Chalkbeat

DPSCD board backs off proposal to eliminate virtual public comments at meetings

2025-01-16T22:00:00+00:00

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The Detroit school board is backing off a proposal that would have eliminated the opportunity for residents attending meetings online to make public comments.

The board twice delayed voting on the proposal in 2024, saying they wanted to hear from the public. What they heard was largely negative.

“After much public feedback, the policy to remove virtual comments will not come back on the agenda for Board Approval,” Corletta Vaughn, a board member who was elected the board’s president Tuesday, wrote in an email to a constituent who urged board members to abandon the proposed policy.

“Please know that we’ve listened and took seriously the long-term liability and impact this removal might have on our constituents,” Vaughn wrote.

Instead of getting rid of virtual public comment, Vaughn said the board would be exploring ways to make the virtual meetings, including commenting, more user friendly.

Meeting attendees have long complained about the virtual meeting process. It’s relatively easy to watch the meetings online, either on the district’s website or YouTube channel. But it’s often difficult to hear some speakers, especially those with soft voices. And online attendees only see a far away video of board members and district officials sitting on the stage of various school auditoriums (the meetings rotate from one school auditorium to another). Knowing who is speaking can be difficult because faces are so distant.

Attendees have also complained about the difficult process of making a public comment, which requires watching the meeting on one screen and signing into a Zoom webinar on another.

Meanwhile, there are sometimes virtual glitches, as occurred Tuesday when there was no virtual public comment because of technical difficulties.

Vaughn said in the email that the systems being used “are out of date and cumbersome.” She said it is her priority to improve the quality and accessibility of meetings.

“These changes will include visibility, improved sound, close captions, interpreters for our non-English speaking constituents, and a much more accessible way to make public comments seamless and engaging.

“This discussion has already begun with our media team leaders, and with a timeline of no more than 90 days to secure additional staff and resources, there will be intentional changes that the community will see and enjoy.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit public schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti speaks on budget cuts, academic recovery

2023-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

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As federal COVID relief dollars for education begin to run out, school systems across the country are facing a jolt to their finances. But the Detroit Public Schools Community District has fared better than many in limiting the impact of the funding loss.

The district hasn’t been immune to cuts: Hundreds of positions were eliminated, the community has criticized district decisions, and parents remain concerned about the loss of some programs. But it deliberately focused most of the $1.27 billion it received from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, on one-time costs — rather than recurring budget items that can’t be sustained without federal aid.

That strategy will save the district from a so-called funding cliff that many other school leaders may soon face when the federal dollars run out in September 2024, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in an interview with Chalkbeat.

Vitti talked about what he thinks the district did right and his recommendations for other school leaders.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was the district’s strategy as you planned for the loss of the federal COVID relief money? What did you prioritize?

One thing that I’ve tried to do as superintendent is be disciplined with finances. … I always think about recurring revenue with recurring expenditures, and one-time revenue with one-time expenditures.

Boards, in particular, can be very vulnerable to spending one-time funding in a recurring way. Because of the concentrated poverty that our families face, you look at our outdated infrastructure, salaries that are not fully competitive, the wraparound services that our kids need — and all of that was magnified and exacerbated because of the pandemic.

So the normal challenges that we have as a district linked to concentrated poverty, linked to historic racism, you see that money and it’s like, “Wow, we can solve a lot of our problems,” because we’ve been talking about the need for revenue, because our kids need more than the average student.

When we paid for things that needed more people, we tried to rely on contracted services rather than increasing employment.

One focus of the dollars was let’s fill the revenue gap because of the loss of enrollment. Right when the pandemic hit and the first year we came back, we were down about 3,000 students. We’ve picked up some since.

(We kept everyone employed) that normally would have been laid off. You know, let’s not close schools, let’s not cut programming — that’s the last thing we want to do during the middle of the pandemic.

We funded things that were very specific to COVID, like masks, temperature check machines, ventilation systems, COVID testing, moving to smaller class sizes in order to have social distancing, the virtual school, nurses in every school, expanding mental health in all schools — we did all of that through contracted services, or it was one-time. There were things we did that weren’t linked to contracted services like expanding summer school.

About half of the dollars went to fund facilities, which was a clear one-time expense, one-time need, and an enormous gap in our district, which is that we have a $2 billion infrastructure problem with no revenue to solve.

There is a way to use the money to, for example, increase salaries, but you have to do it through bonuses if you’re going to be responsible. If you link it to salary increases, you’re going to hit a cliff.

Was getting kids back into classrooms in person with things like smaller class sizes, masks, hazard pay for teachers, and upgrading HVAC systems a focus to improve academic outcomes in the long run?

I think if we go back to the pandemic, the greatest sense of urgency I had was to get kids back in school, without a doubt. That literally kept me up at night and led to my own mental health issues. I did deal with mental health issues, because I didn’t feel like we were serving children the way they needed to be served. … Our children in particular needed in-person learning in order to continue to show the improvement we were definitely showing before the pandemic. I knew every day they were at home, we were getting farther behind.

2021-22 was the first year that everyone tested on M-STEP, and we really saw the impact of the pandemic that year. But in 2021-22, DPSCD showed less learning loss on average than the state of Michigan and less learning loss than city charter schools. That showed me that having this urgency of getting back in person and keeping schools open in that 2020-21 year was important (along with) fully implementing our curriculum online.

Which cuts were the most difficult to make, and which programs do you wish could continue but had to end due to the end of ESSER funding?

I never want to be the superintendent that has to reduce staff to get to a number, because I understand that there’s a human being behind it, and that human being is connected to a family. It’s never easy for me.

The next hardest decision probably came to not having summer school at the scale that we had before.

We heard from some parents and students that the loss of college transition advisers is disappointing. Do you wish the district could keep those positions?

What we said was, we have to protect direct impact on student achievement, so we definitely protected the classroom. We didn’t increase class sizes. We definitely have invested in our academic interventionists and even expanded them.

When looking at the college transition advisers, there’s no question they had an impact on children — no doubt about that — but not a direct impact on student achievement.

What we tried to do was convince college transition advisers to go into the On the Rise Academy program and become counselors, because that was something we could see expanding in future years, maybe with more (state money for at-risk students).

Did you anticipate the amount of criticism from the community you received about the cuts? Has it been difficult to communicate to the community that the end of some of the programs and resources funded by ESSER was due to the federal relief money expiring?

Detroit children have great need, and the school system in and of itself does not provide the resources that children deserve to be competitive with their peers in more affluent neighborhoods and school districts. That’s not a function of an incompetent, corrupt school board or superintendent. It’s the nature of how the schools are funded.

Although Gov. Whitmer has made strides in narrowing the gap between wealthy districts and DPSCD, the gap is still there. We not are not even equal yet. We are definitely not equitable.

People are very passionate about what we should be doing for our children. And there’s a sense of anger because our families know our children are capable.

What do you think other districts need to consider as they get to the point DPSCD reached last school year with the remainder of ESSER money being earmarked? What should they prioritize as those dollars run out?

My recommendation is to communicate often, frequently, and honestly about the advantages and disadvantages of the funding, and be upfront about how you’re spending the money.

DPSCD had less learning loss than our counterparts. And as we move into the 2023-24 school year, undoubtedly we’re narrowing the gap in performance, which means not only did we use the money effectively, we used it efficiently.

Hannah Dellinger is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 education. Contact Hannah at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Where Michigan school districts stand on 2022-23 COVID protocols

2022-08-24T17:16:28+00:00

Masks, COVID tests and quarantines are going out of style this back-to-school season.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has loosened its COVID guidelines for K-12 schools just in time for the start of school in Michigan. But many Michigan districts were already taking steps toward the way things were before the pandemic.

This school year, many districts will abandon masking requirements, routine COVID testing for asymptomatic people, and quarantine requirements for people exposed to COVID. Many districts will also adopt shortened quarantine and isolation periods for those who test positive for COVID.

Michigan’s districts have had a patchwork of COVID guidelines since June 2021, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted the statewide mask mandate. This marks the second school year that COVID protocols have been left to the discretion of local districts.

Michigan has recorded over 2.7 million COVID cases and over 37,000 COVID-related deaths since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.

Here’s a look at how some districts in the state are enforcing or loosening their COVID protocols:

Will masks be required in schools?

Michigan joins a nationwide shift away from mask requirements in schools. Last year, 75% of U.S. schools enforced mask-wearing for teachers and students at the start of the school year. That number has dwindled considerably.

Many districts across the state are promoting the same message: Masks are not required, but students and staff who choose to wear them will be fully supported.

Major districts like Grand Rapids Public Schools, Detroit Public Schools Community District, Dearborn Public Schools, and Lansing School District have all told families masks will not be required during the 2022-23 school year.

However, many districts have outlined some exceptions, requiring mask-wearing for people living with someone who is COVID-positive, those who have a confirmed exposure to someone COVID-positive, and for those experiencing COVID symptoms.

Ann Arbor Public Schools have structured their masking policies around the CDC’s community level classification system for COVID severity. According to a message posted by Superintendent Jeanice Swift, masks will be “welcomed indoors” when Washtenaw County is rated ‘low,’ “encouraged indoors” when the county is rated ‘medium’ and “strongly recommended” indoors when the county is rated ‘high.’ Washtenaw County is currently rated at the ‘high’ level.

Flint Community Schools has also adopted a slightly different masking policy. In a letter to Flint families on July 21, Superintendent Kevelin Jones said that masks will not be required but “recommended” for the 2022-23 school year, which started Aug. 3.

The district also issued an updated protocols guide on July 14 that says masks will be required on school buses “due to the closeness and mixing of students within the buses.”

Will social distancing be enforced in classrooms?

Some districts, including Flint and Lansing, are promoting social distancing in their classrooms this fall.

Flint’s updated guide encourages staff to support social distancing among students “as much as possible,” but doesn’t specify a distance. Lansing recommends that students and staff maintain 3 to 6 feet of distance from one another when possible.

What about routine testing?

A number of districts, including Detroit, Dearborn, Flint, and Lansing, do not plan to implement routine testing for people who are asymptomatic or had close contacts with infected people. Many schools abandoned such tests during the winter’s omicron variant surge because of the stress it put on resources and staff.

But districts will still have voluntary rapid tests available in house for students experiencing COVID symptoms in school.

How long do COVID-positive students and staff have to quarantine?

The CDC new guidance says quarantining is no longer recommended for students and staff who are merely exposed to COVID but haven’t tested positive. They are encouraged to wear a mask for 10 days — a guideline that many districts, including Dearborn, are adopting for the upcoming school year.

For people who test positive, many districts, including Grand Rapids, Dearborn, Royal Oak, Lansing, and Kalamazoo, have adopted the CDC’s shortened quarantine guidelines. That means having COVID-positive individuals isolate at home for five days and return on Day 6, if they remain masked until Day 10 and are fever-free for at least 24 hours. Those who refuse to wear a mask for days 6 to 10 will be unable to return to school and have to stay home for the full 10 days.

Grace Tucker is a reporting intern at Chalkbeat Detroit. Reach her at gtucker@chalkbeat.org.

Correction: Aug. 25, 2022: A previous version of this story misstated the mask policy in Ann Arbor Public Schools. The district won’t require masks at any point, but will strongly recommend them if Washtenaw County is classified as having a ‘high’ rate of COVID cases by the CDC. The story also misstated the county’s current level. It is at the ‘high’ level.

Detroit’s back-to-school enrollment efforts take on new urgency

2022-08-12T15:11:42+00:00

The quiet southwest Detroit block around Roberto Clemente Learning Academy pulsed with summer heat and back-to-school excitement on an August afternoon.

Community members mingled among the food trucks, arts and crafts activities, and information tables lined up across the school’s front lawn, where the Detroit Public Schools Community District was hosting the latest in its Summer on the Block event series.

The block parties have been part of the district’s back-to-school enrollment push since 2017. They’ve taken on increased significance in the wake of a pandemic that has seen the district lose 3,000 students since 2020, when it enrolled nearly 51,000.

Similar enrollment drops have struck school districts across the nation during the pandemic. But in Detroit, which has experienced decades of enrollment declines as families fled to charter and suburban schools, they’re particularly worrisome. The pandemic reversed what had been a period of stability — and some small gains — in enrollment after 2017, when an elected board regained power and Nikolai Vitti became superintendent. And since school funding in Michigan is directly tied to enrollment, drops in enrollment affect the district’s budget.

So the district is stepping up its enrollment drive with help from federal COVID relief money. DPSCD plans to invest $15 million of the nearly $1.3 billion in COVID relief funds it will receive into outreach with families and new community programming.

“That was the benefit of having equitable federal funding for the first time…We could make sure we had the tools and resources to help families,” district spokeswoman Chrystal Wilson said.

In addition to more Summer on the Block events, the district used its COVID relief funding to support a door-to-door canvassing initiative first launched in 2017, and to boost summer school programming.

Wilson said over 9,000 families enrolled in the district’s Summer Learning Experiences 2022 program, so “our families are telling us they want to get back to the business of learning, the fun of learning … finding that normalcy even though we’re still addressing wellness and mental health exiting from the height of the pandemic.”

Sharlonda Buckman, assistant superintendent of family and community engagement, said that checking in on families through door-to-door canvassing or hosting outreach events is all about “making deposits in the community.”

Buckman said this year’s Summer on the Block series is particularly important, providing families with the resources to help their students recover from pandemic learning loss.

By distributing summer learning materials such as free books, Buckman said, the district “helps parents close gaps in their home space.”

The Summer on the Block events also feature tables with representatives from a number of local agencies and organizations, as part of the district’s commitment to attract families to its schools through wraparound services. At the Roberto Clemente event, for example, families visited tables for the City of Detroit’s health and family services departments educating parents on the importance of vaccines and distributing home cleaning products.

According to state data, Roberto Clemente began the 2019-20 school year with 604 students; the most recent numbers show an enrollment of 530 students.

Principal Maria Hernandez-Martinez said her team is executing a number of initiatives this summer to bring students back.

In addition to going door to door to promote Roberto Clemente, Hernandez-Martinez’s team has organized parent meetings for each grade at the school to review the curriculum and schoolwide expectations before classes begin.

Because the school is located in a neighborhood with many Spanish speakers, she said, it is essential that her team include several bilingual people and that they provide all materials and send messages to parents in English and Spanish.

Roberto Clemente Learning Academy’s principal, Maria Hernandez-Martinez (center), talks a parent through the informational material distributed at Summer on the Block.

Hernandez-Martinez hopes to have more Summer on the Block events at Roberto Clemente in the future as she and principals across the district work to bring enrollment to where it was before the pandemic.

Looking around at the flurry of activity on the block that afternoon, Hernandez-Martinez said, “The main purpose of all this is to bring back my families.”

Grace Tucker is a reporting intern at Chalkbeat Detroit. Reach her at gtucker@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit launches attendance initiatives as rising absenteeism threatens pandemic recovery

2022-08-10T15:50:26+00:00

Detroit school district officials are planning more aggressive steps to reverse a rise in chronic absenteeism, a huge obstacle to their efforts to help students recover academically from the impact of the pandemic.

The measures are aimed at bolstering an attendance plan that was showing some success in reducing chronic absenteeism rates before the pandemic struck. They involve broadening the circle of district and school officials with responsibility for monitoring student attendance, using data to understand the “challenges that prevent school attendance and then working to resolve those concerns as a team,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said.

The district can’t move forward in its academic recovery efforts if students don’t consistently attend school, Vitti said, because “chronic absenteeism directly impacts districtwide and school level enrollment, which impacts funding and student achievement.”

In the latest school year, 77% of Detroit Public Schools Community District students were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of school days, Vitti reported at the July board meeting.

Researchers say the figures are further evidence that the district needs to do more to address the broad range of causes for Detroit’s long struggles with absenteeism, including socioeconomic and transportation factors.

“I think there’s this impression that Detroit parents don’t care about school, and that could not be further from the truth,” said Sarah Lenhoff, an associate professor at Wayne State University’s College of Education, adding: “Families want their kids to be in school.”

Pandemic reversed a positive trend in attendance

Detroit’s 2018-19 attendance plan laid the groundwork for a holistic approach to improving attendance through wraparound services for students.

The plan included a new code of conduct that reduced the use of out-of-school suspensions and increased staffing for the district’s Attendance Intervention Team, assigning one attendance agent to each DPSCD school. The district also pledged to collaborate with community partners like the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that students and families at risk of chronic absence were having their basic needs met.

From 2017 to 2019, the rate of chronically absent students dropped from 70% to 62%.

The pandemic derailed that progress.

The 2020-21 school year, which began with online learning for the vast majority of the district, presented a major challenge for tracking attendance: ensuring that some 40,000 students were logging in from their homes to attend school, with wide disparities in access to the internet. Meanwhile, a small group of students were learning in person from a teacher, or in teaching centers where they could log in for remote learning with adult supervision.

For the year, the proportion of students who were chronically absent zoomed back up close to 70%, according to the district. Lenhoff, who co-authored a study analyzing the rise in absenteeism rates during that period, said technology was the main contributor, with 40% of parents reporting that computer problems like Wi-fi issues and poor-quality laptops hindered student access to online classrooms.

Lenhoff’s analysis found that chronic absenteeism rose considerably during the 2020-21 school year relative to 2018-19.

But now, after a year of mostly in-person learning, the rate of chronic absenteeism is even higher, and the district is increasingly concerned about absenteeism undermining efforts to recover from the pandemic. So it’s putting in place some new initiatives for the 2022-23 school year. Among them:

Creating a Culture Leadership Team at each school, consisting of an attendance agent, dean of culture, counselor, social worker, nurse and others. The team will meet weekly to discuss and analyze “all elements of school culture, including attendance,” Vitti said.
Having the team study data to determine which students need to be placed on a specialized attendance intervention plan. The district will continue to collaborate with community partners to execute these intervention plans.
Forming Attendance Action Teams, consisting of attendance agents from across multiple schools, that will focus on targeting subsets of students based on geographical trends. The district will revisit its previous allocation of one attendance agent per school to instead target support to schools with the highest rates of chronic absenteeism.

Vitti said the goal for the coming year is to maintain an attendance rate above 90% at each school by standardizing the initiatives the district introduced years ago and improving on them.

Looking beyond the district for solutions

Lenhoff, who has studied absenteeism in Detroit schools for six years, says beefing up the attendance teams is a start, noting that the current allocation of one attendance officer per school does not begin to meet the scale of the problem.

But Detroit’s sky-high rates of chronic absenteeism speak to a child welfare crisis that extends far beyond DPSCD’s control, Lenhoff said. Fixing it will require coordinating with public agencies to address the city’s longstanding employment, health, transportation, and housing inequities.

When Detroit’s kids don’t make it to school, Lenhoff said, “it really speaks to the need for the city to invest more in employment, invest more in stabilized housing, (and) make sure that families have the food and the health care that they need, so that they can give their children what they want to give them … get them into school.”

Lenhoff also believes the district can improve upon partnerships it has already made with such agencies.

“School districts pay a lot of money to the city to get (bus) cards for their high school students,” Lenhoff said. “But as far as I can tell, the city is not paying attention to where students are going to school, where they live, what routes might be appropriate for high school students.”

“There is some real work that needs to be done,” she said, to improve coordination between the city and the school systems

Ultimately, Lenhoff said that in her six years of studying chronic absenteeism in Detroit schools, one of the most important findings “is that almost all of the parents we talked to were trying really hard” — struggling with tradeoffs such as getting to work on time versus taking the kids to school, or paying for gasoline versus paying for food.

“The more we can push that narrative to ‘How do we support families in doing what they want to do, which is get to school?’ instead of punish them or shame them when they can’t is really important,” Lenhoff said.

Grace Tucker is a reporting intern at Chalkbeat Detroit. Reach her at gtucker@chalkbeat.org.

Masks are now optional for Detroit district students

2022-07-25T21:35:48+00:00

Masks have come off for some students attending summer school in the Detroit district, and will continue to be optional for the coming school year.

The district’s mask mandate, in place since schools reopened in September 2020, lifted earlier this month after the June 30 expiration of an agreement the district had with the teachers union requiring masks.

The summer school session that began July 11 marked the first time since the start of the pandemic that students have been able to attend school without masks.

At a school board finance committee meeting Friday, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti indicated the masking option will continue once the school year begins in late August.

“It is voluntary until the CDC, state or local health departments mandate masks for indoor or outdoor use,” Vitti said, responding to a question from a parent who asked whether the district would continue some COVID protocols.

Last week, when First lady Jill Biden and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited summer classes at Detroit’s Schulze Academy for Technology and Arts, many of the students attending summer school were maskless.

Of the 14 students in Camp Dinner Table’s cooking class, three were wearing masks. Down the hall, two of the six students in Adrienne Holloway’s English class were masked.

The mandate is lifting as the BA.5 omicron subvariant has prompted a surge in COVID cases, and caused some school districts across the nation to institute temporary mask requirements. As districts head into their fourth school year in the pandemic, recurring waves of COVID cases have prompted debate over what protocols are necessary to keep students and staff safe.

Flint Community Schools, which start on Aug. 3, sent back-to-school letters to parents and guardians Thursday, initially announcing that masks would be temporarily required indoors. Within several hours of the announcement, the district reversed its decision and said the district would only recommend masks be worn.

The CDC recommends indoor masking in communities that have high case rates of COVID.

Aug. 29 is the first day of school for students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, and in conjunction with voluntary masking, the district will scale back its COVID safety protocols this coming school year.

Students and staff will no longer be universally tested for COVID every week, and the district will reduce testing to a randomized pool of 10% to 20% of the district’s population. The school district, however, plans to continue to provide vaccination sites in some schools.

Parent Ebony Hudson, whose daughter attends the Moses Field Center, backs the lifting of the mandate.

“I don’t think it should be mandated unless the numbers go up,” she said.

Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said union members are “fine with” voluntary masking at the moment.

“People who want to continue to wear masks have the right to do so and those who want to exercise the option to not wear masks are doing that,” Martin said. “The main thing is making sure that teachers and staff are safe and remain safe.”

Going into the fall, he added, the teachers union is hoping to see the district provide a benchmark for COVID cases which would clarify what metrics, such as case positivity rates, would prompt the return of a mask mandate.

Vitti said during Friday’s finance committee meeting the district will continue to provide personal protection equipment to students and staff heading into the new school year regardless of whether a mask requirement is implemented. The district also will offer air purifiers or fans for classroom teachers who request them, he added.

