We are going to turn to our , Nicole Gaudiano, education reporter from politico, and talk about how the coronavirus has impacted k12 education in the United States. Good morning. Guest good morning. Thank you for having me. Host thank you for being with us. The 2 trillion coronavirus aid bill that has passed congress and been signed by the president , is there any help for education in this package . Guest there is. 31 billion in education stabilization funding. It will be divided between k12 and higher education. Some of this funding for k12 should help handle continued closures and purchasing Education Technology for Online Learning, because they are having to devise a new system on the fly. This is designed to help with that. Host nicole, what type of guidance is coming from the federal government down to the states and the local education boards and to the schools about coronavirus . Are we hearing much from the department of education on what schools should be doing right now . Guest we have been hearing some guidance. One of the things that has been an issue and a challenge for some of the schools have been disability laws. We put out initial guidance that said you have to provide a free and Public Education for all students, even when doing Distance Learning. There was some confusion and concern from schools will we run afoul of the law if we do something for one and not for another . This has been a big concern. The education secretary betsy devos put out Additional Guidance clarifying that there is flexibility in the law. But it remains to be seen whether how that will be implemented. The guidance except some schools were not providing any Distance Learning, because they were afraid of repercussions if they did something that did not meet the requirements of idea. Host now a lot of parents, like myself, have our children at home right now. Guest me too. Host whether you are in virginia where school has been canceled already for the rest of the year, or you are in maryland, where they are Still Holding out hope for our children to go back to school this year. How can parents work with schools to make sure the education that their children got earlier this year is not lost before they go back to School Next Year . Guest that is a tough one. We know there is learning loss, even over summer vacation. Experts talk about that. Hearing, this is going to be a situation where, it is going to be the coronavirus year. It is an open question, what will happen with test scores next year. I spoke with one researcher at tulane. He was studying the reform effort after katrina, but he looked at the data on some of these children fourthgraders who were returning after being displaced and their test scores dipped in everything but social studies. That same trend continued the next year. There was a lot of trauma come of course, with displacement during katrina, but you have some similarities in the situation, where we have children forced from their schools. This is a scary, this is scary stuff. Next year, what happens to test scores, that will be something to watch. We also have to see how teachers adapt lesson plans to account for this learning loss that is happening right now. Host so who is making the decisions, nationwide, about whether schools are open or closed . Is that decision coming from the local School Boards, from mayors, from governors . And who makes the decision for private schools . And let me add one more question. Could the president declare Public Schools in america are closed not that they should close. Could he declare them closed . Guest i want to pull back for one second and talk about a map that is fascinating to me on the unesco site, the u. N. s education site. 160 nations have shut down schools nationwide at this point. 87 of the worlds student population. In the United States, though, it works differently. We have about seven states, at this point, that have canceled school the rest of the academic year. It does not mean they are not providing learning, but they are closing buildings for the rest of the academic year. Acrosstheboard, there are closures. There are only two states left that are not closed statewide. Trump does have powers to do a lot of things in an emergency, but the decisions to close schools are left to the states and localities. They can rely on guidance from the federal government, but it rests local control continues, even amid a pandemic. Host when we talk local control, are we talking governors, local School Boards . Who is making decisions statewide on whether schools should be closed . Guest i think it is a mix. Governors are making the announcements, but i think they are relying on superintendents. Governors are making announcements about statewide closures, but you also have closures for districts superintendents are involved in that decision, too. What they are looking at they are looking to local Health Officials to make decisions like that. Host lets let some of our viewers join this conversation. We will open up special lines for our conversation about k12 education. If you are a student or the parent of a k12 student, we want to hear from you. You are going to call 202 7488000. Once again, students and parents, k12 students and parents, 202 7488000. If you are an educator, a teacher, teachers aide, you are working directly with students we want to hear from educators how are you adapting lesson plans . Are you having open office hours online . We want to know what you are doing if you are an educator. Your number will be 202 7488001. If you are an education administrator, if you work on the school board, if you are the principal, assistant principal, we want to know what you are doing to keep your schools going virtually. So school administrators, education administrators, your number is 202 7488002. If you do not fit in any of those categories and want to have something to say in this conversation, your line, for everyone else, will be 202 7488003. Once again, for everyone else, if you are not a student or parent, educator, or administrator, we still want to hear from you. 202 7488003. You can also