Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On Reopening Schools During A Pandemic 20240712

Hearing on reopening schools during the pandemic. Tennessees Education Department commissioner and the Dallas School superintendent testified about plans in their jurisdictions. Well also hear from a pediatric Infectious Disease specialist and the president of the national parentteacher association. The subcommittee on Early Childhood secondary education will come to order. Welcome, everyone. I know that a quorum is presentm and i note for the subcommittee that mr. Courtney of connecticut, mrs. Bonamici of oregon, mr. Nor quist of new jersey and ms. Wild of pennsylvania, mrs. Mcbath of evm georgia, miss underwood of illinois, mr. Levin of michigan, ms. Stevens of michigan, mr. D leah panhattia, mr. Wahlberg of michigan, mrs. Stefanik of new york, mr. Banks of indiana, mr. Johns of south dakota and dr. Murphy of South Carolina are re permitted to participate in todays hearing with the ry and understanding that their questions will sbcommi come onl all members of Early Childhood elementary and secondary education subcommittee on both sides of the aisle who are hear present have had an opportunity to question thein witnesses. The committee and the hearing pc for s testimony on underfunding and unprepared examinationing how to overcome on stackms to safely reopen Public Schools. As this is a hybrid meeting hearing, hybrid hearing, with rn members participating bothes he in the hearing room and remotely, i ask that all microphones for members and witnesses participating remotely be kept muted as a general rulei to avoid unnecessary background noise. Members and witnesses will be responsible for muting gnitio themselves when they are lution recognized to speak 9 or when ty wish to seek recognition. Further, for house solution 965e and the accompanyingra regulations, members participating remotely are ste required to leave their cameras on the entire time they are in an official proceeding. Even if they step away from ther camera. While roll callremote is not ney to establish a quorum in the official r proceedings, wheneveo there is an official proceeding with remote participation the clerk will call the roll to mako clear who is present at the start of the proceeding. So at this time i ask the clerk to call the roll. Ll chairman sublan. Here. Ms. Shrier . Mrs. Hayes. Yes. Miss shalala. Here. Mrs. Davis. Here. Miss wilson . Mr. Desonnia . Mr. Morelli . Chairman scott. Present. Mr. Allen. M rs. Present. Mr. Thompson. Present. Mr. Grothman . Mr. Keller . Mr. Van drew . Mrs. Foxx . K you chairman sublan, that concludes the role call. Openin thank you. Thank you very much. Th pursuant to Committee Rule 7c,o Opening Statements areoner limi to the chair and the Ranking Member. This allows us to hear from our witnesses sooner and provides all members with adequate time. To ask questions. Iiwe recognize myself now for h purpose of making an opening statement. Were here to ask what Congress Must do to help American Students get back to school during this pandemic. That fac all of us wants our schools to u reopen for fulltime inPerson Instruction as soon as possible. That fact is not up for debate. E the question is, what Must Congress do to help our schools get students back, get students and faculty back into the classroom safely . Just ho were all coming to a new to lif understanding ofe how essentiad schools are to life in america. Where working parents could be confident their children are cared for, for economic challenged families and other eg children could be fed and where communities could find common se ground, cheering at sporting events andgenerati where americg future is being formed by the knowledge and values we impart to the next generation. Schools are currently struggling to safely reopen because of thie president s response to the pandemic. There is still nono testing and Contact Tracing strategy or sciencebased plan that we know other countries are using successfully to combat covid19. Now, the daily number of new cases in the United States is exceeding 60,000. 60,000. Much higherer than when the pandemic first caused schools to close nationwide in march. Centers for Disease Control and prevention has made clear that fully reopening schools carries the highest rick ofpractice crew spikes in covid19 infections. We had hoped to have cdc here today too discuss what best refe practices could helpd safely i. Reopen americas schools but the white house refused to let its officials testify at todays hearing. Well, initially theyeycountr su students are less likely to contract covid19 and suffer serious illness across the country, outbreaks at summer car camps and even f among infants a make itt clear we dont know enough about the risk forormill childrens. And a Kaiser Family foundation allows us to estimate that if t 1. 5 millionhe teachers, nearly e in four, have Health Conditions to put them at high risk of serious illness if they contactt covid19. Ifif could be mitigated and child disease could be prevents but it requires a nationwide strategy to contain the spread of the virus and a significant federaln investment to helpg schools to take necessary safety act in precautions. Also mded democrats have not be idle waiting for miraculous disappearance of covid19. Closu the c. A. R. E. S. Act in march provided over 13 billion to schools to help deal with the cost of closure and transition n to an Online Learning sc environment. In may the housepersonal passes heroes act with another 60 billion in Emergency School funding to help schools buy personal protective equipment,. Sanitize classrooms and make special arrangems for students and teachers in high risk categories so schools could safely reopen. And this month, this committee reopen and review americas schools app was included when the house passed the moving forward act, another 130 billion that could be used to modern schools to protect the health of students and staff. Unfortunately our republican friends in the senate have chosen, like the president , to hide from the problem and taken no action on the hope to help ar americas schools safely reopenb were hearinge thewaki senate be waking up to the enormity of the problem. I think they shakekesi themselvt awake because time is not on our side. For many, the school year should begin me. Month but you cannot modernize the hvac system in a school in a moments notice. Chools according to the superintendente association, the average district will need 1. 8 million of work before schools could safely reopen. The house voted to give them the money to get started months agop the senate slept. Meanwhile, instead of joining democrats to deliver more c scho funding to help schools reopen d safely, secretary devos and President Trump are threatening to strip funding from Public Schools that determine they cannot safely bring all students back into the classroom t backwa fulltime. They have it backwards. As a National Survey published m onpo monday found, 86 of amerin School Principals said it is extremely important, that is inf quotes, extremely important to getets th funding so schools cos safely idreopen and that is jus the opposite of the administrations threat to defund schools. And to be clear, the president has no Legal Authority to withhold school funds that congress appropriated. But i should know that my republican colleagues who have consistently railed against eveh federalat governments role in education now believe that the t Trump Administration should act as ath National School board th forces schools into opening for full time instruction regardlesg of local Health Conditions. Ctio meanwhile, the Education Department has no plan, no planc at all,he for transitioning students back to inPerson Instruction safely. Instead it is blaming teachers and administrators for not doing enough. So well be listening today to National Leaders and experts who want to make sure congress provides meaningful assistance t to americas schools. I thank our witnesses in advance for their advice. And i now yield to mr. Allen fos the purpose ofch an opening we statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Reopening american schools has t dominated family conversations around the country the last few weeks. Good news is science it on our side and federal agencies t like theh centers for Disease Control and prevention and state agencies like the georgia finger department of Public Health have provided detailed reports on hos to reopen schools schedule. I hope we could put partisan interests aside when we discuss not if, but how we could safely reopen school this is fall. Clou i know both my democratic and republican colleagues agree that students are being harmed by the physical closure of schools and that we need to provide the option of inperson instructio as we gear up for a new school i year this s cofall, there is question of how to reopen our e5 nations schools, safely needs to be a top priority for this committee. This past spring more than 55 Million Students were affected h bye covid19 related School Closures. That number accounts for approximately 97 of students co nationwide. The result, while theence a num speak for themselves. The collaborate for student growth projected that some students could experience as much as a 50 reduction in typical learning gains as a result of School Closures. All th another analysis conducted by mckenzie and company, a cademi consulting group, found that when all of the impacts of covid19 are taken into account, the average student could fall seven months behind academically. As leader mccarthy argues, we could not afford to letet a generation miss out on being taught. President trump also recognized the vital importance of safely reopening americas schools. Ol u sadly, learning loss isnt the only challenge students face due to School Closures. This pandemic and subsequent closure have dramatically reduced interactions between ib Vulnerable Children and tristeds adults whileol exacerbating conditions that contribute to child abuse and neglect such ash financial straight and social isolation. School closures diminish educators ability to serve these vulnerable students. Additionally, school is the onlu place where some receive meals on a consistent basis. According to the department of t agriculture, more than 30 million children in the u. S. Count onn schools for free or lowcost meals. So when schools and childcare if centers k close, children miss c on essential food services. Rk. Lets not forget the economic down side of keeping schools in closed. If children cant the bro atten, parents cant return to work. In fact, the Brookings Institution argues that the world could lose as much as 10 trillion over the coming generation as a result of School Closures today. Househ schoolol closures d disproportionately act low income and singleparent r job households, while families with multipleti workers may have one working adull scale back hours or quit their job to take on care giving duties full time, this is unlikely to be feasible for all families. Especially those already struggling financiallyon durings this economic downturn. In may, the cdc released f. Guidance on reopening schools that includes ways in which schools could help protect ch sh students, teachers, administrators, and staff. These guidelines recognize that each school is unique and there is no one size fits all solution to opening. Given the difference in the size and structure, the cdc recommends that School Officials should determine in wheth collaboration with state and local Health Officials whether y and how to implement cdc they guidance. Moreover, the American Academy of pediatrics also released guidance for schools. Ool ye they strongly advocated that all policies considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physicallyy present in school. What do educators think . Comforta the American Federation of teachers found that 76 of educators surveyed would be comfortable returning if Certain Health and safety conditions were metet at their school. This includes daily cleaning and sanitizing of school facilities, additional protections for th atrisk students and staff and availability of protective equipment. These are steps we can and should take to safely reopen our schools. That is why this morning i on fr interdussed the educational flexibility act, legislation that requires k through 12 mi schools to provideng s an optio. Students to safely attend inperson classes for the Upcoming School year in order to be eligible for any federal d t assistance. Would ensure that the to th option for inPerson Learning is on the table and available for families around the country who want their children to safely di return to theon classroom this fall. Im proud ofof the educational he leaders in my district who are a committed to providing families the flexibility they need this school year. Whether it is in the classroom, Distance Learning, home schooling, or a hybrid model. The bottom line is schools must be preparedd to provide every student effective instruction this fall and customized to that student. The health and futurec today, o nation students depend on it. Say i think our witnesses for testifying on this important topic todayan and i look forwar to hearing from them about the measures we could take to safelp reopen american classroom this m is fall. Ent. And i yield back. Thank you, Ranking Member allen, for that opening statement. All other members who wish to insert written statements into the record may do so by submitting them to the Committee Clerk electronically in microsoft word format by 5 00 p. M. On thursday august 6th, 2020. I will now introduce our witnesses. First is dr. Michael hinojosa, superintendent of Dallas Independent School district. Mr. Hinojosa has served as dallas isd superintendent and ceo of six Public Education systems including two of the 25d largest schoolen systems in docr america. He is passducati president of t Texas Association of School Administrators, hes a proud graduate of Dallas Independent School district and has a doctorate in education from the university of texas in austin. Next is miss leslie boggs, ild d president of thevo national pta. Mrs. Boggs is the compression of the national pta, the oldest and largest child volunteer al advocation. Af the Leadership Development from mod he issa, texas, with over 20 years of leadership experience at all levels of pta. And the state level mrs. Boggs was served as president of dallas and new mexico pta, a mother of three and grandmother of four boggs is a dedicated and passionate advocate for children and their right to receive a quality Public Education no matter their demographics or nne ethnicity or household income. Next is penny schwinn. Commissioner for the state of education for the state of tennessee. Shes from a family of educators andn her wo dedicated to increa access for excellent education for all children. Ission she began her work as a high ua school historyry 1 and economic teacher in baltimore. She was sworn inin as joini education commissioner on february 1, 2019 and prior to joining the Tennessee Department of education, commissioner schwinn served as the chief Deputy Commissioner of academics at the texas education agency. Commissioner schwinn earned her bachelor of arts from university of california berkeley and teachings from John Hopkins University and hpd claremont education in california. Lastly dr. Sean oleary, m. D. , professor of pediatrics, Infectious Diseases colorado. He is from the university of Colorado School of medicine andl Childrens Hospital colorado, ar pediatric Infectious Disease erv specialist and theie director o the colorado childrens outcomee network. Hes an accomplished researchers with over 120 peer review publications. The research focuses on vaccine preventible diseases. Dr. Oleary is a member of the s American Academy of pediatrics e Council School a health and sers as chairman of committee on Infectious Diseases for the aap. And from the committee on immunization practices for the society. Dr. Oleary crooauthored the aa guidance for School Reentry. We appreciate the witnesses for participating today and look es forward to your testimony. Let me remind the witnesses that we have read your written statements and they will appeara in full in the hearing record. Pursuant to Committee Rule 7d and Committee Practice, each ofu you is asked to limit your oral presentation to five minute summary of your written statement. And let me remindu. Thesection that pursuant to title 18 of the u. S. Code section 1001, it is illegal to knowingly and willfully falsify any statement, representation, writing, document or material fact presented to congress or se a otherwise conceal or cover up a material fact. S left during your testimony, staff will be keeping track of time and will use a chime to signal when one minute is left and when time is up entirely. N time i theyll sound a short chime whe there is one minute left and a longer chime when time is up. Ela please be attendive and wrap up when the