Safety is at the top of the minds of all educational stakeholders, especially teachers and parents. News outlets are flooding all channels with advice on what schools should and should not do. The CDC has also released specific guidelines to help guide the reopening of schools and the subsequent re-entry of students. There are no easy answers or solutions during these unprecedented times, but we can all agree that the health and safety of every child and adult are of paramount importance. To that end, it is critical that all groups have a seat at the table to add input and suggestions to any plan being developed. For some suggestions on how to do this in a meaningful way, check out this post.
All any district can do is meticulously plan while trying to foresee as many possible scenarios that could occur once schools are reopened. Many questions and associated challenges will undoubtedly arise. The key is to be ready for them. A proactive approach entails the establishment of protocols to track and report COVID cases across a school district while abiding by privacy laws. Doing so provides an additional safeguard for students and staff to complement social distancing, hybrid learning models, hygiene stations, and facemasks. It is critical that everyone knows who has been infected or has come in close contact with people that have tested positive for COVID. Access to this vital information will then allow for staff to quarantine as necessary.
I recently wrote about a fantastic tool called ZippSlip that every district should consider as a means to streamline communications. It is a cloud-based mobile app that supports all communication sent from the school to parents like student registration, athletic waivers, permission slips, mass notifications in multiple languages, dynamic use of video, and the list goes on and on. You can now add another essential feature to that list as Zippslip now can seamlessly collect data on COVID for tracking purposes that can assist with safety until the virus is eradicated. Below are some specific highlights from a brief on their website:
ZippSlip offers a solution to electronically collect and track COVID symptoms and risk information from students' parents attending the school. Quickly deployed, ZippSlip allows parents to securely update their students' information from a browser or via the ZippSlip app. School administrators can track COVID risk information on customizable dashboards that include trend charts, heatmaps, and other relevant analytics. In one glance, administrators can monitor district-wide information and then quickly take mitigation steps. With a couple of clicks on ZippSlip's administrator portal, administrators can find students with symptoms, their siblings, and which schools and classes are at risk.
In addition to collecting data from families regarding students, districts, and schools can also report information related to staff infections or recent contact with others who have the virus. Together, the data in the dashboard can be used to help adjust plans to keep in-person learning going or make the decision to move to remote learning. In the end, it is just one more resource to help ease the many concerns that are out there. For more detailed information check out this downloadable slide deck.
With many schools implementing a hybrid learning model, a solution such as ZippSlip can help ease, but not eradicate, some concerns while keeping stakeholders constantly up to date.
As more and more states and countries reopen their respective economies, schools will soon follow. Early lessons can be learned on how to do this successfully where this has already happened abroad. Even though remote learning might continue in some form preparations for in-person learning have to be made. In a recent post, I outlined eight specific focus areas that should be considered as part of any re-entry plan. The theme of health and safety was weaved throughout, but not emphasized in the image I had created. After receiving feedback from several educators on social media, I rectified this oversight, but it also got me thinking a great deal more about what is on every educator's mind. When school does reopen will it be safe?
Safety is at the top of everyone's mind. A poll conducted by USA Today sheds some light on what essential stakeholder groups are thinking.
In an exclusive USA TODAY/Ipsos poll, 1 in 5 teachers say they are unlikely to go back to school if their classrooms reopen in the fall, a potential massive wave of resignations. While most teachers report working more than usual, nearly two-thirds say they haven't been able to properly do their jobs in an educational system upended by the coronavirus. A separate poll of parents with at least one child in grades K-12 finds that 6 in 10 say they would be likely to pursue at-home learning options instead of sending back their children this fall. Nearly a third of parents, 30%, say they are "very likely" to do that.
Reassurance that schools will be safe has to be backed up by action, and planning must begin in earnest now.
I want to take my original question a step further. When schools and districts reopen will it be safe for everyone? Up to this point, the majority of conversations I have witnessed on social media, news pieces, and articles have focused on students' health and safety. It goes without saying that this is an extremely important group and should be emphasized. However, we must not forget all of the people that support kids both directly and indirectly, such as teachers, administrators, secretaries, instructional aides, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, groundskeepers, and other support staff. The planning and step-by-step process of reopening have to be inclusive of, and sensitive to, everyone who plays a role in the functioning of a school or district.
Even though those in power are ultimately responsible for developing a re-entry plan, successfully implementing it relies on all of the groups listed above. Not only does it take a village in this case, but empathy and understanding need to lead the way. People need to feel valued, and the key is to have all stakeholders be an active part of the planning process so that health and safety concerns are not only addressed but acted upon. Below are some critical areas to consider as you or others lead a process to reopen schools safely.
Engage
It is vital to create opportunities for all stakeholders to be active participants in the planning process. If face-to-face meetings and town halls are not an option, set these up virtually. Also, consider creating polls or using tools such as Google Forms and social media to elicit input.
