Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Chicago Schools Reopen Today, And Many Teachers, Nurses Aren't Happy
The New York Times: Covid-19: Chicago Is Reopening Schools Against Fierce Resistance From Teachers
Across the country, many big cities like New York have struggled to resume even limited in-person instruction, while a number, including Los Angeles, have simply given up on the idea, choosing to stick with all-remote education into the spring. Few places have seen as much acrimony over the issue as Chicago, whose public school system is the nation’s third-largest. Now, with 6,000 prekindergarten and special education students preparing to return to the city’s public school buildings on Monday for the first time since March, a question looms: How many of their teachers will be there to greet them? (1/11)
The Washington Post: Chicago Teachers Balk At Reopening Plan, Face Pay Loss If They Don’t Return
Chicago Public Schools will reopen for some students Monday for the first time since last spring amid an escalating clash between city officials, who are threatening to withhold pay from teachers who do not show up, and the powerful Chicago Teachers Union, which contends that schools are not properly outfitted to combat the coronavirus. Teachers who don’t show up for work Monday “will be deemed absent without leave and will not be eligible for pay,” said Janice Jackson, CEO of the nation’s third-largest school district. (Reiss, 1/9)
The Washington Post: Scores Of Nurses In Chicago Public Schools Say Reopening Buildings Is Still Unsafe
Scores of nurses in the Chicago Public Schools district have objected to officials’ plans to begin bringing students back to classrooms on Monday, saying they do not think it is safe to do so. Chicago public schools have been closed since March. A statement signed by 147 school nurses says: “Many of us are CPS parents ourselves, and all wish to be back in school buildings, but the simple fact is that it is currently not safe to do this.” (Strauss, 1/10)
In related developments about children and covid —
CIDRAP: Three Studies Highlight Low COVID Risk Of In-Person School
A trio of new studies demonstrate low risk of COVID-19 infection and spread in schools, including limited in-school COVID-19 transmission in North Carolina, few cases of the coronavirus-associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) in Swedish schools, and minimal spread of the virus from primary school students in Norway. (Van Beusekom, 1/8)
