Transcripts For CSPAN3 Senate Hearing On COVID-19 Impact On K-12 Students 20240712

American history tv, the National History center hosts a conversation on u. S. Gun rights and regulations. Watch American History tv tonight and over the weekend on cspan3. U. S. Schools are looking at how to safely reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. Educators spoke to members of the Senate Health committee about plans to decrease class size, continue Home Learning and schoolwide coronavirus tests to make sure students and staff are safe when they return to the classroom. Widespread testing not only helps contain the virus, it builds confidence that the schools are safe. U. S. Assistant secretary for health told our committee that there will be 40 to 50 million diagnostic tests available per month by september. Thats four to five times the number of todays tests and todays number in the United States is twice as many as any other country. And dr. Francis collins who led the human genome project and leads the National Institutes of health, leads a shark tank enterprise at the nih to discover new ways to create tens of millions of quick and accurate and inexpensive diagnostic tests. School covid plans should let the plans last for at least a year. The government is pursuing vaccines at what it calls warp speed, faster than weve ever done that before, but no one expects a vaccine this august. And 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. Several reasons why schools have an advantage in providing a safe environment for students and for faculty, one the first reason is younger people have been less hurt by covid19 than older people. Although dr. Fauci told our committee we should be careful about assuming that young people are not at some risks. Second, schools are generally small communities that are closely supervised and monitored. Third, outbreaks can be traced. The child becomes sick, that childs 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 temporary closure of individual schools while other schools continued to be open. But School Environments pose challenges as well. First, theres not as much extra space in our elementary and secondary schools as there is on most College Campuses that makes social distancing more difficult. Second, school administers face more rigid rules as a result of state and local and union rules and regulations. So making changes to the academic calendar and class size and School Schedules will be more difficult and, third, creating a maskwearing culture will be harder, especially with the youngest children. Seeing facial expressions is also important for young children. They learn to socialize and selfregulate so obscuring faces with masks prohibits some learning. Rigorous hygiene isnt always easy with children. Children go home at night, potentially exposing other adults. And even systemic testimatic te is a lot of tests. 9 out of 10 children have at least one parent employed and twothirds have both parents employed according to the bureau of labor statistics and many children live in environments where the school is safest place theyll be all day. And its the place where 30 Million Students receive a school lunch. More than 70 be of those stude qualify for reduced or free school meals. In doing so, it will help our country move back toward normalcy. Senator murray . Thank you, very much, mr. Chairman, and ir appreciate all of our witnesses being with us today as well. And thank you to our Committee Staff who worked 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. Theyre calling for change, accountability, and justice, and i hope their resolve will be an example to all of us here in congress. Now we are here today to talk to discuss Something Else this country owes all young people and children and that is a quality, Public Education, even in the middle of a global pandemic. Covid19 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 has closed because of the coronavirus outbreak. My daughter didnt know what 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 didnt have any answers for her. And it wasnt long before nearly every School District, every educator, every parent and every student in this country had many of the same questions. The challenges families have had to face across the country this school year were unimaginable a matter of months ago. Schools are 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 hasnt been easy for anyone, School Districts, communities and families with more resources have had more capacity to adapt than those who have less. So, as we talk about ways to reopen our schools safely for students, educators and school staff, our response must ensure Public Health and science is driving Decision Making but also ensure every child can access a highquality Public Education during this pandemic whether in person or online. We know covid19 is having a disproportionate impact on the health of black communities and communities of color. And research his already showin the inec by the is that existed in our system before this. Data projects black students could lose over ten months of learning. Latino students could lose over nine months of learning compared to white students who are projected to lose six months of learning. Because of this, estimates show achievement gaps could grow by 15 to 20 in this country. We cant let covid19 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 learners, students with disabilities. When it comes to reopening safely, as ive said before and cannot say enough, schools and School Districts must follow the advice of local Public Health officials and let science drive Decision Making. 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, im glad to see so many states and schools leaders engaged in detailed scenario planning because before families send their children back to the classroom and educators return to teach, they need to know schools have thought through every possible scenario. And given how much we dont 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 cant 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 off set dramatic declines in state and local revenue. When schools are able to open physically, operate virtually, or use a hybrid of both, we have to ensure quality and equitable social and emotional able Health Including Mental Health services to students. And we have to address the ways this virus has further exacerbated inequities that have longexisted within our Education System. I recently heard from a mom in washington who told me that her children are sharing one iphone to learn, and shes not even sure if shes going to be able to afford that phone bill. And thats just one small example of this Digital Divide. For School Districts that are underresourced or areas without internet access, Distance Learning may just consist 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 centurieslong 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 Brutalities and systemic racism. And when it comes to delivering these services and supports, we have to do better because if we dont, the achievement gap that we strived so hard to close will undoubtedly widen and we cant let that happen. To address all 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. We also know thanks to the work of the National Education association, without a significant investment, the u. S. Could lose approximately 1. 9 million education jobs. We could have begun negotiations on this and countless other covid19 priorities weeks ago, and im extremely frustrated that has not happened yet. And im going to continue to push for action. And i also want to note that while im 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 private zags agenda in the k12 system and her flawed provision in the c. A. R. E. S. Act. As we know k12 Public Schools are truly the bedrock of our community. Each of us here and at the u. S. Department of education need to be all in on ensuring school versus the resources and support to rise to the massive challenge in front of them. I know i am, and i look forward to having 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 school 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. So ordered. Thank you, senator murry, for your hoping statement. Im now pleased to welcome our witnesses to todays hearing focused on getting back to School Safely. First, dr. Penny schwinn, tennessee commissioner of education. Under the leadership of dr. Schwinn, the Tennessee Department of education has developed a number of resources including School Closure tool kits, Family Friendly instructional guides for programming on pbs, and a School Meal Finder website for families. Dr. Schwinn will be convening a covid19 child well being task force to support local leaders in communities. Our second witness is dr. Matthew blomstedt, nebraska commissioner of education. Hes been chosen to serve as president elect of the board of directors of counselor of chief state school officers. Under his direction, Nebraska Department of education has created a website launch. Com. It suggests several options for districts to consider for ensuring the schools open safely this fall. The third witness is ms. Susana qorvo vo cordova. Denver Public Schools announced it expects to begin in august and has explored a variety of options for safely bringing students back to school. Ill now turn to senator murry to introduce our fourth witness. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Today were lucky enough to have the honorable john king, former secretary of education under barack obama as a witness. During dr. Kings tenure i had the pleasure of working closely with him. Dr. King has been a steadfast champion for students, Public Education, and giving every child the opportunity they deserve. And im really glad we have the chance to hear from him today. Before becoming secretary of education, mr. King served on the department of educations equity as acting deputy of education and new york state commissioner. He began his career as a High School Social studies teacher and middle school principal. Currently mr. King is president and ceo of the education trust. Thats a National Nonprofit that uses research and advocacy to identify and close opportunity and achievement gaps from preschool through college. Mr. King holds from a bachelor of arts from harvard university, jd from yale law, ma in teaching and a doctorate at columbia university. His personal life story is a testament to the power of Public Education and the importance of caring educators in a students life. Thank you so much dr. King for being here, and i look forward to your testimony. Thank you, senator murry. And welcome again dr. King. Now well hear from our witnesses. Well ask of them to summarize their testimony in about five minutes. Lets begin with dr. Schwinn. Good morning chairman alexander, Ranking Member murry, and members of the health committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify at todays hearing. This has been an unbelievable period of time in tennessee for our students and families. As educators and students 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 best for the other. In our state we had significant spread of the virus and with e have a county with its first positive case last week. 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 that. One, health and safety of school communities. Two, bridging the Digital Divide. And three, highquality 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 leadership weve been a National Leader when it comes to testing covid and well work with districts to ensure any 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 notouch thermometers along with a suite of 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 one 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 theyre our own. We make promises every day that their children will be safer in our care and have access to a highquality education. We must do everything we can to keep that promise. Second, we must address the Digital Divide for students. Districts need 20th century devices. Access to broad band, access to professional development for educators. Our own governor erchs ares not having internet on his farm. Thats a reality thats all too true for not only students but teachers. Its especially true for our rural community, our vulnerable populations, and those that require Distance Learning and teaching from a health perspective. The department is supporting greater access to technology because this is no longer to have. If many it is a necessity for a free and appropriate Public Education. Finally, we must accelerate a childcentered strategy, high quality academic opportunities for every one. We must stay committed and addressing any gaps we see. We know the impacts of lost learning especially for students that tend to experience the increased gaps. We must stay focused on through it rah literacy for our younges students. Literacy instruction at a distance is incredibly hard to do. The Department 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. So, as a commissioner and a mom to three very young children, ive been inspired every day, day after day, by the way that our teachers and schools come together in tennessee. Whether its working with teachers to problem solve how to set up socially distanced classrooms in Elementary Schools or talking to superintendents about High Schoolers continuing to get access to duel credit and workbased opportunity. Tennessee has shown our collective commitment the opportunity for kids and i realize all of these are not small things but they matter deeply to us because they matter for kids. I wish these were clear cut decisions but theyre not. The challenges that we face are large. We must keep people safe and we must keep kids educated. But our job and our responsibility is figuring out how to do that well. We are deeply appreciative of the c. A. R. E. S. Funding to help jump start the needs we have in our schools and districts across the state. 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. In these challenges i see opportunities and our kids, my own included, need us to meet those challenges head on and with optimism and with courage. Our kids are counting on us. Thank you so much, and i look forward to your questions later in the hearing. Thank you. Dr. Blomstedt, go. Members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify at this important hear rg 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 dramatic and long term impacts 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 bear the persistent inequities of the Education System and have every system and sector across the country from health care to justice. I want to say i mourn the life of george floyd and every black life lost because we allowed inequities to permeate our society far too long. I worked my whole career believing education is the right place for society to make progress to ensure equity. Closing schools statewide was never something i anticipated. In our earliest days of closing i knew the more difficult task would be reopening schools. In late march and early april we identified Summer Learning as a time to focus on recovery. We were under wau to plan for the fall semester. May 8th, we announced launch nebraska as a way to announce a recovery and reorring approach. Leadership and planning where we focus on Government Operations and technology, conditions for learning really focus on facilities and wellness, and then continuity of learning, focus on transitions back into education. Schools in nebraska are diverse. Nebraska small districts have 100 areas in the state. While our largest in omaha receives 50,000 students. Additionally experience first covid19 positive case while other areas have been affected at rates similar to the worse 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 balancing this task of safe opening with the needs of students, families and communities in mind. There are few one size fits all efforts in these efforts. It is clear large scale guidance needs to be able for local schools and Health Officials to customize for environments. Thats what were attempting in launch nebraska. Although i believe most schools in nebraska are planning to open in the fall, were concerned many will face extensive disruptions and interruptions across several communities. As School Buildings closed across nebraska this spring, educators for rightly concerned about their capacity to properly meet their obligations. I continue to engage in productive dialogue with parents and Disability Advocates to provide a path forward. I expect as restrictions are lifted, schools will need to provide necessary compensatory education. It is apparent a lack of Broadband Access is a huge inequity for many students and house holds. Im concerned the Economic Impact will result in funding, perhaps to exceed 20 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 possible possible. Our teachers will continue to be on the front line and we must address accommodations that will strain a strained work force. I want to thank this committee and all members of congress for the relief funding through the c. A. R. E. S. 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 the 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 secretarys Equitable Services. I urge members of congress to clarify this as soon as possible. I want to ensure that both public and nonPublic 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 feel education is 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. Thank you, dr. Blomstedt. Superintendent cordova, welcome. Good morning, thank you. So, chairman alexander, Ranking Member murry, and e senators, i want to thank you for the opportunity to show you the denver Public Schools experience with the covid19 Public Health crisis. As i reflect on the events in our city and country over the past three months and particularly over the past two weeks, it is increasingly clear that our systems, education and policing, health care and housing are fraught with inequities in systemic racism. We now have the opportunity to address these inequities and create a better solution for our students in 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 dangerous covid19 is. With only two weeks until school resumed, we immediately focused on building a fulltime Remote Learning program for 95,000 students and 15,000 employees. In addition to keeping our students and teachers connected for academic and social development, we also focused on building wrap around supports including serving over 732,000 meals and distributing over 55,000 laptops to students who needed them for Remote Learning. And given the number of lowincome families in denver insuring equitable Remote Learning is one of our biggest challenges. We go into next school year knowing some of our highest priority students, those who need extra instructional attention, have fallen further behind during this extended remote period. In midmay we put together a working group of principals and teacher to help us plan together for the new school year. We surveyed our families and staff asking them for our input to focus our planning. The message we heard the from that survey was loud and clear, Prioritize Health and wellness first, and then get kids back in class. We partnered to create guidelines to serve as a foundation for the return to school planning. Were planning for a mix of inperson and Remote Learning when the School Year Starts in august. Weve shared three draft omptios that offer a mix of inperson and Remote Learning with all students have minimum of 40 inperson learning. Students with disabilities, english learner, students not on track to graduate with receive a full day of inperson instruction each week. This will mitigate the impact of lost learning from remote time. Im proud of the hard work and relentless focus on equity in serving our families and community over the past three months, and we received invaluable support from colleagues across denver, colorado, and the nation includes chiefs for change, the council of schools whose plans and advocacy has been invaluable, governor in colorado and his teams have been invaluable partners. They recognize the immense challenges we face in developing programs amidst the covid crisis. And i know we could not reopen School Without the help we received from the federal government through the c. A. R. E. S. Act. Were currently facing a 61 million budget short fall due to the Economic Impact of covid. The c. A. R. E. S. Act will provide help in lost revenue and costs related to covid. 