Chalkbeat Detroit reporting intern Grace Tucker contributed to this story.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school district delays decision on lifting mask mandate

2022-05-04T23:40:33+00:00

The Detroit school district is delaying a decision to lift its mask mandate in the face of strong opposition from teachers union members and a potential legal challenge.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti had planned to make a decision on the mask mandate after spring break ended on April 3. At the time he said he would move to a mask-optional policy as long as COVID case rates and hospitalizations remained low. Infection rates across the school district have remained below 1% in recent months, while the citywide rates are running below 3%.

But Vitti said that the Detroit Federation of Teachers is “not supportive of voluntary masking.” The union also believes that lifting the mandate would violate an agreement the union and district approved last summer outlining safety protocols ahead of the new school year. That agreement, which expires June 30, requires masks.

Terrence Martin, president of the federation, said the union is “exploring all options” and is preparing a legal challenge if Vitti lifts the mandate before June 30.

Vitti said a legal challenge would delay lifting the mandate until after the agreement expires.

“The worst-case situation is that we will shift to voluntary masking districtwide on July 1 unless the federal or state health departments require masking in schools,” Vitti said. “I doubt this will happen. I am hopeful that DFT will reconsider their position before July 1.”

The last day of the school year for Detroit Public Schools Community District students is June 27. If the district lifts the mandate on July 1, it would be ahead of summer school, which begins on July 11.

The school board approved COVID safety measures such as a mask requirement and weekly testing for employees as part of the district’s reopening plan. The plan also instituted 3 feet of social distancing, as well as daily symptom checks and rigorous cleaning of buildings.

Health officials across Michigan began relaxing mask rules and recommendations a few months ago for K-12 schools and day care centers, as COVID cases and hospitalization rates declined. The decision left it up to local school districts to decide whether to keep those requirements in place.

Martin said district officials were considering a repeal of the mask policy without coming to an agreement with the union.

A recent survey of union members found that roughly 60% of teachers favored keeping the mask mandate, up from an even split among teachers a few weeks prior.

The jump from 50% to 60% is “alarming,” Martin added, and “enough to keep the mandate right where it is.”

Across the Northeast, cities and school districts have had to reconsider COVID safety protocols in light of a rise in cases in part of being driven by a subvariant of the highly infectious omicron variant.

Face masks temporarily returned to Philadelphia public schools as the city moved to reinstate an indoor mask mandate in mid-April. Newark Public Schools will continue to keep its mask requirement and other COVID preventive measures in place as the infection rate rises across the city. Classrooms in New York City are currently mask-optional as the city has moved into a “medium” risk category for the spread of COVID in recent weeks.

As of the week of April 25, the Detroit district’s infection rate remained low, with 0.94% of tests coming back positive, while the city’s infection rate was at 2.5% over a seven-day average as of April 28.

The union, Martin said, is willing to be flexible on the mask policy depending on what future teacher survey results indicate and whether the district comes back to the negotiating table.

“What we have in place remains in place till the end of the school year, unless the district is willing to come to the table and bargain in good faith to change,” he said.

Detroit is among the few remaining school districts in the state, along with Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, that still have a mask requirement.

Among the factors weighing on his decision making, Vitti added, is ensuring that students are comfortable as temperatures begin to rise in school classrooms. Without air conditioning in most school buildings, he added, behavioral issues may increase if students are uncomfortable with having to wear masks.

“This will set up unnecessary confrontations between teachers and students,” Vitti said.

Clarification: This story has been updated to make it clear that the Detroit Federation of Teachers, and not Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, believes that lifting the district’s mask mandate before June 30 would violate a letter of agreement between the district and the union.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school district plans to scale back COVID testing next year

2022-04-19T13:00:00+00:00

The Detroit school district will scale back its COVID testing next school year, switching from universal, weekly screenings to random tests on a small segment of people in the district.

Detroit is one of the few school districts in Michigan requiring universal testing for all employees, students and contractors. In late January, the school district required all students to submit to weekly COVID tests or transfer to the district’s virtual school.

Under the new policy, the district will randomly test a pool of 10% to 20% of the district’s population. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the decision was based on cost considerations, as well as the shifting opinion from health experts on the current stage of the pandemic.

“Right now — and we do not plan for a difference by the fall — the federal and state (government) and their health guidance are no longer naming COVID as a public health crisis,” Vitti said. “If the public health status of the COVID remains as it is, then we will be, and have been, scaling back our COVID safety protocols.”

Vitti said last week he is likely to drop the district’s mask mandate if Detroit and schools continue to see low infection rates. Meanwhile, the school board is considering eliminating its vaccination mandate for school employees.

For testing, the district’s school board approved a contract with LynxDX on April 12 to provide weekly saliva polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, testing through June 2023. The total cost for testing next year is expected to be about $31 million, covered by federal COVID relief funding. The district has paid $71 million for testing during the 2021-22 school year.

Vitti said the contract with LynxDX provides the district with an option to expand testing in case COVID cases surge during the 2022-23 school year. On the other hand, the superintendent didn’t rule out the possibility that the district would forgo testing completely if COVID infection rates in the city or district remained low.

“We may not even implement the 10%-20% of testing by the fall,” he said. “More likely, we will continue providing our contracted nurses at each school with rapid tests for symptomatic employees and students while perhaps leaving drive-thru testing available as a courtesy to employees and students.”

Janet Martinez, a district parent, said she was concerned that reduced testing by schools could become a financial challenge for families seeking out testing kits. “This is something that’s still going around,” she said. “It’s very serious.”

For now, though, many families have access to free tests. A Biden administration mandate from January requires private insurers to cover the cost of up to eight at-home tests per person per month. Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program recipients can receive over-the-counter testing kits at no cost as long as the pandemic is designated a public health emergency.

Uninsured patients may be required to pay for COVID testing in some cases as the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration ran short of funds to reimburse clinics and hospitals in late March.

Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said “some form of testing needs to continue to occur” next year, adding that the 10% to 20% pool testing rate is consistent with health expert recommendations across the district.

“I think the district has been nimble about its testing plan,” Martin said. “If there’s a need to increase testing, we’ll push for it.”

“For some of our folks it’s going to be somewhat of a relief of not having to test every week,” he added, “and for other folks there may be mixed feelings about it.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit fires veteran teacher who fought to work from home

2022-04-13T21:06:07+00:00

The Detroit district school board fired a veteran teacher who challenged the district’s in-person work requirement and fought to be able to teach from home due to a medical condition.

The school board voted 5-1 at its Tuesday meeting to fire Nicole Conaway, with board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo casting the lone dissenting vote. Conaway has been a vocal critic of the district for years, and has been heavily involved in the By Any Means Necessary activist group, which has opposed face-to-face learning during the pandemic.

Critics of the decision said they feared it would hurt efforts by other teachers and students in the district to seek accommodations because of medical issues or disabilities.

Since the beginning of the school year, Conaway, a 16-year district math and science teacher, had repeatedly asked to be allowed to teach remotely from home, citing recurring issues with her sinuses as well as chronic asthma, which she says would put her at acute risk if she gets infected with COVID-19.

She filed a lawsuit in federal court last fall seeking to force the district to allow her to work remotely. During this time she also sought time off and accommodations from the district under the federal Family Medical Leave Act and the Americans for Disabilities Act, but was turned down.

A statement read by board member Sonya Mays ahead of the termination vote said that Conaway’s asthma and allergies are not covered under those two laws, and that Conaway had declined the district’s offer to let her work in person at the district’s virtual school.

“Ms. Conaway claims that her allergies and asthma keep her from coming into a school building but that she can still work from home five days a week,” the statement said. “To accommodate her medical concerns, the district offered her a position at the virtual school. Ms. Conaway rejected that offer.”

Conaway, speaking during the public comment section, called the board’s decision “wrongful and illegal” and told board members to “put a stop to this administration’s policies of retaliation.”

“As the board it is your duty to represent us, the community, who elected you to make decisions based on what is best for our students in our community,” Conaway said. “Protect us from COVID, grant our ADA requests, provide full opportunity for virtual learning and teaching and keep all schools open.”

Last summer, the Detroit Public Schools Community District reached an agreement with the Detroit Federation of Teachers union that required its members to return to in-person instruction for this school year.

According to the statement Mays read, Conaway’s request for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act was denied after she failed to submit a medical release form for the district to get information from her doctors. The district, the statement added, gave Conaway multiple opportunities to present her case and submit documentation through meetings with board members and union representatives.

“When no new different medical information was provided, and she failed to sign the medical release, she was informed that a recommendation to terminate for job abandonment would occur,” the statement said.

Former and current district students and teachers at the meeting urged board members to keep Conaway and approve her requests. Many of her supporters identified themselves as members of By Any Means Necessary, which staged protests in the early months of the pandemic when the district first launched an in-person summer school. The group eventually sued the district to halt the summer program.

Shawn Vaughn, a member of By Any Means Necessary and former Osborn High School student, said the decision could affect other teachers seeking medical accommodation to work remotely.

“This is a path that if the school board follows opens up for the attack on basic accommodation for students and staff with disabilities,” Vaughn said.

“Nicole has been fighting to get this ADA accommodation for months to keep herself, family and friends safe from the COVID pandemic,” said Maria Belman, an organizer with the group, who called the termination a “political attack.”

“Not letting her teach safely at home means depriving students, Detroit students, of the kind of top tier education they deserve. With her years of experience and knowledge, Nicole is not replaceable.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school board considers rescinding employee vaccine mandate

2022-04-13T01:39:50+00:00

The Detroit school district is looking to turn its vaccination policy for school employees from a mandate into a recommendation.

The new policy, if approved by the board, “requires all employees to disclose their COVID vaccine status and strongly encourages employees to vaccinate,” according to a draft presented for its first reading during Tuesday’s school board meeting.

Board members didn’t comment on the draft during the first reading. All district policies must be reviewed by the board twice before they can be approved. The next scheduled board meeting is May 10.

The current policy requires all employees to have been fully vaccinated by Feb. 18, unless they received a medical or religious exemption from the school district. As of April 12, about 84% of school employees had been vaccinated, according to the district.

When the district adopted the policy in December, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the district would use a progressive disciplinary process to enforce it, moving from a series of reminders to verbal and written warnings, suspension without pay, and ultimately, termination.

But in February, he said he likely wouldn’t seek to terminate unvaccinated employees, citing a lack of state or local support for an employee vaccine requirement, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January that blocked a Biden administration vaccine-or-test requirement for large employers.

Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers union, said that the changing nature of the pandemic calls for reconsidering the policy.

“We’re hoping that (the vaccine policy) turns into more of a suggestion as opposed to a requirement for folks to be disciplined if they don’t do it,” Martin said.

“If we were talking about this a year ago, it would have made more sense,” Martin added. “But now, with the way things are with COVID, it’s going to be something that we’re going to live with.”

Vaccination rates in Detroit remain low compared with the rest of the state. About 48% of city residents ages 5 and older have received at least one vaccine dose. The rest of Wayne County has a 72% vaccination rate, while statewide, the rate is 65%.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit schools could go mask-optional as soon as next week

2022-04-12T23:04:14+00:00

For the first time since the start of the pandemic, students in the Detroit district may soon be able to go to school without having to wear a mask, though some say they’ll continue to play it safe.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said he is likely to drop the district’s mask mandate as early as next week, citing low infection rates in the city and across schools in recent weeks.

“The district’s infection rate last week was below 1% and the city’s rate is under 5%,” Vitti wrote in an email to Chalkbeat on Tuesday, referring to the percentage of tests that come back positive for COVID-19. “If this continues this week then we are likely to move to an optional mask situation by next week.”

State and county health officials across Michigan began relaxing mask rules and recommendations a few months ago for K-12 schools and day care centers, as COVID cases and hospitalization rates declined. That left it up to local school districts to decide whether to keep those requirements in place.

Detroit is among the few remaining school districts in the state, along with Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, that still have a mask requirement.

Vitti said in February that the district’s mask order would remain in place, based on recommendations from the Detroit Health Department. Later that month, he told Chalkbeat that he envisioned lifting the rule sometime after the district’s weeklong spring break ended on April 3, as long as the district and the city did not observe a surge in COVID cases when students returned from vacation.

And they didn’t. For the week of March 21, before spring break, the district reported an infection rate of 0.46%; the week after spring break, the rate was 0.43%.

Currently, Wayne County falls in the “low” tier of case rates, for which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend mask mandates.

Last month, the district began to dial back other COVID precautions, discontinuing its daily symptom and temperature checks for employees and students, based on city health department recommendations. The district currently requires weekly testing of students and staff, as well as social distancing in classrooms of at least 3 feet.

Meanwhile, health officials are reporting rising COVID cases elsewhere in the country, particularly in the Northeast, driven in part by a subvariant of the highly infectious omicron variant. Philadelphia announced Monday that it would reinstate its indoor mask mandate in light of a sharp increase in COVID infections.

Some Detroit students said they remain wary of the district making masks optional.

“I know for a fact that I’m still going to be wearing my mask, but I genuinely don’t feel as though that’s a smart decision,” said TaLia Price, a student from Cass Technical High School. “I just don’t think that is safe until we know that we can fully manage COVID and keep it low.”

Alexis Pickett, a student at Renaissance High School, said she believes the school district needs “to move forward,” although she has reservations.

“COVID has kind of been low at the moment. It’s been getting a lot better, which is really good,” she said. “But I’m not sure about releasing the mask mandate, especially with after school activities, and how close in proximity we are with each other in classrooms.”

Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said that a recent survey of the union’s members found an even split among teachers on whether to keep the mask requirement beyond spring break.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Returning homeschoolers, kindergarteners drive Michigan enrollment rebound

2022-04-12T22:12:30+00:00

Michigan students are returning to the public school system after a sharp drop in enrollment during the pandemic — but it’s not clear whether or when schools will ever get back to pre-pandemic headcounts.

That’s the upshot of a presentation given to the Michigan Board of Education on Tuesday by some of the state’s top education data officials. It will come as welcome news to Michigan educators, who have been warning since early in the pandemic that students displaced by building closures and the shift to remote schooling were missing out on critical education experiences.

The enrollment figures also have major financial implications for public schools, because the state distributes funding to districts on a per pupil basis.

Michigan has roughly 1.4 million public school students in grades preK-12. The state’s rolls grew by 5,800 students this school year, after shrinking by roughly 62,000 students in the first year of the pandemic.

Michigan’s population has been declining for more than a decade, a trend mirrored in school enrollment, which fell by 0.8% annually during that period.

The presentation came from the Michigan’s Center for Educational Performance and Information, a state agency that collects and reports education data. Here are some of the key takeaways:

The return of home-schoolers and private school students

During the first year of the pandemic, when many or all Michigan public school students were learning online or remotely, nearly 20,000 students left public schools for private schools or home schooling, more than three times as many as in previous years.

But now that schools statewide have returned to in-person instruction, signs point to fewer departures — and more students returning.

In 2021, fewer than 10,000 students left Michigan public schools for home-schooling or private schools. That’s a sharp decrease from the previous year, though still higher than pre-pandemic norms.

What’s more, students who left in 2020 seem to be returning in greater numbers than in the past.

“Very early analysis suggests that students who exited to non-public and home school in 2020 may be returning at a higher rate than similar exiters in 2018,” said Lauren Paluta, PK-12 Data Manager for CEPI.

Just over 40% have come back since 2020, she said, compared with fewer than 25% before the pandemic.

Home-schooling figures in Michigan may not be precise, since parents don’t have to notify their school if they decide to homeschool their kids.

Young children’s enrollment saw the biggest decline — and the biggest rebound

Preschool and kindergarten enrollment fell very sharply in 2020 as many parents opted to wait before starting their young children in school amid the pandemic. The 33.1% decline in preschool student enrollment — from 47,614 to 31,853 — was larger than any other grade.

This year, though, preschool enrollment rose to 43,470, a 36.5% increase, though still short of pre-pandemic levels.

Kindergarten enrollment also rebounded sharply to roughly 114,744, a 7.7% increase; a year earlier, it had fallen 11.3% to 106,539 from 120,133 in 2019.

Full-time virtual schools expanded sharply

Schools that offer all of their classes online have grown by more than 12,000 students, or 72%, since fall 2019.

The enrollment increase was fastest during the first year of the pandemic, then slowed down this year.

Fully virtual schools, which may be run by a charter school or a traditional school district, now account for about 2.1% of the state’s enrollment, up from 1.2% in 2019.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

4 things to know if you missed Tuesday’s Detroit school board meeting

2022-03-09T20:48:34+00:00

The Detroit school district may rescind its vaccination mandate for school employees following a policy review by board members, Deputy Superintendent Iranetta Wright said during Tuesday’s school board meeting.

The district currently has not issued any disciplinary action to employees who are unvaccinated, Wright said, but the district’s policy committee will review the policy at its next meeting on March 15. If the policy is rescinded, it would allow the roughly 1,100 staff members who are unvaccinated to remain employed.

“We do anticipate with the changes and what’s happening right now with COVID … going back to the policy committee for a revision to the employee vaccine mandate,” Wright said during the meeting.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat in February that it was unlikely he would push to dismiss teachers who refused to be vaccinated, citing a lack of state or local support for an employee vaccine requirement.

Staff vaccination rates have increased slightly since the last school board meeting in February. Roughly 84% of school employees have been vaccinated, up from 81%. The district has approved 279 staff exemptions for medical or religious reasons, and it has denied 27 exemption requests, while 227 requests are pending.

About 98% of students have consented to the district’s weekly COVID testing, up from 96% last month.

In other business Tuesday, the board approved an increase in the stipend its members receive for attending meetings, and welcomed new student representatives to the board. The board’s approach to public comments also drew criticism during the meeting.

Board shuts down speakers during public comment

Nearly a dozen people who spoke during Tuesday’s board meeting were abruptly cut off during a public comment session. Former and current district students and teachers were lobbying board members for the reinstatement of a veteran Detroit teacher who wants faculty to be able teach from home if they have certain medical conditions.

Nicole Conaway, a 15-year district math and science teacher, alleged that last month she received a termination letter from the district after she repeatedly asked to be allowed to teach virtually, due to her recurring issues with her sinuses as well as chronic asthma, which put her at acute risk if she is infected with COVID-19.

In the termination letter, Conaway said, the district informed her that she had three choices: return to in-person teaching at a school, re-apply for the Family Medical Leave Act, or resign. Conaway also said the district denied her paid sick time through the Family Medical Leave Act by claiming that her chronic asthma was not covered.

The majority of commenters who spoke in favor of Conaway’s reinstatement identified themselves as members of the By Any Means Necessary activist group, which has opposed face-to-face learning during the pandemic. If the board moved forward to terminate Conaway, speakers said, it could impact other teachers seeking medical accommodation to work remotely.

Christine Abood, a retired Detroit school teacher of 40 years, said Conaway “should be protected and she should not be bullied and threatened into a termination simply because she is immunocompromised.”

Conaway, who spoke during the public comment section, told board members Tuesday that “beyond the consequences for me, this decision will harm students and this district,” particularly students “in the virtual school right now who need a science teacher.” Conaway filed a lawsuit in federal court in November, asking a judge to rule that the district should allow her to work virtually.

In recent weeks, the district has transferred some in-person teachers to the DPSCD Virtual School due to a rise in student enrollment since the fall semester. But in order to teach at the school, the district requires teachers to work on-site at a school building.

Detroit Board Chair Angelique Peterson-Mayberry said the board would not make decisions Tuesday about dismissing school employees. But as the night wore on, some virtual commenters who continued to call in about Conaway’s situation were cut off from speaking before the end of their allotted three minutes.

“People who are signed up to speak should have the right to speak, that is what it means to have a public meeting,” said Benjamin Royal, a former Detroit school teacher and an organizer of the group who said he resigned earlier this year to avoid contracting COVID.

But Peterson-Mayberry said the board can limit comments it deems repetitive, citing the district’s policy on public participation during board meetings. The policy was adopted in 2019.

“When the topics are the exact same, and the comments are very similar, then we’ve heard you, and that’s why I wanted to make sure that people knew that Ms. Conaway was not on the list tonight for termination,” Peterson-Mayberry said, adding that commenters can continue to call or email board members with their feedback.

Board members approve a compensation increase for themselves

The Detroit school board approved a sizable increase to the compensation each member receives for attending meetings and conducting other board business.

Under the revamped policy, the maximum annual compensation for attending meetings, training, and workshops for each of the seven board members will increase $6,000 per year to $15,000. Board members would be compensated for attending regular board meetings, school board committee meetings, and any meetings where a board member “is representing the board in an official capacity,” the policy states.

Previously, board members received a stipend of $100 per meeting. The new stipend is $250.

However, the new policy caps the number of annual meetings board members could receive these stipends for at 60.

School board introduces youth delegates

The school board announced its first cohort of student representatives who will serve and discuss district-related matters alongside the board during school board meetings.

Students and staff members selected seniors Emerson Jeffries of Cass Technical High School and Brooke Snow of Detroit School of Arts as the student delegates. Sophomore Perriel Pace of Legacy Academy will serve as an alternate.

Spearheaded by board member Misha Stallworth West, the addition of these representatives is intended to prioritize student input on academic, financial, and policy decisions made by the board. Student representatives can offer comments during meetings but will not have voting power on the board.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org

Detroit schools could lift mask mandate after spring break

2022-03-01T00:26:15+00:00

The Detroit school district could lift its mask mandate sometime after its weeklong spring break ends April 3, provided the pandemic doesn’t surge after break and all students learning indoors are being tested weekly.

“We plan to consider the removal of the mask requirement between mid-March and mid-April,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat Monday.

Detroit’s move would come well after many school districts in Michigan have already lifted their mask mandates. At the beginning of the school year, a majority of students were attending schools that required them to wear masks.

After an omicron-fueled surge of COVID cases in January caused schools to close campuses, Detroit’s case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID have steadily decreased. Last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines that said schools should mandate masks only when COVID cases and hospitalizations are categorized as high. Currently, Wayne County falls in the“medium” tier of case rates that the CDC does not recommend for mask mandates.

But in Detroit, even though case rates have declined, the district has other considerations.

“We currently agree with the Detroit Health Department that due to the city’s lower vaccination rates our mask removal date will be later than other districts’,” Vitti said.

Currently, about 48% of city residents have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, compared with 66% statewide.

Two factors will help the district determine if it makes sense to lift its mask requirement. One has to do with student testing. On Jan. 31, a new rule went into place requiring students to be tested weekly for COVID, with their parents’ consent. The district will move students who lack parental consent for testing to the district’s virtual school. That move hasn’t happened yet.

