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ILLINOIS
SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS DEMAND IMMEDIATE COVID-19 GUIDANCE
Illinois Policy Institute/
Mailee Smith
Illinois schools will be treated more
restrictively than any other public venues, threatening students’
educations across the state. Superintendents are demanding up-to-date,
commonsense COVID-19 guidance to prep for the upcoming school year. |
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 Even as many Illinois school children are enjoying their first
weeks of summer, school superintendents are faced with a serious question: how
to best prepare for COVID-19 protocols during the 2021-2022 school year.
The state’s actions in recent weeks have done more to muddle than to help answer
that question.
On May 24, the Illinois State Board of Education issued a Resolution Supporting
In-Person Instruction. According to that resolution, a forthcoming declaration
from the state superintendent of education will require public schools to
provide fully in-person learning for the 2021-2022 academic school year, with
remote instruction available only to students who 1) are not eligible for the
vaccine (i.e., under 12 years of age) and 2) are under a quarantine order by the
local health department or the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The resolution also said masks are still required in schools for the 2021-2022
school year.
Then on June 11, the state entered Phase 5 of the governor’s reopening plan.
Under Phase 5, “normal operations” resume, with no capacity restrictions on
large events. While businesses are still encouraged to support social
distancing, there is no mandate. Businesses are allowed to have their own rules
on capacity and masking.
In other words, schools will be operating under tighter restrictions than what
is deemed safe in most other public venues.
That discrepancy and lack of guidance led superintendents with the Large Unit
District Association, consisting of 52 pre-K to grade 12 school districts with
enrollments of at least 3,500 students, to send a letter June 21 to ISBE asking
that “full guidance from ISBE for the fall be issued immediately.”
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The association focused its concerns on two areas:
quarantining and social distancing.
Noting that even though their school districts have had very few
cases of documented COVID-19 spread during 2020-2021, thousands of
students were quarantined, and that was “very disruptive” to
learning. Yet during that year, some form of remote learning was
available to them. Those same remote learning options won’t exist
under the ISBE declaration.
That led the association to conclude, “When considering the
cost/benefit of both health and education, we do not believe the
current quarantining guidance is most appropriate for our students.”
As for social distancing, the letter noted it is impossible for most
of the association’s member schools to operate at 100% capacity with
6-foot distancing guidelines. Even under 3-foot guidelines,
modifications are necessary and would require “significant
adjustments” – the planning and expenditures for which “need to
happen now.”
The association requested two actions from the ISBE: 1) that social
distancing, quarantining and masking guidelines in schools be
consistent with health guidelines of Phase 5 as applied in other
venues in Illinois, and 2) that full guidance from ISBE for the fall
be issued immediately.
Association members noted they thought “new guidance” would be
forthcoming reflecting the May ISBE resolution and the June entry
into Phase 5. “Unfortunately, to date, that has not happened.”
And that places school districts at a serious disadvantage when
trying to plan for the upcoming school year.
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