all planning.
    There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this crisis. Rebuilding 
community after a complex public health and economic crisis necessarily 
involves thousands of people navigating recovery who are as new to the 
experience as the average person; thus, the effectiveness of our 
collective response depends on the collective action of each community. 
Communities and workers must be educated, engaged and empowered. This 
is an unprecedented situation; the eyes and ears of practitioners are 
essential to ensure that the public health, instruction and logistics 
of reopening are operationalized as seamlessly as possible.

    Schools, colleges, hospitals, and local and state governments will 
need to engage workers and community stakeholders at every level of the 
decisionmaking process to ensure that the mitigation strategies 
embedded in reopening plans are responsive to the specific 
vulnerabilities of each workplace and that there is regular and open 
communication regarding the policies and procedures to keep everyone 
safe. Without transparency and joint decisionmaking, there is a real 
risk of distrust, the spread of misinformation, and a lack of 
compliance with reopening plans.

    Collective bargaining is the best way to ensure that workers are 
represented in decisionmaking and that health and safety standards are 
enforced to the benefit of workers and the communities they serve. In 
the absence of collective bargaining, workers and employers can use 
meet-and-confer arrangements to formalize reopening plans and ensure 
accountability.
                 Protections for Workers and Community
    Strong, clear and enforceable workplace health and safety standards 
must be in place to protect workers' voices during the reopening 
process. Employers and joint bodies administering the phased reopening 
plans need to know where there are faults in the plan and noncompliance 
issues. In addition to OSHA protections available in some states, 
workplaces and other authorities should develop policies to protect 
workers who speak up about health and safety issues, as healthcare 
professionals are frequently subject to gag orders, and many have lost 
their jobs for speaking up about safety concerns. \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\  Theresa Brown, ''The Reason Hospitals Won't Let Doctors and 
Nurses Speak Out,'' New York Times, April 21, 2020, https://
www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/opinion/coronavirus-doctors-nurses-
hospitals.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    To ensure that health and safety measures are implemented, workers 
who voice concerns publicly should be protected from employer 
retaliation that could result in their discipline or dismissal. Workers 
must have the right to refuse work if they fear exposure to the virus 
because they have not been provided proper protections or training to 
do their jobs safely. The surest way to protect workers in these 
instances is to put these protections into collective bargaining 
agreements. Workers have and will face great risks in transitioning to 
reopening, and their voices should be treated as a public health 
resource, not a liability.

    In general, unions and employers, consulting with diverse community 
stakeholders, should treat the collective bargaining process as an 
opportunity to solve problems facing school districts, universities and 
hospitals as they plan for and manage reopening. Consultation 
provisions can be built into the agreement to ensure that all parties 
are regularly discussing and solving problems as they arise.

    Collective bargaining can also be used to fight for the resources 
workers and communities need. AFT affiliates from across the country 
have been fighting for smaller class sizes, more nurses and counselors, 
safe patient staffing, resources for community schools, and other 
supports for students. Public schools should continue to be reimagined 
as community hubs--places where students and families can get access to 
community health services, be regularly educated about how to stay 
healthy, and learn where to go to receive testing and treatment. Strong 
community and family engagement has been a cornerstone of transforming 
struggling schools to support students. When practitioners and school 
administrators work together to support these efforts the results are 
even stronger and more sustainable.

    This kind of investment around a whole-community approach is what 
will not only mitigate the disproportionate harm this crisis has caused 
the most vulnerable communities, but help reverse the inequality that 
existed long before this pandemic.
                          A Seat at the Table
    All community members are struggling with the fear and anxiety of 
reopening before a vaccine is widely available. In order for 
communities to trust reopening plans, they need a seat at the table to 
make decisions, and to feel engaged and empowered to help their 
community implement them.

    Reopening plans need to address specific challenges in each 
community. Some schools have a network of healthcare providers that 
deliver services to students and the school community, and others 
don't. Some universities have student populations with no home to 
return to in the event campus is closed. African Americans face higher 
rates of infection and death. Older workers and those with chronic or 
underlying conditions are at higher risk of having life-threatening 
cases of COVID-19.

    To address these issues, state and local unions should start 
planning committees now, for the next school year, and use a needs 
assessment tool to map out the risks of reopening. These committees can 
also help align the resources available across sectors--education, 
public health and public safety--to mitigate those risks. The guidance 
on the available public health tools and strategies for preserving 
high-quality instruction discussed in section three is a good starting 
point, as is any overture to invite parents and community groups to 
join you.

    The plans that come out of needs assessments not only should 
provide guidance to employers, but also should become official policy 
upon adoption by school boards and other governing bodies and/or 
included in collective bargaining agreements to ensure compliance and 
accountability. Workers and community stakeholders need the power and 
voice to enforce these reopening plans, and to make sure they work to 
fulfill health, safety and educational goals.

    Effective communication depends on a high degree of trust. Without 
the trust of workers and community stakeholders, workplaces will be 
challenged to ensure compliance with reopening plans. Communication 
before and during phased reopening must be transparent about the 
stakeholders involved in the decisionmaking process, the factors used 
to make decisions, and the nature of the decisionmaking process itself. 
We must remember that our communities are eager to return to a sense of 
normalcy, as they are feeling the grief of lost loved ones, economic 
insecurity due to lost jobs and incomes, and prolonged isolation.

    Perhaps most importantly, communication needs to be clear about the 
actions people can and must take to protect themselves and others from 
COVID-19. Employers may simply not have the ability to effectively 
communicate those actions to workers and the community at large, and 
they will need to call on the help of union and community stakeholders 
to deliver the message into the community. A ``whole school-whole 
community'' approach has been the most effective at limiting the spread 
of the virus and keeping panic at bay. The AFT has worked tirelessly to 
ensure our members and communities are properly informed.
  Invest in recovery. Do not abandon America's communities or forfeit 
                           America's future.
    The paired crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting 
economic devastation make reopening the public square especially 
complex. We know we must reignite the economy, and a safe reopening of 
schools and other workplaces is a necessary step toward recovery. While 
we are eager to put people back to work, send children back to school, 
and repair the damage done to the economy and our families' well-being, 
to rush this process or fail to put in place the safeguards advised by 
public health experts will risk both a second surge of infection and an 
even deeper economic downturn.

    The toll this has taken on America's working families and our 
communities is incalculable, and the hole gets deeper with each passing 
day. This particular moment requires our Federal Government, in 
particular, to respond appropriately. In addition to what has already 
been done, a substantial and immediate Federal investment in our 
states, cities and towns is critical to ensure that we are continuing 
to respond to the pandemic, clearing the way for a safe reopening, and 
supporting our families and communities.
   A Plan to Support State and Local Governments and Other Critical 
Services: Public Schools, Public Safety, Public Health, the U.S. Postal 
                            Service and More
    Businesses large and small have shut down operations, and more than 
26 million workers have filed for unemployment in recent weeks, 
threatening to crater tax revenue for state and local governments. Even 
with the $2 trillion CARES Act rescue package passed in March, the 
White House predicts 20 percent of Americans will be unemployed by 
June. Governors from all 50 states have issued emergency declarations 
and taken steps to reallocate their budgets. Now, these Governors, 
Democrats and Republicans alike, are calling for the next COVID-19 
relief bill to include another $500 billion to stabilize their states 
and prevent another wave of layoffs, because they're desperate to avoid 
the cuts to public services like schools, healthcare centers and public 
safety. More will be necessary to provide for a safe reopening and 
address new needs created by this crisis.

    But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that Congress 
should let state and local governments go bankrupt, putting teachers, 
nurses, bus drivers, firefighters, EMTs and other public employees out 
of work, plundering pensions and retirement security, and plunging even 
more families and seniors into poverty. His plan would gut public 
education, Medicaid, public health services and mental health 
treatment--the essential public services that never recovered fully 
from the austerity measures imposed after the Great Recession of 2008.

    We cannot forfeit our future or abandon our communities. To survive 
as a Nation, we must help our public schools, universities, hospitals, 
state and local government, and the Postal Service provide services 
that will be more needed than ever; this will require an immediate, 
massive reinvestment in public services. The CARES Act and related 
legislation provided an important first step in a Federal response, but 
more is needed. Congress should, in the next iteration of its response, 
do at least the following:

          Support the National Governors Association's call for 
        $500 billion in additional funds to meet the states' budgetary 
        shortfalls that have resulted from this unprecedented public 
        health crisis.

          Provide at least $175 billion for the Education 
        Stabilization Fund distributed directly to local education 
        agencies and institutions of higher education, with minimal 
        state set-asides, in an equitable and targeted fashion. Also 
        provide $50 billion in direct funding for public colleges and 
        universities and minority-serving institutions. Given 
        anticipated loss of tax revenues, they will need substantially 
        more Federal support to deliver crucial public services, such 
        as educating our Nation's public school students, sustaining 
        public higher education and maintaining a public service 
        workforce.

          Invest in voluntary summer school, after-school 
        programs and community schools that will make up for the 
        instructional time lost during the 2019-20 school year, by 
        providing significant additional funding for Title I and the 
        Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as well as 
        additional funding for high-quality, voluntary summer school 
        and extended learning time. While the full extent of the 
        current crisis continues to evolve, we already know that, 
        despite their best efforts to support students and families, 
        our schools will be faced with students who have experienced 
        extended months of learning loss, significant poverty, trauma 
        and unmet social-emotional needs.