“We are reaching nearly 100% of students consenting to COVID testing and when that occurs, and non-consenting students are transferred to the virtual school, we will be in a better position to allow for optional mask wearing for employees and students,” Vitti said.

The district will also be looking closely at what happens after spring break, which lasts from March 28 to April 3.

“We also want to ensure that the city does not experience another surge after spring break,” Vitti said in a statement. “It would be difficult to remove the mask requirement and then enforce it once again if a surge occurs near spring break when staff and students are not in school. Once those two obstacles are cleared we would consider lifting the mask requirement.”

The district’s letter of agreement with the Detroit Federation of Teachers, which established mutual guidelines for the reopening of school buildings for the current school year, says the district will “abide with the most current legally required” orders, recommendations, and guidelines from the CDC and the state health department.

Michigan enrollment ticks up, but pandemic losses continue for city districts

2022-02-24T21:03:38+00:00

Enrollment in Michigan schools grew slightly this year, but city districts continue to lose students.

The addition of nearly 6,000 students, or 0.4%, may be a hopeful sign that parents are becoming more comfortable sending their children to classrooms nearly two years after Michigan schools were first shuttered due to COVID, officials said.

“We’re starting to see that public education is getting back to normal,” said Casandra Ulbrich, president of the state board of education. “Having a consistent in-person education opportunity for kids is going to help us continue to see these numbers increase.”

But statewide enrollment is still down 3.7% since before the pandemic — and 5% in city districts — raising questions about where those students went and concerns that declining student counts could hurt district finances.

“Let’s say you’ve lost 10 students, a small number — that’s $87,000 right there,” said Bob McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance, an advocacy group, noting that Michigan schools received an average of $8,700 per pupil last year. “The loss of a small number of students can have a direct impact on a district’s bottom line and the services they’re able to deliver.”

Enrollment fell by 256 students, or 0.5%, in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. That’s an improvement over last year, when enrollment fell by 3.7%.

Detroit is far from the only big-city school district grappling with enrollment declines. There are fewer students on the rolls this year in New York, Memphis, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

The same holds true in Michigan, where urban school districts have seen enrollment declines in line with DPSCD’s over the last two years. District officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Overall, the latest data suggest that Michigan’s statewide enrollment is beginning to stabilize. This fall, the state enrolled 1,443,456 students in grades K-12, an increase from 1,437,612 the previous fall.

In a sign that some parents remain concerned about in-person instruction, enrollment in fully online charter schools in Michigan has risen 63%, or 6,200 students, since fall 2019. Driven by the increase in virtual enrollments, charter school enrollment statewide increased by 988 students, or .6%.

Statewide, the enrollment increase was driven by students of color and students from low-income families:

Black enrollment rose 1.89% from fall 2020, while hispanic enrollment rose 3.16%. White enrollment fell 0.7% since fall 2020. Enrollment in all three categories has declined since fall 2019.
Among students from low-income families, enrollment rose 2% over the last year, though it has declined by 2% since fall 2019.

Kindergarten enrollment rose sharply this year, increasing 7% or 8,200 students from the prior year. That’s a reversal from last year, when enrollment declines were concentrated in kindergarten. At the same time, a marked decline in the cohort that started kindergarten during the 2020-21 school year suggests that some parents opted to have their children repeat kindergarten.

It is unclear why statewide enrollment has declined since the outset of the pandemic. While data points nationally suggest that homeschooling has increased during the pandemic, Michigan doesn’t collect homeschool enrollment data, and the state doesn’t publish private school enrollment data. Students may have left the state, though many other states are also seeing enrollment declines. And setting aside the pandemic, Michigan’s declining population is likely also playing a role.

“I don’t know” why enrollment is declining, McCann said, but he added that more families may be comfortable sending their kids to school as the pandemic wears on.

“We certainly heard at the beginning of the school year from parents who weren’t convinced it was safe to send their kids back,” he said. “We may be in a little bit of a different position in 2022.”

Michigan counts students in October and February. The February counts for this year aren’t yet available.

Detroit superintendent unlikely to push for staff vaccine mandate terminations

2022-02-18T23:29:19+00:00

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti says he likely won’t seek to terminate unvaccinated employees, changing his position on enforcing the school district’s staff vaccine policy. Vitti’s comments come the same day employees of the Detroit Public Schools Community District were required to be vaccinated against COVID.

“I do not believe that I will be recommending terminations for those who are unvaccinated,” Vitti said in an email to Chalkbeat.

The school board approved a vaccine requirement in December that specified a Feb. 18 deadline for school employees to be fully vaccinated. Detroit is an outlier among school districts in Michigan to require a vaccine for its employees.

“A lot has changed since we moved forward with the employee vaccine mandate,” Vitti said, specifying that lack of state or local support for an employee vaccine requirement, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January that blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test requirement for large employers, “places the district in a weak position to push the mandate.”

“I am proud that we have reached an 80% vaccine rate among employees, which was achieved earlier with the $500 incentive. I continue to believe that all people and our employees should vaccinate to protect themselves and others.”

Vitti said no decision has been made about whether unvaccinated employees will face any other disciplinary action.

“We have not administratively made that decision yet but it is doubtful,” Vitti said.

Previously, the district said it would use a progressive disciplinary process to enforce the mandate following the deadline, moving from a series of reminders to verbal and written warnings, suspension without pay, and termination.

Across the U.S., governments and school districts have relaxed COVID restrictions for schools as case rates and hospitalizations decline. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services lifted its mask advisories for schools earlier this week, citing declining cases and hospitalizations across the state. The move followed similar decisions by county health departments and local school districts in recent weeks.

Vitti said on Monday that the district is keeping its mask mandate for the time being as it waits for further recommendations from the Detroit Health Department.

As of Feb. 4, about 81% of school employees have been vaccinated; an estimated 500 Detroit school district employees have filed a religious or medical exemption.

Chalkbeat requested updated numbers Thursday, but a district official said they wouldn’t be able to compile the information until after the weeklong mid-winter break, which starts Monday.

“I think what this virus has taught us all or should have taught us is that we have to be flexible in what we do, and so I certainly hope that the district understands that as well,” said Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. Martin said some union members are awaiting responses to their exemption requests.

“At some point, there has to be a determination on whether or not a vaccine requirement is even appropriate at this time.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school district will keep its mask mandate

2022-02-14T23:58:32+00:00

Michigan’s largest school district plans to keep its mask mandate in place despite the Wayne County Health Department’s decision last week to rescind its requirement that masks be worn in K-12 schools and day care centers.

Wayne County was one of more than a dozen Michigan counties that had a mask mandate in place starting in the fall. But in recent weeks, Wayne and all of the other counties have since rescinded those orders, leaving it up to local school districts to decide if those requirements should be in place. The lifting of the orders is happening as COVID cases and hospitalization rates decline.

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District, said Monday during a news conference that the school district’s K-12 mask requirements will stay for the foreseeable future as the district waits for recommendations from city health officials.

“We’ll continue that conversation with the Detroit Health Department regarding their view of the mask policy,” Vitti said, emphasizing that the Detroit school district follows the guidance of the city’s health department rather than the Wayne County Health Department.

“All things will always be unique, and they need to be unique and different in the Detroit context, mainly because of low vaccination and still high transmission rates. We’re looking forward to the day where it’ll be optional to wear the mask for adults and students.”

The school district, Vitti added, will continue to follow city, state, and federal health recommendations when it comes to its COVID safety measures.

Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said the union would negotiate if necessary to discuss ongoing COVID safety protocols. Ahead of the 2021-22 school year, the union and district officials reached an agreement over the district’s mitigation strategies to reopen schools, including universal masking.

“As the virus changes we have to look at possibly changing,” Martin said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control currently recommends universal indoor masking for all staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

Nationwide, as new COVID cases and hospitalizations decline from the omicron surge in early January, more state leaders are ending their universal mask requirements. Nevada lifted its mask mandate for schools and other public places on Friday. New Jersey school districts announced its universal mask requirement will end on March 7. Denver Public Schools will no longer require masks in schools and child care settings after Feb. 25. Connecticut and Massachusetts’ school mask mandates will end on Feb. 28.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school district authorized to administer COVID vaccine at schools

2022-02-14T22:55:49+00:00

The state health department has given the Detroit school district the OK to administer the COVID vaccine in schools, part of an effort to raise the immunization rate among the city’s school-age children.

School nurses in every building will be able to administer vaccine shots to students who have parental consent.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District previously has hosted pop-up school-based vaccine clinics across the city in partnership with the Detroit Health Department and Wayne Health. The new authority from the state gives the district ongoing access to the vaccine throughout the school year.

“It’s about equity and access,” said Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti. “With our students being here and our families being here, we just believed we can communicate faster, more efficiently, with a greater degree of trust, and eliminate a lot of the natural barriers that come along with getting a vaccine.”

Detroit’s child vaccination rates have lagged behind those of nearby cities and the state. The city’s rate for children ages 5-11 is 11%, said Denise Fair Razo, director of the Detroit Health Department. For children ages 12-15, the rate is 30%, and for ages 16-19, the rate is 36%.

The city’s low vaccination rates and high infection rates contributed to a temporary return to remote instruction last month.

As of Feb. 10, the vaccination rate for Michigan children ages 5 to 11 was 22%; among 12- to 15-year-olds, the rate was 43.6%, and was 48.7% for 16- to-19-year-olds.

In an effort to encourage families to get their children vaccinated, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is providing $25 CVS gift cards to as many as 2,000 families that receive a vaccine through the district’s initiative.

State officials announced the vaccine initiative Monday morning during a press conference at Coleman A. Young Elementary School with Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II, and Elizabeth Hertel, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The initiative will launch in six schools, with plans to expand to the district’s 107 buildings. The initial schools include:

A.L. Holmes Academy of Blended Learning
Coleman A. Young Elementary School
Amelia Earhart Elementary-Middle School
Mumford High School
Osborn High School
Southeastern High School of Science and Technology.

The program expands the district’s partnership with state and local health departments, and Michigan’s Racial Disparities Task Force to close vaccination gaps in communities of color across the state. The state health department is providing the district with a $100,000 grant to set up mobile vaccination clinics, properly store and handle vaccine doses, and distribute permission slips.

“As a parent, I know it can be difficult to juggle work, doctor’s appointments, getting your kids to school on time, and be everything you need to be for you and your family,” Hertel said. “So we continue to work to make it as easy as possible for kids and adults to get their vaccines.”

Denise Cade, senior director of nursing for Detroit Public Schools Community District, said the district’s nursing team has been educating and providing information to families about the COVID vaccination.

“Our nurses are engaged, our nurses are knowledgeable, and they have been able to reach out to parents,” Cade said.

“They are providing information and they are increasing science-based knowledge in our communities, and this is what is going to help us to dispel the myths that have held us behind in our ability to vaccinate our communities,” she said.

Parents and families will be notified of the program this week. The clinics will require signed consent formed from parents or legal guardians. The district plans to have clinics for first and second doses in every school by the end of June.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Pandemic reduced literacy instruction in Michigan, report finds

2022-02-14T20:48:50+00:00

Michigan teachers spent less time giving reading lessons during the pandemic. During the same period, half of all third graders in the state were identified at some point by their teachers as needing extra help with reading.

Those findings from a new report on Michigan’s third-grade reading law underscore the academic toll of the pandemic — especially for students from low income families and students of color, who were more likely to learn virtually last year. Michigan legislators passed the law in 2016 in an effort to reverse years of backsliding reading scores. It increases the number of coaches working with teachers to improve reading instruction, while threatening to hold back third-graders with especially low reading scores.

While earlier reports suggested that the law was having a modest positive effect, the latest data suggest that there is a long road ahead.

Students from low income families, who speak English as a second language, and students of color in particular, got less literacy instruction last year, according to the report, because their districts were more likely to be operating fully online.

“It’s an equity issue,” said Katharine Strunk, a co-author of the report. “If those students are receiving even less instruction time, the gaps are going to get bigger.”

Experts are calling on schools to use federal COVID funds to bolster students’ reading skills through tutoring, teacher training, and summer school programs. While many districts are already putting those programs in place, the pandemic continues to disrupt education across the state.

Researchers at Michigan State University drew on surveys and test score data to track student progress since the passage of the third-grade reading law. The controversial retention portion of the law, which requires schools to hold back third-graders with especially low English scores, was paused in 2019-20 due to the pandemic.

Key points of the 194-page report, include:

In a survey of nearly 7,000 Michigan teachers, many said they spent less time teaching reading last year compared with the year before. The same held true in other subjects. Among educators who taught virtually, 40% said their literacy instruction time decreased.
Half of 2020-21 third graders were listed as “reading deficient” by their school districts at some point in grades one through three. While it’s up to individual districts to define what this means, all students who receive this label are eligible for extra instruction and support in reading.
Teacher coaches reported that they spent less time helping teachers improve their literacy instruction during the pandemic.
While 5% of students scored low enough in 2020-21 to be held back, districts intended to hold back just 0.3% of all students.

Statewide, English test scores fell last year, but researchers did not include that data in the report, noting that less than three-quarters of students in the state had taken the M-STEP exam amid the pandemic.

The MSU Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, the group contracted by the state to study the third-grade reading law, plans to release a separate report measuring students’ progress in literacy using benchmark tests taken this fall. Benchmark tests are given by individual districts to track students’ progress throughout the year.

Michigan still is not doing enough to support student literacy, said Jennifer Mrozowski, director of communications for EdTrust Midwest, a nonprofit advocacy group.

“This report reinforces what we have long seen: Michigan is missing the mark in strategically improving early literacy, and there are disproportionate gaps in opportunity for the state’s most disadvantaged students,” she said in a statement.

Michigan to release funds for school COVID tests and more

2022-02-10T23:05:44+00:00

The House and Senate voted to disperse $1.2 billion in federal pandemic relief funds including $150.8 million for COVID-19 tests for schools.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday praised the bill’s near-unanimous passage in both chambers. She said the funding would deliver on Democrats’ and Republicans’ shared goals of keeping students learning in school, and recruiting and retaining health care workers.

The bulk of the funding — $667 million – is earmarked for the Department of Health and Human Services to expand laboratory testing capacity and to invest in recruitment, retention, and training of health care workers.

Those measures will keep communities healthier, which makes it safer for students to be in school, bill sponsor Julie Calley said Thursday.

“We’ve seen very clearly that statistically our kids learn better when they are in person, so we want to ensure that opportunity,” said Calley, a Portland Republican. “We don’t want to see any further learning loss.”

Keeping students in classrooms has been a priority for Republican lawmakers including House Education Chairperson Pamela Hornberger, who blasted Flint and Detroit administrators after December’s omicron surge prompted temporary shifts to virtual learning.

Whitmer, a Democrat, agreed during her annual address to the Legislature last month, that districts should return to in-person learning.

Many school districts already have their own COVID testing programs but some have struggled to source enough rapid tests. Detroit Public Schools Community District has been testing employees and students weekly since last spring. Detroit uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which require at least 24 hours for results but are more accurate than the rapid tests Calley’s bill would provide.

“Right now, the issue of access is not funding but supply. To sustain any long-term ‘test-to-stay’ program we need access to rapid tests. This is critical to keeping our students in school and removing COVID as the barrier to improved student attendance and learning,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said Thursday.

Test-to-stay programs are some districts’ alternative to sending students home if they were exposed to someone at school who tested positive for COVID.

Calley’s bill provides districts options. They can receive tests directly through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which Calley says has priority access to the supply chain. Or, if distribution gets backed up, districts can buy tests on their own and file for state reimbursement.

The test shortage was exacerbated by the Biden administration’s promise to mail 500 million free tests to Americans who requested them. Manufacturers have begun stepping up production in an attempt to meet the demand.

The state previously distributed 175,000 free antigen tests to parents, students and staff through the MI Backpack Home Test Program.

Additionally, schools are slated to receive other funds from the appropriation including:

· $50 million to support school-based COVID testing, contact tracing, vaccine distribution, and mitigation efforts. These funds can also be used to purchase and distribute at-home test kits to staff and students.

· $14.9 million to administer COVID tests to students and staff at both public and private schools.

· $250,000 to expand work-based programs or health service academies for high schoolers interested in medical careers.

The supplemental funding is part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which was intended to support public health and economic recovery after the pandemic.

Hundreds of Detroit school employees file vaccine exemptions

2022-02-10T00:18:15+00:00

An estimated 500 Detroit school district employees have filed a religious or medical exemption ahead of the district’s deadline for staff to be fully vaccinated, according to Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is requiring all employees to get vaccinated by Feb. 18. Until then, the district has required all staff to undergo weekly testing.

The district reported that about 81% of school employees have been fully vaccinated, as of Feb. 4. That includes 86% of teachers.

“I don’t look at this positively or negatively, but it is clear that the courts and legal precedent is favoring the exemptions. So it will be difficult for the district to deny many of these exemptions,” Vitti said during Tuesday’s board meeting.

School staff vaccination requirements have met with mixed compliance nationwide. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, nearly 2,000 staff members, including 3% of K-12 teachers, received an exemption from the COVID vaccine. The district fired 500 employees in December who failed to comply with the mandate.

Across Oregon and Washington, states that required school employees to be vaccinated last fall, vaccine exemption rates varied by school districts, from the single digits to as high as 26%.

The Detroit district’s legal and human resources staff, along with outside legal counsel, will review religious and medical exemption requests. Employees who have requested exemptions will be notified of their status “by the end of this week or early next week,” Vitti said.

The district will use a progressive disciplinary process to enforce the mandate following the deadline, moving from a series of reminders to verbal and written warnings, suspension without pay and ultimately, termination.

“I will not be making any recommendations for termination until June if it leads to that point,” Vitti said. “Employees in general, families, community…should not be fearful of employees not being there to support students throughout the school year based on the vaccine mandate, but there will be consequences.”

The district would not begin to suspend employees until April or May, Vitti added, which would “give people time to vaccinate or it gives us time to re-evaluate the mandate.”

Dwayne Harvey, a Detroit school district teacher, spoke out during the meeting against the mandate, citing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January that blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test requirement for large employers.

“I don’t know where your heart is, but I know this is the wrong path,” Harvey said.

In the absence of guidance from the state, only a few of Michigan’s more than 800 school districts require staff to get vaccinated against COVID or to take regular tests. Individual districts are allowed to implement such requirements in spite of the Supreme Court decision.

“We were already in a legal standing to require the vaccine mandate,” Vitti said. “Nothing really changed regarding that issue. There have been previous cases and laws that allow school districts as an organization to require the vaccine.”

Staff mandate prompt concerns about vacancies

Detroit board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo asked Vitti whether it was possible to transfer unvaccinated staff to the district’s virtual school instead of suspension, to avoid creating more vacancies.

“We have the deadline by which our staff would have to have the vaccine, but with those who are continuing to grapple with it that may not fall under the guidelines for a traditional waiver, what are we considering besides getting rid of our staff?” Gay-Dagnogo said.

Vitti said he was open to moving unvaccinated teachers to the virtual school where enrollment continues to rise as a new student COVID testing mandate kicks in. As of Friday, 96% of students had filed forms consenting to get tested at school. Those who haven’t been vaccinated and don’t consent to weekly COVID testing will be transferred to the virtual school by the end of the month.

Correction: Feb. 10, 2022: A previous version of this story said only unvaccinated staff at Detroit Public Schools Community District are required to receive weekly COVID testing. All school employees, regardless of vaccination status, are required to receive weekly testing.

Whitmer budget proposes teacher bonuses, K-12 and preschool increases, and student mental health funds

2022-02-07T22:05:45+00:00

Michigan would spend millions to get more mental health professionals in K-12 schools. Teachers and other school workers would get thousands in bonuses. And the state’s flagship free preschool program would get a big expansion.

That’s the vision Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will take to lawmakers Wednesday when she lays out a spending plan that is heavy on helping schools overcome the struggles of the pandemic, address teacher shortages that have crippled schools during COVID, and help retain and recruit school staff. Her proposal comes weeks after economists predicted a $5.8 billion state surplus.

Whitmer is expected to call for $18.4 billion in education spending as part of the 2022-23 state budget, according to a summary of education spending provided by her office. That would be a 7.6% increase over the current fiscal year’s education budget.

The big winners, under Whitmer’s plans:

School workers, who would receive bonuses of $2,000 this year, with even more in subsequent years.
Mental health. The governor would invest heavily in mental health professionals to staff school health clinics, and would expand a mental health program for schools.
Students from low-income homes, and students with special education needs. Whitmer would invest millions more to help schools better serve their needs.
Prospective teachers. The governor would create a $250 million fund to create scholarships for individuals pursuing teacher certification in grades pre-K-12, plus $50 million in scholarships for graduate programs for school leaders and mental health professionals. Scholarship recipients would have to give two years of service in schools for each year of scholarship.
The state’s youngest students. Whitmer would further expand free state preschool to serve more students.

While the surplus puts the state in a good financial position, it doesn’t mean the Republican-controlled Legislature is likely to go along with the Democratic governor’s election-year budget goals. Their support will be key to Whitmer’s proposals moving forward.

“We’ve got to be very careful about inserting things into the budget that could lead to ongoing expenses,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told WTVB Monday morning. He promised a “rigorous give and take” during budget negotiations in the coming weeks.

Pieces of Whitmer’s proposal likely will spark bipartisan agreements, said Jonathan Hanson, a lecturer at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

But the surplus, coupled with billions of dollars in federal COVID relief money for schools, sets up an interesting political dynamic, Hanson said.

“It creates this temporary flexibility in the budget and the parties want to do different things with that. The Republicans are eager to bring in some tax cuts for corporations and for individuals that certainly right now are easily manageable, but would be risky down the road,” Hanson said.

Democrats are interested in spending on “education and other areas to make some investments that might not fit within the budget constraints of a typical year. That’s the main divide.”

Meanwhile, with Whitmer up for reelection this year, Hanson said Republicans likely aren’t willing to give her a big political win.

Whitmer’s budget would provide base funding of $9,135 for every student in the state, a 5% increase. Additionally, it would provide $222 million more to support economically disadvantaged students and $150 million more for special education.

“It really shows a recognition that the kids that need the extra assistance the most are getting some prioritization here, while at the same time recognizing that districts as a whole need funding,” said Don Wotruba, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards.

Whitmer also has budgeted $30.8 million for vocational education and career and technical education, and $5.3 million for intermediate districts.

Her spending plan includes $2.3 billion over four years on teacher recruitment and retention. That includes providing $2,000 retention bonuses to every school staff member this fall, and another $2,000 in fall of 2023. Teachers and certified staff would get an additional $3,000 in 2024 and $4,000 in 2025, according to Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy.

