Monday, May 23, 2022

School Exposure Policies Keep Healthy Children Away From In-Person Learning; Report Finds Falling Student Achievement in K-12 Schools, and other C-Virus related stories

School exposure policies keep healthy children away from in-person learning:
Students are continuing to find themselves locked out of in-person learning due to school policies across the country that force unvaccinated children to stay home for days if they are exposed to a person with COVID-19 — regardless of whether they test negative.
The learning disruptions are frequently unpredictable and subject to the discretion of school officials.
In Washington, D.C.’s public school system, for example, school staff determine whether a child is a close contact of a COVID-19-positive person at school, often providing little information about the circumstances surrounding an exposure before informing parents they’ll have to keep their COVID-19-negative student home for five days.
Although negative tests don’t free unvaccinated students from the requirement, students must test negative to return on day six and still have to wear a mask for the next five days of school.
Less than a third of children between the ages of 5 and 11 are vaccinated, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics .
That means two-thirds of the nation’s children are subject to rules, which vary by district, that could keep them out of the classroom for days at a time, even if they repeatedly test negative for the virus. --->READ MORE HERE
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Report finds falling student achievement in K-12 schools:
Virginia’s public schools, which have long enjoyed a reputation for academic excellence, have experienced a yearslong trend of declining student performance exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a critical state report released Thursday.
A review of recent testing and other K-12 data presents a sobering picture, suggesting “overall high-average performance” has masked achievement gaps and poor reading proficiency and college-readiness measures, GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin and administration officials said. The state has wide gulfs between performance on state tests and benchmarks for a national assessment, its number of high school students earning college credit in advanced courses is slipping, and a growing number of students are leaving public schools altogether, the report found.
“We believe that this data makes an irrefutable case that the state has not been serving every child and every community in the Commonwealth as well as it needs to,” Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera said in a call with reporters.
The report did not mention Virginia’s two previous governors, both Democrats, by name. But officials said decisions made over the past decade had lowered educational standards — including the state’s school accreditation requirements — and reduced transparency. --->READ MORE HERE
Follow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:

CDC recommends travelers get tested for COVID-19 before ‘time of departure’

Tracking coronavirus in animals takes on new urgency

USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates

WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates

YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates

NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest

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