          Increase investment to close the digital divide. 
        High-speed broadband, reliable mobile service, modern 
        technology and hardware are no longer optional. They are now 
        core infrastructure needs of businesses, schools and homes. \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\  Congressional Budget Office, ``CBO's Current Projection of 
Output, Employment, and Interest Rates and a Preliminary Look at 
Federal Deficits for 2020 and 2021,'' April 24, 2020, https://
www.cbo.gov/publication/56335.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Substantially increase Medicaid funding, provide free 
        COVID-19 testing and treatment for all regardless of 
        immigration or insurance status, and increase support for 
        providers assisting underserved populations. \6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\  American Federation of Teachers, ``A Decade of Neglect: Public 
Education Funding in the Aftermath of the Great Recession,'' https://
www.aft.org/sites/default/files/decade-of-neglect-2018.pdf; Trust for 
America's Health, ``Pain in the Nation Update: Deaths from Alcohol, 
Drugs and Suicide Reach the Highest Levels Ever Recorded,'' February 
2018, https://www.tfah.org/article/new-report-funding-for-public-
health-has-declined-significantly since-the-great-recession/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Provide for the personal protective equipment, 
        cleaning supplies and other materials necessary to help our 
        public institutions reopen safely.

          Cover 100 percent of COBRA health insurance premiums 
        for those workers now unemployed through no fault of their own, 
        or who lost health insurance due to the death of the carrier. 
        Ensure resources are available, and that proper testing and 
        safety provisions can be in place, before schools reopen.

          Permanently expand eligibility for unemployment 
        benefits to many previously uncovered workers (including the 
        self-employed, independent contractors and gig workers), and 
        extend unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks.

          Boost SNAP maximum benefits by 15 percent and 
        increase the SNAP minimum payment from $16 to $30. This will 
        help provide adequate nutrition assistance to meet the overall 
        need and spur economic recovery. Every day there is new 
        evidence of the depth of food hardship and economic 
        dislocation. Each $1 of Federal SNAP benefits during a downturn 
        generates between $1.50 and $1.80 in economic activity.

          Increase by a minimum of 15-percentage points the 
        Federal Medical Assistance Percentages, which determines 
        Medicaid spending. This increase should be added to the 6.2 
        percentage-point increase adopted in the Families First 
        Coronavirus Response Act, and increases should be retroactive 
        to Jan. 1, 2020, and should last until at least Dec. 31, 2021.

          Cancel student debt. As a Nation, we are now paying 
        the price for our decades of neglect of the systems through 
        which collective effort once enabled us to take on Herculean 
        challenges. This includes our neglect of our system of higher 
        education, which has produced fewer essential professionals 
        than we need and has, in shifting the burden of its costs to 
        individual students and families, effectively demanded lifetime 
        personal indenture of those who undertake college, graduate and 
        professional education. In the economic catastrophe we now 
        face, for its stimulative effect alone, it is time to free 
        people who have attended college of the burden of student loan 
        debt.

    Given these needs, Congress should make at least a $750 billion 
investment in state and local government to stabilize public services, 
which will help put us on a path to reopen safely and allow for a real 
recovery for all our communities. This administration spent trillions 
on a corporate tax cut in 2017; it must be prepared to invest a 
comparable amount on the anchoring institutions that have been key to 
fighting the virus and are central to any recovery plan: Public 
schools, universities, hospitals, state and local governments and the 
U.S. Postal Service provide services that will be more needed than 
ever, and we need a massive investment in them right now.

    In partnership with the AFL-CIO and partner unions, we developed 
five economic essentials to address the stark realities now faced by 
workers across all sectors:

          Keep America healthy--protect and expand health 
        insurance for all workers;

          Keep frontline workers safe and secure;

          Keep workers employed, and protect earned pension 
        checks;

          Keep state and local governments, our public schools 
        and the U.S. Postal Service solvent and working; and

          Keep America competitive--hire people to build 
        infrastructure and make long-overdue investments in this key 
        pillar of the economy.

    We have all watched harrowing reports of abusive and unsafe 
conditions for essential workers in meatpacking plants \7\ and 
warehouses \8\ across the country. On April 28, AFT-affiliated nurses 
and healthcare professionals in 10 states filed 24 separate OSHA 
complaints \9\ for lack of necessary personal protective equipment 
despite their ongoing exposure to COVID-19 patients as part of their 
jobs. The president must use the power of the office to protect workers 
with the aggressive enforcement of Defense Production Act and OSHA 
standards. He must cease using the power of the presidency, his public 
press conferences and his Twitter account to endanger the lives of 
working people.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\  Ken Anderson, ``Trump Orders Meatpacking Plans to Remain 
Open,'' Brownfield AG News, April 28, 2020, https://
brownfieldagnews.com/news/trump-orders-meatpacking-plants-to-remain-
open/.
    \8\  Alina Selyukh, ``Amazon Warehouse Safety `Inadequate,' N.Y. 
Attorney General Office Says,'' NPR, April 27, 2020, https://
www.npr.org/2020/04/27/846438983/amazon-warehouse-safety-inadequate-n-
y-attorney-general-s-office-says.
    \9\  Olivia Messer, ``OSHA Complaints Flood in from COVID-19 
Frontline Health Workers,'' Daily Beast, April 28, 2020, https://
www.thedailybeast.com/osha-complaints-flood-in-from-covid-19-frontline-
health-workers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     A Progressive Economic Agenda
    With interest rates and inflation at historic lows, the Federal 
Government should continue to borrow to fulfill its role and to support 
state and local government services. It is not the time to be concerned 
about deficits. And the Federal Government should be prepared to raise 
taxes. We are trying to both save lives and ensure the quality and 
dignity of those lives. It is completely appropriate to ask our future 
selves to help pay for that. We must fund our future if we want our 
children to inherit the potential to fulfill the promise of the 
American dream.

    States also will have an important role. In Illinois and 
California, there are initiatives on the ballot this fall to raise 
revenues by asking those who have more to pay more. These are the right 
policies to pursue at the moment, and more states should look to 
emulate these efforts in the coming days. While there is an argument 
that raising taxes in a recession has an economic cost, the economic 
and social costs of cutting services and creating further suffering are 
far greater. We can afford to make these investments, we cannot afford 
to fail.
                     Conclusion: a Living Document
    This plan to reopen our society is a living document, guided by 
constantly evolving expert advice about how best to keep our children, 
our workers and our communities safe from the continued spread of 
COVID-19 and what resources are needed to put communities back on the 
road to recovery.

    It rests on the fundamental belief that without a vaccine, we must 
take specific steps to map out our new normal, which must include: some 
elements of physical distancing; infrastructure for testing, tracing 
and isolation; deploying public health interventions in our schools and 
workplaces and aligning them with the necessary educational supports; 
involvement of workers and community in the development of reopening 
plans; and significant investments in states, localities, schools, 
healthcare and the Postal Service--the essential systems that have 
carried us through this crisis and will need continued support.

    Together, as the people on the frontlines of carrying our country 
through this crisis, we will work to carry our communities through the 
recovery that follows.
                                 ______
                                 
                    National Education Association,
                                              June 9, 2020,
                                              Washington, DC 20036.
Hon. Lamar Alexander, Chairman
Hon. Patty Murray, Ranking Member
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
455 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC 20510.

    Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray:

    On behalf of our 3 million members and the 50 million students they 
serve, we would like to submit for the record the following comments in 
connection with the June 10 hearing, ``Going Back to School Safely.''

    Physically opening schools at the beginning of the 2020--21 school 
year is the goal of most districts and states, but the decision to 
reopen must be rooted in health and safety--not driven by an arbitrary 
start date. To reopen schools safely, we will need to provide personal 
protective equipment (PPE) for students and educators; modify 
classrooms, cafeterias, and school buses to permit social distancing; 
intensify instruction and support for students traumatized by the 
impact of the coronavirus on their families and communities; and more. 
Doing so will require significant investments at a time when schools 
are facing budget cuts that are expected to far exceed those during the 
Great Recession.
                    Looming state budget shortfalls
    America officially entered a recession in February, according to 
the National Bureau of Economic Research. More than 40 million 
Americans are jobless. The unemployment rate is nearly 14 percent, the 
highest since the Great Depression. States and localities are 
struggling to fund public education in the face of dramatically rising 
costs and sharply declining tax revenues as consumers dial back 
spending on virtually everything except groceries and Netflix 
subscriptions.

    According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 500,000 public 
education jobs have already been lost. If the economic damage wrought 
by the coronavirus pandemic goes unchecked, nearly 2 million 
educators--one-fifth of the workforce--could lose their jobs over the 
next 3 years, according to a new analysis by the National Education 
Association.

    These job losses would profoundly impact the 50 million students 
who attend public schools, their families, and communities--especially 
low-income students whose schools rely on Title I funding to lower 
class sizes, hire specialists, and offer a rich curriculum. By 
comparison, 300,000 education jobs were lost during the Great 
Recession. In other words, the COVID-19 recession could be more than 
six times as bad for education as the 2008 financial crisis.
                      Students need more--not less
    The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on a hard truth that 
our members across the country already knew: Not all students have 
access to the educators, resources, and tools they need. It has also 
fully revealed the long-standing digital divide and exacerbated 
inequities like the homework gap--the inability to do schoolwork at 
home due to lack of internet access. Nationwide, as many as 12 million 
students are affected--roughly 1 in 5--and a disproportionate share are 
African American, Hispanic, live in rural areas, or come from low-
income families.