Whitmer also plans to propose stipends for student teachers, who currently aren’t guaranteed pay, grants to help districts hire and train staff, and college fellowships for those pursuing education careers.

She also proposes increasing spending for the Great Start Readiness Program, Michigan’s free, high-quality preschool program for 4-year-olds from low-income families.

Funding for the program increased by 67% last year thanks to federal COVID relief funds, helping to open 84 classrooms in Detroit alone.

But those federal dollars are set to run out within two years. Advocates said Whitmer’s proposal would use state funds to help make the recent expansion permanent.

“The expansion is really propped up by federal funds, and we want to make sure we’re not getting a couple of years down the road here and having to look at budget cuts,” said Michael Latvis, senior executive director of legislative affairs for Wayne RESA, an education agency that distributes state preschool funding in Wayne County, which includes Detroit.

The state has expanded preschool for decades with bipartisan support. Experts rank it among the best preschool programs in the country because of its strict training requirements for staff and long track record of preparing students for kindergarten.

Whitmer’s preschool proposal also includes $30 million to help open new classrooms and $5 million to pilot a home-based preschool program.

Whitmer also has budgeted $50 million for before- and after-school programs that provide extracurricular activities and accelerate learning.

She proposes investing $361 million in student mental health, including hiring hundreds more school mental health professionals, building on the 720 nurses, counselors, and social workers hired with new money in the current budget, according to her office. In part, they would staff 40 new school-based clinics serving the needs of 20,000 students.

The spending plan also calls for an expansion of the Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students (TRAILS) program. Run by the University of Michigan in partnership with schools, the program uses mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy to address symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Michigan’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1, but the Legislature normally aims to pass the education part of the budget before July 1, the start of the fiscal year for school districts.

Bridge Michigan writer Isabel Lohman and Chalkbeat staff writers Koby Levin and Lori Higgins contributed.

Few Michigan districts require staff vaccines amid COVID spike

2022-01-13T23:31:53+00:00

A spike in coronavirus cases is again causing upheaval for Michigan’s K-12 schools, yet many districts aren’t using all of the tools at their disposal to prevent the virus from spreading.

Vaccines and testing reduce the spread of COVID, which is disrupting student learning and families’ lives. Numerous Michigan districts are operating remotely in the first part of January, in part because many staff members are falling ill and replacements are in short supply.

The Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test requirement for workplaces with at least 100 employees — a category that includes school districts in 26 states — was among the federal government’s most sweeping attempts to reduce the spread of COVID. With the mandate blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, implementing such mandates will be left to individual states and districts, continuing a pattern of local decision-making that has defined much of the U.S. response to COVID.

Experts say vaccine requirements for staff can help districts reduce disruptive outbreaks. They are “a very important tool, especially now,” said Sarah Reckhow, a professor of political science at Michigan State University who studies education and COVID.

Only the city districts in Lansing and Detroit have implemented such requirements so far. East Lansing will do so this month, its superintendent said in an email to families.

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said the district’s vaccine-or-test requirement for staff would remain in place despite a decision today from the Supreme Court preventing the Biden administration from enforcing a similar rule for all U.S. companies, including school districts, with at least 100 employees. Detroit is requiring all employees to get vaccinated, without the option of testing, in February.

Hundreds of districts across Michigan are using other COVID mitigation methods, such as requiring masks and offering free at-home tests to students. For instance, Ferndale Public Schools offered free COVID tests to students and staff before classes resumed this month, though a negative test wasn’t required for students to return to school.

Mandatory testing for students and staff remains rare, with DPSCD an outlier for its massive investment in testing. Vaccination requirements for students haven’t been implemented yet. The Detroit district is seriously considering one for next school year.

Mask and vaccination requirements have helped reduce the spread of COVID in some of Michigan’s public universities. Both the University of Michigan and Michigan State require students and staff to mask and be vaccinated, and campus outbreaks have dropped sharply after major spikes in the early days of the pandemic.

Still, state officials have stuck to urging that everyone get vaccinated, shying away from implementing broad COVID mitigation measures such as universal masking — or even from endorsing staff vaccine requirements.

Responding to questions about whether the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services supports vaccine-or-test requirements for school staff, spokesman Bob Wheaton said the department “continues to recommend universal masking in K-12 settings.”

Wheaton said the Supreme Court decision doesn’t change the state’s position.

In Lansing, which announced its vaccine-or-test requirements in August, before any other district, 649 of 721 teachers reported being fully vaccinated, said spokesman Robert Kolt. The overall vaccination rate for staff — a group that includes secretaries and administrators — is 65%, above the Michigan average.

“The effort was really made to get kids back in the classroom,” Kolt said. “The conclusion was that the only way to do it was to mandate vaccination.”

Lansing students didn’t return to classrooms last year, which almost certainly came at the cost of student learning.

Research on virtual learning during the 2020-21 school year left little doubt that students — especially students of color and from low-income families — struggled when they were away from the classroom. For instance, half of Black fourth graders started last school year significantly below grade level in math, and two-thirds were significantly behind by the end of the year.

Some district leaders aren’t convinced that vaccination requirements for staff are a good idea. As with other COVID mitigation methods, opinion is split along partisan lines, polls show.

Vaccine-or-test requirements are “a violation of a person’s right to do what they want with their body, and I don’t think it should be done at a district level,” said Tom McMillin, a Republican member of the Michigan Board of Education.

COVID testing in nearly 20% of Detroit district schools far short of goal

2022-01-07T23:09:53+00:00

More than half of the students enrolled in 19 schools in the Detroit district don’t have consent forms on file allowing them to be tested weekly for COVID, illustrating how far some buildings must go to meet the district’s new test-to-learn-in-person policy.

Regular testing has become a crucial part of strategies schools employ to fight COVID spread and keep buildings open, particularly as the omicron variant has led to a post-holiday break surge in infections. In the Detroit Public Schools Community District, students have had to opt in for weekly saliva testing (it is required of employees). But that changes Jan. 31, when parents must consent to student testing in the district’s 104 buildings, or enroll their children in the district’s virtual school.

The looming deadline is why the district is launching an aggressive effort to get parents to sign the consent forms. Parent meetings will be held. Robocalls will be sent. Everyone from teachers to clerical staff and attendance agents will be talking to parents about it. Home visits are possible.

“This is going to be a full out blitz between now and Jan. 31,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. “It will be hard for parents to not know this is an expectation.”

Overall, the district has the OK to test about 68% of its nearly 50,000 students. But the school-by-school COVID testing data, obtained by Chalkbeat this week, shows how difficult that will be in some buildings. Among those with low consent rates are Fisher Magnet Upper Academy and Keidan Special Education Center, both with just 20% of their students having consent forms.

That’s in stark contrast to five schools (Chrysler Elementary, Coleman Young Elementary, Detroit Lions Academy, Diann Banks-Williamson Educational Center, and Gardner Elementary) where 100% of the students have consent forms on file.

(Scroll down for a full list of each school’s parent consent rate.)

Christen Jefferson, a DPSCD parent and health care worker, said she understands why testing is so important. Jefferson’s daughters attend Mumford High School, which has a consent rate of 43.1 percent.

“We do need to test weekly, because you have a lot of kids that are asymptomatic, they’re walking around, they don’t know they’re carrying it, and then it’s taking it to other kids,” she said. Jefferson added that she overheard a teacher in one of her daughters’ virtual classes on Thursday “stressing the importance of parents signing” consent forms.

Vitti wants a 100% consent rate in each building and is optimistic the district will get there during the next two weeks. He doesn’t believe ideological opposition to testing is at play. Instead, he said, “it’s just a matter of getting the forms in.”

Still, there is “going to be a group of parents that object, unfortunately. But logically, there is absolutely no reason why a student can’t put a little bit of saliva in a test tube. It takes literally two seconds to do.”

Vitti spoke on a wide variety of topics related to the pandemic during a Thursday afternoon interview with Chalkbeat. Here are some highlights of that interview:

Vitti said he will announce by Tuesday or Wednesday whether students will return to in-person instruction on Jan. 18. Right now, a return seems unlikely. The city’s positivity rate hovers around 40%. Vitti said there would have to be a significant drop in that rate. The city’s high infection rate and relatively low percentage of people who are fully vaccinated (around 37%) make it difficult to operate in person when there are a number of students and staff infected or exposed, and thus needing to quarantine.
Testing conducted by the district this week (required for employees and recommended for students) shows how widespread the virus is. He said Thursday that with some test results outstanding, about 10% of staff and almost 14% of students were testing positive. “If we had opened up school on Monday, we would have had at least 600 employees … testing positive or coming to schools positive. And you could imagine the spread that would have happened with that.”
Vitti has been vocal about what he says is a need for a student vaccine mandate. The district has already adopted a new policy requiring employees to be vaccinated by Feb. 18. He has said the district is looking at implementing a student mandate by the beginning of the school year. The lack of a vaccine mandate, he said, “is leading to operational chaos and dysfunction in school.” He said state guidelines that require quarantine for unvaccinated individuals in certain circumstances are a clear indication that the best way to protect against the virus, or serious effects of the virus, is vaccination. Republican lawmakers aren’t likely to require vaccines, he said. Neither is Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “I think she believes that that might be the best way to go. But politically, she won’t go there because she’s worried about reelection,” Vitti said. If state lawmakers won’t require vaccines, then they should “get out of the way” of districts that want to implement such policies on their own. “Don’t put us in a straitjacket to do what we need to do to allow school to move forward with greater consistency.”

Latrese Taylor, a DPSCD parent, said she doesn’t support a vaccine mandate. But she backs the testing requirement. Taylor has children enrolled at Ronald Brown Academy, which has a rate of 41.2 percent

“My kids get tested weekly and it should be required. I’ve said this for a while, even inquired on one of the virtual calls with Dr. Vitti before school was back in session,” Taylor said.

She said she gets her sons tested even though they rarely leave home.

“It’s the right thing to do.”

School Name	% of Students Consented
A.L. Holmes Academy of Blended Learning	78%
Academy of the Americas K-3 (Cicotte)	80%
Academy of the Americas Pre-K-4-12 (Konkel)	76%
Ann Arbor Trail Magnet School	64%
Bagley Elementary School of Journalism and Technology	82%
Barton Elementary School	82%
Bates Academy	81%
Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine	61%
Bennett Elementary School	88%
Blackwell Institute	88%
Bow Elementary-Middle School	44%
Brenda Scott Academy for Theatre Arts	53%
Brewer Academy	51%
Bunche Preparatory Academy	68%
Burns Elementary-Middle School	86%
Burton International Academy	74%
Carleton Elementary School	72%
Carstens Elementary-Middle School	63%
Carver STEM Academy	74%
Cass Technical High School	71%
Central High School	69%
Charles R. Drew Transition Center	68%
Charles Wright Academy of Arts and Science	70%
Chrysler Elementary School	100%
Clippert Academy	86%
Cody High School	39%
Coleman A. Young Elementary School	100%
Communication and Media Arts High School	73%
Cooke STEM Academy	56%
Davis Aerospace Technical High School at Golightly	49%
Davison Elementary-Middle School	79%
Denby High School	39%
Detroit Collegiate Preparatory High School at Northwestern	53%
Detroit International Academy for Young Women	76%
Detroit Lions Academy	100%
Detroit School of Arts	46%
Diann Banks-Williamson Educational Center	100%
Dixon Elementary School	58%
Dossin Elementary-Middle School	85%
Durfee Elementary-Middle School	80%
Earhart Elementary-Middle School	76%
East English Village Preparatory Academy	38%
Edison Elementary School	60%
Edmonson Elementary School	75%
Edward Duke Ellington at Beckham	71%
Emerson Elementary-Middle School	38%
Fisher Magnet Lower Academy	46%
Fisher Magnet Upper Academy	20%
Foreign Language Immersion and Cultural Studies	78%
Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men	81%
Gardner Elementary School	100%
Garvey Academy	66%
Golightly Education Center	58%
Gompers Elementary-Middle School	66%
Greenfield Union Elementary-Middle School	72%
Hamilton Elementary-Middle School	70%
Harms Elementary School	83%
Henderson Academy	62%
Henry Ford High School	41%
Hutchinson Elementary-Middle School	69%
J. E. Clark Preparatory Academy	67%
Jerry L. White Center	47%
John R. King Academic and Performing Arts Academy	56%
Keidan Special Education Center	20%
Legacy Academy	79%
Ludington Magnet Middle School	61%
Mackenzie Elementary-Middle School	50%
Mann Learning Community	67%
Marion Law Academy	62%
Mark Twain Elementary-Middle School	61%
Marquette Elementary-Middle School	49%
Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School	44%
Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary-Middle School	59%
Mason Academy	57%
Maybury Elementary School	59%
Moses Field Center	55%
Mumford High School	43%
Munger Elementary-Middle School	63%
Neinas Dual Language Learning Academy	77%
Nichols Elementary-Middle School	44%
Noble Elementary-Middle School	66%
Nolan Elementary-Middle School	68%
Osborn High School	62%
Palmer Park Preparatory Academy	68%
Pasteur Elementary School	62%
Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy	81%
Pershing High School	83%
Priest Elementary-Middle School	50%
Pulaski Elementary-Middle School	77%
Renaissance High School	99%
Roberto Clemente Learning Academy	91%
Ronald Brown Academy	41%
Sampson-Webber Leadership Academy	77%
Schulze Academy for Technology and Arts	99%
Southeastern High School	71%
Spain Elementary-Middle School	83%
The School at Marygrove	56%
Thirkell Elementary-Middle School	54%
Thurgood Marshall Elementary School	61%
Turning Point Academy	58%
Vernor Elementary School	72%
Wayne Elementary School	67%
West Side Academy of IT and Cyber Security	40%
Western International High School	47%

Search the testing consent rates at your school

Detroit school district shifts to online learning as COVID cases rise

2022-01-04T15:22:31+00:00

The Detroit school district will further delay its return to in-person learning after the winter break as the city’s COVID cases continue to surge.

The district informed families and staff that it will shift to online learning Thursday through Jan. 14.

“Unfortunately, the city’s infection rate continues to climb and now has exceeded 40% for a seven-day average,” the district said in an email to parents early Tuesday morning. “Once the city’s infection rate decreases to more normal levels, then we will resume in person learning.”

In a followup response, Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti affirmed the district’s announcement.

“Opening schools now with this record-high infection rate, coupled with low family and student vaccination rates, would only lead to an operational nightmare of positive cases and excessive quarantining that would lead to staff shortages and student absences,” Vitti said.

The decision mirrors recent moves by school districts across the state and country as the omicron cases surge. Lansing Public Schools announced it would move to virtual classes through Jan. 7 out of an “abundance of caution.” Ann Arbor Public Schools began the new year with remote learning and plans to return to in-person instruction by Jan. 10.

Other school districts opted to remain in person to begin the new year. In their decisions to bring back students on Monday, Both Kalamazoo Public Schools and Royal Oak Schools brought back students, informed district families in letters that they would continue to observe state and federal COVID-19 safety measures such as universal masking, case reporting protocols, and social distancing.

“Although a handful of Michigan school districts have chosen to revert to remotelearning, our district’s decision to remain in person is based on the fact that our layered mitigation strategies have successfully resulted in extremely low school-based transmissions,” said Kalamazoo Superintendent Rita Raichoudhuri in a letter to families and staff on Monday.

The district reported more than 100 students who previously participated in virtual school over the fall opted to return to in-person learning.

Both school districts applied for rapid home tests through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ MI Backpack Home Test program. The pilot program plans to provide free antigen tests to Michigan students and school employees who want them.

The Detroit district initially postponed the return to school until Jan. 6.

It also adopted a new COVID testing policy that requires students learning in person to consent to a weekly test. Students who do not submit to testing by Jan. 31 will be enrolled in the district’s virtual school.

Eligible Detroit school district students will be able to pick up laptops at their schools Thursday or Friday or early next week, according to the school district. All laptops are expected to be returned before in-person instruction resumes.

Many Detroit school district parents and employees approved of the district decision in light of safety concerns in discussions on social media, with many expressing their disappointment that COVID case numbers across the city were high.

Ashley Gutierrez, a parent of three children at Munger Elementary-Middle School, was critical of the district’s decision given past student challenges with online learning, as well as the logistical hurdles for parents who can’t stay at home.

“I can’t give my kids what the teachers would give them at school,” Gutierrez said. “We do put them at risk going to school, but at the same time, I feel kids are better off having school in person just to get the right education and the right needs.”

But Kendra Visser Lincourt, an art teacher in the Detroit school district, said “It’s the safest call for kids and staff.”

“With the current numbers it is not safe to have 150 kids in and out of my art room every day. I am very relieved to know that, starting the second semester, every face-to-face student needs to test weekly.”

Report: COVID, finances helped drive absenteeism in Detroit district

2021-12-20T19:58:54+00:00

Chronic absenteeism rose significantly for Detroit district students last year as families continued to deal with financial, logistical, and health ramifications of the COVID pandemic.

A new Wayne State report shows that 70% of Detroit students were chronically absent — missing 10% of last school year — compared with 62% in 2018-2019. About 54% were described as severely chronically absent, meaning they missed 20% or more of the year.

Absenteeism rose in all K-12 grades but especially among 12th graders, 87% of whom were chronically absent, while roughly three-fourths of district kindergartners and students who received special education services missed 10% or more of the school year.

The district had been making some progress to reduce chronic absenteeism prior to the pandemic. Several years ago, the Detroit school district invested in hiring attendance agents in every school. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti and the board review chronic absenteeism data monthly, along with other metrics, and the superintendent has expressed his concern about the rise in chronic absenteeism since the pandemic began.

More than a third of families surveyed reported internet and computer issues during the school year, researchers found, contributing in part to the rise in absenteeism. Because schools pivoted to full online instruction last year, a lack of transportation was less of a factor in students missing school than it has been in previous years.

The report comes from a representative survey of more than 800 Detroit families as well as student attendance records and administrative data provided by the Detroit school district.

At the core of the study’s results, according to Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, an assistant professor of education at Wayne State, are the ongoing social and economic barriers that chronically absent students face, particularly the “really difficult choices that families are forced to make in order to kind of meet the expectation of good attendance without an adequate kind of social support structure.”

“We talked to families who had to quit their jobs to make sure their kids are in school,” Lenhoff said. “Maybe their child’s attendance is better, but then they’re unemployed, and they’re not making any money.”

Among the key findings:

Thirty-eight percent of parents said their child didn’t have access to a computer and 30% said internet troubles led to their child being absent. More than 50% of Detroit district families experienced financial and health-related challenges during the pandemic.
Thirty-four percent of district families had a family member who got sick or died of COVID.
Students in families who experienced economic challenges such as lower incomes, irregular work schedules, unemployment, and eviction were more likely to be chronically absent.

Detroit district approves vaccine mandate for school employees

2021-12-16T23:10:22+00:00

Detroit school district employees now have until Feb. 18 to be fully vaccinated, according to a new policy approved by the school board.

The policy was unanimously approved by the board during a special meeting Thursday. Those who don’t comply with the policy risk losing their jobs, though there are exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

The Detroit district’s policy would follow guidelines from the state and federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which have created guidance for COVID employee vaccination, testing, and masking.

Staff members are still expected to get tested and wear masks while in school. The Detroit school district conducts weekly COVID tests for both students and staff. Testing is required for staff and optional for students.

“I know we are not unique in this space, because I know people are moving to this in other school districts…this is a step needed for us to avoid that interruption in the educational process,” board chair Angelique Peterson-Mayberry said during Tuesday’s school board meeting.

Approximately 80% of district employees have already been vaccinated, according to district spokesperson Chrystal Wilson. The district employed roughly 7,900 staff members, according to data from the 2020-21 school year.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti echoed his support of an employee vaccine mandate during Tuesday’s school board meeting, considering it one of many efforts to “keep students in school learning Monday through Friday.”

During the Tuesday meeting, Vitti said 11,000 students were affected by school-related closures due to multiple COVID outbreaks.

The district is also looking into the legality of a vaccine mandate for students, Vitti said, with plans for a potential fall 2022 deadline for students to be fully vaccinated.

The school board also approved revisions to the district’s reopening plan, which would force schools to move to remote learning for 10 days in the case of potential outbreaks.

Individual schools could close facilities for 10 days if a school’s weekly testing results reached 5-7% infection rate, while a 3-5% COVID positivity rate may warrant a one-day closure to deep clean a school building.

The decision, Vitti said, responds to district staff concern and feedback about the challenges tracing close contacts and confirming individual or schoolwide quarantines.

Detroit school teacher Kendra Visser Lincourt said she is “all for the vaccine mandate,” noting that most of the teachers she knows in the district had already been vaccinated.

“Knowing that all of my coworkers will be vaccinated is a huge relief,” she said. “There’s definitely talk of some teachers quitting, but in the long run I really think it’s mostly talk.”

Keith January, president of the district’s local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which covers support staff such as school aides, custodians and food service attendants, supported the decision in the hopes that it will mitigate the spread of the virus among students with acute health conditions.

“I’m not going to tell the district they can’t mandate my people to be vaccinated,” January said. “I’m not gonna do it, because unless they can prove it is against their religious beliefs or they have some kind of pre-existing condition, which I believe is included in the vaccination language, that’s all a union official can ask for.”

Vaccine mandate being considered for Detroit school district employees

2021-12-10T22:10:08+00:00

The Detroit school district is moving toward a vaccine policy that, if approved by the board, would require all district staff members be vaccinated before the end of the school year.

The Detroit Board of Education’s policy committee OK’d a draft of the mandate on Thursday, which specifies a Feb. 18 deadline for district employees to be fully vaccinated. Those who don’t comply risk losing their jobs, though there would be exemptions for medical or religious reasons, according to the draft.

District vaccine mandates for staff are rare in Michigan, which had the second largest number of COVID cases per capita in the country over the last week. The Biden administration’s sweeping vaccine requirement for staff members of large organizations is tied up in court. While local districts have the power to impose their own mandates, few have done so.

“If you don’t want to have people absent because of COVID, get them vaccinated,” said Sarah Reckhow, a professor of political science at Michigan State University, which has a vaccine requirement for students and staff.

“I’ve been surprised that more superintendents are not using the authority available to them to require vaccination.”

Districts across the state are struggling with staffing vacancies and shortages of substitute teachers that could be exacerbated if staff fall ill with COVID and have to stay home.