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 focus on equity. At a time when our kids and Community Need us the the most for education and all the support schools provide, we are having to make massive cuts. I appreciate Congress Efforts to provide additional funding for education. I would like to stress while it is very helpful, we know our students will face incredible challenges over the coming years and will need required and Compensatory Services that we will be obligated to provide despite our budget challenges. Our educators are working hard for our kids and community during these challenging times. Additional funding will be essential to ensure our kids grow academically and come through this pandemic with a great future ahead of them. Additional funds will provide additional 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. Thank you, superintendent cordova. Welcome, secretary king. Thank you so much, chairman alexander, Ranking Member murry, and members ft ocommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify and how we can ensure students educate our school staff and families are prioritized as we consider the safest most equitable ways to open the nations schools in the midst of covid19. Before discussing this in more detail however, im compelled to lift up 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 antiblack. The murders of george floyd, breonna taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have once again sent the message to black students that their lives are devalued. Our nations students of color and their families endure a pandemic that disproportionately impacts their health and safety, mired in 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 have had a disproportionate background on underserved students. Theyve experienced less access to devices and to Internet Service. Teachers with less support during Online Learning and underresourced districts. Parents less able to telework and support learning during the day and more socioemotional stressors. Despite efforts of many educators, many students and families have not received the academic or 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, get 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, hiring freezes disproportionately impacting educators and staff in schools. And the Public Health requirements to ensure safe reopening of school wont be able to 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 k12 education. Second, ensure states and districts do not walk away from the student who is have been hit hardest by the crisis. New federal stimulus funding should include strong maintenance effort provision and add maintenance equity proavision to apply to states and districts. This would maintain education spending at the same percentage of spending as before the pandemic and shield the schools and districts from the worse cut. Before the pandemic 79 of white households had Broadband Access compared to only 66 of black families and 61 of hispanic families. To ensure home access to students is possible, congress should allocate at least 4 billion to the fcc program to provide hot spots and access to bandwidth. Fourth, help schools and teachers address the significant learning loss caused by the pandemic. Congress should allocate de dedicated funds to add more learning time such as through Summer School and extended day or school year or after school programming. Fifth, address students social and Mental Health needs. Congress must expand the program to enable more children to e are receive meals while not in school and ensure socioemotional needs are met through funding additional counselors and mental Health Officials. Finally Congress Must not step back from its Important Role in protecting students rights. Wanted to ensure all students have equitable to high quality ed education. That goal has not changed. Permitted blanket waivers to either law is dangerous and unnecessary. The department of education follows congressional intent, applying title one Equitable Services provision to the c. A. R. E. S. Act, the departments current interpretation would steer money away into the hands of wealthier schools, an idea rejected by several states and one the committee should reject as well. We have the Public Health data to help drive Decision Making on when students return to school. Now we need to target the appropriate resources and supports to help students and school staff prevent further inequities. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I look forward to your questions. Thank you. Well now move to a round of questions from the senators. I would say to each of the senators and the witnesses theres a small action bo in the bottom of your screen thats a time clock. It has five minutes on it. If youll stay as close as that as possible, all the senators will have the chance to talk with witnesses. We talked about testing. Tennessee has been a leader in testing. Its in the top 12 or 13. Tennessee has tested more than a half million tennesseans for covid19. But as we come up on the school year, we have a million children going back to school. Governor lee tells me that the demand for covid tests is down in tennessee, maybe because its so available. His motto is, if in doubt, get a test. People can get one wherever they want one at their Public Health center. What plans are you making for systematic testing of the 1 million children in tennessee . 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 numbers of folks come out and get testing and i think weve seen incredible efforts across the state. Couple things i would love to highlight. Tennessee has been in the top 12 in terms of per capita testing and in the bottom 12 i only have five minutes ive got several questions. What im trying to do is what are you going to do about the 1 Million Students . Sure, so having that Testing Available across the state will continue. Well work with unified and Tennessee National guard to make that available for staff and students. Then were also working to partner to provide free ppe and thermometers to any school and district who wants them for all students and staff. You and i talked yesterday about your plan for what it would take for each of your 1,800 schools to go back to School Safely. Have you figured out what the cost for the School District would be for that . We spent time looking at the variety. We have districts as small as 130 and as big as over 100,000. The cost for hygiene disinfecting materials, including wipes, potential face masks, et cetera is 100 to 150 per student depending on decisions at the local level. On top of that, you have nutrition, transportation service, and custodial services which will vary depending whether districts have their own bus leader zone out. What were finding for districts approximately 3,000 to 4,000 students, early estimates which are consistent with other National Organizations is it would be 1 to 1. 75 million per district for the year. Thats 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 . Sure. Yes, sir. So, when we looked at that, again, acknowledging the fluctuations based on local decisions and contracts they may or may not have, the cost in tennessee will be somewhere in the 100 million to 175 million, certainly the c. A. R. E. S. Act funding coming to the districts will help to support some of that. T but it is a significant need. Will you do me a favor. Im going to ask mr. Blomstedt to do the same in his capacity. Congress has already appropriated 13. 5 billion, 260 million came to tennessee for k12. The states have gotten 150 billion. Usually about a third of the state budge or more goes for schools. What im interested in how much of the money weve 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 are the what do you need for the federal government to do about liability for teachers or School Personnel . Lets 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 . Sure. So, in tennessee teachers are covered under the torte liability per state law. Our legislature is currently exploring legislation on covid. I think continuing to support districts and feeling confident to welcome students back to school is going to be incredibly important and im proud of our legislature frs taking up that work. Im 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 weve already given directly to k12 and the 150 weve already given to states. I think we would all agree theres not much of anything we can think to do that would help all families, all students, especially minorities than to be able to open school in august. And i want to make sure that federal government does its part. Senator murry. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of you for your testimony today. Due to the continued impact and potential spread of covid19, it is likely that some schools will need to keep their physical buildings closed either fully or partially for all or some of our students. States and districts and schools and educators moved to adjust quickly in the face of this unprecedented pandemic. But we do have to acknowledge the support foreign quality of distance education provided to students this spring varied significantly across classrooms or districts and states and some of the recent research and media reports indicate some of the students facing the greatest challenges, low income students, english learners, homelessness, youth and os iffer care, migrant children, also received access to high quality instruction in many instances. Secretary king, 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 of Distance Learning this fall . I think what weve seen is that the bases remain a challenge, access to bases remain a challenge. You have the situation where you have one device in the home but there are multiple kids and they need to use the device. Or the parent is working from home and they need the device too. Exactly, exactly. Bandwidth remains a challenge and commissioner schwinn pointed out the problem in Rural Communities. We saw in high needs Rural Communities a back of bandwidth. And weve seen unpaid balance on cable bill. The result is those families are without internet access. So, tackling the Digital Divide is essential. We also know that teachers didnt have the professional development and support they needed. So, we need to make an investment in Teacher Professional Development in summer so we can prepare for next school year effectively. I think given the Public Health context and students with preexisting health conditions, its almost certain that every School District will need some degree of hybrid learning. So, we should prepare for that eventuality. Grades 38 could return to school this fall only retaining 70 of their reading progress from the Previous Year and lose anywhere from half to all of their math. This brings closures and inconsistent support for Distance Learning programs are projected to cause achievement gaps that existed before the pandemic to widen significantly. Let me have you speak to this. 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. We need diagnostic assessments to understand where kids are and what ground theyve lost. Commissioner schwinn in tennessee and commissioner are making funds to districts. Once we know districts are behind, do something about it. What some are have done is open school early for the highest needs students, students with disabilities, students behind academically. That may be part of the strategy. Summer, Distance Learning may be part of the strategy. We wrote an oped calling for significant investment in districts in Summer Learning. We also know that next School Year Students will need more time to make up for what theyve lost. That will mean adapting the School Schedule to allow for extended learning time. We also know intensive tutoring has a very strong evidence base, one of the reasons im very supportive of efforts to expand to provide more tutors in the schools. Thank you. Finally let me just start this question by first saying thank you to all the educators and staff that have been navigating this crisis. Surveys are showing that nearly two of every three educators have Health Concerns about resuming inperson instruction this fall. 18 of edge kucators, 27 of principals are over the age of 55. Many educators have preexisting conditions. Theyre worried about the health of their family members. They face child care and hardships related to the virus. And i heard someone suggested older educators, many of whom are passionate about their work should retire early. Thats callus to me. I just have a few seconds to me. Ill go with dr. Blomstedt. What steps should School Districts and states take to ensure all educators feel safe. First of all its critical that schools as theyre working on their reopening plans are working with teachers. We have embedded safety committees that include teachers, so thats imperative. Really working with each teacher. I really have a people first strategy work being our agency. Ive really tried to promote that with our schools as well. If theyre asking about each teacher what their concerns are and making the accommodations as best they can to come back to the facility. I am out of time but maybe you or other witnesses can respond to me in writing and talk to me about how schools are dealing with that. Thank you. Senator cassidy. Thank you. Thank you all for all youre doing. Ive always observed children have the lowest risk for significant complications for coronavirus. They are bearing the highest cost. Wants to understand a word without definition and you have to know the definition where all our brains like that now. But those children are. So, thank you for taking this on. Im a physician. So, im kind of approaching this from two fold. One, as a physician and thinking about Public Health and secondly as someone whos trying to help a School Reopen back in louisiana. Ms. Cordova, what issue with your block testing on 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 three days a week . Is there any accommodation, or is it just kind of the way its working out . Yeah, thank you for the question. It definitely is one of the complexities that we are grappling with. We know its going to be important for kids to be in school for parents to be able to go back to work. But right now our state is under a safer at home order where businesses are only allowed to have 50 of their working force in a building at a time. And our hope is in addition to trying to partner with child Care 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 so, let me ask you though because i suspect i have limited time. I suspect many of your parents cannot work from home if its a typical kind of Public School setting. And so to whos going to pay for their child care, for example . Would that be the schools responsibility or would the parents have to do that . We are trying to work with local partners to see how we can provide more child care. We are really sometime mirandis stymied by the size of our buildings to have the children. You mentioned there are some areas in nebraska in which theres not yet been a case. Is this to say that in those areas there would be no disruption at all to the school . Because really what i read from the Public Health experts, if you have extremely low incidence then you actually continue life as normal, particularly when it returns to schooling. Is this the practice pattern youve taken . Yeah, across nebraska were working with local Health Officials and coming up with a risk dial. If there is evidence of spread that there will be certain levels of risk, essentially green, yellow, orange, red type of dial. If we see extensive spread its going to need additional accommodations for health and safety. If theres very little theres more attention to the end of health and whats happening in the school. Our intention is to be able to balance that based on the conditions locally. If it locally has no spread then school would open as it normally would open, correct . Weve had that conversation. Many places are doing that. We believe masks and other accommodations are going to be necessary to continue on that limited spread. I would tell you thats probably not what the Public Health expert would recommend but thats up for you and your Public Health expert. I could ask this of any of you. Weve 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. Im gathering with this expense and the lockdown going on in denver without such aid it would be difficult to rehire. Let me ask specifically, also ive read a lot of educators have been laid off. Its unclear whether theyve been furloughed, off for the summer, or no, youre laid off, we dont have any money and youre not coming back. The program seems it needs more personnel, not less. Do you have the Financial Capacity, and if theres time i would ask this of the other panelists as well . Absolutely we do not have the Financial Capacity to do everything we would like to be able to do. And in fact we are looking at pretty significant cuts. Okay. And anybody else have a little bit of time . Tennessee or nebraska . Yalls kind of experience . So, our state budget continues to fully fund our School Funding formula. That is a commitment that was made by the governor so we are very grateful for that and we will continue to want to look for investments as our economy bounces back. Thank yall. I appreciate your testimony. I yield back. Thank you senator cassidy. Senator casey. Mr. Chairman, thanks very much for this opportunity. I want to thank our witnesses for your 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. Ill have two. One will focus on the question of learning loss. And i know that senator murry asked a similar question. But i wanted to start by noting what secretary king just said at the outset of his testimony with regard to what weve just been throughment im quoting from his statement. Quote, im glad that we referred to earlier. Quote, 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 economic crisis, the disproportional effects of Financial Wellbeing 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 and disparities which should be the subject of action. I want to focus as well on students with disabilities because they face barriers as well. I spoke as ive done a number of times the last few weeks with parents, parents of children with disabilities, students with disabilities. And they shared with me that in pennsylvania theyve 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 could lead to closures again. Secretary king, id ask you