    To help contain the spread of COVID-19, public schools in nearly 
every state shut down and abruptly switched to online instruction, 
putting students without access to the internet at even greater risk of 
falling behind their peers. Taking into account all these factors, 
McKinsey & Company estimates that African American students could lose 
the equivalent of 10 months of learning, Hispanic students 9 months of 
learning, and low-income students more than a full year of learning due 
the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Instead of addressing these issues, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos 
has used resources provided by the CARES Act to push her failed 
privatization agenda, which has been repeatedly rejected by Congress. 
``Microgrants,'' her latest scheme, are just another name for vouchers 
that divert taxpayer dollars from public to private and religious 
schools.
                               Next Steps
    Decisions about reopening America's schools should be grounded in 
health experts' findings and recommendations, input from educators, 
access to protection, and equity--treating racial and social justice as 
an imperative, not an expendable aspiration.

    The HEROES Act recognizes this is the right approach. It includes 
$915 billion in direct relief for state and local governments that can 
be used to pay vital workers such as educators and $90 billion in 
additional education funding that could save more than 800,000 
education jobs at all levels from kindergarten to postsecondary. The 
HEROES Act would also ensure that taxpayer dollars go where Congress 
intended: to the public schools that educate 9 out of 10 students.

    To help reopen schools safely, NEA urges Congress to provide at 
least $175 billion more for the Education Stabilization Fund, at least 
$56 million in directed funding for protective equipment, and at least 
$4 billion to create a special fund, administered by the successful E-
Rate program, to equip students with hot spots and devices to help 
narrow the digital divide and close the homework gap.

    We thank you for the opportunity to submit these comments and stand 
ready to work with Congress to reopen America's schools safely.

            Sincerely,
                                               Brian Stann,
                                   Director of Government Relations
                                 ______
                                 
      National Association of School Nurses (NASN),
                                   Silver Spring, MD 20910,
                                                     June 30, 2020.
Hon. Lamar Alexander, Chairman
Hon. Patty Murray, Ranking Member
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC 20510.

    Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray:

    On behalf of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) we 
appreciate the hearing that you held on ``Going Back to School Safely'' 
on June 10, 2020. As you remarked in your opening statement, school re-
entry will bring many challenges for students as they resume classes in 
school year 2020-2021. Students will experience mental and behavioral 
health concerns that may present as physical health issues; they will 
need support from school nurses. On behalf of the 56.6 million pre-
kindergarten, elementary and high school students in the United States 
and their families, the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) 
asks that you fund 10,000 school nurses for the upcoming school year as 
this country begins to open schools in the recovery phase of the COVID-
19 pandemic.

    School re-entry is crucial for parents to go back to work; having 
children at home and out of the classroom has caused undue economic and 
mental stress for families. Placing additional school nurses in schools 
across the country provides a key solution to help parents resume full 
work capacity and re-opening of the economy. There will be multiple 
challenges for students as they resume in person classes in school year 
2020-2021. For schools to address the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 
pandemic, school nurses need to be in place when schools re-open and 
are central to discussions of safe procedures for 2020-2021 school 
year.

    School nurses are front line health care providers serving as the 
bridge between the health care and education systems. Whether they are 
hired by school districts, health departments, or hospitals, school 
nurses look after the physical and mental health of students in 
schools. School nurses, as public health sentinels, engage school 
communities, parents, families, and healthcare providers to promote 
wellness and improve health outcomes for children. School nurses are 
essential in infectious disease surveillance, identification and 
intervention for student physical and mental health concerns, health 
screenings, school located vaccinations and immunization compliance 
efforts. Historically children have been the first to show signs of an 
epidemic and the school nurse has been a bell weather of illness. As we 
look at the 2020-2021 school year that will also coincide with the next 
influenza season, the need for new school nurses is paramount. School 
nurses support the academic success of students by making sure they are 
healthy, safe, and ready to learn.

    For many children living in or near poverty, the school nurse may 
be the only health care professional they access regularly. 
Additionally, children today face more chronic and complex health 
conditions than ever before. Access to a school nurse is a student 
equity issue. As schools prepare to reopen, school nurses provide 
crucial input for school preparedness, prevention, and response to 
infectious diseases.

    As the current financial recession deepens, there will be less 
funds for schools to be able to retain a school nurse. Currently, only 
39 percent of public schools have a school nurse all day, every day, 
while another 35 percent of schools have a school nurse who works part 
time in one or more schools. This leaves 25 percent of schools without 
a full-time school nurse. This fall, it is imperative that schools have 
school nurses to provide for the safety and well-being of all students, 
especially with the ongoing presence of COVID-19 and the upcoming flu 
season.

    School nurses serve students and families in schools and in 
communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, school nurses continue to 
work by to checking in on students with chronic conditions, either by 
phone or through telehealth; others provide home visits. Some school 
nurses collaborate with school staff to ensure that children receive 
needed meals in a manner that protects the health of students, 
families, and staff. Other school nurses serve at COVID-19 testing 
centers and as contact tracers to support local and state public health 
departments.

    As you and other congressional leaders negotiate stimulus packages 
centered on the COVID-19, keep in mind that 25 percent of the Nation's 
schools have no school nurse. Therefore, it is essential during this 
pandemic to add 10,000 new school nurses for the upcoming school year. 
Healthy students learn better. When a school nurse is present to meet 
student healthcare needs, parents and school administrators know that 
children and youth can focus on learning.

    Thank you for your consideration to address the health, safety, and 
learning readiness of students by increasing school nurse positions in 
U.S. schools. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of 
assistance or put you in touch with NASN members from your local 
communities. Additionally, you can contact NASN's Director of 
Government Affairs, Piper Largent at [email protected] if you have any 
questions.

            Sincerely,
                                 Laurie Combe, MN, RN, NCSN
                                                          President

                         QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

   Responses by Penny Schwinn to Questions of Senator Scott, Senator 
             Murkowski, Senator Sanders, and Senator Warren
                             senator scott
    Question 1. As our Country continues to grapple with the 
devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents, educators, 
school leaders, and students are faced with the difficulty of juggling 
persistent responsibilities of working from home and school. To 
compound this, the unemployment rate is currently 13.3 percent, 
indicating millions of Americans are still out of work or facing 
revenue declines as small business owners. Many private schools, which 
serve about 5.7 million of the Nation's children, are in a crisis and 
potentially face disruptions to their education. Enrollment and tuition 
revenues are plunging as family incomes decline, along with 
philanthropic donations and church collections that help some religious 
schools operate.

    Many of these schools serve low-income students. About 30 percent 
of the families they serve have annual incomes below $75,000, and those 
families are most at-risk without Federal aid. Under current Federal 
education law, school districts are required to use Federal funding 
intended for their poorest students to provide ``equitable services,'' 
such as tutoring and transportation, for low-income students attending 
private schools in their districts. Beyond private schools offering 
more choices and competition for students and families, many private 
schools work as significant economic engines in their communities.

    Question (a). Do you believe in your professional opinion that we 
ought to use COVID-19 Federal funds to support private schools 
reopening in the fall for all their students, especially the most 
financially vulnerable?

    Answer. As a department, our responsibility is to Tennessee 
students, regardless of the educational option pursued by those 
students and their families.

    While funding mechanisms, statutory requirements, and regulatory 
structures may vary from public schools to private schools, our belief 
that all students deserve a high-quality education is unchanging. This 
commitment to our students in non-public schools takes shape in various 
forms; regarding Federal education funding, this is most often 
exemplified through the provision of equitable services. Just as our 
private schools have the opportunity to further support their students 
through various equitable services provisions on other Federal funds, 
we believe that our financially vulnerable students deserved to be 
supported across all types of school settings.

    Under new guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, local 
education agencies (LEAs) will be able to make decisions based off 
their local community's needs. This could entail using ESSER funds to 
serve all public school students, with a proportionate share given to 
private schools within the community to serve all of their students, or 
LEAs could focus their efforts exclusively on those students 
experiencing poverty, in both public and private schools. While 
decisions may vary across the state, the department is focused on 
providing the strategies and supports that all districts will need to 
ensure CARES Act funding is used to drive meaningful and equitable 
outcomes for each and every child.

    Question (b). Engage by EdChoice predicts if 30 percent of the 
private school population transitions back to public school, it would 
cost Nebraska $63,131,338 for the state to absorb the cost of these 
students and $94,263,287 for the State of South Carolina. Does your 
state education budget have capacity to support these students and 
maintain providing high quality education? What suggestions or 
potential solutions to ensure the education of private school students 
is not disrupted?

    Answer. Should Tennessee experience a large transition of students 
from private schools to public schools, the state currently has two 
paths to ensure proper funding follows students. First, while the 
state's education funding formula generally operates based on prior 
year data, the budget also includes a growth fund to capture within-
year increases in enrollment. This provides flexibility to fund rapidly 
expanding enrollments in public school districts within the year the 
growth is experienced. Second, the state may also consider requesting 
supplemental budget funds from the Tennessee General Assembly during 
the year to account for enrollment expansion beyond the standing growth 
fund. Regardless of the path, the expanded enrollment and subsequent 
funding would become part of the state's proposed budget for the 
upcoming fiscal year. Tennessee has always fully funded its education 
funding formula and would expect to continue to do so in the future.