Lansing Public Schools may be the only Michigan district thus far with a vaccine requirement for staff, said Peter Spadafore, deputy executive director for external relations at Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators. He added that the group doesn’t take a position on whether districts should impose such requirements.

Vaccination rates in Detroit remain low: About 44% of city residents ages 5 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, behind figures across the rest of Wayne County and Michigan, which tout 68% and 62% vaccination rates, respectively.

The draft policy is expected to be reviewed by the Detroit school board for a first reading during Tuesday’s board meeting, said Misha Stallworth-West, a board member who chairs the policy committee. All district policies must be reviewed by the board twice before they can be approved.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti views the COVID vaccine as “the best way to prevent schools from closing and going online.”

“COVID will always be a part of our society,” said Vitti in a parent listening session on Wednesday. “The only way we stop the spread and stop letting it disrupt our lives and teaching and learning is through vaccination.”

The district’s policy would follow guidelines from the state and federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which have created guidance for COVID employee vaccination, testing, and masking.

“We certainly understand the district’s reasoning behind moving in this direction,” said Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. The teachers union is prepared to bargain with the district and the school board if the policy is enacted. “We’ve had a lot of school closings, quarantine isolations due to COVID. I think we all want some continuity of education, but we want to make sure that it is fair.”

The last survey the union conducted of its members, Martin said, revealed an even split between those in favor of and against a vaccine mandate. The district has offered incentives to employees who receive a vaccine dose, including a $500 bonus, which Martin believes may have pushed some educators to get a shot.

Around 70% of district employees have been vaccinated, Vitti said in October.

Ultimately, Martin suggested, for the district to stem COVID cases and outbreaks in schools, the solution should include requiring eligible students to be vaccinated.

“A mandate for employees is one thing, but if you really want to start to turn the tide, and really get into trying to control this virus, a mandate should include children.”

Vitti said during a finance committee meeting Friday that the district is reviewing whether it has the legal authority to require children get vaccinated.

“We are asking the state through the attorney general to give us an opinion about mandating student vaccines and also possibly mandating testing, where a student would not be able to attend school, if they didn’t test or they weren’t vaccinated, and maybe instead have to attend a virtual school until enough time is given for the vaccine or for the testing consent,” said Vitti.

The district currently is conducting voluntary student testing. About 60% of students have turned in consent forms to be tested, Vitti said.

Wondering about COVID cases at your child’s school? Search our outbreaks database.

2021-12-06T22:30:32+00:00

COVID spread widely in Michigan schools this year, and especially quickly in school districts without masking requirements.

Some districts have acknowledged that they can’t keep track of the huge number of COVID cases they are facing.

Spotty reporting means the state’s count of COVID outbreaks in schools has become even less reliable.

Despite the data’s limitations, many families are keenly interested in COVID cases at their children’s schools, and the state’s reports on school-related outbreaks are one way to get a rough sense of viral spread in schools.

Districts also post COVID tallies on their websites that include all cases, not just those related to outbreaks, but those numbers aren’t aggregated across the state, and they can be hard to find.

That’s why Chalkbeat is publishing a table containing all COVID outbreaks in Michigan K-12 schools this year. The data, published by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Resources, is published weekly.

An outbreak is roughly defined by epidemiologists as three or more linked COVID cases on school grounds. At the start of this school year, epidemiologists began declaring outbreaks after at least three related COVID cases are reported to public health officials. Previously, two cases were enough to warrant an outbreak declaration. One-off cases not part of outbreaks won’t be included in the state data.

If 12 students contracted COVID after coming into contact with each other at school, that’s an outbreak. If just two students got COVID in the same classroom, the cases wouldn’t be reported, because an outbreak would need to have at least three cases to be reported to the state.

So far, health officials have reported more than 9,700 outbreak-related COVID cases in K-12 schools.

Search the table below for your school or county. Chalkbeat will update this table weekly to give you the most current data available from the state. It was last updated March 14, 2022.

School	County	Cases	Affected	Outbreak start
Allen Park High School	Wayne	16	Students	03/28/2022
Big Rock Elementary	Saginaw	4	Staff and students	04/04/2022
Brown City Comm Schools	Sanilac	70	Staff and students	10/11/2021
Brown City Comm Schools	Sanilac	50	Students	10/18/2021
Canton High School	Wayne	7	Students	04/18/2022
Carpenter Elementary	Washtenaw	5	Staff and students	04/11/2022
Carsonville Port Sanilac Hs	Sanilac	23	Students	12/13/2021
Catherine Blackwell Institute	Detroit City	3	Students	04/04/2022
Croswell Lexington Schools	Sanilac	108	Staff and students	11/08/2021
Croswell Lexington Schools	Sanilac	92	Students	11/15/2021
Croswell Lexington Schools	Sanilac	64	Students	11/15/2021
Croswell Lexington Schools	Sanilac	43	Staff and students	11/22/2021
Deckerville Comm Schools	Sanilac	11	Staff and students	10/04/2021
Deckerville Comm Schools	Sanilac	16	Staff and students	12/20/2021
Delta Mills Early Childhood Center	Eaton	7	Staff and students	03/21/2022
Detroit Collegiate Preparatory High School At NWern	Detroit City	5	Staff and students	04/04/2022
Detroit Collegiate Preparatory High School At NWern	Detroit City	4	Staff and students	04/04/2022
E English Preparatory Academy	Detroit City	6	Staff and students	03/28/2022
Eberwhite Elementary School	Washtenaw	6	Students	04/18/2022
Father Gabriel Richard High School	Washtenaw	13	Students	03/28/2022
Fisher Magnet Lower Academy	Detroit City	6	Students	03/28/2022
Foreign Language Immersion And Cultural Studies	Detroit City	5	Students	04/04/2022
Gallimore Elementary School	Wayne	5	Students	04/18/2022
Grayling High School	Crawford	120	Staff and students	10/04/2021
Hemmeter Elementary	Saginaw	3	Students	03/21/2022
Ludington Elementary School	Mason	45	Staff and students	01/31/2022
Manchester Junion And Senior High School	Washtenaw	5	Staff and students	04/11/2022
Marlette Comm Schools	Sanilac	22	Students	12/13/2021
Mason County Central High School	Mason	33	Students	02/07/2022
McAlear Sawden Elementary	Bay	5	Students	04/18/2022
Mecosta Elementary School	Mecosta	21	Staff and students	01/31/2022
Mitchell Elementary School	Washtenaw	4	Staff and students	04/18/2022
Murphy Elementary School	Lapeer	39	Staff and students	09/06/2021
Pembroke Elementary	Oakland	3	Students	03/28/2022
Riley Elementary	Clinton	35	Staff and students	03/07/2022
Rolland Warner Middle School	Lapeer	78	Staff and students	09/06/2021
Ronald Brown Academy	Detroit City	13	Students	04/04/2022
Saline High School	Washtenaw	4	Staff and students	04/11/2022
Sandusky Comm Schools	Sanilac	48	Staff and students	10/04/2021
Sandusky Comm Schools	Sanilac	49	Staff and students	10/11/2021
Sanilac Isd/Maple Valley Elm	Sanilac	4	Staff and students	10/25/2021
St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School	Washtenaw	6	Staff and students	04/18/2022
Stout Middle School	Wayne	3	Staff	03/28/2022
Thurston Elementary	Washtenaw	5	Staff and students	04/18/2022
Thurston Elementary	Washtenaw	7	Staff and students	03/28/2022
W Michigan Academy Of Arts And Academics	Ottawa	3	Staff and students	04/04/2022
Whitmore Lake Elementary School	Washtenaw	7	Staff and students	04/18/2022
Wilson Elementary School	Alpena	6	Students	03/21/2022
Zemmer Middle School	Lapeer	96	Staff and students	09/20/2021

Michigan COVID outbreaks in schools

Source: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

Kindergarten catchup: How teachers are helping young learners

2021-11-08T16:01:13+00:00

He. Me. An. With. Is.

A hand shot up as soon as the words appeared on the first-grade classroom overhead projector at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy in the Detroit suburb of River Rouge.

“Jorell, you might know these words but we still have to sound them out. Can you do that with us?” teacher Christina Ogle asked.

“Everybody knows those words,” Jorell blurted.

The truth was that some of his classmates couldn’t even name the letters in them.

While Jorrell attended kindergarten last year, some of his classmates did not. And while schools are relieved that enrollment in early grades has bounced back after last year’s steep drop, first grade teachers in Michigan and across the country are now confronting big differences in their students’ readiness — and working with the children who missed instruction during a critical year for their development.

Kindergarten enrollment was down 11.3% across Michigan last year as parents chose to keep their students home rather than face the COVID health risk. In River Rouge it was down 37.2%. In some places — Flint, Benton Harbor, Chandler Park Academy, and Old Redford — fewer than half of last year’s would-be public school kindergarteners showed up.

Now, teachers across Michigan — one of 31 states where kindergarten is optional — are working to help them catch up to their peers.

As they entered school this year, parents and administrators had to decide where to place 5-year-olds who didn’t go to kindergarten last year.

Teachers have always had to adapt lessons to meet children’s different needs. But kindergarten and first-grade teachers said this year’s challenges have been more pronounced because some children moved directly into first grade with their peer group while others enrolled in kindergarten a year late.

Teacher Naja Moore uses a smart board to read to her kindergarten class at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy in River Rouge.

Overall, 13,593 fewer kindergarten students registered for public traditional and charter schools in Michigan last year compared with 2019-20. Enrollment figures for the current school year aren’t yet available.

Last year’s kindergarten enrollment was particularly low in communities with more Black, Latino, and low-income families, putting already disadvantaged students a year behind their peers.

“Historically, schools have not done a great job of serving minority kids and families, so any time schools are additionally burdened they’re likely to do even less of a good job,” said Amy Parks, professor of early childhood education at Michigan State University.

State enrollment shows students who did not enroll in public school kindergarten weren’t flocking to private schools, either. Private school enrollment increased by less than 1%.

Some children may have been taught at home but it’s impossible to know how many because Michigan doesn’t require homeschool registration.

Thousands, though, were unaccounted for last year.

Parents kept their children home last year for a variety of reasons including health concerns and logistic challenges exacerbated by additional burdens families faced during the pandemic, said Walter Cook, a researcher with the Detroit Education Research Partnership at Wayne State University. Researchers there have been analyzing kindergarten enrollment data with The Skillman Foundation, a Detroit philanthropy group whose grantees include Chalkbeat.

Job constraints, lack of childcare, and inadequate internet access were additional obstacles that prevented some parents from providing the time and attention young children need to participate in virtual learning, he said.

‘It’s not play time, nap time, coloring.’

Kindergarten has become more academic, with its increased focus on reading and math readiness. It’s also a grade where children develop interpersonal skills and social behaviors.

“It’s not play time, nap time, coloring. We’re really pushing academics,” said Naja Moore, who teaches kindergarten at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy, the River Rouge school. “The hope is for kindergarteners to be able to read by the end of the year but even if they don’t reach that goal at the end of the year they still get that exposure.”

“If they go to first grade without any kindergarten experience they’re really behind because they’re expected to already know their numbers, already know how to write their name,” Moore said. “If they just go right to first grade they miss that educational foundation.”

For those students, the goal this year is academic growth, not necessarily proficiency, said Nichole German, the Ann Visger principal.

Missing kindergarten could have lasting effects, Cook said.

Detroit Public Schools Community District saw a 25% drop in kindergarten enrollment with 3,145 enrolling last year —1,039 fewer students than the year before, pre-pandemic. Kindergarten enrollment in Detroit charter schools was down 20.5%.

Most DPSCD students who skipped kindergarten last year went directly to first grade, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. Smaller class sizes, expanded after-school programming, and literacy intervention for individuals and small groups will help them catch up, Vitti said.

In Ingham County, Holt schools are extending school days, offering extra instruction during scheduled school breaks, and having kindergarten students begin school with a “soft start” that allows teachers to get to know students before assigning them to classrooms, Superintendent David Hornak said.

“Everything is really hard for her.”

At Ann Visger Academy, Ogle uses a variety of approaches to meet the needs of students who skipped kindergarten. For example, she created two different sets of worksheets for her students.

Most students’ worksheets are geared toward beginner readers. They show, for example, a picture of a mouth and ask children to choose which is correct: “lip” or “lop.” or a picture of a police officer with the words “cop” and “cap.”

Students who missed kindergarten have easier worksheets that ask them, for example, to trace letters.

A first-grader struggles with a worksheet at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy in River Rough. The girl, who skipped kindergarten during the pandemic, was unable to match identical words and color them the same.

During independent reading time on a recent Monday, a boy who’d had a full kindergarten year sailed through three books, moving his lips as he read fluently, “It was Friday, and school was out. Froggy flopped home from the school bus — flop flop flop — singing ‘Hurray! Hurray! It’s Friday! Friday!”

Across the room, a classmate put her head on her pile of picture books and cried. It was her third meltdown of the morning. She stayed home last year and isn’t used to being away from her mother, Ogle explained.

Ogle persuaded her to flip through a picture book.

“As of now, that’s what she can do. One of the ways to start reading is to look at the pictures,” Ogle said. “Everything is really hard for her.” She doesn’t have the social, emotional and academic skills of a child who has been through kindergarten, Ogle said.

The differences might have been more pronounced if the children who did attend kindergarten last year had had a normal year, teachers from across the state said in interviews. Instead, they were in and out of school as the severity of the pandemic waxed and waned. Those who attended virtual kindergarten spent the year touching and clicking tablets instead of writing and coloring with pencils and crayons.

“When I introduced an activity that required scissors, my jaw hit the floor watching these kids try to cut,” said Chip Bennett, who teaches first grade at Perry Early Learning Center in Ypsilanti. “They’re holding scissors like they’ve never held a set of scissors in their life, and they might not have.”

Ogle noticed that in River Rouge, too. To sharpen fine motor skills she’s introducing more crafts than in a typical year.

She’s also spending more time than usual on phonics. A typical year begins with a review, but this year, some of her students have had no exposure to letters and their sounds. It’s been difficult, she said, to teach beginning concepts to children who are new to school while keeping more advanced students like Jorell engaged.

“It’s constantly adjusting so they’re not bored. I have to keep that in mind all the time,” she said. “I try to give them something extra to do.”

Parents shouldn’t worry too much, Parks said.

Older children enrolled in kindergarten will have developmental advantages that will carry through their schooling, she said, and those who skip kindergarten have plenty of time to catch up.

Still, she said, districts have to be more flexible in their academic expectations this year.

“First-grade teachers are going to have to spend a little more time on ‘How do we find the bathroom in the classroom?’and ‘What do we do when we want someone’s attention?’ and ‘What does a line mean?’ And it means other things might not happen, and that’s ok,” she said. For example, learning about greater-than and less-than may have to wait for second grade, she said.

“If both educators and families are looking at what kids need, I think we’ll be fine coming out of this,” Parks said.

Vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 marks a potential turning point for schools

2021-11-05T20:02:54+00:00

Children ages 5 to 11 can now get vaccinated against COVID, a major turning point in a school year already disrupted by the pandemic.

Doses are already available at many Michigan pharmacies and health departments. They will be available starting Monday from Detroit Health Department clinics for children, and Detroit schools will begin offering doses on Nov. 13.

The school year will inch closer to normal with each newly vaccinated child, said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District. COVID outbreaks have caused classrooms to shut down in Detroit and statewide in recent weeks, obstructing efforts to help students recover from the academic and emotional effects of the pandemic.

Vaccinated children are unlikely to fall ill with COVID, and Vitti said they will not have to quarantine at home if they come into contact with a sick peer.

Sixty-eight thousand Detroiters ages 5 to 11 are eligible for the vaccine, which was recently deemed safe and effective by the Centers for Disease and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

The shot has the same active ingredients as the Pfizer vaccine that has been taken by more than 100 million Americans, but contains one-third the amount as the adult vaccine and is packaged with a smaller needle. Approval of a Moderna shot for young children is possible in coming weeks. Both vaccines require two shots given three weeks apart, with full immunity reached two weeks after the second dose.

City health officials are planning virtual public forums next week where doctors will answer questions from parents. Many Detroit parents are hesitant about the vaccine: A recent survey found that 59% of Detroit parents with children under age 12 are uncomfortable with their child receiving the shot.

Carla Watson, a neurologist at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, lifelong Detroiter, and mother, is eager to get her 5-year-old son vaccinated.

The vaccine’s approval came as a relief to Carla Watson, a pediatric neurologist at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

Watson, a lifelong Detroiter, treats children who fall ill with COVID. She’s also the mother of a 5-year-old with health conditions that make COVID a particularly grave threat to his well-being.

“I am really looking forward to getting the vaccine for him,” she said, noting that vaccinated children are less likely to pass the virus to adults.

“This vaccine is very safe, we know it’s very effective, and I’ve seen the severe effects” of COVID in children, she added. “I encourage everyone to get the vaccine.”

While young children are less likely than adults to fall seriously ill with COVID, complications of the disease can prove fatal in rare cases. Detroit officials announced plans to roll out the vaccine for younger children in a conference room named after Skylar Herbert, a Detroit 5-year-old who died from complications of COVID in the early weeks of the pandemic.

Even mild COVID cases in children can mean lost time in school and temporary isolation from family and friends.

The Biden administration has pushed for schools to distribute the vaccine. Doses will be available in the Detroit Public Schools Community District in the coming weeks, beginning on Nov. 13 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Senior High School and Randolph Career and Technical School.

Vitti said the district is working on a plan to vaccinate younger students in schools on weekends and occasionally during school days. A parent or legal guardian must accompany younger children to the vaccine appointment. Few working parents can attend vaccination appointments during the school day.

Another option for parents is the Detroit Health Department, which is offering child-specific vaccination sites starting Monday.

To prevent long waits, DHD is offering vaccines for children by appointment only. Nurses and clinicians at these appointments will have experience working with children. And more time will be allotted for the appointments than for adult vaccinations to allow families to interact with their nurses and feel more comfortable.

“We’re setting up a separate process to make it comfortable and reassuring for our kids,” said Mayor Mike Duggan, adding: “I don’t want … children in a waiting room sitting around with time to build up anxiety.”

The city is providing vaccinations for children ages 5 to 11 at the following locations:

Detroit Health Department, 100 Mack Ave., from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, starting Nov. 8.
Northwest Activities Center, 18100 Meyers Rd., from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, starting Nov. 13.

To book an appointment with the city, call 313-230-0505.

Walgreens, CVS, and various hospitals and health departments are also offering vaccine appointments for children.

Parents can ask Detroit doctors about the new vaccine during virtual forums Nov. 8 and Nov. 12 from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. More information is available on the Detroit Health Department Facebook page.

Janet Callahan is taking her 10-year-old daughter to get vaccinated on Monday. COVID poses a particular threat to Bethany Callahan, who has autism, cerebral palsy, and a respiratory issue that caused her to be put on a ventilator as a toddler.

“We have no desire to sit in the hospital again with a kid on a ventilator,” she said. “We have been waiting on pins and needles” for the vaccine.

Callahan’s family has seldom left home during the pandemic. Janet is home-schooling Bethany, who normally attends the Troy School District, through the end of this school year, but she says the vaccine is the first step back to in-person education and social interaction.

“And my dad is really excited to come for Thanksgiving,” she added.

Michigan’s GOP Senate votes to restrict school mask and vaccine rules

2021-10-26T20:11:21+00:00

Mandates for masks, vaccinations, and COVID testing would be restricted under Republican legislation the Michigan Senate approved Tuesday as it seeks to sharply limit school coronavirus prevention protocols.

The bills passed 19-15 on party lines. They now head to the Republican-controlled House but stand little chance of being signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Passage came on the same day Whitmer ordered her administration to expedite the acquisition and distribution of Pfizer BioNTech pediatric coronavirus vaccines. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday began deliberating whether to authorize the vaccine for children 5 to 11, with federal approval expected as soon as next week.

“This is a game-changer for our kids that will protect them as they continue to learn in-person in the classroom this school year, participate in extracurricular activities, or see friends and family this holiday season,” Whitmer said in a written statement. “Parents should sign up to protect their kids.”

Whitmer, who previously blocked a separate effort to restrict mask and vaccine rules, is likely to veto the Senate bills if they reach her desk. Her spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Republicans say vaccines, masks, and testing are fine for parents who want them for their children but schools shouldn’t require them.

“We have seen time and time again parents stepping up on behalf of their own children to make their own decisions on behalf of their kids and see nothing but the government intrude on them and stand in their way,” said Sen. Tom Barrett, a Potterville Republican who was among the sponsors of the legislation.

One of the bills would prohibit schools from requiring vaccines approved with emergency use authorizations, a designation the Federal Drug Administration gives to provide access to critical medical products. Currently, no COVID vaccine is fully approved for children under 15. The Pfizer vaccine is fully approved for people over 15 and has emergency use authorization for administration to children ages 12-15.

Another bill would require schools with mask mandates to allow parents and students to opt out of wearing them. It also would prohibit mandatory testing of asymptomatic students. The Detroit Public Schools Community District is testing asymptomatic students weekly. Detroit parents can opt their children out, and about half have, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has said.

The third and fourth bills would prohibit state and local health officials from enforcing rules that require face masks, emergency-use vaccines, or COVID testing of asymptomatic students as a condition of attending class or participating in school functions.

The Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators opposes the legislation.

“Tying the hands of school district and health officials with statewide policy is not productive or what we need at this time,” said Executive Director Tina Kerr. “What we need is to focus on ensuring that district leaders have the ability to make decisions in consultation with health experts that are in the best interest of the health and safety of their staff and students.”

Republican Sen. Lana Theis of Brighton, who leads the Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness, spoke in favor of the bills and accused Democrats of creating division.

“Forcing vaccines and mask mandates upon our citizens has driven us further apart,” she said in a speech on the Senate floor. Such mandates, she said, “ignore natural immunity, ignore religious and conscientious objections, and fail to account for individual health concerns.”

Democrats said parents already can opt out of COVID protocols for those reasons.

But Theis said the legislation goes beyond allowing exemptions. It also prevents schools from treating students differently based on vaccination status or mask use, she said.

Democrats criticized the bills but didn’t have the votes to defeat them.

“We’re almost two years into this pandemic caused by this deadly virus. There is much we still don’t know, but we do know this: Vaccines and masks slow the spread of COVID,” said Sen. Rosemary Bayer of Beverly Hills.

“We’re talking about real people suffering,” she said. “Stop perpetuating this crisis. Stop. People are believing what you’re telling them. People are drinking your Kool-Aid. These bills are dangerous.”