how can we minimize some of the disparities, some of the many disparities in this context of students with disabilities to ensure that these students who have additional instructional needs and continue to be provided with a highquality education by way of Distance Learning . Such an important question, senator casey. So, 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 Services for starters. Weve got to make sure that schools have the resources to provide Compensatory Services for mislearning this spring. Theres no question we already had gaps. As you pointed out the Graduation Rate for students in high school for example is almost 20 points below the students in general education. So, weve got to make sure that we make up for the lost time this spring. And then weve got to have the resources for schools to provide additional intervention. There may be some opportunities with existing c. A. R. E. S. Act, but our view is its not sufficient to address the scale of learning loss that were seeing, particularly for students with disabilities. Theyre 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. Well, thank you, we look forward to working with you on this issue. I wanted to close with a question pertaining to learning loss that senator murry has mentioned and others have in their testimony. Were told by the center on reinventing Public Education that only 44 of districts are both, both providing instruction online as well as monitoring students attendance and their progress by way of Distance Learning. Lack of funding, lack of Assistive Technology compounds inequities and exacerbates these achievement gaps that weve been discussing today. How can we assess learning loss and work to close these achievement gaps. Were 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 were going to need to assess their goals and what it will take to help them make progress. Im worried there are some who call for setting aside the protections of ida. That strikes me as a mistake and potentially jeopardizing the progress weve made over the last few decades in supporting students with disabilities, particularly those who are from lowincome families or communities of color who are most vulnerable. We i think have to make sure that states and School Districts are on service ip. If theyve missed services, they need to get those when they get back to school. Thank you. Thank you, senator casey. Senator murkowski. Senator measuurkowski am i there now . You are. Welcome. 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 im listening to you all sharing your concerns and worries. Im thinking about kids that really are going to need the assistance of our school nurses, of our school counselors. Im worried about those kids who were doing okay before covid but now theyre 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 acreage School District, for instance, where we have over 90 plus different languages that are the home languages in the School District alone, how these nonenglish learners are going to be adapting to this. I want to begin my question this is probably directed to you dr. King. So much of the success that we are, 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 doesnt connect, if you will, it doesnt get them anywhere. And we know i appreciate what you raised dr. King this is what provides this critical support to our School Districts in so many rural areas. When school is closed and the program is limited to providing internet at the school, kids cant get access after that. They dont have the connectivity that they need. And so we have weve been pushing on this. Weve been talking with folks at the fcc. They have appropriately pushed to expand the program to reach the entire campus. So, kids can go to a parking lot at school and log on. But what were told is that without changes to statute, they cant provide support for education into students homes. This is really problematic for us in alaska. Im sure its not the only obstacle our School Districts are dealing with. Ours are getting really creative, putting a dish on top of School Buildings. We know weve seen great support for many providers providing Free Internet to families during this initial covid launch, but will they be there to provide that support in the fall if this is indefinite. I guess is question is whether or not theres any review for recommendations for this committee for reforms in a future bill . With schools coming on in august, no answer in sight for so many, im just not sure how you make it happen because it looks good on paper. And again you have it connected, these kids are left out. Dr. King . Youre exactly right. You know, the School Health Libraries Broadband Coalition has suggested a sort of comprehensive strategy that would 75. 25 billion collar Dollar Dollar to make sure every student has access to the internet. I think theres an Important Role for the fcc to play here with the Internet Service providers to atry providers to try to make it as simple as possible for folks to access Internet Service and ideally to make School Districts make purchases of Internet Services for families. I think about the cleveland School District that has committed to work with Internet Service providers to ensure every household in cleveland has access to Internet Service. From a School District standpoint its a question of protecting Distance Learning, closing the homework gap so students can use the internet even if were past covid19 to do their homework. But also today the internet is foundational to accessing postsecondary opportunities, to accessing job opportunities. So, we do need a comprehensive solution here and long term, particularly for rural areas. That may mean also infrastructure investment. I think we recognize were lacking. To the superintendent cordova from denver, i have a question 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, how the Community Partners inside and outside the schools can stabilize these children. I interviewed 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 kid, our homeless family. I am out of time, i want to respect the chairmans directive here so perhaps i could have a conversation off line with you. Do you have any suggestions . It is something and i hope we would have further discussion on and also that question for the record, mister chairman as well as others. Thank you. Thank you very much, senator mcconnell ski. Senator baldwin. Thank you mister chairman, i want to begin a by associating myself with the remarks of Ranking Member murray, 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. Especially for us in the help committee to look deeply within the jurisdiction of this committee, health, education, labor and pensions to see where we can do more. I really thank 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 covid19 disease. For example, according to federal data, nearly a third of all k through 12 teachers are over the age of 50. Im confident that all of our School Districts want to reopen safely but i believe they need clear rules on the road about how they must protect their employees and educators so that they feel confident that they will be safe at work. Its why i introduced the covid19 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 Diseases exposure control plans to keep workers safe. I believe its 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 students who may have quite a wide range of civic needs. Doctor blomstedt, you noted in your testimony that nebraska has identified professional development for teachers to support rim or learning as a priority for your use of the cares act fund. Id like to ask you to explain a little bit more about how you identified this as a priority and what would 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 . What thanks all for the question. The reality underneath what we have done underneath launched a brisk, a we have talked about what our weaknesses are in the Distance Learning environment. We need some from a technology standpoint, but we didnt realize many of our students in urban areas or urban areas alike did not have adequate broadband at home so we really looked at everything from infrastructure to devices to the type of educational content thats available, that also needs to be addressing students with disabilities, 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. Weve had a series of professional learning, at distance by the way, for our students, for our teachers excuse me across the state. We have been up to about 15 different training that weve done in content areas and otherwise and we also need to distribute high Quality Content as well. Thats 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 were looking actually to use the cares act funding to make those investments all the way through that important cycle. Thank you. Thank you senator baldwin. The senator braun. Thank you chairman. I was on a school board for ten years from 2014 to 2014 and i must say that this isnt a category in of itself. interpreter i cant imagine how we navigate through it. Im anxious to get back to my plans, some of them are still on the board. I got several questions and im going to live it to two. The first is going to be for doctors flynn and blomstedt the and miss cordova. It would regard the issue of my availability in terms of trying to reopen schools. I know its been a sensitive topic among Business Owners in indiana worried if they want to robustly get their businesses going its part of getting the economy started and especially among the conference, the republican conference thats a concern. What each of you to give your opinion on, is that something that is tangible, measurably being discussed as a concern and trying to do something that looks like its going to have a lot of acrobatics to it, a lot of