    Private schools are an inherent part of the educational landscape 
in Tennessee, providing choice to students and families across the 
state. To ensure public health standards are supported in schools no 
matter their type, Tennessee has maintained and will continue its 
commitment to ensure private schools have access to the same Personal 
Protective Equipment supports, including noncontact thermometers, which 
are being provided to public schools.
                           senator murkowski
    Question 1. Do your states and districts have enough school nurses 
and counselors to meet your students' needs when schools reopen? If 
not, what steps are you taking to identify the professionals who can 
provide those services?

    Answer. School nurses and counselors are critically important 
supports to students in public schools, and districts have historically 
faced funding challenges in staffing these positions for their schools. 
In the Tennessee Department of Education's 2018-19 Coordinated School 
Health annual report, 99 percent of districts met the goal of one 
certified counselor per 500 students, but only 58 percent of schools 
employed a full-time nurse. Only 20 percent of districts report meeting 
the goal of one certified social worker for every 1,500 students.

    Recognizing that students' needs have and will continue to evolve 
throughout the pandemic and the launch of a new school year, Tennessee 
Governor Bill Lee charged Commissioner Penny Schwinn to convene the 
Child Well-being Task Force, a collective of 38 leaders representing 
the East, Middle, and West regions of our state and various fields, 
including but not limited to mental health, telehealth, education, 
interfaith, non-profit, healthcare, and law enforcement. The goal of 
this task force is to support the whole child needs of Tennessee 
children by empowering local implementation--identifying local 
infrastructure, relationships, and resources to develop, connect, and 
promote supports for students and families. Also, as schools approach 
reopening for the new school year, the department will continue to 
build awareness with state and local elected officials of the need for 
these critical supports for students and schools. Collectively, 
Tennessee will continue to partner at the state and local level to both 
identify need areas and develop solutions to ensure Tennessee children 
are supported in their academic, physical, emotional, and mental 
health.
                            senator sanders
    Question 1. In a recent Politico survey, a majority of American 
voters now say they're concerned about sending kids back to elementary 
and high schools this fall. In addition, during a recent hearing of the 
House Energy and Commerce Committee on the Administration's response to 
the COVID-19 pandemic, witnesses for the U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services testified that ``COVID-19 activity will likely continue 
for some time.'' The health officials also warned of a difficult fall 
and winter because the U.S. health-care system will probably battle two 
highly contagious, respiratory viruses then: the novel coronavirus and 
the seasonal flu. How will you assure parents that your state will 
provide sufficient resources to strengthen public schools and ensure 
that schools are safe for students, faculty and staff? How will you 
ensure that schools will be regularly sanitized, and that personal 
protective equipment will be provided, as needed?

    Answer. The priority of the Tennessee Department of Education, 
Commissioner Schwinn, and Governor Lee will always be the health and 
wellness of students, teachers, leaders, and staff across the state of 
Tennessee. The most significant commitment to this end is that the 
Tennessee maintained full funding for its education funding formula in 
its state budget, including a requirement in state law through which 
counties must maintain funding to their respective school district(s) 
year over year.

    Additionally, Tennessee has ensured that all state agency are 
working collaboratively to support a safe return to school, including 
significant collaboration with the Tennessee Emergency Management 
Agency (TEMA) and the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH). In working 
with local school districts and county emergency management offices, 
TEMA was able to offer four cloth masks per school employee, and if 
requested, four cloth masks or 40 disposable masks per student, and 
non-contact thermometers to all schools across the state. Additionally, 
the Tennessee Department of Education developed a series of over 20 
reopening toolkits to support districts in developing their reopening 
plans, including toolkits exclusively focused on physical health and 
environments, based on recommendations from the Tennessee Department of 
Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As 
districts move to reopen schools, the state will continue to gauge 
needs to ensure safe and healthy school environments.

    Tennessee has also implemented Continuous Learning Plans (CLPs) in 
which districts define remote learning instructional strategies in case 
school buildings need to be closed temporarily or indefinitely. These 
plans ensure that districts have strategies in place to continue 
instruction in a robust manner, even if they need to transition to 
asynchronous instructional models. Many districts in Tennessee are 
planning to employ these remote learning strategies into their regular 
instructional operations to maximize social distancing and limit 
building occupancy for students and high-risk populations.

    Question 2. Earlier in June, U.S. News and World Reports stated 
that estimates of statewide budget cuts will likely decrease school 
budgets by 10 percent to 25 percent for the upcoming academic year and 
cuts may go as high as 35 percent for the 2021-22 school year. 
According to the American Federation of Teachers, it is estimated that 
at a minimum an average school district will need to spend $2 million 
or an additional $490 per student to adhere to CDC guidelines. How are 
school districts in your state preparing for these additional costs? 
With the loss of income and budget cuts, how will your state prioritize 
safety and provide adequate staffing as campuses reopen? How will your 
state ensure that every student, regardless of financial status, 
students with disabilities, LGBQT+ students, students with unsafe 
homes, students of color and students from low-income families will 
have free access to testing and a vaccine, when available?

    Answer. Due to the leadership of Governor Lee and the Tennessee 
General Assembly, state and county budgets are set to maintain funding 
levels compared to prior years. School districts are still faced with 
additional costs to meet the unique needs posed by the pandemic. This 
intentional focus on education as a funding priority ensures students 
are supported in their new academic year. Tennessee has also ensured 
that Federal funds in response to the pandemic are prioritized for 
education. In addition to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency 
Relief (ESSER) and Governor's Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funds, 
Tennessee is prioritizing education needs in planning activities for 
the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF). Governor Lee has committed a 
significant amount of CRF funds to education. Beyond funding, the state 
has moved to provide supports at the state level to help alleviate 
local costs, including through resources such as interim assessments 
and through statewide procurements. These strategies, while supporting 
all districts, also uniquely allow smaller, rural districts to better 
utilize local funds for essential needs by leveraging the economies of 
scale of the state.

    Tennessee Governor Bill Lee also committed that anyone who wants to 
be tested could be tested for free. With over 900,000 tests conducted, 
Tennessee is conducting, on average, upwards of 8,500 tests per day and 
was listed by the Harvard Global Health Institute as one of seven 
states to reach a benchmark for COVID-19 testing. The state remains 
committed to ensuring any Tennessean who wants a test has access to a 
free and readily available test.
                             senator warren
    Question 1. The School Superintendents Association (AASA) has 
estimated that an average school district will need to spend $2 million 
or an additional $490 per student to adhere to CDC guidelines. At the 
same time, statewide budget cuts are expected to decrease school 
budgets by 10 percent to 25 percent for the upcoming academic year, and 
cuts could rise to 35 percent for the 2021-22 school year.

    Question (a). Based on current projections in your state, how will 
funding for education in the 2020-21 school year compare with funding 
in the past school year?

    Answer 1, (a). Tennessee's education budget for the 2020-21 school 
year fully funds the state's education funding formula, meaning that 
school districts in Tennessee will continue to receive the same level 
of funding they did in the prior academic year (including accounting 
for potential student enrollment growth). Tennessee law also requires 
counties to maintain funding to their respective school district(s) 
year over year. Collectively, these funding implications mean that 
education funding to school districts will be consistent with the prior 
academic year.

    Question (b). If you project a cut to the education budget, how 
large will this cut be?

    Answer (b). While the state is reviewing opportunities to 
streamline its state education agency and programs, the primary 
education funding formula will remain consistent from the prior fiscal 
year.

    Question (c)1. Data from the 2008 recession showed that schools 
that relied more heavily on state funding, which tend to be located in 
low-income communities, were more likely to be negatively impacted by 
budget cuts and layoffs. What will be the impact of these cuts on the 
lowest-income districts in your state?

    Answer (c). The state's education funding formula includes a fiscal 
capacity indicator to level set the balance of state and local funding 
composition, but regardless of whether a district has a high or low 
fiscal capacity, the maintenance of effort law ensures ongoing budgeted 
funds to support schools. The law requires a local maintenance of 
effort on education funding as counties must fund their respective 
school system(s) at the same amount or more than the prior fiscal year. 
This law signals that, even in times of economic hardships, education 
must remain a fiscal priority for Tennesseans.

    Question (d). Taking into consideration CARES Act funds already 
received, how much funding from the Federal Government would be needed 
to reverse these cuts and meet the increased costs of providing 
additional instructional, emotional, and health supports for students 
and teachers in the 2020-21 school year?

    Answer (d). As noted above, while Tennessee school districts will 
not experience reductions in their state and required local funding, 
the state also recognizes that there are additional needs during this 
unique pandemic response such as for personal protective equipment or 
to reconfigure schools. Additionally, a significant barrier to high-
quality remote learning is access to robust broadband. Governor Lee has 
prioritized Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) to support improving student 
device access, recognizing the importance of technology in learning 
experience. However, connectivity remains a challenge for many 
districts across the state, and funding for broadband access should be 
considered a priority for any future additional Federal funding.

    Question 2. The COVID-19 pandemic and recent protests following the 
police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis have highlighted the 
systemic racism that students of color face. Recently, 14 education and 
civil rights organizations including the Alliance for Excellent 
Education, EdTrust, National Urban League, and UnidosUS issued a 
comprehensive set of recommendations for prioritizing equity in the 
response to COVID-19, which include equity in fiscal policies, 
addressing students' academic, social, and emotional needs, and much 
more. Please provide several specific examples of what specific actions 
you are taking to address equity gaps as a part of your strategy to 
reopen schools.