text to those numbers, 202 7488003. And we are always reading it on social media and on twitter, cspanwj, and on facebook, facebook. Com cspan. Nicole, i have a seventh grade daughter. We were getting ready to get her started on her psat, which we know she needs to take next year. What is happening with parents right now with standardized tests like the s. A. T. s, s. O. L. s. What is happening with the test what can parents do to get kids , ready for those tests . Guest last week, the Trump Administration announced it was waiving the federal requirements for standardized tests. What that means, they made the request for waivers from states turnkey. They made it very simple. This is also in the stimulus package, which basically codified what they were already doing. We know that, within a week, most states i think it is 46 at this point, have requested an been given waivers for standardized tests. I know a. C. T. s and s. A. T. s have been postponed. There are some states that are actually making them optional to take. For the ap test, those can be taken at home. There was an announcement they can be taken at home. I think they will be shorter as well. Host ok. A lot of parents are wondering about graduation for seniors. I was just having a conversation with another parent about this last night. What happens with seniors who normally need those grades to get scholarships for college in the fall, students who are looking to go on to college. What happens with them . We are not talking about prom and the ceremony, but what happens for those who needed those things to move on to the next level of education . Guest i think, in a lot of places, that is still being worked out. I saw in michigan there will be an announcement this week that those students will graduate. No one will be denied graduation just because of the coronavirus. And all students would move onto the next grade level. So, it is going to vary. That is something we need to Pay Attention to, moving forward, how this plays out for the students who were hoping at another shot at a test to get their grades up. Because right now, there is not a lot of grading happening for this quarter. Schools are providing work, but what i am told is it is not being graded. Host so right now, there is not a uniform decision around the country of whether schools are opened or closed or delayed to the end of the year. Does that give competitive advantages to students in some states where schools are still open or plan to reopen over others who have already closed for the year . Guest i do not know about competitive advantage, but i think, at this point, most schools are closed. So i am not really sure about that, but there is always equity concerns when it comes to education. One thing that has been popping up quite a bit is the concern about some students have access to broadband. Others do not. How do you reach those students with Online Learning when they either do not have access to highspeed internet or they just do not have it at home. We know there is an estimated 12 million young people that fall into that category, who do not have it in their home. Some of those students are getting textbook paper assignments while the classmates are getting assignments online. Those are some of the equity concerns that come up. Host lets let viewers join the conversation. Already we have a parent calling from maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you guys . Host doing fine. Go ahead with your question. Caller i have a daughter with special needs. She has a complicated medical profile as it stands. My concern is, even with online access, how are children with special needs going to be instructed, and how our institutions going to keep up their legal end of the bargain, because it is more entitlement than eligibility. How will my daughter received services and education she would have received in school out of school . Nobody is talking about that right now, especially kids with special needs. Host go ahead. Guest that is an issue causing a lot of people concern. There are i mentioned before that there are concerns in the school community, what if we give to one and not the other and then pull back on the education we provide . That is something that the education secretary has been trying to get the message out that idea, the individuals with disabilities education act, there is a flexibility. You can provide education to everyone, it could be a different way. In their guidance, they give an example. If a student is blind, you can give weekly assignments for everyone else, and the student that is blind can get a phone call from the teacher reading the assignment or a video. They have to be ways to reach these students, and i think what is happening is what we are seeing is different states are doing it in different ways. One that is highlighted is florida being an example. New hampshire as well, taking a tiered approach to getting lessons out. I think, in new hampshire, what they were saying is if there is a problem, if we cannot get the services out to the people who have i. E. P. s, we will work something out to get that to students later. It is a serious concern that is on a lot of minds right now, and they are just trying to figure out how to deal with it. It is so unprecedented. Host speaking of unprecedented, we had a couple of social media followers who asked this question that we have already addressed a little bit, but i want to point out that answer another social media follower gave us. One tweet asked what happens to those children who live in rural areas and do not have access to highspeed internet . This will be a big disruption for their learning. Another social media follower says their School District is using school buses fitted with wifi to park in rural areas for students to access. Do we see a lot of schools coming up with these Unprecedented Solutions to make sure learning continues . Guest creative alternatives. Last night, the education secretary, betsy devos, was at Coronavirus Task force briefing and mentioned some of these examples. One of them was in south carolina. They are