guidelines. Indiana, by the way, just released a 37page guidelines for reopening in the classroom, came out on june 5th. It looks very comprehensive, if any of you choose to look at it but give me a comment on whether you think thats a concern or whether thats something thats not been on your minds. So from my perspective in alaska weve had those conversations with School Board Members and administrators and those types of concerns. Heres my concern, that we can have individuals waving their rights to general liability concerns. Weve actually had some conversations from the state on that front. I dont have a great answer on how we would go and provide some type of umbrella protections for these environments but i do believe that that is a worthy and worthwhile conversation. In tennessee, our two priorities in to ensure we keep people safe and keep kids educated. Thats what this is about. For us, we know that our futures are covered four state law, we are currently having ongoing conversations but we want to make sure that when educators are in that classroom, they are focused on keeping their kids safe and teaching and learning can take place. Certainly want to make sure there isnt enough protection, that they are not so over focused on some of the whether or not little johnny has mask on in a kindergarten classroom, that they are able to really focus on teaching literacy and mathematics on supporting the whole child and that so thats where focus is going to be. Speaking from a School District lens of, 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 for required can Compensatory Services, which is on a large liability that we are very concerned about. Thank you. Doctor king, there have been recent developments in understanding the diseases itself. The fact that the World Health Organization just came out with the kind of finetuning transmissibility. We do know that probably in the equation, protecting the teachers and staff, they are going to fit into that category that has been ravaged by the disease itself. With what weve learned recently about what we a need to do to fight this peculiar challenge off in general. Have you come across anything you do differently now with what weve learned recently . Also, discuss a little bit about what we can do to protect teachers and staff that fit into that category of being more susceptible to the disease. 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 and the Public Health effort around a pandemic and we still need to do that work. There are still places in the country were testing remains inaccessible and we dont yet to have a Contact Tracing infrastructure. We need thats going to be foundational, i think, we now know from Public Health experts some of the things that schools can do structurally from ensuring physical distancing to the use of masks, to improving cleaning, to having a strategy to physically isolate and see who becomes ill until they can be picked up, needing to follow up with Contact Tracing within the school building. Certainly our International Peers are using Temperature Check as a way to identify students who may be symptomatic, but all of those steps as we talked about earlier, Additional Resources and School Districts are going to have this in close consultation with local Public Health experts. I also should note that there are kids, in addition to having staff more particularly vulnerable because of preexisting conditions, theyre also kids who have preexisting conditions that might make them more run arrival and strongly kids who are living at homes with family members who may have conditions that make them particularly vulnerable. Thank you. Thank you senator braun. Senator murphy. Thank you very much, mister chairman. Thanks to our panelists. Let me join in senator murrays request to have the secretary of education appear before our committee. I think thats absolutely essential to call to the right questions we are raising today. We need the nations top official before us. Second, let me express alarm of the prospects for leaving a two week recess in july without appropriating additional funding for schools. That carries act put in about as much money for the Airline Industry as it did for the entire american Public School system. The Airline Industry is important, but its not more important than all of the schools in the nation and weve got a letter back in may from about 62 schools superintendent of major cities forecasting that they are going to be looking at 15 to 25 cuts in School Funding, even with the cares act funding. When you spread that money around, it just doesnt get as far as the need and so we need, we need to get additional funding to states and or to School Districts before the july recess because the planning is going to be need to be done in order to make the schools reopen safely is going to be done this summer. That leads to my first question and ill directed to secretary king. There was a question raised by senator casey about how schools get ready for students with learning disability. I panicked about this because many of them have not been able to engage in any Distance Learning because they cant learn without support services at all. Talk to me about the need for schools to be able to plan and higher now in order to be able to set up a support service they are going to need around the students and whats the impact of a 25 cut in funds for School Districts on students with disabilities when they return for the fall . Senator murphy, i think this is the exact 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 cut in state aid, that will be devastating. That will mean layoffs, Program Eliminations 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. Even if people are doing their scenario planning, they are pampered in that work because of the year of cuts. Theres no question that students with disabilities will need particularly intensive supports when they return. They may be well served by returning earlier but that would be a very small group. Those teachers will need tremendous amount of support to plan for how they make up or the loss learning time and many of the students have not only disabilities that might affect learning needs but they also have, at times, disabilities that affect your social im ocean or needs. We already know that schools have too few councillors, too few Mental Health resources, that will be critical to supporting students with disabilities and their families, any of whom who have struggled over these, you know, several months without access to school and the support that school often provides. As an example, Lawrence Township in new jersey where they have already laid off 80 of their school aides, many of those aides are those that served the existing population and theyre gone, and likely not coming back. Im going to switch gears in the for miss cordova. I saw in an announcement regarding a vote that is perhaps an upcoming to remove Police Officers from schools in denver. When we think about how to create safe schools, were obviously talking about making sure students dont get infected with the virus. But were also talking about making sure that students arent targeted because of the 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 of the state student population but there are 75 of school 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. Thank you senator murphy. So our school board is taking us up in fact tomorrow to determine if they will end our contract with the police. I think it aligns with the values that they have for making the statement about the need to create environments for students to 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. Thank you. I am over my time. Thank you mister chairman. Thank you senator murphy. Senator loeffler. Thank you mister 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 who are dependent on the School Meal Programs and as soon as begin to return to school in the fall, many may only attend a few days. I know and thank the usda for providing certain waivers and flexibility to school lunch and ebt programs. Based on the experiences that youve 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, in our state of georgia, our farmers have stood ready to help provide vigorous is and i would love to hear from you on this important topic. 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. We lead, in terms of the number of waivers and how quickly we submitted waivers, we put up a website school neil finder. Com so that families could put in their addresses and get the closest meal possible. Something i do want to highlight is that we are giving a fuel meals because of School Closures and the expenses of cost distributing that food, caustic, sara maintain stability. Some of that cares at funding will go towards and is certainly something our districts are bringing up at our commitment stands firms that needs to be fed and its incredibly important. The state of tennessee will use that going into next year. In nebraska its very similar. We really worked with our Community Partners to understand Food Security at a community level. Weve worked with partnership that we called Nebraska Children Family Foundation and bring up nebraska to really regionalized estate and leverage what we are doing in schools with private providers as well to ensure that we can find some ways to do this. This has really been our initial effort was critical and it continue to take place statewide and we know it needs to stand in place for Food Security for our needy families. Speaking from the School District lens, will continue to provide food even on the days when students are in school, when they are engaging in Remote Learning because we know how critical that is. Weve been able to reach about half as many students as on a school day