    Answer. Recognizing that students' needs have and will continue to 
evolve throughout the pandemic and the launch of a new school year, 
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee charged Commissioner Penny Schwinn to 
convene the Child Well-being Task Force, a collective of 38 leaders 
representing the East, Middle, and West regions of our state and 
various fields, including but not limited to mental health, telehealth, 
education, interfaith, non-profit, healthcare, and law enforcement. The 
goal of this task force is to support the whole child needs of 
Tennessee children by empowering local implementation--identifying 
local infrastructure, relationships, and resources to develop, connect, 
and promote supports for students and families. Additionally, the 
department has made available $7 million dollars in grant funds to 
districts to support students with special needs, including $5 million 
to support needs for compensatory services; $1 million to support 
implementing innovative ways to remediate for the loss of instruction 
during school closures for students with disabilities; and $1 million 
for assistive technology needs as a result of COVID-19 school closures. 
As schools approach reopening and the new school year, the department 
will continue to prioritize supporting districts to support all 
students.

    Question 3. How have you considered the health and safety of school 
employees and contractors, including support staff, in your reopening 
plans? Please describe the role that representatives of teachers and 
support staff have played in your planning process.

    Answer. The Tennessee Department of Education developed a series of 
over 20 reopening toolkits to support districts in developing their 
reopening plans, including a toolkit focused exclusively on staffing 
considerations. This toolkit lays out considerations related to human 
resources, staffing decisions and ideas to create an inclusive 
environment for all school and district staff. Further, the Tennessee 
Department of Education is working with the Tennessee Emergency 
Management Agency to provide districts with supplies and Personal 
Protective Equipment, including thermometers and four cloth face masks 
per employee, to support their plans for school reopening. The 
department has also engaged with former Tennessee teachers of the year 
as well as other teachers across the state and superintendent 
engagement groups to discuss reopening plans and hear their ideas and 
feedback to inform department strategy, and this feedback is reflected 
in the toolkits and other guidance that the department has developed.

    Question 4. In your state, does the testing capacity currently 
exist to regularly test every student and school staff member who will 
be present in school buildings in the fall? If not, how are you 
prioritizing who will receive tests?

    Answer. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee also committed that anyone who 
wants to be tested could be tested for free. With over 900,000 tests 
conducted, Tennessee is conducting, on average, upwards of 8,500 tests 
per day and was listed by the Harvard Global Health Institute as one of 
seven states to reach a benchmark for COVID-19 testing. The state 
remains committed to ensuring any Tennessean who wants a test has 
access to a free and readily available test.
                                 ______
                                 
 Responses by Matthew Blomstedt to Questions of Senator Scott, Senator 
             Murkowski, Senator Warren, and Senator Sanders
                             senator scott
    Question 1. The term, ``homework gap'', has been jostled recently 
in numerous conversations as stakeholders engage in coronavirus 
response discussions. As I understand, the ``homework gap'' refers to 
the amount of students that can access the internet to complete their 
studies at home, versus the amount of students that are unable to 
complete their studies through an online platform at home. Students who 
lack stable and sufficient internet access are unable to perform as 
well on their studies. This inequity is now exacerbated by the COVID-19 
pandemic and the expansion of remote learning. Currently, broadband 
access remains a major hurdle for far too many students, particularly 
in rural areas. According to a 2015 FCC report, 53 percent of Americans 
living in rural areas could not reach 25 mega-bites-per-second download 
speed, which is the minimal benchmark for broadband speed set by the 
FCC. I think, the key to a successful reopening this fall for all our 
K-12 schools is bolstering the technological infrastructure for our 
most vulnerable students.

    A) Dr. Blomstedt, as a leader in a rural state, such as the one I 
represent, what are some cost effective ways for us to expand rural 
broadband access in states like Nebraska and South Carolina in an 
effort to close the homework gap?

    Answer. Broadband access and the homework gap exist in at least two 
distinct ways in Nebraska. The first is simply the technical 
connectivity issue where broadband service is not sufficiently 
available for remote-or sparsely populated areas of the state. Nebraska 
tends to have strong broadband in Nebraska schools but outlying 
residential service in small communities and remote households is a 
barrier. The second barrier is one of income and cost to individual 
households. In areas where service by wireless or wired home access is 
technically possible we still have an income hurdle preventing families 
from being able to afford the broadband service necessary to meet the 
needs of remote learning on a regular basis.

    On the technology side, I would implore the FCC and Congress to 
consider options to allow for unique applications of the Education 
Broadband Spectrum (EBS) for both remote households and small 
communities to make better use of the fiber connections to schools for 
the benefit of educators and students. We have Nebraska examples of the 
EBS efforts that work with our Tribal Nations who were allowed access 
to the existing network through a public investment in wireless 
technology.

    Additionally, I would suggest we re-examine e-rate or similar 
programs to ensure educational broadband to households would qualify as 
a support to educators and students working from home. I believe 
Nebraska has developed a system where public and private interests work 
well together to serve this need and can take advantage of existing 
public infrastructure to expand access to broadband most effectively.
                           senator murkowski
    Question 1. Do your states and districts have enough school nurses 
and counselors to meet your students' needs when schools reopen? If 
not, what steps are you taking to identify the professionals who can 
provide those services?

    Answer. Frankly, we had a shortage of necessary nurses and 
counselors prior to the pandemic. We are unable to properly address 
behavioral and mental health needs in schools and communities. Nebraska 
had developed several partnerships to address the concerns by working 
closely with the Department of Education, Department of Health and 
Human Services, post-secondary institutions including the University of 
Nebraska Medical Center, private non-profits, and schools, as well as 
intermediate education agencies. Among the many efforts there continues 
to be a partnership (grant funded) to build a ``System of Care'' 
collaborative. A System of Care is a framework which helps state 
agencies and private providers work in partnership to design and 
deliver mental health services and supports. The System of Care 
connects and coordinates the work of state child-serving agencies, 
nonprofits and local governments, behavioral health care providers, and 
patient advocates and it empowers individuals to fully participate in 
their care plan. It creates a preventative approach to treatment so 
that life's challenges can be addressed prior to the need for a higher 
level of care and helps individuals function better at home, in school, 
in the community, and throughout life.

    During the pandemic we have continued to meet community-level needs 
through a partnership of existing public and non-profit partners. 
Included in this partnership is the Nebraska Children and Families 
Foundation who has been a key convener in identifying areas of concern 
and leveraging the network of professionals who can provide additional 
assistance. Longer term, there is a need to improve services through 
this partnership but anticipate that we will continue to use the 
network to assist schools and communities through the pandemic and 
beyond.
                             senator warren
    Question 1. The School Superintendents Association (AASA) has 
estimated that an average school district will need to spend $2 million 
or an additional $490 per student to adhere to CDC guidelines. At the 
same time, statewide budget cuts are expected to decrease school 
budgets by 10 percent to 25 percent for the upcoming academic year, and 
cuts could rise to 35 percent for the 2021-22 school year.

    Question (a). Based on current projections in your state, how will 
funding for education in the 2020-21 school year compare with funding 
in the past school year?

    Answer. Funding for the 2020-2021 school year for public schools is 
mostly established based on the state's biennium budget and 
appropriation process. At this point do not anticipate a reduction in 
the current year. However, changes are being proposed and considered as 
the Nebraska Legislature has not yet completed the session that was 
interrupted by COVID-19 this spring. Out years are my primary concern 
as Nebraska, like many states, may expect an economic downturn that 
will impact general revenue sources and the agricultural economy that 
is already experiencing downturns. Nebraska has a strong reliance on 
the property tax base for funding schools with a finance system 
designed to equalize tax burdens and address wealth gaps. However, as 
state resource projections are potentially further limited and with 
calls to address property tax burden, I believe funding over the next 
couple years is a concern.

    Question (b). If you project a cut to the education budget, how 
large will this cut be?

    Answer. Nebraska has a biennium budget process and I anticipate 
that we will have to project possible cuts for future years and schools 
are likely experiencing increased costs in the current year due to the 
pandemic. Increased costs in some areas will lead to budget cuts to 
transition funding. Typically in down years the Nebraska Department of 
Education has been asked (per state budget projections) to address the 
potential for cuts. I anticipate that we will project cuts of at least 
10 percent for each of the next 2 years in the biennium unless revenue 
projections are more positive than expected.

    Question (c). Data from the 2008 recession showed that schools that 
relied more heavily on state funding, which tend to be located in low-
income communities, were more likely to be negatively impacted by 
budget cuts and layoffs. What will be the impact of these cuts on the 
lowest-income districts in your state?

    Answer. Nebraska weathered the 2008 downturn fairly effectively as 
agricultural income helped to balance other sectors of the economy. 
School spending and state funding supplemented by the ARRA funds at the 
time helped sustain schools across the state and mitigate negative 
impact. Currently I am concerned that the combined effects of economic 
sectors most impacting low-income children and families coupled with 
concerns about agricultural income will create a structural imbalance 
for the state which will not allow state resources to address. Service 
jobs and family incomes are likely to take a hit and schools will be 
addressing consequences for children and families. Various Nebraska 
agencies are working together through Bring Up Nebraska and the 
Nebraska Children and Families Foundation to leverage resources to 
address key needs for food security, housing, and other economic 
supports.