Although the bills are unlikely to be signed into law, it’s a mistake to ignore Republicans’ effort to downplay the seriousness of COVID, said Sen. Kevin Hertel, a St. Clair Shores Democrat.

“It’s easy to dismiss these bills as just political rhetoric and nonsense, and just ignore it and let it go. … We have reached a point well beyond that, where this body is actually putting Michigan citizens in danger,” Hertel said in a floor speech. “This body — the official record of the Michigan Senate — is being used to espouse things that are absolutely false and dangerous.”

Sixty-seven percent of Michigan residents 12 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.

Michigan will disclose fewer school COVID outbreaks under new rules

2021-09-28T23:04:26+00:00

School-related COVID outbreaks are increasing in Michigan but you might not know that by looking at the data.

That’s because the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Monday changed how it defines a school outbreak.

The change could decrease the number of outbreaks reported and make it more difficult to track Michigan outbreaks over time.

Until now, two COVID cases associated with a school constituted an outbreak, but this week the agency increased the threshold to three. In addition, the state has begun counting as outbreaks instances where at least 10% of teachers and students in a specified group contract COVID through transmission linked to the school.

That’s in accordance with the definition of outbreak used by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, which recommended in an August report that states standardize outbreak reporting.

Health Department spokesperson Lynn Sutfin acknowledged that “the new outbreak definition threshold may exclude some circumstances, which previously met the definition.”

For example, an outbreak reported last week at Berrien Springs Middle School in southwest Michigan would not have been reported this week because it involved only two students.

The department began using the new definition on Monday. It will not adjust historical data to conform to the new definition, Sutfin said.

“It makes sense to think about how to have consistency across states so we can make comparisons about COVID spread and outbreaks across states, however it will make it much more difficult for people to track the trajectory across time in Michigan,” said Katharine Strunk, director of the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University.

EPIC has been studying how in-person learning contributes to the spread of COVID.

“The danger in doing this midstream is that people who are not aware of the change will assume outbreaks have been reduced when they have not,” Strunk said. “It may lead people to make false assumptions about safety inside the school building.”

That’s a problem because people are using outbreak data to decide on mitigation strategies such as whether to send their children to school with masks, she said.

Of 297 Michigan school outbreaks reported in the last 30 days, 40 would not have been reported under the new definition.

Leaders of the epidemiologists’ council did not respond to questions Tuesday but their August report explained that consistent data is necessary “to characterize the epidemiology of the disease in the school setting, to measure the burden of disease in the school setting, and to inform public health action, including monitoring the impact of vaccination.”

Report: Pandemic ‘wreaked havoc’ in Michigan’s lowest performing schools but didn’t deter teachers

2021-09-27T20:31:47+00:00

A turnaround program had been helping Michigan’s lowest performing schools improve but those gains stagnated during the pandemic, according to a new report from Michigan State University.

The pandemic “wreaked havoc” on these schools, known as partnership schools, even as educators and students made extraordinary efforts to continue teaching and learning, said researchers from the university’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative.

The EPIC study found:

On-time graduation rates, which had been increasing before the pandemic, decreased last year.
Drop-out rates increased, but the number of students transferring to other schools decreased.
Attendance lagged and students were less motivated to learn, but educators said they had a better rapport with those who showed up for virtual classes.
Parent engagement decreased.
More educators — especially novice and Black teachers — left the profession during the pandemic. But those who remained were more likely to stay rather than transfer to other schools or roles. They cited school leadership, culture, and climate as their reasons for wanting to stay.

The backslide doesn’t surprise researchers who were tasked with tracking the schools’ progress since 2017, when the Michigan Department of Education gave them more resources and a chance to improve rather than face closure.

Partnership schools had been making gains in elementary math and English before the pandemic, according to EPIC’s 2020 report.

The new report shows that partnership schools were more likely to offer remote-only instruction than higher achieving districts last year. Learning from home was especially challenging for these students because they also were more likely to experience economic instability, food insecurity, illness, and difficulty accessing health care. Researchers found they also lacked resources for at-home schooling such as internet access, desks, quiet workspace, parental help with school work, and transportation to get supplies.

“I think for the population we serve here that they do better in the building,” one charter school leader told researchers. “We struggle and we continue to struggle with the virtual model.”

Households were loud and chaotic, one teacher said.

“There were children running around screaming, dogs barking and television blasting. All this took the attention away from the lessons. At times, it was the opposite, with the parent sitting out of view of the camera whispering all of the answers,” the teacher said. “Either way, my students were not learning a thing.”

Still, teachers in partnership schools were undeterred. They were less likely to leave their jobs for other schools than colleagues in similar buildings not in the partnership program.

“What impressed me the most was these teachers didn’t just give up. They were really still trying, and they were reporting back that their school culture and climate were improving and their job satisfaction was improving,” said Katharine Strunk, director of the EPIC and a professor of education policy at Michigan State.

The state has identified 123 schools for the partnership program, including 50 in Detroit.

The report bolstered the state education department’s commitment to the program and its efforts to speed up learning by prioritizing the most crucial content over the next school year. The department expects to add more schools to the partnership program next fall.

“Many of the challenges faced by partnership districts are large systemic issues that span beyond the education realm, so any solutions require partners, time, and honest conversations about deep-seated changes that are necessary,” the department said in its written response to the report.

EPIC concluded that partnership schools would benefit from more funding, better recruiting and retention of faculty — especially Black teachers — and more robust socioemotional support.

The report is EPIC’s third on the effectiveness of the partnership program. Researchers said it was hard to isolate the effects of the program from the effects of the pandemic, which were more profound in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods that partnership schools tend to serve.

Researchers considered dropout rates, teacher mobility, district revenue data, educator surveys, and interviews. They used teacher perceptions of student learning rather than test results because the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, known as M-STEP, was not administered in 2019. Teachers estimated that 15% to 16% of students began the school year on track in language arts, math, science and social studies, and even fewer — 11% to 13% — finished on track.

They found the pandemic exacerbated already difficult challenges children in these schools faced.

“For many of our students, making it through the day is all they can do,” one teacher told researchers. “My high school students have shouldered enormous burdens this year. They are breadwinners, babysitters, tutors, cooks, and whatever else is needed in the household.”

Read the full report here.

Whitmer questions mask and vaccine bans in state budget

2021-09-22T22:35:23+00:00

The $70 billion state budget Michigan lawmakers approved Wednesday would bar enforcement of school mask rules and prohibit public agencies from requiring employees to get COVID vaccines.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer believes those bans are unconstitutional and unenforceable. She still plans to sign it, but first her legal staff will “fix the pieces that aren’t” constitutional, she said.

Mask mandates have been a flashpoint nationally and in Michigan, spurring debate, protests, and violence, including against one county health director who said he nearly was run off the road after he issued a mask mandate.

Tensions are high between those who want their children to be protected against COVID in school and those who believe masks are unnecessary.

As passed, the budget prohibits local health departments from enforcing “any orders or other directives that require an individual in this state who is under the age of 18 to wear a mask or face covering.”

It also prohibits agencies from requiring employees and customers to be vaccinated.

Education administrators hope those provisions are stripped from the bill.

“Our schools have worked closely with their local health departments to get the best possible guidance to keep kids safe and learning in person,” said Robert McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, which represents districts in the state’s five most populous counties. “Anything that would jeopardize that is unhelpful.”

Many districts and health departments nationally and across the state have issued school mask mandates.

The budget passage came as Michigan’s COVID-19 death total surpassed 22,000 and the weekly number of new reported cases topped 3,200 for the first time since April.

Whitmer and Republican legislative leaders hammered out the budget agreement earlier this week but the governor did not agree on all provisions.

“Throughout the budget process the governor was clear that she would uphold the public health protocols that are in place and wouldn’t prohibit businesses or local health departments or schools from using the tools they have to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Whitmer spokesman Bobby Leddy said.

The governor dropped the statewide mask mandate three months ago when there were about 150 new COVID cases per week reported in Michigan. As cases rose again, she declined to order a new school mandate despite the urging of Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state’s top medical officer.

How Michigan families will benefit from a $1.4 billion investment in child care

2021-09-22T21:57:11+00:00

Tens of thousands more Michigan families soon will have access to subsidized child care. In parts of the state where child care is in short supply, new funds will help open new centers. Existing centers, many of which struggled to stay open during the pandemic, also will get an infusion of stabilization funds.

Those are just a few features of a $1.4 billion investment in Michigan’s child care system. The new state budget, which draws heavily on federal COVID aid dollars, is expected to have an immediate impact on families with young children, and to close funding gaps in the early education system that have destabilized the early childhood workforce and left wide swathes of the state in “child care deserts.”

“This is a huge step in the right direction,” said Matt Gillard, president of nonprofit advocacy group Michigan’s Children. “The need for investment in our public child care systems is clearly being seen.”

The budget passed the GOP-led legislature on Wednesday with bipartisan support. While Michigan’s multi-billion dollar budget surplus meant there were fewer tough spending decisions to make, advocates also noted that the state’s child care programs have long enjoyed bipartisan support. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said in a statement that she plans to sign the bill, which would go into effect Oct. 1.

Business groups have thrown their political weight behind expanded child care programs, arguing that affordable care frees more adults to enter the workforce. Parents — especially women — stopped working in large numbers during the pandemic, in part because of a lack of affordable child care.

Up to 105,000 additional Michigan children will be eligible for child care subsidies under the proposed budget. That’s more than a threefold increase.

Child care measures included in the budget proposal include:

$700 million in stabilization grants, which will go directly to child care providers to cover costs and help them stay open.
$108 million to increase income eligibility for the child care subsidy program to 185% of the poverty level from 150% through fall 2023, after which it will drop to 160% of poverty.
$36.5 million to contract with providers who care for infants and toddlers. Care for the youngest children is in short supply, in part because it is expensive — an adult can only legally care for 3 or 4 infants at a time. Through contracts — as opposed to biweekly reimbursement — the state can provide more stable funding.
$100 million to help open new child care centers in areas where there aren’t enough early childhood classrooms and to expand existing centers.
$158 million to increase reimbursement rates by 30% for providers who participate in the child care subsidy program.
$222 million to further boost reimbursement rates on a temporary basis. Rates will increase an additional 50% for 6 months, 40% for the next 6 months, and 30% until the funds are used up.
$30 million to pay child care workers a $1,000 bonus.

Education advocates say that high-quality, intensive early education has a lasting positive impact on a child’s life, strengthening their performance in school and reducing odds that they will struggle with substance abuse.

The new budget pours $1.4 billion into Michigan’s largest child care program, Child Development and Care, a system of subsidies that cover private care for low-income families. It comes after the state expanded a separate child care program, Great Start Readiness Program, a state-run free preschool for 4-year-olds from low-income families.

“This is going to be a tremendous investment in supply and demand sides,” said Dawne Bell, executive director of Early Childhood Investment Corporation, a Michigan nonprofit that works with the state on early childhood issues.

Bell noted that much of the new funding will expire within three years, and that several key changes to the child care subsidies — including the expanded eligibility — come with expiration dates.

“Yesterday’s budget deal is historic, and yet we deeply hope that this is a down payment on continued investment in our youngest children,” she said. “COVID-19 has brought into focus how critical and essential child care is to the state’s economy and to future generations and to working families.”

Once the budget is passed, state officials will face a tight timeline to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars. They have just three months to distribute $700 million in stabilization grants, which are intended to cover operating costs and help keep child care centers open. Michigan has lost 6% of its child care providers during the pandemic, according to data from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, though Bell said that is likely an undercount.

Even if the new funds manage to stabilize or increase the state’s child care supply, the benefits to Michigan children could be muted at first by the pandemic. Some providers say their enrollment is still down as parents continue to shield their children from the risk of COVID. Meanwhile, wages for child care workers remain low, and providers say they are struggling to hire teachers.

Some details about the new funds have yet to be hammered out by state officials.

Nina Hodge, a child care advocate and owner of Above and Beyond Learning Center in Detroit, said it’s not yet clear which areas will be deemed to have child care shortages and be eligible for extra funding.

“Who has access to this? Who’s going to be able to get the money?” she asked.

U.S. questions Michigan plan to send COVID aid to affluent districts

2021-09-21T22:15:49+00:00

Some Michigan school districts face the prospect of returning millions of federal COVID relief dollars after federal officials warned that Michigan’s plan to distribute the money may be illegal.

When Michigan lawmakers distributed the latest round of federal aid to schools, they set aside $362 million for districts with the lowest poverty rates. But before the money went out, the U.S. Education Department informed state leaders that the plan didn’t appear to meet a legal requirement to “take into account the ‘disproportionate impact’ of the pandemic on underserved populations,” according to the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators.

When U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visits Michigan this week, advocates say they plan to press him to change the department’s stance. A spokesperson for the federal education department confirmed that Michigan’s plan is under review but declined further comment.

Budgets for nearly 250 Michigan school districts would be thrown into chaos if federal officials reject Michigan’s plan. Once education funds have been allocated to schools, clawbacks are highly unusual.

Michigan will receive more than $6 billion in COVID relief funds, almost all of which is being distributed directly to districts using a formula Congress designed to favor communities with more low-income families. Proponents of the plan argued that students in those communities were hardest hit by the pandemic and will need more help recovering from its negative academic and emotional effects.

When state lawmakers distributed the latest round of funding in July, they set aside a small part of the money to ensure that no district received less than $1,093 per pupil, arguing that COVID would impose higher costs on all districts, even those in the most affluent parts of the state.

The funds in question make up a sliver of the federal COVID aid going to Michigan schools, but the money is highly significant to the districts slated to receive it.

“The whole purpose … is to ensure that every student is getting the support they need in terms of recovery this year,” said Bob McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance, an advocacy group representing schools in southeast Michigan that supported the equalization payments.

The payments, which are planned for release when the school fiscal year begins Oct. 1, are “about raising the floor up and saying there’s a minimum amount that every student needs this year,” he said.

More than a dozen states, including Michigan, previously provided extra federal funds to districts that received the least through the formula, according to an analysis by the Education Commission to the States, a nonpartisan research group, that was provided to Chalkbeat.

Michigan followed the same plan with money from the third round of the program, which specified that spending needed to recognize the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on disadvantaged kids.

Federal officials declined to say if other states have tried to use third-round funds to support districts in higher income areas, or if other states’ plans have attracted similar federal scrutiny.

Under Michigan’s plan, districts with fewer students from low-income families receive a larger share of the $356 million “equalization payments.”

L’anse Creuse Public Schools, in the northeastern suburbs of Detroit, is in line to receive $1.6 million in so-called “equalization” payments, or $165 per pupil. Roughly 44% of the students in the district are considered economically disadvantaged by the state.

Rochester Community Schools, a large district in an affluent suburb north of Detroit, is supposed to receive an estimated $14 million in equalization payments, or $943 per pupil. That’s more than half of the district’s total federal aid, according to spokesperson Lori Grein. About 14% of the district’s 15,100 students are classified as economically disadvantaged.

The funds have already been budgeted to help students recover academically and emotionally from the pandemic year, said Grein and L’anse Creuse Superintendent Erik Edoff.

“We’re using it for literacy support, we’re using it for counseling support, social work support,” Edoff said. “We wouldn’t have done those things if it weren’t for that money.”

He said the district began to build a budget around those funds when they were approved in July. He said he’s optimistic that a resolution will be found, in part because it would be very difficult for the roughly 250 districts that are counting on the money to change course.

Craig Thiel, research director at the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan, said state lawmakers who designed the equalization payments were taking an approach to state funding that is the norm in Michigan: First provide equal payments to school districts, then provide additional equity funding to districts with greater needs.

That approach, he said, has come into conflict with a federal law that “put a premium on equity funding, but ignored the first step of equalizing funding.”

How COVID funding is helping Detroit students bounce back emotionally after a draining year

2021-08-11T20:44:50+00:00

Students circled up in the lobby of a Detroit high school on a hot day in July to make noise together.

“What up doe?” they chanted. “Are you hype? Yeah I’m hype!”

As the sounds of the call-and-response washed over Tyrese Barns, a rising freshman at Davis Aerospace Academy in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, he says he began to feel ready — even eager — for September.

Barns has struggled academically during the pandemic. He says the worst part of virtual learning over the last year was the social isolation. He dreaded the prospect of starting high school and returning to in-person learning at the same time.

Across Michigan, students like Barns got more opportunities this summer to learn and connect with their peers than usual thanks to billions in federal COVID relief funding that aim to help students recover academically and emotionally from a school year turned upside down by the pandemic.

The return to classrooms for Detroit students began in July with expanded summer school classes, academic programs designed to help students accelerate their learning after a challenging year of virtual instruction. After morning classes, students could choose from an unusually wide array of enrichment programs, including cooking classes and robotics workshops. The district contracted with a number of community agencies in order to provide summer programming for more students.

The goal is to help build students’ skills and confidence — and reconnect them with their peers after an isolating year.

“At a minimal level, it gave students an opportunity to interact with each other again and become familiar and comfortable with school again,” said Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti in an email. “It also addressed learning loss, inactivity, and isolation. Lastly, it will help to increase enrollment for the fall.”

Barns said his enrichment program had convinced him that “it’s going to be fun to be back in school. He added: “They really helped my social well-being.”

Most DPSCD students haven’t learned in a classroom since the pandemic began in March 2020. Learning online was less effective for many students, and many were also dealing with loved ones falling ill with COVID and being isolated from their friends.

The result was an alarming level of mental health problems among young people. In a recent national survey, parents of children who were learning virtually during the last year were especially likely to report that their children’s mental health had worsened. Mental health crises among teens spiked by nearly one third during the pandemic, according to a separate report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Over the year I just stopped caring about a lot of things,” said Nevyah Anderson, an 11th grader at Old Redford Academy, a charter school in Detroit.

Improving students’ emotional well-being is one key use for $6 billion in federal relief dollars sent to Michigan to help schools and students recover. The Detroit district, among other districts across the state, has pledged to use part of its share of the funding to hire more social workers and school psychologists.

“One of the first things our students talked about was having social anxiety,” said Marini Lee, who runs McLee Educational Consulting, who ran a district-funded summer enrichment program for high school students this summer. “This is a way to work back into being with each other again.”

That was true for Anderson, a youth leader at a summer enrichment program run by the Coleman A. Young Foundation. The program is usually held on Saturdays, but with the influx of COVID funds, the Detroit district paid for it to operate five days a week during the summer.

One afternoon in July, Anderson sat with her friends in an air-conditioned DPSCD cafeteria, listening to a lesson on mindful breathing and yoga.

The exercises felt good. So did the hours she’d spent hanging out with her friends from the program, some of whom she hadn’t seen since before the pandemic.

COVID concerns kept her from seeing her cousin, Dominique Ross. Normally they’re close, seeing each other almost every week as leaders in the CAYF enrichment program.

They spoke proudly about their rise from students in the program to student leaders who help orient others to the program and run activities. But they were clear-eyed about the challenges they face this year.

“I’m going to be honest, sometimes I got so fed up with Zoom I just clicked off,” said Ross, a 10th grader at Bradford Academy in Southfield.

Nevyah nodded, adding that overwhelmed teachers sometimes ended classes early.

Even so, Dominique worries that in-person instruction will be tough for students no longer accustomed to classrooms. “As far as rules and expectations go, it’s going to take a while for [teachers] to get the students under control,” she said.

Both said they’d promised their parents to study extra hard this year. Nevyah, in particular, is entering her junior year — a pivotal one for college applications — with hopes of winning scholarships.

“I’ve still gotta accomplish my goals, I’ve still gotta get to where I want to go in life,” she said. “I think I’ll be learning things next year that I should have learned in virtual school. But I’ll learn it quickly.”

The Detroit school board votes to require everyone to wear masks while inside buildings

2021-08-11T01:07:51+00:00

Michigan’s largest school district will require masks be worn inside school buildings by all students and staff during the school year that begins Sept. 7.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District also will require staff to undergo weekly COVID testing. Students also will be tested, but it won’t be mandatory and their parents would have to consent.

The mask mandate and testing are among the COVID safety measures included in the district’s reopening plan, which the Detroit school board approved Tuesday night. Also part of the plan: The district will institute 3 feet of social distancing, and continue with daily symptom checks and rigorous cleaning.

Federal rules already require masks to be worn on public transportation, including school buses.

The board voted hours after an intense debate erupted among members of the State Board of Education, after the two Republican members of the board pushed for a resolution that would bar districts from adopting mask mandates. The effort failed, even after dozens of people spoke in favor of the ban during the meeting’s public comment period.

The vote Tuesday in Detroit comes as school leaders across Michigan struggle with how to reopen safely and appease those who want students and staff to wear masks and those who don’t. It also comes as districts across the state prepare for a school year they expect to include fewer students learning in a virtual setting.

“Everyone agrees … that it’s time for students to go back in greater numbers,” Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said.

The district had previously planned to adopt a mask policy that would allow vaccinated individuals to go without masks if they were in a classroom with other vaccinated people. But Vitti changed that recommendation after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control updated its guidelines two weeks ago. The federal agency urged schools to require masks for all, regardless of their vaccination status.

“We are a responsible district that is going to adhere to the science of experts,” said Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, the board president.

Alaina Larsen, a district teacher, said she appreciated the safety measures.

“I know our plan is probably the most comprehensive mitigation plan in the state.”

Larsen did ask how the district would maintain 3 feet of social distancing in the classroom. She said students often work together in small groups with each other and with their teachers.

“I need some clarification on what that would look like in individual classrooms,” she said.

Vitti responded later that schools would be able to adhere to the 3-foot-rule in most instances.

But, “naturally there is going to be some interaction below 3 feet and that is why the mask is important.”

Two people opposed the district’s mask requirement, including a woman who said she believes masks are “very destructive” to children.

“This is a one size fits all strategy … I’m totally against it,” she said.

Meanwhile, the district heard from teacher Benjamin Royal, who said it isn’t safe to hold face-to-face classes until a vaccine is available for all and is mandatory. He said the pandemic is “far from over,” and the delta variant has brought a “new and more dangerous phase of the pandemic.”

Royal is part of a caucus of the Detroit Federation of Teachers that has opposed in-person learning since last summer. The group is urging the union to take a strike vote.

Two weeks ago, the district and the DFT announced an agreement that would ensure schools would reopen with substantially more teachers in the classroom. As part of that agreement, members of the union will receive up to $2,000 in hazard pay during the school year for teaching in person. They would receive even more if they teach in person and online.

