Starting a new school is a big endeavor and will require putting in place policies, procedures and financing. It requires an intersectoral approach, involving Ministries of Health and Education, as well as other key partners including water, sanitation, hygiene, protection and nutrition departments. It also requires a clear and rigorous process of school reopening.
New York City’s experience during the pandemic provides lessons about how schools can be reopened and kept open using multilayered mitigation strategies. The NYC Department of Education and the union representing teachers worked together to develop comprehensive reopening plans that provide extensive resources for viral testing and have adapted as community transmission rates have fluctuated.
The plan for reopening schools included the designation of “yellow,” “orange” and “red” zones that determine restrictions and mandate that a minimum number of students and teachers be tested in each classroom before a school can be reopened. The plans also include support for contact tracers from the NYC Test & Trace Corps, which has a 90% goal of identifying and reporting cases of student-to-student, student-to-staff, and staff-to-staff transmission. The Corps also operates a hotel placement program for individuals who need to quarantine away from their families.
Emily Niehaus wasn’t a teacher or principal when she founded her new charter school in rural Moab, Utah. But she knew her son, Oscar, needed a more flexible educational environment than the local options could offer. His “2e” condition — a combination of academically giftedness and an intellectual disability — made it impossible for him to thrive in a large high school, where classes were too large and the curriculum was too rigid.