    Question (d). Taking into consideration CARES Act funds already 
received, how much funding from the Federal Government would be needed 
to reverse these cuts and meet the increased costs of providing 
additional instructional, emotional, and health supports for students 
and teachers in the 2020-21 school year?

    Answer. Nebraska has not completed a study of needs but have 
started to estimate costs of $500 per student on average. Roughly, that 
is $150 Million across the state with the CARES Act Funds accounting 
for about $65-80 million largely expended to address technology and 
contingency plans. However, this does not account for addressing 
unfinished learning, compensatory education under IDEA, and the 
increasing costs of managing the pandemic while possibly depleting 
reserves. I remain concerned that the full impacts on students and 
families are not yet realized. I also believe that the costs of fully 
implementing the mitigation necessary as outbreaks take place or 
schools have to be fitted with other possible strategies for addressing 
challenges yet unknown. I believe a prolonged pandemic will require 
large-scale changes in the development of curriculum and instructional 
materials that is more suitable for remote learning and professional 
development and extra duty pay for teachers who are now going to be 
required to be multi-modal with preparations both for remote and in-
person instruction. This is the ``perfect storm'' I referenced in 
previous testimony as I see a number of challenges to address the 
pandemic while, at the same point, states and schools are likely to see 
a downturn in other revenues. Estimates for this over the next 2 years 
are difficult to pin down specifically but an overarching 20 percent of 
current budget impact (again, over the next couple years) would 
approach a billion dollars. Even without a cut in state or local 
resources the increased costs to districts will be substantial. The 
challenge will be addressing potential cuts while also shifting other 
funds to pandemic priorities. The opportunity cost for this transaction 
will have lasting impacts on the ability to recover. I believe it is 
important to return to school safely and with the necessary precautions 
so that schools are able to sustain their role in the public health 
crisis as well as the economic recovery. However, without precautions 
in place I am concerned about waves of closures that will further 
disrupt the recovery. I am also concerned about the liability exposure 
for schools as has been discussed in the higher education arena and 
believe there is a need for a better understanding of the likely 
expenditures to address this pandemic challenges.

    Question 2. The COVID-19 pandemic and recent protests following the 
police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis have highlighted the 
systemic racism that students of color face.

    Recently, 14 education and civil rights organizations including the 
Alliance for Excellent Education, EdTrust, National Urban League, and 
UnidosUS issued a comprehensive set of recommendations for prioritizing 
equity in the response to COVID-19, which include equity in fiscal 
policies, addressing students' academic, social, and emotional needs, 
and much more. Please provide several specific examples of what 
specific actions you are taking to address equity gaps as a part of 
your strategy to reopen schools.

    Answer. In part, the Nebraska Department of Education has been 
addressing the issue of inequity with commitments to address all such 
fronts and that work continues. Additionally I shared a public letter 
to superintendents across the state that concluded with ``The Nebraska 
Department of Education (NDE) is committed to leading and supporting 
all Nebraskans in learning, earning, and living. This starts with an 
unabashed commitment to action for racial justice. Here's how we plan 
to do that in the education space: 1. Engage students, educators, 
families, and communities who are historically marginalized. 2. Promote 
active anti-racist teaching and leading and commit to culturally 
relevant standards, pedagogy, and materials. 3. Provide resources to 
support productive conversations and safe and welcoming environments at 
the classroom level. 4. Emphasize future investments to address trauma-
informed care and restorative justice. 5. Continue to insist upon 
accountability for student group performance, and supporting schools in 
tailoring services for student groups. 6. Address the goal of racial 
parity at NDE and in the educator workforce statewide.'' As we reopen 
schools it has been with an understanding that bringing students back 
to school must address the gaps that persist and are made more obvious 
in the current pandemic.

    Question 3. How have you considered the health and safety of school 
employees and contractors, including support staff, in your reopening 
plans? Please describe the role that representatives of teachers and 
support staff have played in your planning process.

    Answer. Nebraska's approach convenes partners and schools to build 
plans locally and provide support from the state. The NDE's Launch 
Nebraska website has included professional development as well as model 
plans that encourage local engagement of all stakeholders including 
staff. We also continue to address concerns to protect the school 
workforce, as it will be critical to maintain the school environment. 
Specifically, schools are looking to address issues with physical 
distancing, enhanced cleaning, and specific accommodations for teachers 
and workforce in the schools that protect from widespread contagion. 
Schools are also now working with local health officials to understand 
how to best accommodate for staff that become sick and manage contact 
tracing and quarantine procedures. We are also in ongoing discussions 
about maintaining safe conditions for certified and non-certified staff 
and accommodating employees with vulnerabilities.

    Question 4. In your state, does the testing capacity currently 
exist to regularly test every student and school staff member who will 
be present in school buildings in the fall?

    Question (a). If not, how are you prioritizing who will receive 
tests?

    Answer. There is not enough capacity to test every student and 
state and local health officials are working with schools on necessary 
testing, contact tracing, and response to positive cases. Both state 
and local efforts to provide testing exist including Governor Rickett's 
efforts for Test Nebraska to help alleviate the national shortage of 
available tests. Ideally, we would have testing that could ensure that 
students and staff are free of the virus to provide confidence for 
education settings. Short of that, local health officials are helping 
schools establish screening protocols to work with families and staff 
to further prioritize for testing and minimize risk of spread in 
schools.
                            senator sanders
    Question 1. In a recent Politico survey, a majority of American 
voters now say they're concerned about sending kids back to elementary 
and high schools this fall. In addition, during a recent hearing of the 
House Energy and Commerce Committee on the Administration's response to 
the COVID-19 pandemic, witnesses for the U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services testified that ``COVID-19 activity will likely continue 
for some time.'' The health officials also warned of a difficult fall 
and winter because the U.S. health-care system will probably battle two 
highly contagious, respiratory viruses then: the novel coronavirus and 
the seasonal flu. How will you assure parents that your state will 
provide sufficient resources to strengthen public schools and ensure 
that schools are safe for students, faculty and staff? How will you 
ensure that schools will be regularly sanitized and that personal 
protective equipment will be provided, as needed?

    Answer. The work to address conditions for learning includes health 
guidance for schools as they build their local plans and communicate 
those efforts to parents and the community at large. The Nebraska 
Department of Education continues to develop, maintain, and enhance 
Launch Nebraska (www.launchne.com) to manage guidance and best 
practices to address the pandemic in schools. Local school and health 
officials are also collaborating across all levels and agencies. I 
believe filling voids is necessary from state and Federal partners but 
driving the response for the local level is critical. For instance, 
Nebraska is working with state partners to identify local needs and 
then gathering resources to disperse such items as masks and hand 
sanitizer to each school that requests resources. This will continue to 
be the model to address the supply chain needs as well as listen to the 
local needs. Although early in the process, I believe this will be the 
persistent approach to address local needs.

    Question 2. Earlier in June, U.S. News and World Reports stated 
that estimates of statewide budget cuts will likely decrease school 
budgets by 10 percent to 25 percent for the upcoming academic year and 
cuts may go as high as 35 percent for the 2021-22 school year. 
According to the American Federation of Teachers, it is estimated that 
at a minimum an average school district will need to spend $2 million 
or an additional $490 per student to adhere to CDC guidelines. How are 
school districts in your state preparing for these additional costs? 
With the loss of income and budget cuts, how will your state prioritize 
safety and provide adequate staffing as campuses reopen? How will your 
state ensure that every student, regardless of financial status, 
students with disabilities, LGBQT+ students, students with unsafe 
homes, students of color and students from low-income families will 
have free access to testing and a vaccine, when available?

    Answer. At this point I would concur with the concerns of the 
combined impacts of cuts and the need to deploy resources differently 
that will impact school budgets. I am most concerned about the out 
years and the likely impacts in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 as we 
anticipate economic impacts in multiple sectors. Schools are also 
scrambling to address immediate needs, which will provide a barrier to 
addressing the need to build reserves for potential future cuts, or the 
need to freeze resources while incurring increased costs. That is the 
``perfect storm'' I anticipate. I have said many times that our first 
mission is now one of public health and I am proud that local school 
officials are playing a significant role in addressing student, 
employee, family, and community health. Yet, this has always been part 
of the need in schools. Additionally, operating schools has proven 
critical for family and community communication about the importance of 
ensuring all of our students needs are met. I continue to meet 
regularly with state and local health officials to offer Department 
support in addressing testing. I am especially concerned about broad 
vaccination against seasonal flu as a strategy to prepare for any 
eventual vaccine that becomes available for COVID-19. I am not 
currently privy to the state strategy on vaccine distribution but do 
hope that the intervening time will allow schools to assist with the 
equitable access to both tests and possible vaccinations.
                                 ______
                                 
   Responses by John B. King Jr. to Questions of Senator Murkowski, 
                  Senator Sanders, and Senator Warren
                           senator murkowski
    Question 1. I noted in your testimony that you talked about the 
inequity experienced by Black and Hispanic students and their families. 
You were right to do so--those inequities have lasted for decades in a 
variety of forms, from access to good housing, good schools, internet 
connectivity, nutritious food, and many other aspects of life that are 
important for children to grow strong, confident, and safe. But I noted 
that you left out Native Americans in your testimony. In Alaska, as 
well as in many other parts of the country, Alaska Natives, American 
Indians and Native Hawaiians are also beset by inequality that can be 
deadly. Communities that have no running water for handwashing. 
Incredible distances to travel to purchase healthy food. No broadband 
whatsoever. Overcrowded, substandard housing. Schools with high teacher 
turnover and low measures of student success that have not understood 
the Native ways of knowing and learning so important to Native 
students' success. I could go on and on. What is The Education Trust 
doing under your leadership to understand and advocate for our Nation's 
first peoples?