The district will open an independently operated virtual school for students whose parents prefer they continue learning online. Previously, Vitti has said that students who were chronically absent last year or who failed one or more classes would not be able to enroll in the virtual school unless they have a medical condition that requires that mode of learning. The district’s plan now urges those students to learn in person. But if they do enroll in the virtual school, it will be on a probationary basis “and progress will be evaluated during the first semester,” according to information sent to families recently.

“We don’t want to set students up for failure,” Vitti said. “But we do know families are still sensitive to COVID and they may want the virtual option.”

Michigan board members vote 6-2 along party lines to support COVID protocols in schools

2021-08-10T23:32:55+00:00

A Republican effort to dissuade Michigan schools from requiring masks backfired Tuesday when Democrats instead adopted language that supports districts imposing such mandates.

The vote followed indignation, tears, and three hours of public comment – mostly against mask mandates.

The Michigan Board of Education members’ passion for the issue does not match their authority.

“We have no more ability to impose a mask mandate than to prohibit a mask mandate at the state board or the state department,” Superintendent Michael F. Rice said.

Republican Nikki Snyder of Dexter, who opposes mask and vaccine mandates, said non-binding resolutions still matter.

“We consistently discuss issues that we don’t have the authority to write policy or legislation [about] but our statements matter. They make a difference,” she said.

The board voted 6-2 along party lines to replace Republican Tom McMillin’s proposed ban on mask mandates with a statement supporting local districts’ “ability to make scientifically informed decisions including mask mandates.”

On the same party-line vote, the board rejected McMillin’s two other resolutions. One would have discouraged schools from penalizing, segregating, or quarantining unvaccinated students. The other would have urged school districts to stop COVID testing.

Earlier, Snyder cried as she told the board she distrusts the federal government’s ability to regulate vaccines because, she said, a drug she took during pregnancy caused birth defects in her children.

Dozens of parents turned up – mostly virtually – to comment on mask and vaccine mandates. Nearly all opposed them.

Among their arguments: Masks are uncomfortable. They create a false sense of protection from disease. They create an irrational fear of germs. They make it difficult for children speaking English as a second language. They inhibit social interaction. Wearing them should be a personal choice.

One mother from Grand Blanc said masks exacerbate her daughter’s social anxiety.

“She doesn’t know how to deal with people because she can’t see them. She doesn’t know what they’re thinking and feeling,” she told the board over speakerphone.

Board officials were unable to provide full names for commenters who participated remotely.

Another mother, from Rochester Hills, supports mask mandates.

“The negative effects of [the delta variant] on our children far outweigh any inconvenience of wearing a mask, and masks, we know, work better when everyone wears them,” she said. “One parent choosing not to have their child wear a mask means my child is less protected.”

The debate over mask mandates has been raging across the country. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is mandating them. In Florida, Democratic mayors are at odds with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis who threatened to withhold funding from districts that mandate masks. New York City and Denver are requiring masks in schools. And places like Tennessee are implementing a patchwork of policies.

McMillin, of Oakland Township, said almost everyone he’s talked with believes it’s abusive to require children to wear masks all day.

People are “rising up all across the state. They want to be heard. This is child abuse, what’s being done to their children, and this is serious,” he said.

Democrat Pamela Pugh bristled.

“If masks are child abuse then Halloween masks are child abuse. Let’s not get into saying that masks are child abuse,” said Pugh of Saginaw.

Later, Pugh accused Snyder and McMillin of supporting policies that jeopardize lives.

“Our children need to wear masks, not only to protect themselves but to protect others,” she said. “You want to take the protection they have away? You’re killing our children. That’s on you.”

Do you think Michigan students should wear masks this fall? Let us know.

2021-07-23T22:39:02+00:00

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say masks should be required only for unvaccinated students. The American Academy of Pediatrics says all students should wear face coverings.

It’s now up to Michigan school districts to decide which right. And you can help them.

With the fall semester approaching, Michigan school officials are once again developing COVID safety plans as more contagious variants spread among unvaccinated people across the U.S. Public feedback on these measures should help determine what safety measures students and staff are asked to take this fall.

We’re asking Chalkbeat readers to get the discussion started. What safety measures do you think are essential? Which, if any, aren’t workable?

Share your view using the form below.

Having trouble viewing this form on mobile? Go here.

Michigan education programs are training teachers, but hundreds aren’t passing the licensing exam

2021-07-21T22:23:24+00:00

Hundreds of prospective teachers attended training programs in Michigan but failed the licensing exam to become a teacher.

That’s according to a new report that asks whether the programs and the state officials that oversee them are doing enough to ensure that the students make the leap from training to the classroom.

Aspiring Michigan educators must pass a licensure exam in the subject they want to teach before taking over a classroom. Yet the 46 teacher training programs in the state vary broadly in how much they help students pass the educator licensing exam.

All told, 7% of prospective teachers — 332 total — never passed the exam for elementary school teachers between 2015 and 2018, according to previously unreleased data published by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit advocacy group. But failure rates for more than a dozen training programs were higher than 20%. In a handful of programs, most of which are based at colleges and universities, more than 1 in 5 students took the exam three times or more — at $129 each time.

The report comes as many K-12 schools in Michigan struggle to recruit and retain educators. Students in low-income communities are especially likely to learn from inexperienced teachers or long-term substitutes, which has a negative effect on their learning.

Stagnant pay and poor working conditions are mostly to blame for problems in the state’s teacher pipeline, experts say. Indeed, enrollment in the programs has dropped sharply in recent years, a sign of waning interest in the profession.

But advocates insist that the programs have a role to play in supplying K-12 schools with educators — and that includes helping them pass the licensure exam.

“Sounds like a handful of the schools really need to step up their game,” said Sen. Jim Runestad, a Republican member of the Education and Career Readiness Committee. “I’d love to do anything I can do on my end to advocate that these schools either do a better selection process or that they’re spending an adequate amount of time educating to make sure students pass” the exam.

NCTQ says it requested pass rate data in every state and has so far received it from Michigan, 37 other states and the District of Columbia.

Michigan uses a custom-designed certification exam from the testing company Pearson, so its pass rate data is not comparable with data from other states.

The group published pass rates for students’ first attempts at the licensing test as well as for their best attempts between 2015 and 2018.

Universities with the highest first attempt pass rates include the University of Michigan (94%), Michigan State University (87%), Saginaw Valley State University (86%), and Grand Valley State University (83%). The statewide average was 79%.

The programs with the lowest first attempt pass rates included Oakland University (70%), Ferris State University (68%), Wayne State University (61%), and University of Michigan Dearborn (59%).

Christopher Burke, interim chair of the education department at the University of Michigan Dearborn, declined to comment on the NCTQ report.

“In 2019 we were reaccredited by CAEP, you can read our accreditation report here,” he said in a statement. “Based upon MDE standards, we are also currently in the process of reviewing our curriculum to ensure that it continues to be aligned with the MDE’s new teacher professional standards.”

This report is the latest accountability push by the advocacy group, which stirred controversy in 2013 after it published rankings of teacher training programs that some advocates felt were incomplete.

Teacher training programs should be required to routinely post detailed data on how their students fare on licensure exams, said Kate Walsh, NCTQ president.

“You as a prospective teacher have a right to know if this institution is going to get you a teaching license,” she said. “Because that’s what they’ve told the state they’re going to do.”

Annual reports published by the Michigan Department of Education show how many teachers pass each of the more than 60 licensure exams in different subject areas, as well as overall pass rates for students from each teacher preparation program.

But those reports don’t offer the same detail as the NCTQ data, such as how many times it takes students from particular programs to pass the exam and how many students of color are passing the exam.

Still, an MDE spokesperson said the state has held underperforming teacher training programs accountable. Each program receives an annual rating based partly on licensure exam scores which can result in programs being labeled “low-performing.”

Lake Superior State University, University of Michigan Flint and Concordia University stopped training teachers in particular subjects as a result of state oversight between 2014 and 2018, said Bill DiSessa, MDE spokesman.

Other teacher training programs closed entirely as a result of state oversight, he said, including Finlandia University in 2012, Olivet College in 2015, and the University of Detroit Mercy in 2019.

COVID gives virtual learning a stronger foothold in Michigan as most students return to classrooms

2021-07-19T20:09:19+00:00

Most students are expected back in classrooms this fall, but the number of students learning via computer will likely remain well above pre-pandemic levels.

Many Michigan families and educators experienced virtual learning for the first time last school year. That exposure — combined with ongoing COVID concerns — is likely to shape virtual learning in Michigan this fall and for years to come, experts say.

Questions remain about online education, from inequities in access to poor academic results. Students in fully online schools are disproportionately from low-income families, and have historically struggled. Some observers worry, too, that expanding online learning will boost profits for charter school companies.

Nonetheless, Michigan’s virtual learning landscape is changing rapidly.

Some of those changes are tied to the pandemic: Educators are calling for changes to the rules governing emergency remote learning in the event of a COVID outbreak.

Other changes could be with Michigan for much longer.

The pandemic gave educators a crash course in virtual learning tools that are valuable even when students are learning mostly in person, said Sarayhu Bethamcherla, 17, a senior at Troy High School and president of the Michigan Association of Student Councils, who is returning to in-person learning for her senior year.

“I think virtual learning is sustainable. So many formats they used can carry over this next year, and it will be even more beneficial to us,” she said.

Beyond traditional classrooms, full-time online instruction is expanding. At least 18 new full-time virtual schools have opened since the start of the pandemic, aiming to serve COVID-wary parents and the small number of families who discovered that they prefer online classes.

“This coming fall will be the first opportunity since the pandemic began where we can really see what virtual learning might look like post-pandemic,” said Michael Barbour, a professor at Touro University California who studies virtual instruction

During the pandemic, many districts switched several times between in-person and virtual instruction. The difference between the two was often minimal: Teachers did the same things on a video conference that they would have done in a classroom.

This fall, some districts are taking a different approach, opening virtual schools with staff and instructional methods focused exclusively on online learning.

“They’re actually planning online learning, whereas over the last year and a half we were just putting Band-Aids on things,” Barbour said.

Like last year, it appears COVID outbreaks may force some students to spend at least some time learning online.

With both methods of instruction — full-time virtual and emergency remote — set to play a role in students’ lives this year, here are some of the key issues facing virtual learning.

Full-time online schools

Although there’s little data backing the academic outcomes of full-time virtual schools, their numbers are growing — a major expansion of the state’s online learning systems.

“What we learned from the pandemic was that there were a significant number of students who really benefited from the virtual experience,” said RJ Webber, assistant superintendent for academic services at Novi Community School District, which is opening a full-time virtual school this fall. He said students benefit from virtual learning if, for example, they feel extremely anxious at school or have another medical issue that makes it difficult to participate in classes. Online learning also makes sense for students who need a more flexible schedule.

Before the pandemic, about 1.7% of Michigan students, or 25,800 total, were learning exclusively online, more than any state besides Pennsylvania, according to Evergreen Education Group, a consulting group focused on virtual learning.

The total grew during the last school year. Enrollment at full-time virtual schools swelled by nearly 10,000 even as total enrollment declined statewide.

Many of those students ended up in online charter schools, which operate some of the state’s largest K-12 virtual schools. Some of the largest enrollment increases during the pandemic went to online charters.

Now, many large traditional districts want to compete with online charters and with the dozens of traditional districts that have already opened virtual schools. The new virtual schools that opened during the pandemic, most run by traditional districts, represent a roughly 20% increase in the total number of all schools, a bigger jump than any annual uptick since the first Michigan schools began offering exclusively online classes more than a decade ago.

“We saw that there were a small but significant number of students who were opting for virtual high school after finishing eighth grade in our schools,” said David Mustonen, a spokesman for Dearborn Public Schools, a large district in suburban Detroit that is opening a fully virtual school this fall. “We began to look at ways to say, ‘Well, how can we compete with that?’”

Dearborn expects 485 of its roughly 20,000 students to sign up for its new virtual program this fall. Novi anticipates 375. National Heritage Academies, a for-profit charter operator that is opening a new online school, hopes to enroll 850 students in grades K-12.

Detroit is getting into the game too, after the city school board unanimously approved a new full-time virtual school earlier this week.

“We believe the virtual school is here to stay,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. “It’s something to build out for the future for students who thrive in the virtual space.”

Barbour said he’s glad more school districts are opting to compete with for-profit virtual schools. Virtual programs receive the same amount of funding as brick and mortar schools but are cheaper to run, and Barbour worries that private companies won’t reinvest the savings in students.

The size of those savings remains to be seen. The true number of families who will opt for virtual education post-pandemic won’t be known until the threat of COVID dwindles, said John Watson, founder of the Evergreen Education Group.

Programs “were running surveys when pandemic was more front of mind” for parents, he said. “There will still be an increase in full-time virtual enrollments but maybe a smaller number than you’d think.”

Also unclear: How will the new virtual schools perform academically?

Such schools have a poor track record in Michigan. Students who take classes from these programs fail roughly half of their classes, a fail rate far above the state average, experts say. Studies of online charter schools find generally poor academic results.

But those arguments don’t take into account recent improvements to virtual learning as well as the quality of different programs, said Melissa VanKlompenburg, principal of the PrepNet Virtual Academy. The academy is a new K-12 virtual school that will be run by National Heritage Academies, a for-profit charter school operator that already runs dozens of schools in Michigan.

She said her school plans to hire 30 teachers and 30 paraprofessionals to serve 850 students, giving them roughly one adult per 14 students. She said lots of contact with students is key to ensuring that they complete their virtual coursework.

“Students and teachers can learn how to communicate, how to build relationships, how to create a culture that stands up strong education in the virtual world,” she said.

After a year of frequent interruptions caused by COVID outbreaks, school officials say full-time virtual schools are drawing some families with the promise of stability.

“The virtual school allows parents who are worried about the possible switches to choose a consistent learning model for the year,” said Catherine Woolman, assistant superintendent of instruction for the Port Huron Area School District, which is opening a virtual school this fall.

Emergency remote learning

Most students last year experienced some form of emergency remote learning. Many will likely do so again this year as school officials work to limit outbreaks linked to a new, more infectious COVID variant.

Yet districts still don’t know how much flexibility they’ll have to shift to virtual learning in the event of outbreaks. The state Legislature allowed for such shifts last year, but rules for this year aren’t in place yet, making it hard for administrators to plan.

Martin Ackley, an Michigan Department of Education spokesperson, said the department will issue guidance soon to allow districts to shift to virtual instruction if they are facing outbreaks this year.

Another issue facing emergency remote learning: Attendance rules, which some educators say were overly burdensome last year. To mark a student present, teachers had to document two one-on-one, academic-focused interactions per week to count a student as present.

Sarah Giddings, a high school social studies and English teacher in the Washtenaw Intermediate District, said that while individual interactions matter, the state’s narrow definition of the interactions can make conversations feel disingenuous.

“Talking to a kid about where they’re going to sleep tonight and how they’re doing after they just lost a family member to COVID doesn’t count as an interaction, so after that I have to be, ‘So, how about that U.S. history assignment?’ and I feel horrible,” Giddings said.

Superintendent Vitti expects a ‘vast majority’ of teachers to return to Detroit school buildings this fall

2021-07-14T02:10:58+00:00

The upcoming school year in the Detroit district could see a dramatic shift in the number of teachers working inside school buildings.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a meeting Tuesday that a “vast, vast majority of teachers are ready to come back in the fall.”

Vitti said that so far, just 118 of the district’s 3,000 teachers have said they want to teach virtually, in a new standalone virtual school the district will launch for the 2021-22 school year. School board members approved the virtual school during Tuesday’s meeting.

The expectation of more teachers returning to buildings comes as the Detroit Public Schools Community District looks toward reopening on Sept. 7 with significantly fewer students learning online. Vitti has said that students who were chronically absent, or who failed a course during the 2020-21 school year, would be prohibited from enrolling in the virtual school, unless they have a medical need to learn online.

How many teachers end up in the virtual school will largely be determined by how many students enroll. Vitti said about 60 students have indicated they want the virtual option, but he said that number will grow as the district promotes the option.

“Once we get closer to mid-August, our numbers will be more refined,” Vitti said. “We’ll know how many teachers we’ll actually need.”

One school board member said Tuesday that getting more teachers to return to in-person learning is crucial to increasing enrollment. The district saw its enrollment decline by nearly 3,000 students during the last school year. The previous year, the district enrolled nearly 50,000 students.

“If teachers are happy and they’re back I believe more students can be recruited,” said Corletta Vaughn.

The last school year began with more than 70% of the district’s students learning online, largely because parents were concerned about the safety of returning to school buildings in the midst of a pandemic that hit the city particularly hard. But with vaccines readily available for adults and children 12 and older, those numbers could shift. Vitti reported Tuesday that more than 70% of the district’s staff, including teachers, is vaccinated. Among teachers, 75% are vaccinated.

Vitti said the district is currently negotiating with the Detroit Federation of Teachers over a letter of understanding that will guide some reopening decisions. In 2020, the district and union agreed to let teachers choose between teaching in person or online.

The last school year also was marked by a number of academic and mental health challenges. During the Tuesday meeting, Vitti shared test results that showed fewer students made one year’s worth of academic improvement during the pandemic school year. In districts like Detroit, where many of the students struggle academically and perform below grade level, a key measure of success is how many have made a year’s worth of academic progress.

“Before the pandemic, every [academic] data point was moving in the right direction,” said Vitti, who was hired in 2017 to turn around the district. “We know how to do this work, we have the right structures.”

What the district needs, he said, is to get students back in school. Vitti said the district will continue to “expand and scale” what officials say works, including conducting home visits, lowering class sizes, especially at the lower elementary levels, hiring more academic interventionists, and expanding transportation so students can get to school more easily.

“The fall is a renewed focus on outcomes,” he said. “There should be no excuses as to why our students are not showing at least one grade level of improvement … if they’re not chronically absent. When I look at this data, I don’t see the potential of our students. I see the impact of the pandemic.”

But there are still some teachers who are staunchly against in-person teaching until all students and staff can be vaccinated.

“The school district needs to campaign and insist, mandate, that everybody be vaccinated until there can be any hope of safe face-to-face schooling,” said Steve Conn, a math teacher at Western International High School. “Vaccinations are critical to keeping people safe and alive.”

The board unanimously approved creating the virtual school, which would operate independently with its own principal and teaching staff. In addition to the enrollment restrictions, some special programming won’t be available at the school. That includes Montessori, bilingual, and career and technical education programs.

Students who sign up for the virtual school for the fall must remain there for the first semester. They can switch to in-person learning in January.

Vitti said the virtual school isn’t just a pandemic option for students.

“We believe the virtual school is here to stay. It’s something to build out for the future for students who thrive in the virtual space.”

How the chaos of Covid outbreaks is shaping Michigan schools’ comeback

2021-07-08T21:35:13+00:00

In late March, as COVID ripped through Michigan at nation-leading rates, L’Anse Creuse Middle School Central reported an outbreak. Eleven cases were reported in a week, seemingly touching a tiny fraction of the school’s 611 students.

But administrators knew better. Each of those cases would require hours of phone calls and contact tracing, which meant staff would be pulled away from normal school duties. Every case meant lost instructional time, not only for ill students but for friends and teammates who were at risk of catching the virus and spreading it further.

Outbreaks were a key source of disruption to the pandemic-scrambled school year, educators say. About half of the state’s 800 districts reported 1,434 outbreaks, the public health term for two or more linked cases that can’t be traced outside school grounds. The remaining districts, many of which held few or no in-person classes, didn’t report any outbreaks. All told, schools reported roughly 12,000 cases statewide, though that is likely an undercount.

As Michigan schools gear up to help students recover academically and emotionally, educators say it’s critically important to improve the state’s handling of outbreaks in schools.

While COVID cases have dropped sharply this summer, there’s still no approved vaccine for students under age 12, and in some communities, notably Detroit, less than 40% of eligible residents have received their first dose. Unable to require vaccinations, school leaders warn that vaccines will be key to keeping schools running smoothly through the fall as more contagious COVID variants spread. State health officials are urging schools to require masks for everyone.

Managing COVID cases among students and staff “consumed the days during the difficult periods” in late fall and early spring, said Erik Edoff, superintendent of L’Anse Creuse Public Schools located in Macomb County north of Detroit. “Principals and administrators stayed very late in the evening to make sure they started the next day with an accurate accounting of who was permitted to be at school.”

“Our issue wasn’t with outbreaks so much; it was with having kids quarantine based on positive cases,” he added.

Schools aren’t major drivers of new COVID infections, research shows, thanks to their widespread use of COVID mitigation techniques like masking and distancing. But when the virus spreads in surrounding communities, it is all but inevitable that students will come to school sick, setting off a disruptive cycle of contact tracing. That risk will be even higher this fall, when more people are expected to report to school buildings than at any point since before the pandemic. For most of last year, fewer than half of students were attending class in person five days a week.

COVID cases in schools put educators in a lose-lose situation. Students who couldn’t attend school in person would need extra academic and emotional support, but the challenge of managing outbreaks meant that school leaders had less support to offer.

“There’s so many things that principals just had to let go or ask teachers to do that they would not have normally asked them to do,” said Wendy Zdeb, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals. “That definitely affects the teachers and student experience, there’s no doubt about it.”

Zdeb argued that principals bore too much of the burden of managing public health challenges in schools.

“It blew my mind that it was totally okay for [the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services] to be able to say, ‘We don’t have the staff to make all these calls.’ Well, neither do the schools.”

In a statement, an MDHHS spokesman disputed the notion that schools bore the most responsibility for tracing COVID cases.

“We appreciate the hard work that school principals have done to protect their students, staffs and communities from COVID-19,” Bob Wheaton said. “The schools do some notification of cases and contacts, however, the burden of case investigation and contact tracing is on the local health department and not the school. The vast majority of local health departments use a centralized staffing pool to contact the contacts of people infected with COVID-19.”

There were only two school-related outbreaks last year in Coloma, a rural district in west Michigan. Both were linked to high school sports teams, which meant quarantining all the players on the team.

Keeping track of individual cases and quarantining potentially infected students was much more challenging, said Coloma Superintendent Dave Ehlers. Every time parents or health authorities reported a case, administrators pored over seating charts to see which students may have come within six feet of a sick classmate for at least 15 minutes. Then they worked the phones, making 25 calls or more to doublecheck their conclusions with teachers and speak with every parent in the affected classes.

Quarantines would cost students as much as two weeks of in-person instruction.

“Some students were quarantined four times,” Ehlers said. “You’re looking at 40 days-plus of school missed by kids for being in the wrong seat at the wrong time.”