time is over and mute your system. For the witnesses participating remotely, if any of you experience technical difficulties during your testimony or later in the hearing, you should stay or l connected on the platform, make sure you are muted with the mute button highlighted in red and use your phone to immediately call the committee site director sheila halfener whose number has been provided. Well let all witnesses make presentations before we move to members questions. When answering a question, please remember to unmute your system. R, you and i will first recognize dr. Hinojosa. Sir, you have five minutes. Y thank you,ou, mr mr. Chairmae members of committee. Of you i do appreciate this opportunity to testify in front of you this morning. My name is Michael Hinojosa and im the superintendent of the c. Dallasas Independent School ntee district. Im also here representing aasa, the Superintendents Association as im a member of the covid19 Recovery Task force and it is an honor as i said to be in front of you today. The dallas isd has 153,000 students and right now were preparing to launch the school wer and ak w facee manyha r lear challenges. When wewe shut down right before spring break, we had to offer, we decided to offer some opportunities for learning at home. N we have ainto master plan to em devices to all of our students d but we had to accelerate that plan and then we ran into other issues about connectivity once the devices got in the hands of our students and families. So we figured out that we tried to train teachers and get everyone prepared, almost on a w moments notice but learned we could have significant longterm issues on how we respond to thoseses matters. In when we started this journey back in march, Dallas County only had a total of 1300 cases, confirmedd ov caseser a in the countries. In the month of has beenjuly, w had 14 consecutive days where weve had over 1,000 cases per t day. So the context has been changing significantly as we move forward. We are now learning that our best options may be to do Distance Learning. We certainly want to see our students, we havent seen our students since march and we know we need to see our students and. Things are evolving. In fact, tonight, im meeting with the school board to preven the latest option about adjusting the calendar to offer both remote and oncampus instruction but how we do that, we need to buy some time with il our school board. Recently also the state of texat has pivoted a little bit. Initially they said we would have to have in Person Instruction before qualifying for any funding. Now they have given up more leeway, theyve given us a fuelo week window where we could have virtual instruction before inPerson Instruction and still be able to qualify for state funding for our Public Education. The covid we have cases had beee thousand a day forally this mon. However, we have some recent good news. Because weve been asked to really wear masks and social distance, the last two days havh gotten a lot letter in dallas u. County. Were from over a thousand, to 700 to 400. The bad news is the deaths have increased significantly in the county. So there is this lag effect. And that is precisely where were asking for more time for our families. In addition, it is also very important for you to know that 91 of our families are ethnic minority, black and latino larjs families and so these aret the two largest groups that are negatively affected by the are crisis. When we started this journey, we surveyed our parents. Early on 30 of our parents said the they wanted at Home Learning noe option and 70 wants to come in person. As the crisis got worse, were now at a 50 50 split and now we feel if we did a survey, it would be more than 50 of the parents that would ask for an opportunity for virtual wi instruction. And then the nextllable to mate also changing, early on we asked our teachers how many were readr to come back, ready, willing and able and 91 said they were ready, willing and able to come back. As weveve talked to our teacher organizations and building a nen survey, that is completely changed. Were probably at 50 50, maybe less than that as we try to runn communicate with our teachers. G we have a lot of employees to lined up to speak to our schoole board this evening as a change in the care act. I know that my time is running short. I also wanttually h to say that Broadband Connectivity is huge for us. If we have to shut down it is imperative to have the realit opportunityy to continue learng at home. There are several bills in fronc of congress that would make this a reality to knock down the front door to be able to have high quality Broadband Connectivity to all of the families for education and to have telemedicine and the erve b ability to applyut for a job. Were fortunate right now that we have some funds in reserve a but that is nothe true for most School Districts. And the number of bills in front of congress, we know that congress had to help large s and business, Small Business and even individual families but now state and local governments need that support as well, including firefighters and our teachers to make sure that we have an opportunity to be successful in the future years. Thank you very much and ill concede my time. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Hinojosa. You see how five minutes goes by so fast. But thank you. I now recognize mrs. Boggs. Miss boggs, you have five minutes, please. Toda thank you. Chairman needesublan, ranki member allen andnd members of subcommittee, thank you so much for this opportunity to testify today on what is needed to support the safe reopening of i our nations Public Schools in l the midstargest of this pandemi. I am here today on behalf of national pta, the nations oldest and largest Child Advocacy association with congresses in all states and esn puerto rico and d. C. Educat since 1897 think been a strong advocate and a source for resources who share a commitment to improving the education and health and safety for all children. We speak withol leade one voice every child. And as a president of national o pta ive seen how the partnership between parents and School Leaders is more important thanan ever. Unfortunately this pandemic is far from over and we cannot downplay the critical nature of this virus. Were seeing a substantial increase in cases across the country, including in my own tf home state of texas. Clai children are the future of our nation. An and we must keep them safe. Be th plains that all children are sco asymptomatic and could not spread the virus is not true. We continue to have the health and safety of all students, educators and school personnel, states and School Districts or the federal government should not simply push plans for hool d reopening schools on parents. State and School District leaders must meaningfully engage with parents and stake hoermdsr on developing plans to reopen ie schools an b subsequently throughout the year as changes e occur and v plans and strategie to ensure bothsc learning and safety. Parents know the value of effec inPerson Instruction and want e their children to bent back in a schoolnd this year. However, this month be done safely and effectively and with engagement of all stakeholders. Especially parents and studentsh oure associationcont understant the reopening of our nations schools during this crisis is ug vital to ensure that the continuity of education, however it should not outweigh the safety and mental and physical health of our students,s educators and staff and families. An parentsd ed and onfi educators have significant de concerns. Went recently surveyed parents rega during an onlinerd forum and 72 were not confident that schools could physically reopen in a ce. Safe manner. Regardless of each approach to beginning the school year, safely and effectively reopening schools is going to take ng our resources. Whether schools begin the year in person, remotely or a hybrido combination, funding our nationn Public Schools should not be political. It is an investment in our nations future success. Schools must be prepared to to address the transition back to school. The trauma of a pandemic and the many instructional issues, d th including the effects of longterm learning loss and the digitalan divide. E, and the added strain of recovery from a worldwide pandemic will wreak havoc on all localities an will require significant, immediate and continuing support and resources from federal and state governments. Ther national pta is encouraged by and thankful for at adoption ofd previous covid19 packages. However, despite these actions, there are and will be continued needs Congress Must address. S. Pl national icpta has been advocata for additional aid for Public Schools in response to this schl virus. Beforeer progr i reiterate our recommendations, i want to reinforce our opposition to any private school batch of programs or other mechanisms toou funnel public dollars to private schools. Our Public Schools must be fully funded. Our larger recommendations calld for action in five areas. Building up the education stabilization fund, the fourth emergency Covid Response bill must be provided at least 175 billion in emergency funding directly to states to support k through 12 education. U next, we are recognizing the devastation of placing state and local it is clear when schools open their doors the student population will be significantliyer. Weve urged congress to provide 13 billion for the idea and in addition to funding in the physical year 2021. Ate next, outside of and in additioi to the stabilization fund, Congress Must include 4 billion in funding through remote earning through the program. M. Next is a afa provision for a o time infusion of 245 million for the state wide Family Engagement centers to enable them to support the needs of families and children and for educators during this crisis. And last but not least, is the increase funding for food at at usda to prevent food insecurities to help schools as students physically go back to school. Next, pta does urge congress to act swiftly. D like t all right, miss boggs, you very much for your statemenh and i now would like to recognize dr. Schwinn who did not take a flight from baltimore to join us here in the committek room today. Dr. Schwinn, you have five minutes, please. Good morning, chairman sublan, Ranking Member allen, and members of subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me today. I very much appreciate the opportunity to share tennessees story and the incredible work that continues to be done by oue districts, educators and Gover Department of education onno behalf of students. Neral i also want to thank governor bill lee and the tennessee General Assembly for their unwavering support in supporting education. Im proud that tennessee hascom committed to maintaining the same level of state fundings to as district as in previous years, demonstrating the statest clear and continued commitment to schools. Ear wi however, we also know that this is not like other years. We know that this school year will look and feel different. Districts are trying to make decisions with constantly updated information and the lives and livelihoods of children and staff to consider. This is a serious discussion est that is worthyha of a greater understanding of the complexities that exist for schools, staff, and families. At the core, our systems have p thele Monumental Task of keepin people safe and healthy to are provide children with a strong o education. That in tennessee, most districts are choosing to include both an inperson and remote option and are focusing on how to do that t safely. These arehr unmanagably hard, taxing andd critical decisions and as we prepare for school hng reopening there are three eo primary areaspen that must be address. Theents health and and safety i, technology and child well being, first, to safely reopen schoolss we must put the health of eds of students and staff front of mind. Under governor lees leadership, the department of education has partnered closely with other agencies to address the needs of pandemic. The cross agencyecting partnerss led to a number of significant resources for our schools. Including ppe for every staff sn member. Ce disinfecting kits for classrooms and resources codeveloped with the department of health. To reopen we must deliver. Second, we must address the access in broadband that existsi for students and teachers. For governor leeon announced throug 50 million in Technology Grants for our districts which will support purchasing one computer forwh onethird of all studentsn tennessee in grades 3 through 12. This investment in a c devicesr allows for continuity of instruction when Remote Learning is required. However, it is also a critical investment in our Education System that is necessary now and will continue to pay dividends in the or he future. Finally, School Reopening must consider child well being regardless of format of instruction being provided so ee that c every child has his or h. Needs met and services provided. When schools are closed, those Services Become more challenging to deliver and could impact a childs ongoing development. Sigf the department created a robust child well being task force to focus on needs of students as they return to school. This is done alongside significant Academic Resources and for teachers and principals and grants to expandosures opportunities for both children and school staff to address the learning loss and child well l s beingk needs that resulted fro School Closures. Co in closing, we must continue to ask ourselves, what is in the best interest of students and staff as we balance the needs of community health, access to strong educational opportunities, Financial Stability for families and critic students. Ervice to education is personal to everyone. Were not talking about an abstract idea, were talking aboutit children. My girls, the students i serve in tennessee, our children. It is nothing if it is not personal. Milies which is why m we must treat itm such and not as an either or conversation. Families must make their own choices and districts must plac. Ensure they are providing the feasibility of providing those d choices. If schools are going to be open, it must be done safely and sufficient Health Protocol and supplies in place and allow thel flexibility necessary to protect vulnerable staff and students. Ti if schoolson t are going to be closed, then we will need to ens have clear plans on j how we wi support working families who may not have an opportunity to workl from inhome, how to provide foo to students just as they would receive at school and requiring special education and language and Health Services necessary for studentsts to continue to learn and grow. How to remotely teach children to read, how to address the increasing report of abuse and c suicide notedes and how to do as of this while still ensuring children to be educated. Any option we choose has consequences. Rc which is whyes nec options are important. It is also why federalal fundin will continue to help our schools to create those optionsl with the resources necessary to do so safely and responsibly for all. But there is a clock. Schools are starting. This is one of those moments for our field an our country. Our kids deserve our best right now and nothing less is thank acceptable. Thank you. R igno thank you. Thank you dr. Schwinn. Thank you for ignoring the clocs at this mornings hearing. And now i recognize dr. Oleary for five minutes. Please. Chairman sublan and Ranking Member allen, thank you for the opportunity to testify before l you today. Op my namepo is sean oleary and i a practicing pediatrics disease doctor from colorado. This is professional and personal for me. I work at Childrens Hospital colorado and im testifying today on behalf of the American Academy of pediatrics. O as vicef chair of the committee on Infectious Diseases, the foe purpose of thers academys guidance is to inform school ess reentry polsies that foster the overwhelm health of children and adolescents and protecting teachers and staff and communities. Our n more guidance is on the best available best currently Available Evidence and updated f as newro evidence comes to lighn and we learn more about covid19. We start from the knowledge that children get much more than an f education at school. Fe in addition to math, reading any science, schools have help students develop social and emotional skills, offer healthyo meals and provide physical ubstn activity among many other benefits. Lengthy time away makes it difficult for schools to aged identify and address learning deficit and depression and suicide ideation. Any parent could tell you about when children missed out on learning and physical activity. As working parents we struggle to find ways to meet their needs and perform our jobs at the same time. The importance of in person learn is well documented and there is evidence on negative h impact of children because of School Closures. The impact is particularly hard on minority