    Answer. The challenges facing Native students in our Nation's 
education system are just as daunting as those facing Black and Latino 
students. For example, school districts with the most Black, Latino, 
and American Indian students receive roughly $1,800, or 13 percent, 
less per student in state and local funding than those serving mostly 
White students. It is also worrisome that rates of high school degree 
attainment for students who are Black, Latino, American Indian, and 
Alaska Native are all lower than the national average. Furthermore, a 
majority of American Indian and Alaska Native families live in child 
care deserts; American Indian and Alaska Native children 
disproportionately lack access to home internet when compared to their 
peer groups; and Native students are more likely to be suspended, 
expelled, and arrested at school. For example, Native girls were 3 
times more likely to be suspended from school than their White peers.

    The Education Trust has highlighted disparities in higher education 
through our analysis of the college degree attainment rates of Native 
American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students and made 
recommendations to address that issue; shared the voices and policy 
recommendations of a Native American student and a former educator who 
is Native American; and published a full issue brief examining the 
state of education for Native students. This work has informed the 
policy recommendations contained in our testimony, specifically the 
need for improved, disaggregated data collection, due to the challenges 
of properly measuring Native student success, increasing investments in 
early childhood education and the Pell Grant, and investing in 
broadband expansion to ensure that Native students have access to 
online learning during the pandemic and beyond. We recognize the urgent 
need to address the challenges facing Native students prior to, during, 
and after them pandemic has run its course. As an organization, we 
appreciate Sen. Murkowski's leadership and look forward to working with 
her office to close equity gaps for Native students.
                            senator sanders
    Question 1. In a recent Politico survey, a majority of American 
voters say they're concerned about sending kids back to schools this 
fall. In addition, during a recent hearing of the House Committee on 
Energy and Commerce about the Administration's response to the COVID-19 
pandemic, witnesses for the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services testified that ``COVID-19 activity will likely continue for 
some time.'' The health officials also warned of a difficult fall and 
winter because the U.S. health-care system will probably battle two 
highly contagious, respiratory viruses then: the novel coronavirus and 
the seasonal flu. Your experience in education and your recent 
testimony focused on ensuring that states address gaps in access to 
equitable education. Other than providing full funding to address 
budget cuts due to the pandemic, what else should Congress do to 
strengthen public schools and ensure that schools are safe for 
students, faculty and staff? How should states assure parents that 
schools will prioritize safety and that every student, regardless of 
financial status, students with disabilities, LGBQT+ students, students 
with unsafe homes, students of color and students from low-income 
families will have free access to testing and a vaccine, when 
available?

    Answer. In addition to providing the necessary funds to allow 
schools to reopen safely either in part or in whole, Congress should 
take additional steps to strengthen public schools in the face of this 
pandemic:

    First: Funds that are allocated by Congress to help states and 
school districts should be accompanied by strong maintenance of effort 
and maintenance of equity provisions to ensure we do not repeat the job 
losses and funding cuts seen in the wake of the Great Recession. 
Together, these requirements would maintain education spending at the 
same percentage of state spending as before the pandemic and shield the 
highest need schools and districts from the worst cuts.

    Providing all schools--particularly underfunded, high-poverty 
schools--with the resources they need to implement the Centers for 
Disease Control (CDC) considerations or their local health authority's 
guidance for keeping students and staff safe (e.g., adequate testing 
and contact tracing, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), 
protections for at-risk staff and students, social distancing, etc.) 
can help mitigate the harm caused by the pandemic and create the 
possibility of allowing some schools to fully reopen, but that decision 
ultimately will rest with individual states and districts. 
Recommendations sourced from stakeholders like the American Federation 
of Teachers, the National Education Association, the Council of Chief 
State School Officers, and the AASA, The School Superintendents 
Association are all valuable guidelines to help local officials create 
their own reopening plans. It is also essential that provisions that 
extended health coverage to individuals within the CARES Act are 
extended to ensure individual access to testing and eventual treatments 
and a vaccine.

    Second: Congress should act to ensure that online learning is 
possible for every student. Before the pandemic, 79 percent of White 
households had broadband access, compared with only 66 percent of Black 
families and 61 percent of Hispanic families. The lack of equitable 
access to broadband is not only an immediate distance learning issue 
and an obstacle to effective implementation of hybrid models in the 
fall, but an emergency preparedness issue in the event of further 
widespread closures. To ensure that students have home access to 
broadband, Congress should allocate at least $4 billion to the Federal 
Communications Commission's E-Rate program to provide hotspots and 
devices for students who need them. In the interest of inclusivity, 
Congress should also encourage districts to implement multilingual 
digital learning platforms and provide professional development 
opportunities for educators, so they can effectively teach, assess, and 
connect with their students remotely. Congress should also encourage 
private companies to provide free home broadband access to students 
that would not otherwise have it during the pandemic.

    Third: Congress should help schools offset the significant learning 
loss caused by the pandemic.

    Congress should allocate dedicated funds to help schools facilitate 
expanded learning time, via summer school (online or in-person, based 
on the most recent public health guidance available), extended day or 
year initiatives, intensive tutoring or other evidence-based approaches 
that support students in completing unfinished learning and 
accelerating new learning.

    This additional funding must be targeted toward closing the equity 
gaps that have been exacerbated by COVID-19 and should prioritize 
students, especially students from low-income backgrounds, students 
with disabilities, English learners, and students experiencing 
homelessness or in foster care, who have been most directly impacted by 
lost in-person instructional time. Additionally, educators will need 
sufficient time to prepare for the next school year and the 
substantially different work environment that they will face, which may 
include altered or expanded school schedules, additional remote 
instruction, and curricular changes. This professional learning and 
planning time comes at a cost; Congress must allocate funding to pay 
for it.

    Finally: Congress must extend and expand the Pandemic EBT program 
to enable more children to receive meals while not in school, and 
ensure that students' and educators' socioemotional and mental health 
needs are met by providing additional funding for counselors and other 
mental health professionals in schools.

    Twenty million students depend on schools for meals every day. 
Congress can reduce food insecurity for students and their families 
through the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program, 
which can help ensure that students' nutritional needs are met 
throughout this summer and into the next school year. The program must 
also be expanded to cover children under 5, who do not qualify for this 
program under the current free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility 
metric.

    Beyond these basic needs, we know that over 75 percent of students 
who receive mental health services rely on schools to provide these 
supports. In order to provide these supports to students, schools must 
have a positive and welcoming school climate, as well as quality 
dropout prevention and re-engagement programs--especially for the most 
vulnerable students. Therefore, it is critical that Congress allocate 
additional Federal funding to support school counselors, mental health 
workers, psychologists, and social workers in the highest-need 
districts, and allocate resources to train teachers to understand and 
help mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 on students, especially 
those of color and from low-income backgrounds.

    In addition to student health, it is critical to remember that we 
must ensure the safety and well-being of administrators, educators, 
support personnel, and parents. Educators are experiencing greater 
stress and anxiety during COVID-19, and almost half of parents of 
children under 18 reported having high stress levels. We must also help 
our educators and parents by providing them with emotional support and 
mental health resources.

    Question 1. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 
500,000 public education jobs have already been lost. If the economic 
damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic goes unchecked, nearly 2 
million educators--one-fifth of the workforce--could lose their jobs 
over the next 3 years, according to a new analysis by the National 
Education Association. If Congress is unable to provide the additional 
funding that schools need to keep students, teachers and school staff 
safe, how should schools prioritize their needs: maintenance of equity, 
distance learning, address students' learning loss or protect students' 
nutritional, social, emotional, and mental health needs?

    Answer. As a former teacher and school leader, I am acutely aware 
of the challenges that educators, school administrators, and staff will 
face in providing services and supports to meet students' needs, 
especially if Congress fails to provide additional funding. While all 
of those policy needs are essential, which ones are prioritized will 
ultimately depend on the given context--that is, which needs are most 
acute at the state and district levels. For example, over 75 percent of 
teachers in Tennessee cited technology and internet access as their 
greatest needs to keep teaching through the pandemic, and the largest 
portion of state CARES Act funds were allocated to address that need. 
Ed Trust helping advocates to ensure that states and Governors deploy 
CARES Act dollars in the most effective and equitable ways possible.
                             senator warren
    Question 1. You've spoken about the ways that this crisis has 
exacerbated educational inequality. A new study estimated that the 
average student will fall 7 months behind academically as a result of 
this year's school closures, which rises to 9 months for Latinx 
students and 10 months for Black students. What will the long-term 
effects of this crisis be for low-income students and students of 
color?

    Answer. The long-term effects of this crisis could be incredibly 
detrimental for low-income students and students of color, who, as 
noted in the study above, are at greater risk of learning loss, thanks 
to the digital divide and socioeconomic inequities that can leave some 
parents with less time and fewer resources to put toward students' 
academic success. Though all students are at risk of falling behind 
amid the pandemic, we're seeing troubling trends in real time: A recent 
survey of teachers found that student learning time generally has 
dropped to 3 hours a day since schools closed, down from six 
previously, and that lower-income students are down to 2 hours a day. A 
study of online math participation showed that student progress in math 
through late April decreased by about half in classrooms located in 
low-income ZIP codes, by a third in classrooms in middle-income ZIP 
codes, and not at all in classrooms in high-income ZIP codes. Statewide 
polls in California, Texas, Washington, and New York revealed that 
nearly 90 percent of parents there are worried that their children will 
fall behind because of school closures. There is no doubt that pre-
existing inequities in education are being amplified by the pandemic.

