Iowa s top health official advised schools and child care centers Friday to drop mask mandates and said children should no longer necessarily be put into quarantine after exposure to the virus, even if they weren t wearing masks. While we acknowledge that some parents may want their child to continue to wear a cloth face covering for reasons that make sense for their family or that child’s individual health condition, we urge schools and child care settings to provide parents and students with the option to make their own decision about mask usage, Kelly Garcia, interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, wrote in a letter to school superintendents, child care providers and local health departments Friday.
Both/and strategies in some districts
The Iowa City Community School District has been looking at different strategies to recover learning loss including holding summer school and hiring more classroom teachers for the 2021-22 school year to reduce class sizes.
The district is also planning to hire about 34 academic support teachers, essentially interventionists, to work with elementary, middle and high school students, said Diane Schumacher, Iowa City schools executive director of teaching and learning. The total cost is estimated to be about $3 million. The district plans to use federal funds to cover the cost for the next two years.
In elementary classes, the academic support teachers would be able to do intervention in the classroom, Schumacher said.
Wisconsin Examiner
Wisconsin State Capitol | Phil Roeder CC BY 2.0
State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-West Point) finds it ironic that Republican legislative leaders sent Gov. Tony Evers a letter on Monday inviting him to meet with them to âshare your plans for the federal funding as soon as possible.â
One year ago, a group of 43 GOP Wisconsin legislators sent Wisconsin members of Congress a letter urging them not to provide financial relief to state governments. Despite their protestations, under the American Rescue Plan Act, Wisconsin will receive $5.7 billion, $3.2 billion of that for the state government for pandemic recovery.Â
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu joins other GOP leaders in giving a budget response. WisEye 2/16/21
The federal government plans to send $103 million to Iowa to help families buy groceries this summer.
The funds are expected to help feed 276,000 Iowa children from low- and moderate-income families in the state, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture news release Monday. The money will come from the recently passed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
The Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer program, or P-EBT was established in March 2020 to provide food dollars to families to make up for meals missed when schools have closed due to COVID-19.
EBT cards, which can be used at grocery stores, are part of the program formerly known as food stamps. A similar special version of the program was offered to Iowa families last summer. Authorities have not announced details, such as how the cards will be distributed.