‘Really Very Difficult Indeed’: Schools Plan For A Complicated Fall

Detroit Free Press: Federal Judge Orders Detroit Summer Students Tested For COVID-19
The Detroit Public Schools Community District must test summer school students for COVID-19, U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow ordered Tuesday. Tarnow ordered the testing to begin Wednesday. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the district has worked with the city of Detroit to obtain tests. (Wisely, 7/21)

Houston Chronicle: Tomball ISD Teams Up With Axiom Medical To Offer Health Care Assistance Districtwide Through New App =
Tomball Independent School District announced in a press release Monday, July 20, its new partnership with Axiom Medical by providing district staff across all facilities health care support amid the COVID-19 pandemic to guide and encourage employees at schools. On top of safety protocols and guidelines ready in preparation for the 2020-21 school year, Tomball ISD employees will have an extra layer of care when school starts August 18 by using Axiom’s CheckIn2Work application. Axiom Medical is an occupational health services and incident case management provider for employers based out The Woodlands. (Montano, 7/21)

The Washington Post: Fairfax, Loudoun Schools Superintendents Call For All-Online Learning To Start Year 
In a major reversal, the superintendents of three large public school systems in Virginia and Maryland are calling for an all-virtual start to the fall semester, scrapping earlier plans to offer a mix of in-person and distance learning. The superintendents of Fairfax County Public Schools and Loudoun County Public Schools, both in Northern Virginia, argued for an online-only start in meetings with their school boards Tuesday. The superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland announced the switch in an email late Tuesday afternoon to parents, students and staffers. (Natanson and St. George, 7/21)

The New York Times: What Is It That Keeps Most Little Kids From Getting Covid-19? 
Experts still say if families live in a hot spot or a family member is vulnerable to a severe case of Covid-19, children should remain as dedicated as ever to disinfection routines, distancing from people outside the home, wearing a mask and washing their hands even more than they did before the pandemic. Outside of those situations, parents can relax at least one of the most stringent and challenging measures they took earlier this year — without raising risk significantly: they no longer need to completely isolate their young children, Dr. Chiang said. Similar guidance is implicit in the reopening guidelines for schools released in late June by the American Academy of Pediatrics, or A.A.P., which advocates for “having students physically present in school.” (Lloyd, 7/20)

Boston Globe: What Happens When A Student Or Staffer Gets Sick At School This Fall? 
As schools reopen in the fall, previously common and insignificant situations will carry new prospects of danger. To guide districts’ responses, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education this week released protocols for when students, staffers, or families experience symptoms or test positive for COVID-19 — a 19-page plan that makes clear how complicated and challenging the new school year will be. (Martin, 7/21)

In higher education news —

Los Angeles Times: UC Berkeley Reopening Plan Shelved Amid Coronavirus Surge 
Hopes that college life might begin a slow return to normal this fall were deflated Tuesday, when two University of California campuses announced they would begin the semester with fully remote instruction amid a pandemic surge. UC Berkeley and UC Merced had hoped to open Aug. 26 with a mix of online, in-person and hybrid classes. But they reversed those plans as COVID-19 infections began their record-shattering increases throughout California, with cases now topping more than 400,000 and deaths, 7,800. In Los Angeles County, half of new COVID-19 cases were among those ages 18 to 40. (Watanabe, 7/21)

Boston Globe: At Colleges And Universities, Pandemic Forces Budget Cuts 
In January Emerson College seemed poised for a great spring semester. The glass and concrete renovation of the Little Building dormitory, perched on the edge of Boston Common, was open after a multi-year renovation that breathed new life into the historic building. The school’s Los Angeles campus was financially solid, and enrollment was strong. The school had taken on significant debt to finance the renovation, but administrators were confident that strong demand for their well-known arts and media programs would allow them to use 2020 to begin to recover from the expensive building project. (Krantz and Fernandes, 7/20)

Also —

Politico: ‘It's Insane’: Millions Of Kids Could Lose Access To Free Meals If This Program Expires 
The Trump administration is resisting calls to make it easy for tens of millions of students to get free meals at school this year, even as childhood hunger rates have risen to the highest levels in decades.During the spring and summer, as the coronavirus health crisis exploded, the government allowed most families to pick up free meals from whichever school was closest or most convenient without proving they were low-income. But that effort is on the verge of expiring as states prepare for children to return to school, and as school systems are pushing the federal government to continue the free meals program through the fall. (Bottemiller Evich and Perez Jr., 7/20)

The New York Times: Judge Declines To Release Girl, 15, Held For Skipping Online Schoolwork 
A judge on Monday denied a motion to release a Michigan teenager who has been held at a juvenile detention facility since May for not completing her online coursework, the latest development in a case that has raised a national outcry. Judge Mary Ellen Brennan of the Oakland County Circuit Court ruled that the teenager, who violated the terms of her probation by skipping coursework when her school switched to remote learning because of the coronavirus pandemic, should remain at the juvenile facility. The judge said the decision was intended for the girl’s own good. (Gross, 7/21)