children and children who are medically fragile, have developmental or a physical disibles and those living at or near poverty. A. P. Determined that the overalm goal should be to have students physically present in school this fall. However, this could only happen with careful measures to keep students, teachers and staff safe and with flexibility to adapt to the prevalence of covid19. This does not mean that wetly e recommend that all schools open five days a week from the start of the school year. Many parts of the country are currentlyly experiencing uncontrolled spread of covid19. While the a. P. Urging those areas to make in Person Learning as the goal, we recognize that many jurisdictions need to utilize distancee less l learni cases decline. Although many requests remain, our guidance is based on the fact that children or add le lessents are. Likely to have children underage 10 are half ao likely to spread covid19 to others. The same study also suggested that adolescents and teens age 10 to 19 may spread the virus similar to adults. Al measu with this data in mind, they may consider prioritizing return of Young Children andnd ensuring physical distancing and wearing of face coverings for older not children. It is also needed to be acknowledged that this is intended to eliminate the risk of transmission, implementationr couldis greatly reduce that risp schools will need to follow le d guidance from Public Health officials, at here to health ure monitoring and cleaning protocol, utilize face coverings as much as possible and urge ort frequent hand washing. Schools will also need to have suv ppe for teachers and staff and put protocols in place for howha to respond when a studentr teacher tests positive. St also it is important that children ad aredress up to date on all vach including the n influenza vacci and have annual checkups. And schools must address wide range of Mental Health needs. The loss of family members, o sa financialfe concerns and sociale lation demands careful attentioo and planning. In order for schools to be able to safely reopench with student in the classroom, Congress Must provide sufficient funding to help schools adapt and make necessary changes and accommodations. Specifically the a. A. P. Urges congress to provide 200 billion in funding to help schools ad my reopen. Money must be available to all t schools regardless of their time line for reopening. Schools and areas with high vese rates of covid19 spread may need to consider delaying a return to full time in Person Instruction and will need the same or greater federal es will investments, not less. In closing, reopening schools i. A way that maximizes safety, u learning and the well being of n children an communities will clearly require substantial new investments in our schools. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, chairman sublan o and Ranking Member allen. Thank you, dr. Oleary. Thank you. And thank you to all of the witnesses for their statements. Under Committee Rule 8a, we will question witnesses under the fiveminute rule. Ly be recognizing subcommittee e membersmb in seniority order. Siw and again, in order to ensure ti that the fiveme i minute rule i adhered to, staff will keep time and use a chime signal when one minute is left and when a longed chime when time is up. Cant miss the chime, the longer time. So please be attentive to the time and wrap up when your timel is over. D on the and, again, if my member experiences technical difficulties during the hearing, you should stay connected on thy platform, make sure youre muted with the mute button highlighted in red and use your phone to immediately call the committee i. T. Director mis sheila my fi halfener whose number has been provided. And as chairman, i recognize myself for five minutes. I have my first question for thr president ofe pta, miss boggs. A miss boggs, how many schools te plan to implement rotating schedules where students will rotatetepubl daily, weekly or m on a quarterly basis. Th Public Schools in hi district plan a staggered schedule under a partial reopening scenario so how has families acted to the idea of the rotating schedules,o what is the opinion of parents r when they have f children acros different grade levels, what challenges could rotating schedules present for parents who are essential on on site workers or families who have multiple childrens in schools across different grade levels . Thank you. As i visited with all of the staff across our nation, it wase evident that w every school sysm implementing a within the community. So there is no way for everyonen to do it the same. S to fin i think it is important that th. Districts have connection with their parents and students and with educators to form the best planev whether that should be i person or repoetly or hybrid. I think it will change even if you heard dr. Hinojosa in texas. Were dealing with it weekly ino our home state. I think that is what youre about all others. How do parents feel about that . In the survey that we did last week when we had an online foru. With Infectious Disease doctor 72 of the parents were not sure about the safety of schools. So it is important when we help about funding, that everyone understand we need to really fund our schools appropriately to help them address the virus. Its a lot i get it, of money being asked for, but we are in h place that that is infecting our entire country and because our students rts foundation for our nation. They need to be protected as well as thewhen educators that h giving the to be successful. So when you talk aboutt challenges, what weve seen and what you have heard from everyone on your panel is that Distance Learning is not the best way. All parents, not one, wants their schools to be reopened, their children to be at school. Some sean oleary it so it is really important that were not against going back in ty of person, theyre j worried about the safety of their students and other children and of the [ inaudible ] an essential business for our nation. Sourceus we need to carefully fund it and enact the right resources for everyone to be successful and that is why you saw pta with the masks that were asking for. It is important. No matter what you do. Need remotely or hybrid, youre going to need [ inaudible ] and we ask that you do that as congress. Thank you. The re and before i forget, i seek unanimous consent to enter into the record, a short presentation submitted by dr. Bobby cruz of the director of Instructional Technology at the northern maranis school system. Miss boggs, again, so among parents, was there a preferred rotating schedule, whether it is half day, two days a week, a. , b. , c. , schedule or a day a week. We know we didnt see a clearfo path for every paren is different as every community is different so i think really the best option for you and congress is to think about givingng local control, giving them the resources to be successful and if you pass them, then children should be in school. Safety is ofut most importance. So a National School board of education now would not work. An one size does not fit all, i think. My time is up and i will submit, i have questions for the record. So, at this time, i recognize the Ranking Member, mr. Allen for his five minutes of questioning. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Dr. Out th schwinn, i want to thu for being here today to talk ata about thisl critical topic. I believe that every family has a right to educational options. P and in particular this fall i think that the one thing that we might benefit from in this terrible pandemic, weve been through is im seeing remarkable pare parental engagement in childrens education now and im seeingng that the parents are dd seeing ourin educational system lot different. And i think theyre going to be demanding options in the future. But obviously every child is different. Ive surveyed my grand children and ive surveyed their parents, and, you know, one says, well, you know, she can learn how to distance learn, but they have to be in school. So every child is different. Beet and i think that, again, that h the problemat with congress is is been this one size fits all,y and hoolhat you got to do what i hear dis from educators across the country is they dont have any flexibility when they get the funding. Because every School District is different. In your testimony, you discussed the choices youve had to make in tennessee around physically t reopening the schools. O give have you looked at what is at stake if you dont set a goal of inPerson Learning to give sir,a parents that option this fall . Yes, sir, and thank you so much for the question. Ent i tennessee is a great example u of a state that has urban, en w suburban, rura communities alls with different needs and o challenges and that is why we t think that parent c choice is e important about what is best for their ownant lear child. When we think about not reopening schools, weve lookede at ourfo data and projected outh the significant learningav loss. For students. I think many of you remember we had tornados before the pandemic so some students have been out of school for six months and longer. So we know were going to have l learning loss. That affects our most vulnerabla populations more than anyone elseelse, an and especially whee about the early learners. Weve looked at staftices and ey work closely across state agencies andit have noted that vulnerable populations are at risk and they rely on schools for services. It is very difficult to provide those services if the children are not in school. So how do we get schools to open in a safe way and provide resources so families have the options that are so critically important forr their children. Thank you. I know we both hear about t the students and we care about their health and their welfare. But we also have to look at economy and i dont think these twoo things are mutually exclusive. In fact, this congress is i don spending a enormous amount of money to try to deal with this pandemic. I dont think that isis going t be good for children. I think its going to affect generations and generations and generations of our children. T sm because of this huge debt that were building in this w it government and it does not seem like that there is going to be m anil end. And i dont think i know it is not sustainable. But American Families are s fu struggling. Because of covid19. Imar and theyre concernedy about t childrens future. It seems clear to me that the primary wayay we could help s, struggling families now is by working to reopen schools. Oice. In other words, in our Rural Communities we have got to reopen schools. I dont think we have a choice. D weve already reopened businesses and businesses are doing incredible, innovative work to make sure that we keep, one is our foodod supply, if yo could believe it. Ut thi we have some challenges with that. But i recognize that reopening schools presents a lot of challenges and there is so much we still dont know about this virus. Can you discuss the unique challenges to that you have tackles in reopening the schools in tennessee and how can what i youve beenng able to do help schools across this country . I think we need idea sharing, h although every community is different. But what are some things youved implemented you would like toemw share withil us. Absolutely. So briefly. We have done a lot of with tateh academics. Wellavdy to have an online vi lessons and offered free and have pd ready to go back. Governor lee has appropriated funds for face masks, gloves, disinfecting wipes for every single classroom so weve done a lot to make sure people are safe and ready. Thank you. Hat thank youalar very much. And i yield back. Cha thatirma alarm is obnoxious, if could say that. If they ring it five or six times an then stop because it makes it difficult to hear the witness. I mean well, think i think maybe one time. All right. All but i think the clock is when it rings it stops. Ntrol witnesses try their best to allb stay to stay within the five minutes. I just i dont want to th, clock. I have a cheap casio and nobody could depend on it. It is actually brandnew because i broke my anyway. Every next up, miss hayes, the teacher of the year, you haveebu five minutes. Thank you. Ith abso thank you to everyone for being here today. I think we all want schools to t reopen and to go back to normal but i think the reality is thata no one can say with absolute cent center we could do that safely. Not governors, not the president , not the committee, so i think we have to explore every available option and precautionq to keepue students and faculty e safe. My question is for dr. Oleary. Ive talked to many in my ieve t district about plans thatha the have for reopening and im concerned because none of thoses plansti involve testing. Do you believe that states and districts should be responsible for ensuring that individuals in schools have access to testing, if they request it or if that ii needed . Thank you for thatu. S. Quest. It is an incredibly complicated issue right now. I wish we had more Testing Capacity in the u. S. That would greatly help mattersn right now. But i think, like many of the incidents were discussing, theyre very contextual down to the district and the school gog level. So i know thatsting schools aret the country are asking that same question, how do we get testinge done. Point out, i dont think testing all students attending school, that doesnt appear to be a good approach, if youre negative one day, it doesnt mean youre negative the next day. So testing asymptomatic students and staff i think is not in the cards. Given that the Testing Capacity. In terms of testing, yes, we absolutely have to have plansnsn place for how to do that safely. As we approach the school year and inevitably other respiratory viruses mimic covid19 will circulateents tes and well hav handle that and to get those ren testedab with a turnaround time that is reasonable, the test, turnaround times dontth really help you rightto now. So if you are waiting seven dayy for nota, that doesnt help an that is going to exclude students for longer than necessary and most of them won. Have so i promise and agree that we need to come up with a good plan for testing but again it is a contextual point even downaculty to the school. Thank you. Because what ive heard i guess my granular question on that regard is if you have a faculty member, a student or anu someone who says i feel symptomatic, can i be tested. So i understand we cant do a universal testing plan, but no one has been able to answer to y me if staff member comes in and they say im feeling symptomatic, most of the responses that ive gotten is that they would have to seek ut some type ofth communitybased testing or figure it out on ho e their own. There iss a National Poll of School Principals that found many are concerns over the safety of staff, especially those who are older or immunocompromised. Dr. Hinojosa, do you have a plan to address the concerns of our u mostst vulnerable Staff Membersi yes, absolutely. Out o thank you. And i mean not just teachers, everyone in the billing. Cafeteria workers, vendors, everyone who is in and out of our educationall spaces. Conditio no, absolutely. We have a form that we have bys distributed to alle employees give us specific information onh their Health Conditions. And then well handle those on casebycase basis. What you described, with faces this summer, as we try to y we w distribute meals,en half a milln meals, we have a trouble getting employees to distribute the meals and technology to all of our students. So we do have a plan. We askeded themex toec identify then well work with them ed tha individually on how we execute. But i concur with that, because that very same feeling to us haa locally here in this district. Thank you. Ive also heard from leaders theyre afraid this situation may lead to a shortage of full time andth substitute teachers. I think there is a population that we haventher talkedwo ab. How would this potential shortage in the teacher workforce affect students with disabilities . Dr. Hinojosa. Yeah. Students with disabilities are t our biggest concern because many of them,hey medicallyalre frag students, teachers need to get close to them and if they have a medical condition this will exacerbate the shortage area. We have shortaget go ofin by li teachers so this is not going tm help and make it more difficult to hire these people in these positions. Thank you. My time is aboutinons you ed toe but dr. Schwinn, i have one question. Can anything that youve talked about or any of the interventions that youve discussed happen without government or federal resources and support, yes or no . We will appreciate any resources that will open schools safely. Can you do it without it . Ork to yes or no. Those makeresources will beu incredibly. Yes or no. That is the answer. Ch tennessee is doing great work to make sure we reopen our schools safely. Thank you. For fiv thank you very much miss hayes. Ticularl i would like to recognize dr. Foxx for five minutes, please. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chwif and i want to thank all of our witnesses for participating in the hearing today and and particularly to dr. Schwinn fore being here in the committee to room. Thank you for thee work you and your schools have done in tennessee to serve the students since the outbreak. And for coming here today. To discuss the ways we could help students get the educationu they need in thede ntupcoming ye in many ways the best way to do so iss in person. Despite efforts for students an families during the unexpected months of Remote Learning it ise clear that for many students thv greatest kans for success thattin Person Instruction in the classroom, can you describe the advantage of having students in person this fall. Rs absolutely. Y. And thank you for thatmy questin i think that it is critical that we have opportunities for students to be in person. I have two young daughters myself, both are in third gradea andrn one is in kindergarten. Thinking about for our very our youngng learners, the need to learn to read. That is very difficult to do iv remotely. We also know that many oftions students rely on Services Like special education to go to a previous question, tennessee is looking at innovative options like having 200 teachers get h e endorsements for special education at the cost to theice state so we could provide those resources in school. When we think about the health care and counseling, that could be done in schools and school being open is important for are those. It sounds like yourey focu focusing on students and that id something that needs to be done. I have said for years, schools are basically focused on administrators and teachers andn theyre convenience, not for t focusing on students. So thank you for that. Again, the focus is often on the obstacles. But i believe we could find wayi to overcome these challenges just in the two examples you eaf gave. Prior to march 2020, they said that transitional all Classes Online was inconceivable but many schools accomplished this feat swiftly. So what makes it so confident that we could reopen schools safely in the fall and what r s evidence doddfra evidence do you have to support that decision. It is a great opportunity to talk about how adults support in the stateequi of tennessee. Governor lee has ol cated miamip of dollars for technology and op safety equipment, resources, health and Sanitation Equipment for schools, all of that is so that our schools could reopen because we understand how staf important it is for our families and our children. We also know how important it ic for our staff, teachers as well as support and district staff. Were getting them what they need so they could do the hard c work about educating ourh has students and that is got to be q the priority. Ue thank ncesyou, again. Dr. Schwinn, much has been provd learned overes the past several months about the coronavirus and is consequences for education, in addition to the research that provides new insight into the risk of covid19, particularly to young people, there is also more Information Available at sr thech effectiveness of educatio in a remote environment. How does this information and research inform your plans for safely chreopening schools this fall . Sure. J so, as aob a mom of two childreo are doing the same balance as at many from families, understandn difficult it is to both do your job and then certainly to support learning at home and i think weve heard that from ou parents across the prcountry. Wo our teachers have been working incredibly hard. But n our principals and our ducati superintendents have been they g hard to do whaton could in a remote environment. But nothing replaces the relationship and quality of instruction that happens betwee a teachers and his or her children in the classroom. We know that is where this wh really wonderful learning takesc place and so our efforts and fr supports have been certainly to provide remote options for those staff and students who need theb but knowing that the most high quality education happens in the classroom for students at all a levels butgain particularly tho the most vulnerable and in youngest grades. Thank you for what tennessee is doing and thank you for your leadership. Im so incredibly impressed to hear your emphasis on the students. And i believe that if many cases thats being lost in this side discussion about not reopening schools. And that is what arene the the of the individual students. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle continually talk about thehe need for the personm approachr. To all students. We need to keep that in mind in all of the decisions that we y h make. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you very much, miss foxx. I now recognize miss schrier for five minutes, please. Te thank you, this mr. Chairman. And thank you to all of our witnesses. I very much appreciate this testimony and i want to tell y that i am speaking from the standpoint of being a aking to pediatrician, so there is no ntt question that i have students best interest in mind. Im also speaking to you as a parent with type one diabetes st i have theer o interest of otheo parents with preexisting conditions or grandparents at homeme in mind and im speaking you as the daughter of a teacher. So im look at all of these adus things. And i would just remind my vacu colleagues on the other side of the aisle that you cant open schools without adults and that kids dont live in a vacuum. We do know that kids are better served in school. I experienced remote education with myy son and frankly it was pretty lousy. And so we all want our children back in school. We know it is better for them academically, socially and kids need nutrition and childcare s through schools. They need to be there. But we also know that other countries wisely have not opened while rates are surging because that essentially dooms this process to failure. We also know now that kids ten and up seem to spread this just as readily as adults, putting to families in danger. And so while we know that children are less effected and tend to remain either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, they dont live in a vacuum. And what this comes down to for me is the level of Community Spread because if there are high levels in the community, there will be high levels in the school and youll bethere closid quarantining a lot. And my first question is for dr. Oleary, which is there a number, either developed by ha states orve gosh it would be ni to have a national number, that just says, thhey, if levels are below some number, one in a hundred thousand or one in 10,000, then this is a state wo priv lense to open our schools or is that based on the are not and as youre answering that sn question would it be helpful to have that information from the f cdc since different communities have Different Levels of disease and different are notes. Thank you for that question,m representative schrier. Can you hear me okay . Yes. Repro so, the are not, the reproductive number is one detr measure that a lot of folks areo using to help make these determinations. It is an incredibly complicated. Calculus. And each it is done at the aa local level,re the state level. And states are tracking their aa numbers differently in different ways. They have different benchmarks r for how theyre making these decisions. And theyre is on complicated. T so again, our not is one number but other numbers include the ie incident of disease and the raise of disease an the, percentage of positive tests, cs the number of hospitalizations in a community, there are quite a few metrics that people are tm using. Ons. Is also working on what are the best ways to make these decisions. But it is really a complicated discussion between cdc, local a and state Public Health as well as the schools and the educators because again it is very contextual. Thank you. It seems to me it would be helpful to have that number. And it is nice to hear that the cdc is working on it. Nities a to have that. Because i think it would inform the administration as well that we know that different communities and different schooe districts are in different irrep situations and to blanketly say all schools should open is just irresponsible and so that kind of data would be very helpful. My next question is for dr. Hinojosa which is about Remote Learning and, like i said, our experience with that was very substandard. Use we are there other methods perhaps through tv, anything else that would bridge the Digital Divide because we just cant get broadband to every child and they cant do their homework in a car. Yeah. I do want to acknowledge publicr broadcastingg systems in many cities including l. A. And dallai where they have a contract and agreement for us where we o bett provide televisioner opportunits for teachers and students andnd families but we also need to do better on learning at home 2. 0. Or 1. 0, we put things together. U andying right m now were train teachersond tools an content and thats important that is why sr bidding more time will help us. So thank you for the question, representative. There are someically super so teachers out there who could spoon feed this to all of the zrib districts so each teacher is nottin ventingle wheel on theirt own. Were studying that rightt now. And now we want to know which yh ones are most effective in this context so were trying to do that. Thank you. Precia thank you very much. Mr. Thompson, you have five d minutes. Chairman, thank you. Appreciate it. Tant dis thank you to all members of the panel and this very timely and t incredibly important discussion. Dr. Schwinn, first of all, i wan to say thank you publicly to all of the life essential employees that are out there. That is kind of a term that is taken on newy of dif meaning in pandemic. But thank you to thehey an folk show upe stores to work each an day of different ages and diversity and in grocery storess and convenience stores, manufacturing, making the e personal protective equipment, the oather things that we deem s being t toneeded, s our First Responders and our health care providers. And so i want to say, do you think that teachers fall in that category as life essential and y guess if why or why not . Thank you forth that questio. And i come proudly from a family of teachers. Many of whom are starting schoou this year. And so when i think about what a is critically important to the. Foundation of our country, so cr Public Schools areta part of th. It is the fabric of who we are and how we educate our childrenn and so certainly when we think about theon impacts of children going to school, and being ableh to live whateverat lives they choose, when we think about how families rely on schools and certainly when we think about opening up our economy so families could get back to work, we need to be able to provide is options to all of our parents. Pe so that whether they choose to educate thur children remotely or choose to send kids to i school, that that option is i tn available and it isk important that we provide those. The iimme agree. Benefi i am a big fan of teachers. I think theyre life essential. It is the immediate, e shel intermediate and longtermte educational benefits. The mandatory reporter role. A lot of the kids are sheltering at home with Distance Learning with their abusers, unfortunately and it is being able to get accesss to the ibilt nutrition thaty. They need. Th so i would encourage i think our School Districts needng, ta flexibility and the cdc and as guidelines specify that. And talk about cohorting, s i re talking about differentad suggestions and just guidance and as a recovering School Board Member i found that very helpful and meaningful as i read and digested that and i think they need thehei real flexibility to to function as life ink th essential employees. I really appreciative about the students with disabilities. I think those students in particular are very vulnerable and it is very, very difficult and we need to figure out a better hybridis worki distance that i just dont think ist working for those students and theyre really at risk. Etty p you know, a student that i ec havent heardhnical talked abou the chairman knows i get pretty passionate about career and al Technical Education. That is preparing our future life essential employees. The people that i named off here are kind of career and Technical Education fields. And we really, our school ha districts need to takend a lookt keeping that in mind. Because it is those are handd on. And when these kids graduate, rt theyre going to be life jet essential employeeses during th next pandemic. Unfortunately these things travel at the speed of jet airplanes and hourds and days c and not months and years any more. So short them in thehe education, provi so theyrede not prepared with r skills to be able to go into the workforce, to be there to we cou provide for us in the future. Obr so any thoughts in terms of howi we do aat better job for those students that are in career andk Technical Education t tracks . I appreciate the question. Especially in this room. Think ab and we have our cte week this week actually. And so i think about gibson ric county andin kingport city, lino clarksville, montgomery, these arere districts in tennessee wh are tackingle those problems and one of the things that came from our superintendents is how coulo therth. State fund curriculum t would be used, whether the to student is in school or in a remote environment and going ng back to in and forth because we classrooms may need to close throughout year so the state isn lookinger to invest in the typer remote to classroom agenci opportunities fores students an were partnering and again cros Agency Support is critical, partnering with other state agencies, working closely opport together underun the governor L Administration so that our hs, o Workforce Development group could support ourur schools to still provide those opportunities. Yeah, you know, within months or hopefully maybe weeks after theseto students graduate from e current Technical Education programs, some of them will be working in the middlele of this pandemic. So we need to figure out how wea do in classroom, whether it is whatever the skills are, whatever that area, so they could do that safely as a future life essential employee. So i would argue that Distance Learning and modules that are they need to be in those settings because theyre going i to beve a working on in those setting and education is more than just a diploma. It is about preparation to work and survive and succeed in the world that we live in. Thank you. Estion thank you, mr. Thompson. Without losing her place on thed question list, i will pass on pr miss shalala. Thank you for being active in this discussion. We appreciate thatat greatly. Le, i wanted to turn to dr. Olearyo because i known that your testimony suggests that schools that are forces to delay in t ae person openings need more t beca resources, not less. And yet the proposals that were hearing seem to suggest if gingi schools are not able to do that because there is a fire raging in their community, the virus, that they would or should be not given any resources in order to fund them. So, dr. Oleary, what do you it think about that in proposal . Nea yeah, com thank you for thatv question. I think just to put it in context, imagine a community where there is a lot of virus si virus surk youll ating and we have a lot of different people getting infected. It is m inevitableight that the virus sorry, i think there might be a bandwidth issue. But it is inevitable that the virus is going to get into the schools anan the schools will he to shut down. It doesnt make sense where there is Widespread Community wh circulation, no matter how many measures are in place, to becaus withhold funding fore those en. Districts because they cant e h open. They really cantt open in that circumstance. And those decisions need to be t made with local and state Public Health. Thank you. One of the issues that has been raised and i know dr. Schwinn, you probably relate to this as well. You need to have the connectivity for students to be able to even have a fighting chance to be able to not keep continuing to fall back and we know for all children thatwere did. But, you were not willing to really answer my colleagues question about whether schools need to more resources. But if everybody, if you were asked along with other education commissioners throughout the country if you wanted more t wol resources, if you felt it would help the children in your School District, in your state, what would you say . T worr would you say, no, doan worry, y im a okay, i dont need anythi. I would say absolutely we s d want more resources to reopen schools but i dont want to say that well make decisions for a 147 very uniquewe districts and counties by waiting for the federal government. Tennessee will protect our own h and certainlyei allow our y, we superintendents to make decisions that are right for omplet their own communities. But certainly we welcome and ouy needou Additional Resources to so with completete safety in mi. Yeah. Dr. Hinojosa, you could respond as well as the dallas superintendent because i know t that you certainly are in a position as superintendent to ii see that theon city of dallas itself has lost what, nearly 33 million in tax revenue in 2020. And that impacts the schools, am i correct . Ate yes, absolutely. Texas. It will impact us significantly. Sales tax is down in the state of texas. All revenues are down in the state of texas. So were going to hit this big wall and if we dont have the resources, but more importantlye back to your question of operational connectivity, weve asked the fcc to relax e fami requirements to use the li resources that are at the fcc to use them to knock down the front door and have families access ti connectivity. So yes, we need Additional Resources. Thin if you think about high povertyg states where title one and idaa dollars, that is extremely welcome during this time. Would you like to see would you like to see congress o that issue. I would love to have the ghout consideration. For the c. A. R. E. S. Act but we think that the hoeshs act could help districts o throughout the country. And i want to go back to dr. Oleary for a second because one of the issues raised is that School Districts have to develop protocols in order to deal witha the ifs. What if one day right after school is open you have severala teachersve that come down with covid, what if you find in a classroom children have symptoms and are there protocols out there that Pediatric Association is dealing with, is trying to df suggest too schools . Do you think that what the cdc o has done has helped people with those specific kind of protocole because that could be really a very yeah, those protocols are being actively worked on as we speak. Includ and including for members of the academy, cdc is working on that. State and local health department. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ms. Davis. I now recognize the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. Grothman, for five minutes. Thank you. Glad to be here. Well give dr. Schwinn some questions. It seems to be that children spread covid19 less rapidly than adults, is that so . According to our department of health in tennessee, yes. Can you expand on some of that claim and explain why those aspects need to be looked at when determining wlo to send kids back to school or not, the effect of that . Sure, again, pointing to theo exceptional leaders we have in tennessee who are responsible for our School Districts, there. Are a lot of conversations about prioritizing our younger about h students, our superintendents are being incredibly creative about that because we know the spread of the virus is less in n our younger students, so trying to think about different options that allow for us to bring especially that age group back into school and spread out social distancing, et cetera. Avn so thats a priority in tennessee. We have seen that reflected in our schools. E united sometimes i think that our an whole bureaucracy in dealing with this thing doesnt look outside the United States enough. Claim th and at least the papers in front of me claim that countries like switzerland and the netherlands are saying that Children Play s even a minor role in spreading the virus. Have you heard that . I do you think switzerland and thc netherlands are right in that or not . Altudies you know, i dont think i beuld be able to speak th specifically on any kind of Health Conditions or studies that have been done there, but i know when were looking at the e best practices from other s countries, what were seeing is there are solutions we can put into place in our schools that t protect students and staff and e allows children to continue to a be educated in person as long as we provide them with the resources necessary to do so safely, and thats what we have been focusing on. Nsin, one suggestion in wisconsin,i apparently, is proposed hat . Guidance, a fourday week and a fifth day for cleaning, put kids on a twoday rotation. Have you heard about that and could you comment on that . Sure. We have a similar we have a district who is looking at ng fr similar options around bringing students in on aday, bday, and allowing for alternate classrooms to be cleaned on ther on and off days. G at t frankly, well be doing the same thing at the department of eings education with our desks and office space. We looking at that. We are also seeing districts bring in younger students and have High Schoolers do more remote aday, bday. Were seeing the same alternate scheduling to allow for disinfecting procedures to take place. Youre kind of following on t whats going on nationwide. Nobo in wisconsin so far, at least when we put this together, nobody under age 20 has died of the covid. Is that true nationwide, or is it restricted . People who have died or had Serious Health problems or coull you elaborate on the level of sickness for people under 20 . Opd i can speak in generalities. I would probably defer to a help profession aa aal related that data. When we are thinking about risk factors, were making sure depending on the age range, and that goes from students all the way to staff, they have what they need, including personal protective equipment to keep dear to themselves safe and certainly i have relatives in wisconsin, soa special near and dear to my heart to make sure theyre safer in schools in that state as well. Well get their name later and ill look out for them. Well do that after the hearingd some of my colleagues and National Pundits have said you putting kids in school, its if you let the kids in school, youre putting their health at now ta nobody i know talks about he reopening schools without making sure that kids are not at risk. L but do you think the conversations should really be about reopening safely, the schools safely, and how it will benefit children . I do. Especially because, you know, i was talking with a lking g suine superintendent yesterday morning in pickett county. N. She has very few cases in her county. Unty her district wants to open up inperson. Rent pop thats different than Metro Nashville or Shelby County that has a different population and skyrocketing cases. Local communities need to make local choices but the conversation needs to be how we do so safely. Ies ill give you another question, im not sure it directly applies to schools, but last week when i was home, i looked at what used to be calleo a shelter workshop. D workin people who used to be calledwe h handicap working there. I have a special interest in people like that. Ff we had a shutdown in wisconsin. These folks couldnt come to was work for three months. When they came back, the staff could tell it was psychologically damaging for them, not having a school to go to. Because i think particularly for folks in that situation the work place is their social setting as well. S well. Have could you comment on any special concerns we would have or le to special damage that would happen if you have people with special needs who are not able to go to school and see their peer groupn is it especially damaging to people like that . About i have a strong concern, incl especially when we think about our vulnerable populations, inclusive are our children with forwarlities. The department of education pute forward a 5 million Compensatory Services grant and a 1 million assisted technology grant. Nough to it is not enough to serve chirp children in a remotete thsetti. Thats why we need to provide that. Its important to them and their health. Thank you, dr. Schwinn. Thank you very much. At this time id like to recognize ms. Shalala for five minutes. On. Shalala are you on remotely . All right. Well move on. Ms. Wilson of florida . Ms. Wilson . All right. Mr. Desalia out of california. Sir . Ill move on. Mr. Morelli of new york. Okay. Hes on the floor. So i must try mr. Keller. No. Mr. Morelli. I was searching for my mute button. Y mr. Morelli. Good morning. Five minutes, sir. And thank you. Great. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and atu thank you for holding, i think, one of the mostcoul important one of the most important hearings that you could hold. Obviously as we look towards the fall, its the time of year whee students, teachers and parents are happily preparing for the return to school. L. Sett teachers refreshing curriculum, setting up classrooms, ready to welcome their students. Getting parents and children Gathering School supplies, reviewing he schedules and getting excited about the first day of the new school year, but obviously nothing to put it to to. Suggest thats a major understatement. Nothing is normal about this year. Cipals aenvi principals and teachers are stressed about providing a safe environment for their students with limited chi resources. Parents worry whether their child will be exposed to the f virus in the classroom as well as how to balance work and rovie daycare if you are in a district where schools are going to provide education remote ly to Distance Learning. C we agree we want students back in the classroom but under safe conditions and rushing to do this is terribly inappropriate. So we need to safely open guidel schools and follow clear Public Health guidelines. I think thats what dr. Fauci has said repeatedly about that. I think if the administration was serious about getting students back in the classroom e we need fewer tweets and more meaningful action and resourcesm devoted towards schools helpingt them get to reopening. Estifyinga rather than blocking the cdc from guida testifying before thr for fear of what theyll say, l lets see a commitment to sharing data and providing clear guidance for districts repeatedly calling for assistance and put the political agenda aside and utilize defense production act to ramp up testing immediately and demonstrate leadership to i the American People so greatly deserve. I am proud of this body weve i shown this country we are serious about providing settings, and said its not sustainable but nothing we want to sustain about this situation. We need to act. This is, as i often say, people talk about what we should only do that in case of a really rainy day. This isnt a rainy day. T a rain this is a torrential downpour and we need to do everything we can, why the funding was so important for k12 schools and waiting for actions from our colleagues has been s incredibly frustrating when so much is at stake. I think were on the right side of history and gather here today to continue the important conversations. Nd i think the president , secretary devos publicly came out and k tt demanded schools reopen full time in person was wrongheaded. Cdc guidance, which categorizes fullsize classrooms and activities to be highest risk of transmission of the disease. With that i wanted to ask dr. Oleary, and i partly wanted toa ask as a followup to the esting conversation my colleague, ms. Hayes asked about testing. Ptomat first of all, someone said that transmission of the virus among children obviously even though t its sort of asymptomatic, could put teachers and adults in the building at risk. I want you to talk about that sd and also could you just comment. I thought i heard someone say that the transmission was less among children . Could you talk about the science of that . Is and whether or not thats actually true . Yes. Ue. Thank you for that question. So were learning more every dab about this issue. At this point it appears that younger children appear to be less likely to get infected and less likely to spread it, but that by no means, means that they cant get it and they cant spread it. And that some dont get sick. Yes, theyre at lower risk. Yes, they can get it and can ece spread it. Can i just just quickly a clarification. The reason its harder to spread because theyre less likely to e get it in the first place or is there something even for mit . Those children who have the virus, who contracted it, its harder for them to y transmit . Those are two pieces, right . An yeah. So it appears to be both. We can talk another time about why that is. Thanks. Kely yeah. Go to they appear younger kids appear to be less likely to get it and less likely to transmit it. Sting, so i also wanted to go to the question of testing, because you seem to suggest testing of students was not a viable demot option, but is that simply gecause we dont have the capacity, or demonstrated the capacity of the federal d make h government to ramp up testing tn and make it available . Y if o or are there other issues with testing students . Clearly if one tests positive you would want to get them out of the classroom and quarantine them at home even if theyre asymptomatic but contracted the virus. Could you comment on that. To be clear, testing asymptomatic students. Ent that weve talk about that in the past. We do want to try and test thepo symptomatic to the extent thats possible and doing it across the country. Just to be clear sorry. Is my time expired . Yes. Thank you, dr. Oleary. Ng mem thank you. Thank you, mr. Morelli. At this time i recognize mr. Taylor for five minutes, please. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Icipt ise. Id like to thank the chairman and Ranking Member for holding this critically important hearing today on how our nation can move forward with safely reopening our schools. Additionally i want to thank the witnesses for participating today and for offering their valued perspective and expertise. As a father of two and a proud grandfather im extremely e. Ncerned about the longterm impacts of covid19 has had on students as well as being out of the classroom. Mckenzie and Company Projected students should fall an average of seven months behind academically. This is simply unacceptable. We owe every generation of thao students a wellrounded education that encompasses the education, social and mental benefits that come with students attending school. Additionally, i commend congrese for providing schools with billions in dollars for relief. The elementary and secondary School Emergency relief fund authorized under the c. A. R. E. S. Act provided 13. 2 billion innsa formula funding directly to states and School Districts to help schools respond to covid19. 9. Lion f my home state, pennsylvania, adr received almost 524 million for local education agencies to address the impact of covid19. B however, it is my understanding not one state has spent the entirety of their funding under the c. A. R. E. S. Act. Still while the pennsylvania general i assembly appropriated much of co the money, theres still about 1. 3 billion unspent in r the the pennsylvania treasury. Across pennsylvanias 12th on wt Congressional District, districts are approving reopening plans for the fall. Working in conjunction with lvaa local school boards, at 60 administrators, parents and state officials, one central pennsylvania School District surveyed parents and s found that 60 of the respondents favored return to inperson schooling this fall. I was thrilled to read this a th morning that the williamsport School Districteopen located in pennsylvanias 12th Congressional District outlined a thorough three educational phases plan to reopen schools in the fall that include a hybrid of inPerson Learning and remott learning based on the level of transmission risk. Ific act today im eager to hear about how remaining c. A. R. E. S. Fundin can be utilized to safely open schools and learn more about tht specific actions schools are taking to make sure students, teachers, staff and families can attend School Safely and in person this fall. Dr. Schwinn, i look at schools a and when schools across the country closed in march, scientists and policymakers alike had limited information as to the implications of the and whvirus. And what they were for children. Although there are lingering questions regarding the novel to coronavirus, most scientists agree on one thing, that the risk to adolescents arerotect low and still can open schools protecting the staff. Doesnt this knowledge help make the decision to open schools a little bit easier . For t thank you for the question, and i think that bringing both of your really important points together when we look at c. A. R. E. S. Funds and how theyre choosing to spend that on ol Dis Technology and safety and disinfecting equipment so we can open. We also know there has to be a priority providing every child with that opportunity. Ive spent my career supporting those students in the most vulnerable populations because education is such a critical vehicle for them supporting themselves the rest of their lives and thats our focus in t tennessee. Certainly we know protectingriot our adults allows us to open schools in a way that is safe and supportive in local communities and that will thainue to be our priority. Thank you. Ag just to followup, how is your g Agency Working to make sure hoo . School leaders and personnel as well as parents have the facts and not invoking fear and s alwa rhetoric to help make decisions about school . G. L yeah. That communication is always sog challenging. I think as you well note. One of the things were doing is we had an educator survey, cato 25,000 teachers in the state of tennessee took a survey through our partnership with vanderbilt to be able to know what they rsp were challenged by. Were working closely with the department of health and on friday will release a number of parent supports and resources to with triate. D reso one will be a family website anr partnership with tribeca to be able to communicate directly to parents about what the information is and what their choices are that they can make for their own children. Thank you. I just have a question for dr. Oleary. Questioned about how kids rus. Transmit the coronavirus. That. You just got done talking to one of my colleagues about that. We know it transmits differently with adolescents and kids arent as at risk to transmit, is that true . Older ch there does appear be a difference between younger and older children, yes. Lu, or how does it transmit differently than the flu . Simil or is it similar to that . Well, its its different. Children are drivers in influenza. Thats less cases with this. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Keller. Thank you. And now id like to recognize ms. Shalala for five minutes. Ms. Shalala, are you on remotely . Okay. Shes on the floor. Chairman of the full committee, mr. Scott. Sir, you have five minutes and thank you, mr. Chairman. You know, weve heard comments t about desirability of opening schools. Of course thats how you get better academic achievement, socializing skills, access to nutrition and less child abuse. And not going to reopen the economy without reopening the schoolslear of course we want to reopen the schools, if it can be done safely. Question. So dr. Oleary, i ask you a question about ventilation. Four in ten School Districts fo its found need to update or vet replace hvac systems, heating and ventilation and air Conditioning Systems in at least half of their schools. Why is ventilation so important . Yeah. I dont want to pretend to be an environmental engineer but it appears that ventilation mattern with the spread of this particular virus. Transmi you know, for example, we know that if the virus transmits, it transmits much less in outdoor environments than indoor environments. Vironmen so having circulation within classrooms is important, but thats another one of the reasons schools need resources to address ventilation. One example of many of the eed reasons schools need resources to try to reopen. Thank you. Ol moving forward, the infrastructure bill, significant funding for School Construction that could take care of that. Dr. Oleary, if were not going to test all the students on day one to know who is infected and who isnt, you have to assume sn that students coming from the community all into one place, lh somebodys going to be infectedh what is the plan to deal with a student who is beginning to show symptoms . What should the act acr protoco . That speaks to the issue why we need to act across the u. S. To drive infections down as much as possible wearing face coverings, physical distancing, et cetera. Mbers do if we can drive infections down. As a country, then that issue will become much, much less of a problem. Ch statistically, there statistically there will be children who will present in ib school and show symptoms that theyre infected. After they show symptoms, that means theyve been in school for all of those days, asymptomaticw or presymptomatic spreading the disease around. What should be the protocol whes you find someone who is symptomatic . Being yeah. T those protocols are being developed right now at the, you know, federal, state, district, and even school level, and so there are i mean, we could talk for an hour about the details of those protocols, but, basically, whatbe i they are trying to do is screen students to identify who might be ill, and strong encouragemeny for parents to keep their kids home when they have any symptoms including fever, runny nose, et cetera. There are screening protocols put in place such as having an app or some kind of a system that parents can screen prior to sending their child to school. N the there are difficulties trying to do it at school. For example, children line up t. Get their temperatures taken could present more problems than is solves. So these issues are being worked out right now. Tschool. Again, it comes down to the to level of the individual school for how that may be done. It iso well, if you wait for the symptoms to occur, its too late. If someone has been found to be positive, do you shut the school down . Well, the various plans that are coming in to shape usually d involve cohorting students so if there is a student identified having been infected with covid19 its only people theyre in close contact with, and then it also depends on thec number of students infected, et cetera. Its not as simple as saying you get one case in a school you shut the school down. Should we have nurses in the school . Could you repeat the question . Should we have nurses in every school . I would love to have a fulltime school nurse in every school. Sc School Nurses have been shown to improve Health Outcomes across the board. Being in schools and it is not currently the reality in the u. S. Nkack. Thank you. I think by the time i i get don. With my next question, my time will expire. I yield back. Thank you, chairman scott. Mr. Andrew . All right. Mr. Wahlberg . Ill go dr. Murphy. Dr. Murphy, you have five minutes. Your mic. Thank you. Technology is wonderful. Thank you. Ouple my first question is for dr. E oleary, actually. I was reading a couple Journal Articles last evening. We talked about immunity, antibody and cellular immunity. A lot of studies talking about u antibody immunity waning and hd tcell immunity will be whats o going to get ahold of this. This looks why children are by all means relatively spared from this compared to adults just because of their thalamus d gland gets burned out as we geth older. I wondered if you could speak to that. Beli kids are our biggest concern and putting them behind in their education is why were all here to try to correct that. Id like to know what you truly believe is the relative risk ofd our children, in the state of s. North carolina weve had three fatalities in kids under age 24r all with comorbid diseases. Lets give a real, true picture what the true risk is for our kids under age 18 moving forware and give me the r0, to look the things you truly believe are kids at risk and not just hypothetical. Id truly like to look what re r weve learned so far from korean and german studies. What are we truly looking at for the risk of our kids as we go back to school . H. Youve asked several complicated questions. Eavy. I tell you what. Ut the forget the tcell immunity one. Thats pretty heady. Just talk about the true relative risk for our kids . Yeah. So, again, learning every day. I what we have seen so far in the. U. S. Is that kids are less sorry, around the world kids appear to be less impacted from covid19 than adults. That is fairly clear. T in terms of the actual numbers, trying to get a handle on that, because we dont have a good sense of the denominator of children infected. Biology we also, you know the understanding of the biology of the virus is rapidly evolving. There have been some states suggesting thathildre the overall risk for fatality is less than, for children, i should say, is less than several other things that we commonly accept on a daily basis in society. Such as trauma, influenza, the things that we sort of have hast all the time. Sorry to interrupt. E rela i want to get one other question in. Just from what i was reading last night relative risk as calculated, my calculations, 0. 001 . Who die 1 in 10,000. Look at the number of kids who t die from flu in the United States it is going to seemingly be a fairly comparable number and we dont shut down our rly compevery year. Down so i mean i just want to take the fear factor out of this. Ithr i just want us to deal with the nonpolitics, with the true part of this, that we can put ourinet kids back to School Safely and need to stop the fearmongering. We need to get our kids back on track. Anyway, thank you. Qur dr. In that same line, this had a questions for dr. Schwinn. I had a great telephone town hall with, across the School Administrators from our district this morning and all concerned about all the details which we all are. I was wondering if you could speak to liability . Ive put through an open schools responsibility act basically holding our School Institutions free from frivolous lawsuits because of this. S one le its one less thing they have to worry about and wondered if you could speak to that, dr. Schwinn. Happy to. Thats an ongoing conversation inaugust tennessee as well and o legislature is looking to pick it back up in august. Talking to superintendents among the many concerns they have one is around how to ensure they can make the best decisions possible for children and for their posg staff, and i think liability isn one of those concerns that is oo getting into the conversation outside of the outcomes were driving towards. Its a worthwhile conversation d and one we are grateful to have both federal and at the state level. Great. So much. Looks my like my time is just about out. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, dr. March if i. So id now like mr. Courtney . Mr. Courtney . Yes, mr. Chairman. Thank you. All right. Five minutes, please. Yes, thank you. This so i appreciate holding this hearing which is the question of the day. Ry in i think for our country and many different respects, this morning actuallyrtment of labor reporte. 1. 4 million new unemployment u. Filings which actually is the first time in three months that number has gone up. Just really, unfortunately, validates what the chairman of the Federal Reserve has been re saying since last may. The c. A. R. E. S. Act stimulus was inadequate in terms of addressing a whole host of issues and the country needs more finks stimulus. The most efficient way to do that, to accomplish that is to o ance, be provide more funding for state and local assistance, because that, again, will circulate into the economy the quickest and will enable us to solve the problem, which were trying to figure out here this morning. Which is how to safely reopen schools. Fact tha again, i think its clear. S is both sides can stipulate to the fact that that opening of the schools is highly beneficial, and its a goal we all share. The question is, how do we do iy safely . Made a couple days ago the secretaryu of education in an interview us, actually made a comment that we should open schools, because children are actually stoppers, and that was the term she used, of covid19. Which when asked, by the press afterwards what she meant by that, the department of whih education cited a study in of saxon, germany, again, echoed some of the comments here this morning about the fact young ts. Kids, particularly smaller kids, are not, they dont transmit as much as older children or adults. But the researchers when interviewed after the secretary made her comment, you know, werd careful to point out that theird results depicted a situation with low infection rates after the initial transition peak is under control. If you do have rising infections rates as in the u. S. , this is af quote from the researchers in germany, putting people in close contact will obviously lead to transmission of respiratory leas viruses. So the question i wanted to ask dr. Oleary is just, thats sort of the the issue we have to grapple with here. If there are parts of the country where infection rates a, are going up and the populations at large, you know, the decisioo to reopen schools is a differena one than in other parts of the country where infection rates i are low, below the 1 positivity rate. Valuatin is that, you know, what the association of pediatricians, is that sort of your take in terms of evaluating, you know, this decision . I thin that is absolutely correct. It varies depending on whats l going on, and i think theres ar lot of discussion about other an countries, but what is rarely mentioned is the situation in all of these other countries where they attempted to reopen s schools is vastly different than we see in the u. S. Important to draw lessons fromt what they are doing in other countries but cant just say they did it we can, too. You have to base it on the nt re local epidemiology numbers. Precs and the research the department relied on made that precise point. At which is that youve got to deal with the overall population of a country or a region before you can sort of extrapolate from that, that, you know, its all clear. In terms of reopening schools. Again, in israel, they, again, d had a very bad experience in cai terms of School Reopenings and the number of students who became infected as well as almost 700 Staff Members and had to, again, really hunker down in terms of trying to respond to s that. , did an so again, the washington post, you know, did an analysis of the secretarys statement and again interviewed researchers as well as other resources and had, did their pinocchio test, whicha gave them, the secretary four ms pinocchios for her comments and mr. Chairman id like to enter that story in to the record and, again, notion we all want a shad schools to reopen but lets get. A shared baseline of science. Without objection call to so ordered. And not cherry pick in terms of studies that, again, i think just create more confusion and misunderstanding than really a shared how we solve this problem, and with that i yield back. Thank you. Ms. Bonamici . Ms. Bonamici . Can thank you. Im here. Can you hear me . Thank you. Ersati thank you, mr. Chairman, and to all of our witnesses today. This is an important conversation. Have hnsycholo i have had so many discussions with parents, students, we teachers, school couples, psychologists about their struggles over the last several months with Distance Learning and we know how important it is to reopen schools. We know that. We also know the decision to reopen has to be based on nce a ur, teache science and has to make the health and safety of our students, teachers, staff and families the top priority. I want to followup on the question that the flu kills more students than covidlear i did just read two days ago a 9monthold in minnesota who died of covid. More dr. Oleary, can you respond to that, that flu kills more ye. Students than covid but we didnt close schools. Why is it different . Ink th yeah. I think theres some. Background noise, but i think that influenza is viralous in children and we see roughly 100 deaths the u. S. From children contracting influenza. I want to point out were still learning every day about covid19 and its impacts on children. Childrens hospital have taken care of very Sick Children and fortunately many of us unfortunately many have childre9 with covid19 who have died. Is m to minimize the risk of covid1k is a mistake and we need to put it in context. Its not that kids dont get een sick. Thank you. I appreciate that, and ive beer very concerned. We havent had a National Strategy to curb the virus. Weve had rhetoric about forcind schools to open, their funding threatened, which is completely inappropria inappropriate. Try. No school should be threatened into reopening before it is safer for them to do so and it varies by district and by, across the country. So when schools can safely reopen, they need our help. N th our Public Schools and districts, they need funding to make sure they can equitably ds keep everybody in the School Building safe. Llion i know the h. E. R. O. E. S. Act i he makes a robust investment in rea k12 schools. I hope the senate will pass that. Questthe we need to make sure that our pt schools can open safely. Ri dr. Oleary, another question. The reopening guidance from thee American Academy of pediatrics s makes clear schools must anticipate and address a wide d range of Mental Health needs for both students and staff as they prepare to open. Estion what Mental Health reports will students and staff need as they return to school and what does the academy recommend to prepare teachers to address the Mental Health needs of their students . Yeah. Thats a very important we adyon. So you know, we already te have vastly underfunded for Mental Health support across the country. Shortage sorry. Real you know, theres a shortage of Mental Health providers, access is a real problem and i think schools should be plannin right now. I know a lot of them already un are, for how to handle that, ch working within their own communities to work with Behavioral Health specialists, child psychologists and child psychiatrists to meet the needsa of those students. Its a real problem and ongoing problem that didnt start with the covid19 pandemic and absolutely needs to be addressed. Schools and exacerbated it, of course. Dr. Hinojosa, how