    That is why Congress should allocate dedicated funds to help 
schools facilitate expanded learning time, via summer school (online or 
in-person, based on the most recent public health guidance available), 
extended day or year-long initiatives, intensive tutoring, or other 
evidence-based approaches that support students in completing 
unfinished learning and accelerating new learning. This funding should 
prioritize closing the equity gaps we know have been exacerbated by 
COVID-19 and prioritize students, especially students from low-income 
backgrounds, students with disabilities, English learners, and students 
experiencing homelessness or in foster care, who have been most 
directly impacted by lost in-person instructional time.

    Learning loss is also exacerbated by teacher layoffs, since a 
student's connection with their teacher is central to learning. 
Unfortunately, students of color are at higher risk of losing their 
teachers, as we learned during the last downturn. While funding cuts to 
education were widespread following the Great Recession, an analysis of 
layoffs in Los Angeles found that Latino elementary students were 26 
percent more likely than their White peers to have their teacher laid 
off; Black elementary students were 72 percent more likely to have 
their teacher laid off. If we ignore the lessons of the last economic 
slowdown, students of color and students from low-income backgrounds 
will bear the brunt of cuts to public education that are looming on the 
horizon. Parents are concerned. An Ed Trust poll of New York parents 
revealed that 95 percent of them want regular contact with or access to 
their child's teacher, though only 52 percent said their child's school 
has made that available. Our California poll revealed that Black 
parents were less likely than parents of all other racial groups to 
have been contacted by their child's teacher. Research shows that 
teachers are the single greatest in-school factor influencing student 
success, so preventing further disruption for students over the long 
term means keeping teachers in the classroom.

    Question 2. What will the long-term effects of this crisis be for 
students with special needs?

    Answer. The inequities outlined above, which tend to be 
disproportionately borne by students from low-income backgrounds and 
students of color, may hurt many students with disabilities as well. 
Before the pandemic, students with disabilities were already twice as 
likely to live in poverty, more likely to experience homelessness, more 
likely to experience anxiety and depression, and less likely to 
graduate than their peers without disabilities. All of these 
disparities may become worse during this crisis. Distance learning has 
been particularly difficult for many students with disabilities. Only 
20 percent of parents of children with disabilities reported that their 
children were receiving special education services guaranteed to them 
under IDEA, and 39 percent said their children were receiving no 
support at all. Parents were also twice as likely to report having 
increased concerns about the mental health of their children with 
disabilities, and reported significantly higher stress, anxiety, and 
depression themselves during the pandemic compared to parents of 
children without disabilities. The impact of limited special education 
services could extend into students' adulthoods, as employment training 
and work experiences during high school are critical factors in 
successful postsecondary transitions for students with disabilities, 
and have become much more difficult to provide during the pandemic. We 
need robust supports to ensure these risks don't increase and to uphold 
IDEA and Section 504 [of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973] to protect 
students' rights to a free and appropriate education.

    Question 3. In an op-ed in the Hill with AFT President Randi 
Weingarten, you proposed a ``bridge program'' this summer. How would 
this proposal support at-risk students?

    Answer. Some of our most vulnerable students--including students of 
color; students from low-income backgrounds; students with 
disabilities; English learners; and students experiencing homelessness, 
in foster care, or who are impacted by the juvenile justice system--are 
likely to be disproportionally impacted by school closures during the 
coronavirus pandemic. Given this reality, districts and schools should 
be looking for ways to provide students with extended learning 
opportunities through summer learning experiences, bridge programs, or 
by beginning school earlier to make up lost instructional time. Given 
what we know about learning loss, these opportunities must be made 
available, even if they are offered remotely throughout the summer. 
When brick-and-mortar schools are back in session, school leaders 
should look to add hours to the school day or year, as a way to boost 
student achievement--particularly for students who are most at risk of 
failing--since this would provide opportunities for students to 
accelerate their learning in subjects in which they are struggling.

    Additionally, as we prepare for the upcoming school year, district 
and school leaders should consider other ways to deliver additional 
learning time to students who are most impacted, such as:

          Meaningfully extending the school day or year;

          Scheduling twice as much time for subjects that 
        students are struggling in--also known as ``double-blocking;''

          Significantly reducing class and group sizes (e.g., 
        reductions of 8 to 15 students per class), particularly for 
        students in grades K-3, since this may enable teachers to 
        provide more individualized attention to students; and

          Using more targeted interventions, including 
        intervention blocks, within-class groups, or one-on-one 
        tutoring.

    Beyond those direct academic interventions, district and school 
leaders should also consider how they will reach out to families about 
these additional supports; assign mentors to returning students; and 
partner with national and/or community-based organizations that have a 
proven record of success, offering systematic, coordinated services to 
meet students' social-emotional, physical, and mental health needs.

    The impact of closures will vary widely, but, at a minimum, the 
result will be billions of hours of lost learning time. Initial 
estimates from NWEA suggest that students will return to school in the 
fall with ``roughly 70 percent of the learning gains in reading and 
less than 50 percent of the normal learning gains in math relative to a 
typical school year.'' This learning loss will be felt most inequitably 
by students with higher needs and students of color. We are confident 
that dedicated Federal investments to provide extended learning 
opportunities and summer bridge programs as a means to assess and 
address learning loss can help get our Nation's most vulnerable 
students back on track.

    Question 4. What mental health supports do you believe will be 
needed for students when schools reopen?

    Answer. There was already tremendous student need for mental health 
services in schools before the pandemic: We know that over 75 percent 
of students who receive mental health supports rely on schools to 
provide those supports. Students will need even more support now that 
families are under increased economic strain, freedom of movement has 
been restricted for months, and anxiety about the health of loved ones 
has taken a toll. Therefore, it is all the more important that schools 
provide a positive and welcoming climate, as well as quality dropout 
prevention and re-engagement programs--especially for the most 
vulnerable students. Therefore, it is critical that Congress allocate 
additional Federal funding to support school counselors, mental health 
workers, psychologists, and social workers in the highest-need 
districts, and allocate resources to train teachers to understand and 
address the negative impacts of COVID-19 on students, especially those 
of color and from low-income backgrounds.

    Question 5. What is your estimate of the additional funding that 
would be required for these and other efforts to support low-income and 
at-risk students?

    Answer. While Congress took initial action to provide critical 
resources and supports to states, schools and districts, and higher-
education institutions through the CARES Act, it is clear that this 
investment is not enough to meet the needs of schools, especially those 
serving students with the greatest need, which are facing many new 
costs associated with safely reopening schools this fall amid a still 
ongoing pandemic. Safety measures like providing personal protective 
equipment (PPE), altering school day operations, making available 
additional support staff to address students' social, emotional, and 
mental needs do not come cheap. Current estimates for reopening range 
from $2 million per district (which could easily add up to at least $30 
billion) to $116.5 billion. The Council of Chief State School Officers 
(CCSSO) has recently projected that schools might need as much as $245 
billion to reopen this fall.

    As I outlined in my testimony before the Committee, Ed Trust, along 
with 70 other organizations, urge Congress to provide at least $500 
billion total in additional state stabilization funds, including at 
least $175 billion for K-12 schools, in recognition of both the cost 
increases and revenue reductions facing states, schools and districts 
during this time. That money should also be allocated in an equitable 
manner. Specifically, the Federal Government must include maintenance 
of effort provisions that require state education spending levels to 
remain constant (i.e., at least at the same percentage of the state's 
total spending), even if the state's overall budget shrinks. 
Furthermore, if spending cuts are necessary, the Federal Government 
must use a maintenance of equity provision to protect our highest-need 
schools by requiring both states and districts that receive additional 
Federal funding to show that any necessary cuts are smaller per student 
in the highest-need districts and schools than the rest of the state or 
district. Congress should also prevent the U.S. Department of Education 
(ED) from steering funding away from low-income, public school students 
through its interpretation of the equitable services provision.

    Question 6. What is your estimate of the Federal funding needed to 
avoid cuts to education budgets and fund these needed additional 
supports?

    Answer. As mentioned above, it is clear that additional Federal 
funds are needed to account for both the decreases in state revenue 
that support schools and districts, as well as the increases in the 
cost of operating schools this fall. In 2008, we learned a great deal 
about what happens at the state level when a recession occurs--state 
budgets are cut and those cuts disproportionally impact schools and 
districts serving students from low-income backgrounds and students of 
color. In order to prevent that from happening in the wake of the 
economic damage caused by COVID-19, Ed Trust encourages lawmakers to 
ensure that any additional Federal dollars include maintenance of 
effort and maintenance of equity requirements to protect students in 
high-needs schools and districts from cuts. As an organization 
committed to educational equity, we would like to underscore the urgent 
need for Congress to both allocate additional resources, as well as 
ensure that states do not abdicate their responsibility to provide more 
resources and supports for our highest-need students during this 
uncertain time.
                                 ______
                                 
    [Whereupon, at 11:58 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

                                   