and thats with tremendous effort to try to get it to kids. I talk with families who say even having it in the neighborhood with distribution routes, they simply dont have the gas money to pick it up. Quickly, the eggplant electronic benefit through pandemic ebt 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 for students will be away from schools sundays and the pandemic ebt card will be even more important to make sure kids have access. Right. That concludes, ill yield my time. Thank you for your attention on this important matter. As we learn Going Forward to be able to share that information on how to address this would be great. Thank you. Senator cain. Senator canes not available. Senator hassan. Thank you mister chair and thank you Ranking Members for holding this hearing. Thank you to all the witnesses. Your work to meet the current unprecedented challenges that our nations children educators are facing and just before my questions, i also want to associate myself with remarks of a 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. Doctor king, i want to direct my first question to you. As congress has work to respond to covid19, i advocated for additional funding and flexibility for state and local governments to help back fill your budget. Budget has 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. Doctor king, do you agree that congress should prioritize giving state and local governments to support they need so that educators have the necessary tools to meet Student Needs at this critical time . Its absolutely essential, senator that congress put Additional Resources towards states stabilization dedicated to education. We fought for at least 175 billion dollars just to make sure that districts dont have to make devastating cuts to personnel and programs. Additional funds on top of that to address learning laws and social emotional leads, but those states are vital, we saw this during the Great Recession that districts all over the country lost personnel, lost programs and the consequences were worst for the students most vulnerable, low income students, students of color. Thank you. I certainly hope we have bipartisan effort as senator cassidy was talking about as well to do just that. I just want to talk about another particular that students face unique challenges during this crisis and really following up on senator 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 quality education during were more learning, students who experienced disabilities have been disproportionately impacted by changes in education by covid19, and we spoken about that. Under the idea as their peers and thats been particularly difficult from a person to Remote Learning. In many cases, these disruptions will result in student was disability, and its outlined in individual education plans. Doctor king, as schools experience increased amounts to respond to covid19, can you please speak to the value of congress providing additional educated funding with the i. D. E. A. . Yes. We already know that for many School Districts they are not getting the i. D. E. A. Funding they need and states deal with budget cuts. It will be even more challenging for them to ensure they are serving students well. Some of the things they need, we know assisted technology will be vital for some students to 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 support to those students. Parents need Additional Support. Many cases, parents are very reliant on schools to help them support students, particularly those with the most significant disabilities. Theyll need more support, so ceo im ocean ill support as well as instructional support for their kids. This is a critical area. We got to make up for what students have lost and put in a position to support students and what may be a Distance Learning or a hybrid learning environment into the school year. Thank you for that. I wanted to ask commissioner schwinn and blomstedt a question as well. Weve talked about all the Different Things that we are going to need to do for students to return physically but we know even in places where Public Health officials believed that schools can safely reopen, some families that face increased health risk at home, they feel uncomfortable with their job going back to school until there is a covid19 vaccine. Can you share how your own state School Reopening plans address the needs for students who may request a need to continue Remote Learning during to due to ongoing Health Concerns . Its actually been a very important conversation across this state that, again, i kind of go back to my people first approach that when students are asking and families are feeling that its not safe, we want to make sure there are protocols in place. If they cant 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 i. E. People and and work with them relative to each plan in each individual concern that parents may have and so we see that taking place across the state. Its a lot more to do and we will probably have challenges like we always may experience, but for my perspective and our saw awesomely at the state, we need to be working with each of them on those concerns. Thank you. Commissioner schwinn, you have anything to add . I know i am over time. I will be brief. I think we prioritize this work in tennessee. We put up an ally a guide and we put up 20 plus two kids over the next seven days specifically on issues like this, but we prioritize children with disabilities of a 5 Million Dollar compensatory Million Dollars in assistant technology and 3 Million Dollars plus an innovative graduate districts get support they need specifically for students who are unable to return to school. Thank you very much. Thank you to all the witnesses and thank you mister chairman. Thank you senator hassan. Senator smith. Thank you to alexander and Ranking Member murray and for all of our palace to be here today. I want to start 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, my hometown. His death is a tragedy and it never shouldve happened and we cannot look away from the deep injustice that it represents. It reveals a systemic racism and an equity that exist throughout our society including in policing. Whats 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 on 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 had over 200 schools were students of color make up 90 of the enrollment. The bulk of the schools are in the twin cities areas. 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 its been given a name, the minnesota paradox by professor at the university of minnesota humphrey school. Colleagues, these disparities exist in my state and theyre 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 directly. I want to address my questions and 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, though i welcome your thoughts on the whole area, you know, we know the covid19 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 with color, indigenous communities, and black families and that this is a burden on top of a historic 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 school and im thinking about their Mental Health challenges that their children have been grappling with on top of Everything Else that has been happening. It feels to me like the scale in the scope that we are thinking about for this is just completely missing the need. Secretary king, can you address us and talk about how we need to be urgent about this as our schools are trying right now to figure out how to safely reopen . I mean, i worry tremendously about this. You think about kids during the relationships with adults and peers at schools, its the thing that gives him a sense of hope and stability, now theyve been without that for months. I think about kids who are in families who are in a vixen or Domestic Violence or their found is going to an economic trauma because of covid19. Where there are families affected by their Health Impact of covid19. There is a lot that kids are carrying, we need to address when kids return to school and we know that even though the American School counselors ocean says we need to have a ratio of one council to every 250 students, we have states where the ratio is want to 400, one to 500, one to 600. There is no way that they can provide adequate support. We have done polling parents across the country, one of the things we have seen is skyrocketing stress among parents. Im very worried about parents and their need for social emotional support and access to Mental Health services. Thats a vital area i think of additional investment that school need to make. Again, that will be very difficult in the context where they are facing significant consequences. Even before covid19, we really had a disinvestment in councillors 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 and other places. This is my great worry that in a moment we should be investing, we are going to be seeing cuts because congress apparently feels no urgency in addressing these issues as schools are trying to get ready for what is arguably the most important beginning of a school year that will happen in their lifetimes of these children. Thank you, mister chair. Thank you miss senator smith. Senator jones. I think hes still in another committee hearing. Senator rosen. We have senator cain and senator jones in another hearing. I think we are airy ready to conclude the hearing. Senator murray, do you have some additional marks or questions before we close the hearing . Thank you mister chairman. I do have one question and then some comments. Secretary king, i did want to ask you, there are over one and a half Million Students who are experiencing homelessness in Public Schools. This number as we grow in the increase in unemployment and other financial suppresses on