deploying school buses with wifi hotspots so they can reach some of the students in rural areas that do not have access to highspeed internet. This is something being done in utah, i think, and there is legislation in congress to try and fund these efforts. Democrats, in the stimulus bill, were calling for 2 billion to a program administered by the ftc. Democrats, in the stimulus bill, were calling for 2 billion to a Erate Program administered by the ftc. It funds connectivity for schools and libraries. But i think the idea for that call for finding was get more hotspots out there. Make access easier for these kids that are in rural areas and it is not just rural areas. There are some kids in poor urban areas who do not have access either. These are kids that fall into what is called the homework gap, where they go to school, have access to highspeed internet, but then they go home and they are not able to access the internet. This situation is exacerbating a longstanding problem with that that has not been fully addressed. Host lets talk to laurie, calling from new york city, an educator. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you. I have a couple of comments and questions. I appreciate you being online, on the tv. As a special Education Teacher for Young Children that means preschool as well, i know your show is talking about kindergarten through 12 it is really hard. Ive been trying to get people together, kids parents on skype and other venues, to do some learning. But as a special Education Teacher for young kids, it is hard to get a 4yearold, 5yearold, 6yearold to stay in front of the screen and keep them attentive. They have a. D. D. , they are all over the place. You are hearing me, right . Host yes, go ahead. Caller the thing is, it is really hard. It is such a challenge. I am trying to get these kids online. Some parents are helpful. Some do not know what to do. I am in new york city it is impossible. We are so dense. The other thing is my agency i work for i am not an independent contractor it depends on agencies and how they set up their payroll. One agency has let everybody go. So in order to get back on and try to do this Online Learning, it will be this impossible thing to get myself back on their payroll so that i can get paid for my work. And other agencies are more amenable to just going back to work and getting them on. I am supposed to go on in another 20 minutes, i have a kid i am waiting for. The thing is, those are my comments and questions, and i really wish these people would be on the same page so they have one uniform way of doing things. Host go ahead and respond to her concerns. Guest it sounds like she is doing a lot of great things. I think those concerns we have definitely heard concerns in new york with Online Learning that is very difficult there. There have also been concerns about guidance, not just with idea, but guidance coming from the white house and the cdc in terms of when to close schools or not, is it even helpful . So her concerns about the guidance have been common. That is the issue. Host lets talk to kelvin, calling from portland, oregon, an education administrator. What do you do in education . Caller thank you. I am an adjunct professor and an administrator for innercity, urban highrisk School Districts. I want to applaud you and the caller i mean you and the guest speaker, because this show this exact show needs to be duplicated on viacom and other cable networks. Betsy devos has done absolutely nothing. This show is giving more information in terms of steps forward than her administration has initiated throughout her tenure. So i applaud your guest speaker for being detailed and providing a pathway forward and applaud you for taking on this. I am a father, and it has been appalling that her office has not had a sense of urgency, to have this type of show, ongoing, these conversations. What we are doing is important. In portland, for those families within the Digital Divide, we have advised those families with kids, whether it is Early Learning or 12 grade, read a minimum of three books to five books and to write. For those folks who have the digital capability, we have asked teachers have the opportunity to do skype and do lesson plans via internet. I would like to echo your guest speakers statement. There is a 20,000 feet policy solution and then there is boots on the ground. When those dollars hit the states, there is inconsistency in terms of how those dollars will get to teachers and social nonprofit programs that are actually doing the work. So there needs to be an , intermediary system to identify how those dollars will get to those volunteers and those paid professionals who are initiating action in lieu of this education gap. The last two points i would like to speak to is that what we are pushing for is that the school year be extended throughout the summer, the remaining three months. My kids are half japanese, and in japan, they go to yearround school, during the summer months. So we are pushing the governor in reference to coming up with at least two months of school for the summer time. Then your guest speaker also identified uniformity. There needs to be a rural and urban uniformity position coming from the fed to the state department of each state department of ed as to a pathway forward. This is a fantastic show. In the one other thing i would like to say, as a footnote, is here in oregon, there is an Online Company called hotshot, a Marketing Company that does Online Marketing stay away from hotshot. They have made over 200 million and it is a ripoff. Host so he had a couple of things i want you to address. I have not yet heard locally about School Districts even talking about extending the school year into the summer months. Do we see a lot of School Districts talking about that yet . Guest there is some conversation, maybe with trying to talk to members of congress, try and push for that. There are a couple of ways you can go about this. You can extend in the summer. I think advocacy groups, some advocacy groups, are pushing for that, schooling in the summer, after school