have schools and districts meaningfully engaged withth families to lear about what went right and what went wrong with Distance Learning . And how are schools involving families in planning for the ice next school year making sure reopening plans incorporate their feedback . Eacher yes, maam. S definitely we surveyed our parents, contacted them directly and theyve been honest with us what worked and what didnt work. Also i want to elaborate, out of 57 Mental Health specialists upt that we are bringing back when our students come back, our teachers and counselors may not be ready to do that support. A big fiscal thing on our district. Well, thank you so much. Before i yield back i just want to followup on the concerns r raised by both chairman scott and mr. Morelli about testing of students. Oere has with apologies to anyone whos s eating lunch. Ining i know there has been very promising work done on wastewater testing, as an Early Warning system. I dont know, dr. Oleary, if se youre familiar with that testing but with need to look at all ways making sure that our nd School Buildings are safe for our students and the adults who work in them and for families. Something to keep in mind. Dr. Oleary, are you aware of the work done on wastewater and Early Detection . Yes. Ne of one of many strategies. Thank you. My time has expired. I yield back. Mr. Norcross . Mr. Norcross . I can once you. All right. Ms. Macbeth . Ms. Underwood . I can see you. Thank you, mr. Chairman, i appreciate your time today and allowing me to participate in this committees proceedings. Local School Administrators in my district and across the country are weighing incredibly difficult decisions. Educational needs of students, o concerns of parents and, above all the risk to the health of students and staff. Outreach in my district number one thing i hear is funding. Ill continue to fight until the necessary funding we need that was passed by the house in the h. E. R. O. E. S. Act two months ago reaches our schools desperately needing those resources. Im so disappointed were not e able to hear from the Administration Officials who are leading the Public Health here response to reopening schools, but very grateful to the cou witnesses who are here, and, of course, to our educators acrossn the country working so hard to e keep our kids safe and learning. Decisions about what school will look like in the fall should be guided by Public Health bes experts, and those experts must be allowed to make recommendations based on the best data and science and not pressure from the administration. Dr. Oleary, as a pediatrician with kids health and development in mind, what should cdc rely on in developing guidance for schools . Everyt and why is it important that schools have clear guidance from Public Health experts . Thank you. Eed to b i agree with everything you jusd said. It does need to be done in conjunction with local and state Public Health. A cdc, i work in various aspects with a lot of folks at cdc. Theyre working very hard right now to help, working on guidance, and they are working e with state Health Departments, local Health Departments as well as, you know, physicians, et cetera, trying to lay out guidance. And i also recognize, though, that it is, these decisions are best made at the local level. So, mr. Chairman at this time id like to ask unanimous consent toal assocs into t enter written testimony from lori combs, president of the National Association of School Nurses into the record. Without objection, so ordered. Tion, so according to this testimony less than 40 of schools have a fulltime nurse on staff. And a quarter of schools have no nurse at all. Ormal dr. Oleary, School Nurses are critical in ensuring health of our kids in normal times. Can you tell us more why its so important to have a health care professional, like a nurse on staff, for schools during a pandemic . Yes. D. School nurses do an amazing job improving health ofh students within the schooling across the board. Owinoutcomes there have been a number of studies showing a positive outcome of having a school nurse within the schools. And so the, in the school where there is a fulltime school nurse in general children have better Health Outcomes than where there is none. I absolutely support fully Funding School nurses within our schools. O o a School Nurses, in with the g Public Health infrastructure . Right . If theres something going on in that School Building that school nurse can help flag and bring the attention into that School Building, help the students, help the teachers, help the staff. Tea ive heard from certain teachers in my districts at higher risk eacher for complications from covid19 due to their age or health ns d status and want to bewe back wio their students but deeply he worried this will put their health at risk. One in three teachers in this country is over the age of 50. Doctor, what precautions do we n need to consider to protect the health of medically vulnerable e teachers and staff . First let me say i think i, as a pediatrician, we choose to devote our careers to the lives of children. Oting teachers are no different. S. They are devoting their careers. So i think we need to support our teachers and right now we en need to do everything we can to make sure that theyre safe. When they return to school. So i think funding to be able to help them do that is going to be crucial to successfully reopen schools safely. Yep. Funding, in particular, for ppe, despite repeated calls from ll r congress to do so, this administration has not invoked the full power of the defense production act to meet the shortages of ppe. Of shortages that will get worse if schools open. And in a Homeland Security Committee Hearing i participated in yesterday, fema administrator said the administration has no e plans to invoke it, provide schools with face masks. So we know that School Districts are often very worried on how to pay for their ppe and other necessary supplies for the entirety of the school year. We need to relieve them of thate burden. The administration has all the authorities at their disposal to do so. E fullthe de and, you know, we are going to continue to call for the full implementation of that defense act. Thank you for being here and i yield back. Thank you. Was mr. Levin . He was here earlier. All right. Ms. Stevens, five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for having me at this hearing and thank you to our witnesses. Heah its certainly been an honor to hear the exchange back and ove forth. Particularly as we move closer to the start of the school year, and were all looking for certainty and if we recall wheni this pandemic was declared by the world health organization, they projected a year to a year and a half, and so here we are in sort of the middle of it, and its uncertain. Its trying, and its safe to say we all want it to be over. We all want to get back. We want to get back to School Safely. P psc i have been on the phone with my School Administrators, our superintendents, our educators, our parents, around the clock since the first time school was canceled. And th it was supposed to be two weeks, and it was the rest of the school year. We honored and we recognized the class of 2020, these incredible seniors, and we look to the classes that are coming up ande we look to those who were juniors and sophomores and had to interrupt their sports season. Udents wondering if theyre going to get that letter . Stuns students of all abilities who going need that iep. Een the white house the other day said were going to have to learn to live with this, and i l know weve been getting asked some scientific questions here that are, that are being asked of you that really shouldnt be being asked of you, to our incredible ckgrod witnesses who do have ph. D. S ano great backgrounds and we know you, like me, like to listen to the scientists. All right. We want the answers. Housot to were in the race for the, the information, but yet the white house said weve got to learn to live with this. On me,abou and it dawned on me, mr. Chair, as weve been hearing today the questions and answers about wha has been asked of our educators across this country, our Public Schools for so long . Cept u can you accept the unacceptable . Can you accept Unfunded Mandates . Can you accept the threat of gut violence in your schools . I think its fair to say that the American Public is tired of accepting the unacceptable. And were here today as a legislative body to legislate, to partner, to join forces with you. I i i heard mr. Kelly talk about, that the c. A. R. E. S. Act funding in pennsylvania hasnt all been utilized. In michigan, weve utilized our c. A. R. E. S. Act funding, struck a deal with our, with our state capital for School Funding for. This year but were moving into fiscal year 2021 and i just thi. Morning before 9 00 a. M. Was ong with the head of the tricountye alliance for oakland county, wayne county and mccomb, and i said, okay. I struck a deal. And how are you feeling . Ounty c, check in with him all the time. I call him before i know hes eb really beginning his workday and he said, yes, weve struck a deal but we still have this 750 per pupil budget shortfall in michigan. Als an we want to reopen safely. We want to get you safely to our goals and i want to hear what you need. Es is dr five minutes is not enough, buti dr. Hinojosa, id love to hear d what the primary concerns of our principals are and how we can best serve you and meet your needs. Thank you, sir. Lity for yes, well, our principals primary concern is how do we manage the inevitable of having said the teachers have all the tools they need to deliver the best quality for the students in a safe environment. They wr thats the biggest concern, an they want to, weve missed our kids since march, and unless wen have a way to deliver that instruction safely, thats possibly their biggest concern and its going to take resources to make that happen. Resources. I i applaud you for saying that. Ee tha we recognize that. And we do also agree that we need flexibility. His di we need to empower, support ane understand your needs, and we want to continue this dialogue Going Forward. Youre all heroes for coming in today, and participating in this hearing, answering our questions and we look forward to supporting you Going Forward. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you. Ms. Lee . Ms. Lee . Hi, there. Sorry about that. I had to unmute. Nt to you have five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman, andd i want to thank all of our he bk witnesses today. You know, ive sat here and listened today about the back and forth that if you want to open up schools safely, clearly. You dont value inPerson Learning. Lets be clear. We we totally agree and honor and respect and need to have students in the classroom learning one on one, or with a. Teacher. That is the ultimate goal, but we also need to do it in a way where we do not needlessly risk lives. You know, and dr. Schwinn, i applaud your commitment to opening schools. Uo i find it a little odd that youre not acknowledging the necessity of federal support to be able to do so. You know, i represent the state of nevada. Weve seen a 1. 2 billion dollar shortfall, likely cutting over 156 million in k12 funding, and so we know that whatever option that were looking at and a lot of them arent great options, that we need they will require Additional Resources, and honestly, to me it requires extensive testing, and i want to point out that in tennessee youre one of nine ree states that has doubled, more than doubled the testing needed thats been estimated by three Public Health organizations that would be needed to control yourt outbreak, and the fact that tennessee basically fronted the cost of these tests so that anyone who wanted it could get it. With, in tennessee, officials now acknowledge that they are hoping and they are banking on the federal government paying for those tests. So to me, the lack of testing in this country is number one, whyw we have rampant unemployment, but number two, why we are faced with this awful decision on how we reopen schools, whether we treat our students and our out p teachers like guinea pigs, by rushing to open our schools without proper resources, or we keep trying to do Remote Learning, which we know does not do our families and our students the justice that we deserve. Dr. Hinojosa, i wanted to ask w you, you know, youre in a ost predicament quite like the one were in, in nevada. Where dallas is facing an issuel of nearly 33 million in lost revenue, which is certainly going to impact your schools. Can you Tell Congress and tell c us how we can best address thesu revenue shortfalls, and, know, how we can best help you in your ability to reopen in the fall . Ci yes. For us to be opened for our biggest ask right now is to make sure we have Broadband Connectivity and devices so we can connect with our families. Also, what we do have, we have the ppe. Dvan were good on that information but need a lot more support Going Forward with how our special needs students get supported and title i is so critical. 92 of our students economically disadvantaged and the funding for department of agriculture feeding our students. Es f were feed all of our students two peoples a day and its extremely important those opportunities continue for the long term. Day i mean, also the state took a lot of our money through the tl c. A. R. E. S. Act to supplant the revenue we get. We understand why they did it, because they have significant i shortfalls and did it to shore up this year. Thats only this year. Thatr budget Going Forward, theres going to be huge deficits in our budgets it is a domino effect in every community in the state of texas if nothings done about it. Have you estimated what hav youve planned to receive from t the h. E. R. O. E. S. Act in whats the delta between what you would estimate that you receive and what you actually think you need . Timate t to open safely . No. Theres a lot of nuance in that, because under the c. A. R. E. S. Act we thought we would get 61 million and actually got 31 in that,y . From h. E. R. O. E. S. Act we havent fully analyzed that and there 1 are other bills in front of congress to help us with y anal connectivity. We havent done that analysis yet. Ere it would significantly help everybody in texas. Ough then finally, i think were returning out of time here. K ab can you just walk us through what you have gone through with your local Public Health publicc officials to talk about the ls t Public Safety with respect to your reopening plans . Absolutely. Were in contact with our local Health Officials about what they expect from us. What we need to do and to keep y everybody safe, and masks, shields, buses, entryways and every item weve discussed continuing with our local health leaders. You. Thank you. A. Thank you, i yield. Thank you. I now recognize ms. Shalala. Five minutes, please. Ms. Shalala. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I apologize. I had to preside on the floor and just got back. Id like to ask dr. Oleary a question. Ques dr. Oleary, the commissioner Richard Cochran recently issue an emergency order aligning with the Trump Administration requiring all students to reopen fulltime for all five days. They are going to be mandated to meet a number of hours for students. This past monday floridas Teachers Union filed a lawsuit seeking to block the return to inperson classes, because we have Community Spread in florida. Ut of the virus is, in fact, out of control. And we know without a safe studn environment to learn and grow children risk developmental delays. In your view, what are the risks for students for increased exposure with their peers . Especially in a state like vir . Florida, which remains a hot spot of the virus . T isnt this students in School Every Day of the week, and what alternatives would you recommend . reyeah. Eah. Look, were all on the same page. Thank you for that question. Were all on the same page that we want kids in school but we have to do it safely. Where the virus is currently in florida, we havestaff to be really cognizant of those issues, and, you know, one, its not safe. s nu students are going to get sick. Teachers are going to get sick. Staff is going to get sick. N sco thats number one. Number two, its not practical. S if you open schools when the virus is circulating within the community its inevitable its getting to the schools and you will just have to shut them dows immediately and that is were all dealing with sort of whiplash from this whole thing, and so imagine schools, students going into, and then having to go back home the following wee and thats whats going to f yop happen if you open schools in a place where the virus is widely circulating. G. Place e. Its inevitable. Thank you. If i might ask the superintendent a question, just a quick question about minority and lowincome students, clearly, and also disabled students, is there shl another strategy, perhaps tutors, that we should focus on to make sure that students who, in underserved areas actually are able to keep up with their work . We have to go online for the full core in the fall, if you had the resources, what would you do in terms of helping those students to catch up, in addition to their classroom work . Yes. We do have some assessments that tell us which students are the furthest behind and have the t p least contact. What i worry about is a lot of nonprofits that help us, like Reading Partners and tutors, are also not getting donations fromr other people that, foundations that support them because theyre short on dollars. Its a double whammy on partnern that need to help us with the Wraparound Services students tr need to have tutoring and reinforcement. An influx of resources would help not only us but them to be able to provide the quality Nonprofit Services they offer to help and serve our students. They would be greatly important. Thank you. Ck. Ield back. Thank you, ms. Shalala. At this time, ms. Macbeth agreed to let ms. Wild go. You have five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chair and my colleague for her accommodation. My question is for ms. Leslie boggs. A ms. Boggs, when my children, who now are in their 20s, were in school their dad and i panicked whenever we had to accommodate a single snow or sick day into our work schedule. E. Mana so i have great sympathy for parents now as they try to abou figure out how they are going to manage their schedules. Not to mention being worried about their childrens health. O so many of the discussions weve been hearing around School Reopening have focused on the hb perspectives of the administrators, the teachers, and political leaders, quite frankly. Hools, b i think its vital that we engage parents and families in the conversation on how to best and most safely reopen the schools, because its going to affect parents and families just as much as it affects students and school staff. And based on these conversations ive had with the parents in my. District, there is a wide range of opinion about how schools should operate this fall. So my question to you is, as president of the National Press Parent Teacher association is a do you think parents and ptas have been included enough in the local and National Conversations about ways to safely reopen the schools . And could you just comment on gh the benefits of incorporating ts the parents opinions and insight when creating these School Reopening plans . Thank you for the question. Its interesting to see across d our nation the affect to our parents and educators who have been True Partners in their t pa childrens education. Re im hearing parents have been involved in the conversation for reopening schools but also some School Districts are not r us t including parents in the conversation and students. So i think in order for us to be completely am i not can you hear me . We can hear you. Yes, sot we can hear you. Yes, we can hear you. Okay. Theres something came up yes, we can hear you. Something came up on mine that said ive beenen muted. Noil thats when youre going to see schools struggle with reopening because theyre not saistening to the Critical Issues parents are concerned about. T. Ilit they doy want to be back in school. And we know that for sure. So i t but they are concerned about the safety and the reopening of those schools and the ability for them to do it appropriately. So i think thats why you have to see thatfa conversation be there ive seen districts, this administration does a Facebook Live every week, takes questions from parents. Theyve had town halls with parents to see what they can do to help effectively reopening. The concerns is if we dont reopen schools, again, is that homework gap or learning gap. What youre seeing in districts that are lowincome districts is that they are really hurting more and what weve seen is, theres really populations that bear the burden, right . 37 of rural students and 21 of urban students lack Home Internet access. 35 of native American Students, 30 of black students and 26 of latino students have inadequate Internet Access at home. We have a disparity that we have to be worried about. When children come back to school, theyre going to be significantly needier than theyve ever been in the past. And i think this is the biggest hurdle that our Education System will have to overcome is assessing those needs for each student. And theyre very different, depending on where you are. Thank you for that very thoughtful answer. Im a big deliver that we need to be establishing commissions or committees that consistent of teachers, parents, other educators, physicians, both pediatricians and Infectious Disease and we really need to get the political officials out of the discussion and yield to the sentiments of the people who are true stakeholders and who really now what theyre talking about when it comes to this. Youre clearly one of them. Thank you so very much for your responses. I yield back. Thank you very much. And now i recognize ms. Macbeth. Thank you to all of our witnesses that have taken the time to enlighten us as to whats truly happening with the Public School system. I think we can all agree for the best place for our children to be educated is in the classroom. I dont think anyone here is denying that at all. Our current pandemic prevents us from allows that to happen safely. And i will say this very briefly, i was a woman who chose to homeschool her child 4th through eighth grade. I know thats not something each and every family is able to do. But i understand now that i think parents are feeling that theyre in a since of homeschooling even with virtual schooling and that adds a lot of additional stresses because of the covid19. So after the last few weeks i have had conversations within my own districts with our teachers and School Board Members. And we were trying to decipher i wanted to know what was the best pathway forward. I felt in my gut that there was trouble, that our teachers and superintendents were really troubled by how they were going to best be able to appropriate funding and resource and tools to make sure our children have the Global Education that they deserve. And our teachers, what i found out, basically, are afraid of infecting their students with covid19, but also they are afraid that their students might also infect them too. They said to me, there was clearly a lack of uniform guidelines and this is when i represent the sixth Congressional District of georgia. There was a lack of clear guideline and guidance from our administration as to how our students and our teachers would be protected to return to the physical classroom. So i know that were here today because of that lack of leadership and if the administration had acted earlier to prevent the spread of covid19, i really believe we would not be in this predicament at this time. The house, we have passed the h. E. R. O. S. Act. Were still waiting today, were still waiting on the senate to take action on the h. E. R. O. S. Act. And the h. E. R. O. S. Act, we know, truly, appropriates the funding and tools and resources to save lives. In each of my meetings with my local School Officials, they expressed the need for more funding from congress for ppe and also School Infrastructure and hiring more Mental Health professionals in the school because that is definitely lacking and the Mental Health of our students is very, very critical at this time. The h. E. R. O. S. Act does provide for increased funding for mental Health Services and it also gives the resources necessary to stop the spread of this virus devastating disease. Ms. Boggs, you mentioned the results of the virginia pta Parent Survey in your testimony which i have read. As we all know, the pandemic might be taking a toll on the Mental Health of many, many of your students. Did the responses align to those concerns, the responses from that survey . I would say yes, i think they align with the concerns that you heard and saw within the report that we gave. Parents are just overall just concerned but they want their children back in school but they do understand that more than likely we will see different options for parents. The concern that i have as leader of this association is ensuring that everyone has options and that parents are not putting themselves in a nowin situation. So we know that Distance Learning is not the best option. If our schools arent safe, then were not giving them great options, are we . I think thats where i find your earlier comment on leadership during this crisis, leaders will be defined by what happens during this crisis. Weve seen the house do the right thing. I think the senate need to understand that leadership needs to happen and our nation is waiting and our parents are watching. I hope this answers your question. It does, thank you very much. Can you please discuss how the Dallas Independent School districts plan to reopen addresses the needs of marginalized students. Im very concerned about that. And we know those students, those demographics of students are disproportionately impacted by School Closures. Thats one of our biggest concerns. We have a lot of robust plans for our traditional students. But our students with special needs, by definition, have an individual plan that has to be adjusted. And many of the parents are carrying the burden of doing that at home when our trained professionals are the ones that need to do it. We need to be concerned about their safety. They have to get in close proximity to the students. We are concerned about that and we need resources thank you so much for your answers. I yield back the balance of my time. At this time, i would like to recommend my colleagues that pursuant to practice, materials must be submitted to the Committee Clerk within 14 days following the last of the hearing. So by close of business on august 6, 2020, and in microsoft word format. Only a member of the subcommittee or an invited witness my submit materials and documents are limited to 50 pages each. Documents longer than 50 pages will be incorporated into the report via an internet link that you must provide to the Committee Clerk within the required time frame. A year from now, the link may no longer work. Member offices are couraged to submit materials to the inbox at the time the member makes their request. The record will remain open for 14 days per Committee Practice for additional submissions after the hearing. Without objection, i would like to enter the following statement and records into the record. A statement from director of Instructional Technology, covid19 planning considerations, guidelines for School Reentry by the academy of american pediatricians, a plan to safely reopen americas schools and communities by the American Federation of teachers. Initial guidance regarding reopening schools by the nea and Guiding Principles and action steps for reopening schools by the aasa. I want to thank our witnesses for their participation today. Members of the subcommittee may have some additional questions for you and we ask the witnesses to please respond to those questions in writing. The hearing record will be held open for 14 days in order to receive those responses. And i remind my colleagues that pursuant to Committee Practice, witness questions for the hearing record must be submitted to the Majority Committee staff or Committee Clerk within seven days. The questions submitted must address the subject matter of the hearing. I would like to recognize the distinguished Ranking Member for his closing statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank everyone for taking time today to provide testimony about this important topic of safety safely reopening our schools this fall. I want to thank our all of our witnesses for their input and its much appreciated. The coronavirus pandemic has tested our nations Public Schools in a way weve not seen in generations. We know that americans can turn this challenge into something positive for students by further enhancing how we educate our students. Quite frankly, we cannot fail a generation of school students. Children learn and thrive in school. Students deserve the option to go back to school with instruction, supports, services, and all of this provided in person. And we all need to Work Together to focus on how to make it happen safely. Likewise teachers and staff deserve planning that protects their health and safety while at school. Weve touched on the many reasons that the ability to safely return to school is so important for our students and their families. Many students rely on schools for meals, for the support of counselors, coaches, School Nurses and the many other trusted adults that make up our school community. Families Economic Security has been negatively impacted by covid19 related to School Closures. We must remember that in the best of cases this spring, families were adapting to Remote Learning in their homes and making due with virtual connections to classmates and educators. But in many scenarios, families struggle without Critical Resources for their children. Now more than ever, we need to Work Together to help all children get the education they need to thrive. We have guidance from the cdc, the aap and other experts outlining the considerations for returning to schools, and the steps we need to take to do it safely. States like tennessee and georgia are setting great examples of the resilience it takes to find solutions for the complex situation were facing today and will continue to face this in the fall and in the future. No one takes the decision to reopen schools for students this fall lightly. It is with great consideration coupled with determination to do whats best for our nations students. Every student should be afforded the option for highquality instruction this fall. I want to thank, again, our witnesses for bringing thoughtful testimony before us today and i look forward to working with my colleagues and educators to ensure our students are provided opportunities to be successful this fall and beyond. And, mr. Chair, i yield back. Thank you very much, mr. Alan. I also want to thank you, again, all the witnesses for joining us and providing your expertise. I want to thank the members also for taking part in todays hearing and todays hearing confirmed that what families, school staff, education leaders and Public Health experts across the country have been telling us for months, schools need immediate and significant support to confront the unprecedented challenges of providing students with safe and highquality education during this pandemic. President trump and secretary devos should heed that warning. But instead, this administration is leaving School Districts to fend for themselves and threatening to strip away without any Legal Authority the very resources the schools need to ensure the safety sophisticaof students and school staff. This administration is abandoning the needs of your students at a time when the u. S. Has surpassed 4 million covid19 infections and theyre blaming School Districts for not doing enough to reopen. Each one of us wants to reopen our schools as soon as possible so we can get our children back into classrooms and reopen our economy. But we also have the responsibility to care for the health and safety for our students, families, school staff and communities. And that must always be our first and foremost priority. I look forward to working with you and all of my colleagues to provide our schools with the resources they need to safely reopen classrooms, welcome schools back to inPerson Instruction, and help our economy recover from the pandemic. Thank you. If there is no further business. Without objection, this committee stands adjourned. Tonight on American History tv beginning at 8 00 eastern, living historians from our american artifacts series. A physician portrays a battalion surgeon. His medical tent was set up as a battalion aid station. A mobile emergency room that would have been located close to the front lines. Watch American History tv tonight and over the weekend on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend on the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings, saturday at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on real america, the 1996 film the spirit of hiroshima, featuring the stories of bombing survivors. On sunday at 4 55 eastern on oral histories, an army veteran talks about his assignment to the Manhattan Project and working on the nagasaki bomb. An exhibit marking the anniversary of the bombings. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. During the summer months, reach out to your elected officials with cspans congressional directory. It contains all of the Contact Information you need to stay in touch with members of congress and state governors. Order your copy online today at cspanstore. Org. In august, the United States will mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the constitution which gave women the right to vote. The National Constitution Center Hosted a discussion about that anniversary and t