families right now, im really concerned that due to inequitable internet, device access we just talked about, School Budget cuts that are coming, School Schedules, ongoing distance education, schools are going to find it very difficult to prioritize the needs of students who are experiencing homelessness. Doctor blomstedt, doctor schwinn, maybe ill direct this to you. What actions did you take to make sure schools are in regular families who are experiencing homelessness and whether schools are doing interstate now to make sure they have the capacity to provide High Quality Services to these students and doctor blomstedt let me start with you and doctor schwinn. Thank you for that question. We have been concerned with our homeless students at this moment of time. Many of our schools have worked hard to contact these families and started to find ways that they were able to do that. I was very impressed to see teachers where they might have been teaching remotely during evening phone calls, making close contact type of connections, making sure folks are all right. We did food drops as part of that, trying to ensure those families were being recognized. Our Homeless Population is obviously a huge huge concern. I do not know that we have every strategy down. I know there is a potential effort by schools to check in on every single student on their roles. In some cases, there are concerns where we could not find necessarily what might have happened and release them intentional effort to track down students if they werent being responsive to their schools. Doctor when. Yes maam, the specific intensive considering the full needs of our students when School Buildings are closed, that continues through the summer and we are continuing that through the coming school here, understanding the challenges. I want to think of other things weve done. Weve put out tool kits specifically for our highly mobile, students who might be homeless and foster cares, its deterrence, so we can have Additional Support for kids who needed the most. Frankly, i think about places like Shelburne County in memphis. Our Tennessee Region in the far east. When i think about what those districts are doing, they are making sure there are doing calls every day. We are sitting up and working with the state board of education to ensure learning plans for next year require and support that level of contact with our kids. We have to make sure and whatever community and those locally driven decisions, that we will focus on the two most important things. Kids are self safe and healthy and getting high quality education. Thank you. In place with the capacity to make sure that they will get equitable access to education . We do, but i really want to stress the intensive effort that our teachers and support staff had to go into during this time of Remote Learning. Our students were experiencing homelessness, predominantly in some of the hardest to reach students, students who lacked consistent access to internet. There were families that were experiencing multiple issues. At very high risk infection. We know that it was an intensive effort, and sometimes very challenging to keep those students engaged in school. Thank you. Miss chairman, thank you. Thank you to all of our witnesses today. As students and families and educators, staff across the country wrap up this full year and begin to look to the next one, there are a lot more questions than there are answers. I know schools and districts are not only grappling with high quality Public Education, whether in person or virtually, but there are also grappling with some of the biggest state and local revenue that we have seen in a very long time. School districts should not be on their own. They need support resources from the federal government. They need indepth, actionable Public Health guidance on best practices. With educators and school staff and the broader community. We need a massive investment in Public Education system. So we can implement Public Health protocols, addressing learning loss among the students, and the decline you will see and state and local funding. What they do not need is secretary using this to push the agenda and compound the issues they are facing. I want to emphasize once again how crucial it is that this committee, and the american people, actually, here from the administration and from secretary devos. And students and educators prepare for the incredibly incredibly challenging schooling year ahead, they deserve to know that all of us, including secretary devices are doing everything we can to support them. Thank you mister chairman. Thank you. Thank you senator. 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 in the whole nation is focused on Racial Discrimination and disparity, and trying to understand what in terms of laws are changing behaviors we can do about that. I think this hearing has emphasize that it will be hard to think of anything we can do 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 can do to help them get back to School Safely. In teacher can tell us and all of our witnesses have reminded us of the emotional, intellectual and physical damage to children in the schools and the difficulty it creates for panelists. This is been a very important hearing. One thing i would ask of each of our witnesses, and ive mentioned it to all of them, it would be helpful to me and i think the other senators, if you could provide some specifics to the committee about exactly what it would take in terms of financial support, open our schools. As doctor shokin said, there are two goals here. One is 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 it is a favor, American Federation of teachers at the same. When they try to estimate the cost per district of just the basic things it would take to help schools to open, because of administrators are reluctant to take a risk, to open a school, a child will be left home and left to all those disadvantages. The doctor said she thought the cost might be about 1. 5, 1. 7 Million Dollars for an average School District. Afp mention 1. 8, i think was the figure. That would be very helpful to have, especially from the council of chief state schools. If you could provide that to us. Second, i would like to see some analysis if he can get it, of why the money we have already appropriated cannot be used for some of that. For example, 200 13. 5 Million Dollars was appropriated just for kindergarten through 12th grade on march 27th. For example, tennessee got 260 million of that. I assume that could be used to open the School Safely at the end of the summer and at the end of the fall. We appropriate 25 billion dollars for testing. If you spent three or 4 million of that on hiring Contact Trace or, you can hire 100,000 of them. I would assume some of that could be used. Then there is 150 billion dollars that has been given to the states. About a third of the state budget or more goes for education. I would assume some of that could be used and one of the complications we may have, is that that money was restricted. The statute restricted the way state can spend the money. It would be helpful to me to hear from counsel chief state school officers, if you think that changing the law, to give states more flexibility and using the money to help children go back safely to school would be one way to help . 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 to help children. Other thing is testing. I had a conversation with the doctor about testing. I am in shrieked. 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 current plans are to have 40 to 50 million tests available about the time school starts, and that every month, states are submitting their plans to the federal government about what theyre testing needs are in the count meet them. The federal government is helping them meet those tests. In addition, there is an effort that the National Institute have created diagnostic tests which can be given frequently and if necessary and all of that is important not just to contain the disease but to build confidence among parents and students that it is safe to go back to school. I hope that you will convey 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 an x number of test and they do not have a capacity for that, that they can get some help for finding those tests because they should be available for systematic testing. This has been a very helpful hearing. I think doctor schwinn doctor homestead, secretary king, thank you for taking the time for your demanding schedules and isnt busy days to give us your opinion. The record will remain open for ten days. Members may submit Additional Information to the record in that time if they would like. Our committee will meet again next wednesday, june the 17. At that time we will focus on teller health. Lessons from the covid19 pandemic. Weve crammed about ten years of experience into three months in terms of teller work, tell a learning and teller health. Next wednesday we will focus on the impact of the covid 19 epidemic on telehealth and what we should be doing as a result of. Committee will stand adjourned. Next, a look at the Conspiracy Theory which alleges the secret plot against president trump. From the atlantic magazine, this is 40 minutes. Big im julian white, deputy of atlanta. Thank you for joining us of this weeks edition of the big story. In case you have not joined us before, the big story of Digital Events areas where we go behind scenes with alleged reporters, to talk about some of the latest work. This week, im really excited. We are going to talk about conspiracy theories. We recently watched an entire project on conspiracy theories called shadow land. On our website, the atlantic. Com slash shadow and. On the cover of the magazine, executive adrian le france