programs, to try to get kids to catch up. Then there is the other issue with the Digital Divide this is something democrats will keep pushing for in what may be the next stimulus bill. So two approaches i am hearing about quite a bit. Host one of the things that, again, as a parent with two middle School Students at home that i am trying to figure out is how long should my child be working at home during the day with their Online Learning . Is this an eight hour day for them, a six hour day, a four hour day . In fact, one of our social media followers says parents are being told you do not have to have your child stick to six hours a day in homeschooling. Is there any guidance that you are hearing out there for how we are supposed to deal with homeschooling our children how long should we make them work, is it a regular day, what should we be doing . Guest i have not seen that. That is a good question, because ive been thinking about it myself with my daughter, who is a secondgrader. She is getting assignments online, and how long do i want her online . How long do i want her at a computer . We got a teachers schedule and tried to follow that to the best of our ability. Finally, when it is time to get off the computer, we say it is time to get off the computer. But as far as federal guidance on that, i have not seen it. But it is a great question. Host maybe one of our teachers will call in and give us advice. The only thing ive told my children is we will read one of book every week from beginning to end, a whole book, and we will complete every assignment there school is sending to them. We will get it done before the due date of the assignment. I would love to hear from some of the teachers out there exactly how long you would want to keep kids in the home School Environment at home. Lets get to our calls. Jack from los angeles. Caller good morning. This is my favorite program. I have a ninth grader in high school, and she is at home. My family that has teachers in it, we are seeing some teachers are not even going online. People cannot even do their assignments. Teachers themselves are kind of dropping out. They are unwilling to participate in logging on. Other than the Digital Divide that you are talking about, the people are scared, still. I am talking about the teachers. Thank you. Host i will save that at least all of the children at my kids school are making themselves available all day long from regular office hours to regular school hours. I have not heard of many teachers dropping out, but what are you hearing . Guest i have not heard of that either, just dropping out, but there is something that the Education Department pointed to in the updated guidance and that some schools were just closing and not offering any Distance Learning. Because they were afraid of running afoul of disability laws, not giving an equitable education for everyone. We are hearing anecdotally about that. And i know it is a concern for schools. It is certainly something that they are looking at. But it is anecdotal. Because the system is so decentralized, it is a little hard to track. And for schools not providing any Distance Learning host if you are a parent of a 12th grader on track to graduate, do you have any concerns about your child not being able to graduate high school right now . Guest it depends on where they were before this happened. I would be concerned, but they have to Pay Attention to their local government and the guidelines coming out from there. Just like i said before with michigan, they are not going to let anyone not graduate because of the coronavirus. That was one report i saw yesterday. It will have to depend on their locality. Host lets see if we can get a couple of calls in. A couple of educators waiting to chime in. Lets talk to riley, an educator calling from rockville, maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am a seventh and eighth Grade Middle SchoolScience Teacher here in maryland. My wife and i are both teachers. This is our whole life right now, talking about how will we be doing this. For our county, we are in this transition period where they sort of we have to follow the lead of maryland state laws, the governor declaring schools being closed. Then we, as teachers, are waiting to hear from the county and what the county decides about continuing education. Of course, we as teachers, we are there every day for our 150 kids. We are having oneonone, human relationships, committed to their learning, every one of them, managing all of their social experience and all of these things. The Biggest Issue for us, i would say, is this profound uncertainty about where we are now. There is only a limited time left in what would have been the school year. Of course, there are learning objectives. But we are professionals. We have a practice of being teachers in the classroom. It is just so hard for me to imagine how i will be able to be that effective educator for my 150 students, who i will not even be able to see, because i do not expect to be doing videoconferencing and that sort of thing. My wife and i and all the other teachers i communicate with, we will be going in to do collecting of materials next week and some sort of planning, but we are all in different places, so it is all up in the air. Host first of all, thanks for calling in. Why has it been so difficult for us to shift to Online Learning in the United States . Guest i think this situation really shines a light on how Many Services are provided through the school. In our country, provided in the school building. This is the hub. We are not quite set up foreign event like this where we transition overnight automatically to a remote system. There are so many things to figure out. There are some schools that i think have Remote Learning platforms and were able to make an easier transition, but thats not really what we are set up to do here. I spoke to one expert who said in china that it was easier to do. They had everyone in an Online Learning, remote environment quickly. Another big question to watch is, as we move forward, how did other countries deal with this