Listen
Engagement only matters if people feel that they are actually being listened to. The best way to illustrate that you have really listened is to act in some way so that the other person, or people, know that they were actually heard. The action could be moving an idea forward or explaining your decision to go in another direction. Share minutes and poll results. Respond to questions and pertinent comments on social media or through email. There will be times during the process when people just want to vent and be listened to. In these cases, the most important thing you can do is show you care. Listening is a lost art that needs to be embraced.
Prioritize
The purpose of the engagement and listening process is to develop a list of action items to be considered. When it comes to the health and safety of all, many valid ideas should be considered. Nonetheless, they will need to be prioritized in order of importance with health and safety given top billing.
Consensus
Sometimes decisions have to be made at the drop of a dime, but this does not. For the big decisions that will dramatically alter school culture post-COVID19, it is imperative that all stakeholders be represented, and their input is taken into consideration. Consensus means coming to a general agreement with those who have offered their perspectives and voices on how to open up schools safely.
All means all
No stone can go unturned when it comes to developing a course of action that impacts every person in a school or district. Inclusivity and equity need to be emphasized with a laser-like focus on the foundational levels of Maslow's Hierarchy, of which health and safety fall into. There will also be unseen issues that staff are grappling with. Sound plans must also account for the mental health needs of kids and adults.
Opening schools back up requires a team effort. People must not only be invited to the conversation, but their input has to be valued. The best way to do this is by following the guidelines listed above and show them that their concerns and contributions have been threaded into a re-entry plan.
Be sure to check out my entire #remotelearning series.
The following is a guest post by Erik Endress.
In the days following December 14th, 2012 school administrators, educators, law enforcement personnel and parents have undertaken the most comprehensive look at school safety since the Columbine massacre of 1999. While much of that discussion has focused on preventing a Newtown-style active shooter from making entry to a building, history shows that the majority of active shooters appear from the inside of the school, in the form of a student, staff member or parent who has unfettered access to the building.
I do not believe that we can prevent active shooters, intent on doing harm at our schools, from carrying out their plans whether they emerge from the population already inside the building or arrive on school grounds unannounced as happened in Newtown. Anyone with access to the building can carry an arsenal of weapons or explosives into the school and unleash an attack from inside.
Where I believe there is room for improvement is the ability to connect administrators, educators, employees and local first responders on the scene of an emergency at a school or on a campus. After all, educators and students are using technology to connect with people around the world; shouldn’t they be able to connect to the teacher in the next classroom or the police officer who may save their life? I think so.
Think about what happens in your school today. How are lockdown or evacuation alerts communicated? In most schools, one or two people, usually administrators, are authorized to call a lockdown and they can only do that using the PA system in the main office, which is generally adjacent to the front doors.
Speaking at the New Jersey Association of School Administrators School Security Conference in March of 2013, former Newtown Superintendent Janet Robinson said that it was a school bus driver who called her secretary to report a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and she thought the report couldn't be true. "I said, 'it's impossible. It must be a domestic dispute in the area," the superintendent recalled. "I said, 'Call the school and see if it's close, see if we need to do a lockdown."
Why isn’t every employee able to call for a lockdown or evacuation if they see something dangerous? Perhaps the gym teacher is on the athletic field with students when he or she sees a suspicious person appear from the woods. Or a teacher in a classroom has a student pull a handgun from their backpack. In both instances, the time that can be saved communicating the alert can save lives – that’s why our system enables any administrator, employee or law enforcement officer to instantly broadcast an alert (lockdown, lockout, evacuate) from their own mobile device or a computer, to everyone involved. That alert is also sent instantly to your local law enforcement officers, who may be passing right by the school at that moment, reducing response time.
Once employees receive an alert, they connect with everyone on the scene by checking in to share their actual location inside or outside of the building, their status, headcount, a message and reporting missing or found students, in just seconds, using their own mobile device or a computer. Whether in the corner of their classroom, hidden in the closet or at the evacuation zone, every employee can connect to report their status and receive real-time information updates via text.
As employee check-ins are occurring, they are displayed in real-time on the SW911 LiveView dashboard. Responding police and fire personnel can connect instantly to see if anyone is reporting that they are being held hostage, near the threat or are trapped by fire or building debris, all high priority situations. This enables first responders to see where help is needed now, instead of searching the entire building or campus without any information.
School administrators can use SW911 to be instantly alerted to emergencies at their schools and can access the LiveView to monitor or manage incidents of any kind, from anywhere.
SW911 was used for the first time in New Jersey on January 8, 2013 and today, thousands of school employees and first responders are on the network. Schools can try the system for free for up to two months prior to switching to a paid model, which is just $3 per employee, per month.
For more information visit www.sharewith911.com or email Erik@sharewith911.com
Erik Endress is the CEO and Co-Founder of OnScene Technologies, Inc. which makes Share With 911. He has been a volunteer First Responder in his hometown of Ramsey, NJ for over 25 years and is a recipient of the New York City Mayoral Award for Heroism & Bravery. His experience as a First Responder, a former school board member and as an education technology specialist, Erik saw an opportunity to leverage the technology being used in schools and in the hands of First Responders to connect everyone involved during an emergency and let them share information with each other.
