NASBE Policy Update Featured in Education Dive

Education Dive covers NASBE’s recent policy update on state school reopening plans. Read an excerpt below.

Perhaps most notably, the NASBE’s analysis recognizes that many states’ reopening plans will need to be fluid as research and on-the-ground conditions shift understanding of the novel coronavirus. As the update’s author, NASBE Associate Editor Joseph Hedger, writes, the politicization of these efforts further necessitates clear communication of new decisions at the national, state and local levels by policymakers.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has added to an already charged environment by stepping up pressure for schools to fully reopen. President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold funds from schools failing to do so.

Infectious disease experts, however, caution a rush back to the classroom. Dr. Wendy Armstrong of the Emory University School of Medicine has advised that locations where there is “explosive growth” in the spread of COVID-19 wouldn’t be the place to start reopenings, and that states should ideally see “significant reductions, a downward trend for at least a few weeks” before students and educators return to an in-person model.