and how do we stack up . Where are the deficiencies . Host speaking of Services Provided by k12 schools, something we had not talked about yet, is the food normally provided to students that they get at school. For example, where i live in maryland, several schools are opening to provide a breakfast and lunch to students who get their food at school. And might not get it at home. In mississippi, where i am from, my brother is one of their people driving a school bus to deliver to committee centers and churches so people can get it. How are we dealing with the food gap for children who may not be able to get food at home . Guest i think the statistic is 20 Million Students who rely on school lunches, free and reduced lunches a reduced price, i am sorry. What is happening now is the department of agriculture is granting waivers to school so that they can offer grab and go kind of meals. That is happening in a lot of places. But the waivers only cover Certain School areas with 50 of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. If you are below that threshold, those schools, i guess, will not be able to get that federal funding. So you have lawmakers calling for a tweak in that area to try to get those dollars flowing. Host lets talk to bud, an educator calling from tennessee. Good morning. Caller thank you very much for this program. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I work in resource, special education, and i want to concur with laurie from new york who made very valid points. Myself and my wife are both educators. She is an educator in tennessee and i work in north carolina. It is very challenging. Being in special ed, we have idea service requirements. Also our support people, like occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech pathologists, i have to have contact with students, so they are not able to provide those services right now. We live in a very rural area that is pretty povertystricken. A lot of our students do not have internet, as was mentioned earlier, so we send packets home. You do have some students with internet, and we are getting a 35 to 40 return of schoolwork right now. We cannot give instruction as we normally do. To answer a previous question you guys had, our administrator and i am at the middle school level asked for our students to work one hour on language arts, one hour of mathematics, then 30 minutes each on social studies and science. Those were our instructions, to give to families. Also, with the food programs, you mentioned mississippi, that one of your relatives is driving a bus that is what we have been doing. But our governor, roy cooper, on friday issued a stayathome order. Education is not included in that, so we are still compelled to go to school as long as we do not, you know, have a Health Condition or something. So we have been going to the school building. We are supposed to adhere to the six foot rule. My question is this i delivered 104 meals friday. Now, with the stayathome order and the six foot rule and we deliver by bus, like they do in mississippi. We do not have grab and go like in tennessee, where my wife teaches. How can i, in good conscience, participate in that program when there are three individuals on the bus and there are approximately 25 to 30 individuals in the cafeteria bagging host go ahead and see if you can answer that. We know teachers are making big sacrifices now to get their students the information they need and to get food. What would you say to teachers out there still working, trying to get students not only educated but fed . Guest i think that yeah. That is a really big issue he is dealing with. I suppose it is something that the unions are thinking about. They are probably going to have to work through something. I know that, early on, the unions were very upset, because there were teachers having to report to a school to provide Online Education in dod schools overseas, like in italy. And they did not have anyone to look after their children. So they would have to bring them in, too. This was when italy was basically shutting down. So that is something that i am sure we will be hearing from the unions on, trying to figure out what to do in those circumstances. What do you do for when the order is to keep distance, but then you are in a bus with two other people . Host nicole, what should we be looking for coming up in education in the next couple of weeks and months . Guest one thing i will be tracking is, as part of the stimulus bill, there is a requirement that education secretary betsy devos submit a report to congress requesting any additional waivers that she thinks are needed for the disability law and for other education laws. This actually has people in the Disability Rights Community very concerned. Even though i do not think she has given any indication that she will be lobbying for that. But there are schools who may have concerns about meeting the requirements of the law and find uncertainty in getting an limited waiver. That is one of the things i will be tracking. I also think host real quick guest sorry, thinking about how stimulus dollars will get to people is another issue. Host we would like to thank Nicole Gaudiano for being with us and talking with us about what is happening in k12 education. Guest thank you for having me. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up sunday morning, the World Health Organization spokesperson dr. Margaret harris , well talk about her organizations response to the global coronavirus pandemic. Then dr. Leonard schleifer, ceo of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals discusses his companys work with the federal government to philip drug therapies to treat covid19 patients. To develop. Then trust for Americas Health ceo John Auerbach will be with us to talk about the u. S. Response to the virus pandemic. Watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern sunday morning. Join the discussion. The white house did not release a weekly address from the president. Senator gary peters of michigan gave the democratic address discussing the federal response to t c