Coloma administrators recognized early on that their work with contact tracing could cut into their educational duties.

“We said our number one job is to stay open, and if that means other things get pushed to the wayside to do that, that’s what we’ll do,” Ehlers said.

In districts that saw relatively few COVID cases, even the threat of outbreaks cost valuable staff time, said Heyam Alcodray, principal at Fordson High School in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb.

“It wasn’t so much the actual contract tracing, it was the steps we had to take in order to make contract tracing easier,” she said in an email. “For example, signing in and out of buildings, seating charts at lunch and on buses, keeping kids in cohorts, limiting the size of learning labs, etc.”

The uncertainty created by outbreaks is one reason student learning has suffered during the pandemic, Edoff said. His district has already begun to use its share of federal coronavirus relief funding to hire additional staff to provide extra reading instruction, social-emotional support, and expand summer school.

One goal for the coming year, he said, is to pay especially close attention to students who missed out on the most school due to quarantines.

“Academically what it’s going to inform is that we’re going to pay closer attention to students because there’s more variability in their learning than there was in the past,” he said.

What will it take to recover from the pandemic? In the Detroit district, home visits are a key part of the strategy

2021-06-28T22:59:15+00:00

It was a warm spring morning when the Detroit school district vehicle, followed by a colorful van emblazoned with the words “Parent Academy,” pulled up outside Antione Gabriel’s home.

Before the two women from the car could reach the front door, Gabriel had come outside to greet them with a jovial smile. He had an inkling about why they were there.

“We’re looking for a student, a kindergartener,” one of the women, Sharene Nathan, said. “He hasn’t been coming to school. Is everything OK?”

Nathan and Claudia Enriquez were on a mission that late May day, knocking on doors on the west side of the city and trying to track down students who’d been frequently missing class and assignments in the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

These home visits became the centerpiece of an all-out outreach effort during a grueling school year marked by increased failure rates, low attendance, high chronic absenteeism, and major concerns about waning student engagement. The district has an additional motivation: A big decline in enrollment could eventually mean less money for a district that has worked to remain financially solvent.

As the school year drew to a close last week, district officials also were looking ahead, planning to use $11 million in federal stimulus funds to continue the canvassing efforts.

They believe the work has already paid off. While the visits have primarily been aimed at finding students who haven’t enrolled or have barely been attending class, they also have helped the district survey parents about their preference for remote or in-person learning and resolve technology glitches. And just as importantly, the visits have provided a rare, direct glimpse into the challenges families have faced with pandemic learning.

Officials in the Detroit Public Schools Community District are planning to use $11 million in federal stimulus funding to continue their neighborhood canvassing efforts.

“In some cases, you see the living conditions that families are in, and you understand why sometimes societal challenges, socioeconomic challenges get in the way of prioritizing education, especially in a pandemic,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said.

“I would anticipate this being a regular part of our strategy over the next year or so,” said Sharlonda Buckman, assistant superintendent of family and community engagement. “We don’t even know what it’s going to take to recover from (the pandemic) yet, but we do know that there’s evidence that this strategy works.”

At Gabriel’s home — the 11th stop of the day for the canvassing duo — Nathan and Enriquez learned why the kindergartener wasn’t attending class. Gabriel’s son Amontee had been attending the district’s Emerson Elementary, but now lives with his mother and is enrolled in a school outside the district. He asked for a contact number he can call if his son returns to his home.

“That’s a good one,” Nathan said afterwards, describing the visit. “He wants information and that’s what we want to hear. We’ll have to make sure to check up on him.”

She and Enriquez, both involved district parents, fill different roles during the visits. Nathan does all the talking and Enriquez carries a tablet to take notes, flagging issues that need follow up from the district.

Gabriel said he’s happy to see the district making the visits.

“This is the best thing that can be happening,” he said.

Canvassers Sharene Nathan and Claudia Enriquez are district parents that receive a stipend to conduct outreach on behalf of the Detroit school district. Nathan talks to the parents as Enriquez takes notes.

Building on parent connections

Schools across the country have made home visits a vital part of their pandemic response plans. But they aren’t new for the Detroit district or many of the charter schools that educate Detroit children.

Attendance agents in the district have for years visited homes to try to track down chronically absent students. Prior to the pandemic, teachers at 60 schools were making visits to their students’ homes.

Such visits have gone a long way toward building bridges between schools and the community, Buckman said.

“When parents and teachers are aligned, kids do better academically,” Buckman said. “This is where we do our best work.”

What’s crucial now is for schools to build on the connections made during the home visits, said Punita Thurman, vice president of program and strategy at the Skillman Foundation (a Chalkbeat funder), which has been part of efforts to help connect schools with neighborhood organizations to conduct outreach to families.

“There has to be a recognition that that partnership has to be cultivated, the trust has to be built,” Thurman said.

Technology problems have been the biggest barrier for students remaining engaged in school. That’s one of the reasons the canvassers have been trained to do some basic troubleshooting.

More than a year ago, when the pandemic caused an abrupt disruption of school across the U.S., Buckman said it was clear students and families learning online needed help. That summer, staff began conducting home visits to talk to families about their learning options for the next year.

In the fall, as concerns grew about students who hadn’t yet shown up for class, even more people hit the streets for home visits, including parents who are paid a small stipend. The effort has continued to grow throughout the school year, even on cold winter days.

“This is what it looks like to serve children and our families in the midst of a pandemic,” Buckman said.

During the course of these visits, technology problems have been the biggest barrier for students remaining engaged in school. That’s one of the reasons the canvassers have been trained to do some basic troubleshooting.

Other challenges, though, come with few quick fixes.

“We’ve had students who’ve lost parents, and the bottom just falls out,” Buckman said. “We had one parent a while back who committed suicide and left the grandmother with four or five kids. They haven’t been in school in months because mom not only lost her daughter, but she’s completely as a grandmother just overwhelmed.”

Tracking down kindergarten students

The sound of the knock echoed down the row of light gray buildings in Smith Homes, a public housing community on Detroit’s west side. First one knock, then two, then three. Then a friendly voice called out: “Detroit Public Schools wellness check.”

Nathan and Enriquez stepped away from the door and waited until the knock was answered by a 10th grader at Osborn High School. Nathan began her speech.

“I noticed that you did miss a few days in the last third quarter,” she told the teen. “Is there anything that we can do to try to help you make sure you’re moving forward and getting into that 11th grade?”

Each answered knock brings new stories to Nathan and Enriquez, who report their findings back to the Detroit Public Schools Community District or attempt to help the families with their issues.

The student, Jalen Perry, looked confused, then held up his phone to the two strangers.

“I’m on now,” he said, indicating he was in class at that moment.

Jalen later explained to Chalkbeat that he prefers using his phone to take his online classes, but Nathan advised him to make sure his teacher knows he’s logged in because too often smart phones don’t register attendance.

For every knock that’s answered, the canvassers hear a multitude of stories. Sometimes, the family they’re looking for has moved away. That was the case when they knocked on Michelle Walk’s door, one of a handful of addresses in the Smith Homes on their list. But it was still a fruitful visit. Walk had recently moved there with her two school-age children who are currently attending a charter school. She told Nathan and Enriquez that she’s planning to switch them to the neighborhood district school for the next school year.

That pleased Nathan, who promised to send Walk’s information to the enrollment department and gave her information about summer school. She also urged her to join the school PTA.

“Oh, I used to do that at my kid’s school,” Walk said.

“Well, we’re about to be best friends,” said Nathan. “We definitely need your voice.”

Earlier in the day, the duo caught Tanesha Spencer as she was packing up her car for a family trip to the beach. While many of the addresses on their list were for students who were missing school, the trip to Spencer’s house was for a different reason: She has a child entering kindergarten this year.

Nathan gave Spencer information on getting enrolled for kindergarten, in addition to information about a summer kindergarten boot camp, summer school, and vaccinations for older children.

A drop in kindergarten enrollment was one of the largest factors driving nationwide K-12 enrollment declines.

Targeting parents like Spencer is important given kindergarten enrollment was down across Michigan — and the nation — this school year. The drop in the kindergarten rolls was one of the biggest drivers of nationwide K-12 enrollment an analysis by Chalkbeat and The Associated Press found.

“We lost about 1,000 students that would have normally been enrolled that didn’t enroll this last year in DPSCD,” said Vitti, the superintendent. “So the kindergarten boot camp will focus on rising kindergarteners and kindergarteners who should have been in kindergarten. That will be a focal point to try to have more of those students attend summer school.”

Spencer said that when she saw the district vehicle and van stop in front of her house, she thought they were there to hand out free books for her kids. She still appreciated the kindergarten enrollment information.

“It’s very helpful with ya’ll coming to the door. Definitely.”

Learning from home without a place to study? These Detroit students built 62 solutions.

2021-06-02T21:53:18+00:00

Leon Bray spent his pandemic Saturdays with a hammer and table saw, piecing together a better learning environment for elementary schoolers in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood.

“We’re building desks for kids who don’t have a place at home to study,” Bray said, explaining the project he’s been working on for months. “And I like learning new stuff.”

Students in Detroit have spent much of the year learning virtually from home. As if that arrangement weren’t challenging enough, many of those children lacked a space of their own to focus on video classes and complete homework. That’s one reason educators say the academic toll of the pandemic has been especially harsh for students from low-income families.

“We started hearing people say, ‘Yeah, they gave us computers [for virtual learning], but we don’t have anywhere to put them. “I can’t be at the dining room table all day and night,” said Larry Simmons, executive director of the Brightmoor Alliance, a community organization that operates in the neighborhood where the desks are being built and distributed.

The struggle continued for many students in recent weeks, even as falling COVID-19 cases and widespread vaccine availability allowed most districts to offer in-person instruction. Some families remain reluctant to send their children to school, and some schools haven’t yet reopened.

With classrooms shuttered across Detroit earlier this school year, leaders at Detroit Leadership Academy, a Brightmoor-area charter school, told neighborhood leaders that many students didn’t have a space where they could focus.

“COVID exposed the truth that for a lot of families, their personal resources just weren’t conducive for children’s learning,” Simmons said.

Community leaders turned to Brightmoor Makerspace, a workshop on the campus of a neighborhood charter school, for help. The Makerspace provides tools and workspace to students and challenges them to use their skills to address local needs. Students like Bray, who have developed their abilities over years in the shop, earn an hourly wage while building skills.

“Like a puzzle, you’re just putting the pieces together,” Bray said of the building process. “It’s like [a] second school; you’re just learning new skills.”

So far, 62 parents of elementary schoolers at Detroit Leadership Academy, or DLA, signed up to receive a desk. Most of those desks have already been manufactured and delivered by a team of students at the Makerspace.

Those involved with the project hope production continues beyond the current demand. Simmons said he is seeking funding to continue to build desks for local students.

“Not only does it directly address family needs, but it addresses basic economic needs of families and their young people,” said Bart Eddy, director of the Brightmoor Makerspace. Eddy said he is looking into continuing production and paying the student workers by selling the desks for a modest price to neighborhood residents.

For his part, Bray plans to build a desk of his own once the DLA orders are completed. He will soon graduate from Detroit Community Schools without attending any in-person classes during his senior year — and without having a personal space to study at home. He’ll need one next year, he said, as he is considering attending a trade school.

“I’m really one of the kids who need a workspace at home,” he said. He plans to build “the same desk, but probably a little bit taller.”

Detroit’s religious, school, and union leaders say it’s time to get back to in-person learning

2021-05-27T17:22:16+00:00

Detroit religious leaders came together with school and union leaders Thursday to call for a safe return to in-person learning and to encourage residents — especially students and staff — to get vaccinated.

“Take the shot,” said Rev. Steve Bland, president of the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit & Vicinity, as he led a group on a stage at Liberty Temple Baptist Church in a chant.

The leaders said they were coming together because they can see how crucial it is for students to be in school, echoing concerns officials from the Detroit Public Schools Community District have shared all school year about increasing failure rates, higher chronic absenteeism, and low engagement.

“It’s time to get back into the classroom,” said Bishop Charles Ellis of Greater Grace Temple, who said education is a ticket to success for students who are raised in high-poverty communities like Detroit.

“We can’t just have clean buildings. We need the workforce,” Ellis said.

The calls for in-person learning and vaccination comes weeks after COVID vaccine eligibility expanded to include anyone 12 and older, and as schools across the U.S. step up efforts to encourage young people to get vaccinated. In the Detroit Public Schools Community District, a group of students sponsored sessions to educate their peers about the vaccine, and the city is holding clinics for parents to bring their children to get the shots.

The success of these efforts will influence how widely schools will reopen for the 2021-22 school year, which begins Sept. 7 in the Detroit district. Earlier this week, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti shared his thoughts on how schools can reopen for the fall.

Those tentative plans, details of which need union buy-in, include opening a separate online school that would be limited largely to students who did not experience chronic absenteeism or academic failure during the current school year. There would be some flexibility for others, though, to learn online.

But the goal is for the district to get more students learning in-person, and Vitti said it would be mandatory for certain groups. Those groups include students who receive special education services, students who are learning English, students in bilingual programs, and students who are in Montessori programs. Staff in those programs would also be required to work in person.

Students and staff can get exemptions for medical reasons that would allow them to learn online with a virtual teacher. In addition, Vitti said there is a separate option for Montessori and bilingual students that would allow them to learn online, following along with an in-person Montessori teacher. But he said those teachers would be focused on the students learning face-to-face, and not the online students.

At Thursday’s event, Vitti said about 7,000 of the district’s 48,000 students have been attending the district’s learning centers, where they can go to complete their online learning under staff supervision. About 1,000 of those students are receiving face-to-face instruction, Vitti said. About 19,000 families have indicated that they want in-person learning, but the district currently can’t provide it because there aren’t enough teachers willing to teach.

The number of teachers willing to teach is growing, though. It was about 500 earlier this year but is up to 600.

Terrence Martin, the president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said Thursday that the union wants educators and the school community to be safe and protected against COVID-19, and that means getting vaccinated.

“It’s extremely important for us to get vaccinated,” Martin said. “It is time to get back to in person learning. Our students need it. Our community needs it. And our teachers are ready.”

Child care, federal funding, and accountability: Here are the education issues facing Whitmer and GOP leaders.

2021-05-26T21:25:52+00:00

Michigan’s education system is approaching a turning point as COVID-19 case numbers drop and more students return to school. Billions in federal relief funds are on the way, and state leaders are turning their focus to helping students address the academic and emotional toll of an exceptionally difficult year.

Key questions for schools remain unanswered, however, amid political battles in Lansing. Most of the federal aid for K-12 schools and the state’s early childhood education system hasn’t been allocated. Educators are calling for teacher evaluations to be canceled this year, and some parents are insisting on a virtual-only learning option for the fall, but both of those changes would require a change in state law. And debate has broken out about whether Michigan’s “read or flunk” law for third graders should go into effect this year or next year, if at all.

Answers could be forthcoming, especially after an agreement between leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, set the stage for budget negotiations in the coming weeks. The shift came as Whitmer announced plans to lift public health orders related to the pandemic, which Republicans have sought to eliminate.

A timeline negotiations for hasn’t been made public.

Here are some of the key education that the two sides will need to discuss:

Federal aid for K-12 schools

Congress set aside $6 billion to help Michigan schools reopen and help students recover after the pandemic — the largest single education investment in the state’s history.

Local school boards and superintendents will decide how the vast majority of the money will be spent. However, most of the funds haven’t reached the K-12 system yet because Republican leaders refused to allocate the money unless Whitmer gave the Legislature more say in public health orders.

Districts will decide how to spend 90% of the federal funds, which must be distributed based on a formula chosen by Congress that sends more money per pupil to districts that serve large numbers of children from low-income families.

Stil, the remaining 10% amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars, which state leaders control. Republican leaders, who believe too many schools have shuttered their classrooms, want to send the money to districts that have offered at least 25 hours a week of face-to-face instruction in recent months. It’s not clear if Whitmer would accept that proposal.

The state previously sent additional federal funds to districts that offered at least 20 weekly hours of in-person instruction, prompting many districts to change their schedules in a hurry.

The new goal of 25 hours frustrated some school leaders, said Peter Spadafore, deputy executive director for external relations at the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators.

“My membership is frustrated by the continual movement of goal posts and expectations from the state,” he said.

The latest and largest federal aid package, which accounts for most of the unallocated money, specifies that states should pass the money to districts within 60 days of receiving it.

Some education leaders, including Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, have threatened to sue if they don’t receive the money by early June, as expected.

But Spadafore said the requirement isn’t legally binding — states only have to observe it “to the extent practicable” — and the state has more time.

In-person instruction

Spadafore said he hoped lawmakers use the upcoming budget bills to clarify whether schools will be able to offer virtual instruction this fall to parents that want it.

Michigan funds schools based on how many students are occupying seats in classrooms. Last summer, amid uncertainty about the safety of in-person instruction, Michigan lawmakers tweaked the rules to give districts credit for virtual instruction.

They’d need to do so again if schools are to offer virtual classes in the fall.

Education leaders expect most students to be learning in person this fall as more people receive COVID-19 vaccinations. Some major U.S. school systems, including in New York City, say they won’t offer any virtual instruction. Michigan’s largest district, the Detroit Public Schools Community District, indicated this week that it will sharply limit online classes.

Still, some families say they aren’t ready to send their students to in-person classes, perhaps due to unusual health concerns or vaccine hesitancy.

“I do think every effort needs to be made this summer to talk with families about the importance of their children coming back live and in person, going over with them all of the protocols that will be followed so they will be comfortable sending their children back,” said David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers Michigan.

“There are parents that are still not going to feel safe to send their children back to school,” he added. “Districts have to figure out an option for that, because we have to educate those kids also.”

Teacher evaluations, A to F grades for schools, and third-grade retention

The Biden administration required states to administer standardized tests as usual this year. However, they said states could skip accountability measures based on those tests.

That includes teacher evaluations, which are based partly on test scores, and the A to F grades that Michigan assigns to schools based largely on how their students perform on standardized tests.

Pausing those policies this year would require action from the state Legislature.

Casandra Ulbrich, Democratic president of the Michigan Board of Education, said the state test “has not been provided to every child in the state and will have some serious flaws” due to the pandemic. She said the state’s accountability rules should be paused this year.

Teachers say they can’t be fairly evaluated during the pandemic. In many cases they spent almost no time working with students in person. Teachers have also argued that many students were not engaged and too many weren’t showing up every day, if they showed up at all.

“We don’t think there should be any evaluations this year,” Hecker said, adding that most evaluations have already been completed at this point.

Hecker said that any legislative action on the issue appears unlikely, but many teachers aren’t prepared to give up.

A group of DPSCD teachers spoke out against the evaluation process at the district’s May 18 board meeting, arguing that teachers “should be afforded the same grace shown to students” who were allowed to skip state tests.

Legislators are, however, taking a closer look at Michigan’s third-grade reading law. Beginning this year, the state is supposed to hold back third graders who score below 1252 on the English portion of the state exam, or “not proficient.” An “advanced” English score for third-graders is between 1317 and 1357. Letters are going out to families of nearly 2,700 of these students beginning today.

A GOP-backed bill would eliminate the retention requirement this year, but institute a similar requirement next year for fourth graders as well as third graders.

Early childhood transformation

Ongoing disputes between Whitmer and Republican leaders have waylaid $1.4 billion in federal funds for Michigan’s child care system.

“We’re starting to see this money flow out in other states and having a significant impact on child care,” said Matt Gillard, president of Michigan’s Children, an advocacy group.

Gillard and other advocates say the funding could be transformational for a system marred by high costs, a lack of access for low-income families, and a profoundly unstable educator workforce.

Various early childhood groups have published detailed wish lists for the funds.

But it is far from clear how the money will be used. Competing proposals from the GOP-led House and Senate take very different approaches. The House would send almost all of the $1.4 billion to child care providers in the form of reimbursement increases and grants, while the Senate would require that half of the total funds — more than $716 million — be pushed through to parents through reduced child care tuitions.

Gillard said the House’s approach is better for the child care industry because it would allow the state to provide more support directly to providers. Providers often struggle to pay staff and offer high-quality care, especially in low-income communities, because the subsidy payments they receive from the state are so low.

“This wouldn’t happen in any other industry. If they’re talking about grants to restaurants, they’re not saying, you have to reduce your menu prices,” Gillard said of the Senate proposal. “Why are they singling child care out like this?”

As COVID rates drop, Superintendent Vitti shares plan for returning more Detroit students to in-person learning

2021-05-26T02:06:09+00:00

The Detroit school district would open a separate online school next year for some students who want to continue learning remotely, and it would require its most vulnerable students, as well as students in Montessori programs, to learn in person.

Among those who would be required to learn in person — unless they receive a medical exemption — would be students who receive special education services, chronically absent students, and those still learning English.

Those were some of the ideas for reopening for the fall that Superintendent Nikolai Vitti shared with parents during a virtual engagement session Tuesday. Vitti said nothing is definite for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, but that the ideas represent the current thinking of district leaders.

Two things could get in the way, though. Some of the details would require buy-in from district unions. And the Michigan legislature must act to ensure that students will be able to continue learning online. Vitti is sharing the ideas with parents, staff, and others in the community to get input. A district survey will go out in June, asking parents what mode of instruction they prefer.

The discussions come as COVID-19 cases continue to decline across Michigan after surges earlier this year forced the Detroit district to suspend in-person learning for the second time this school year.

Like school district leaders across the U.S., Detroit’s top education officials are in the midst of conversations about returning to buildings after a school year marked by COVID-19 anxiety, higher failure rates, more chronic absenteeism, and a reluctance among many school staff and parents to return to buildings. New York school officials left parents with mixed emotions Monday when they announced the district would not offer any remote learning for students in the fall. In Tennessee, schools have been barred from offering hybrid learning, in which students learn both online and in person, next school year.

One person who attended Tuesday’s meeting in the Detroit district asked whether the district should wait until a vaccine is available for all students before trying to get more students learning face to face.

“We all know that our students need in-person learning and we have to function with a sense of urgency about that need,” Vitti said in response. “That doesn’t mean that’s the right approach for every single child but I can say with a degree of confidence that the majority of our DPSCD students need in-person learning yesterday.”

Here are some of the details of the district’s current thinking on who would be required to learn in person:

Students who receive special education services. So would their teachers.
Students who are English language learners, as well as their teachers.
Students who were chronically absent this school year — meaning they have missed 18 or more days.
Athletes who failed at least one course.
Students enrolled in Montessori programs, and their teachers.
In all cases where the district would require students or staff to be in person, exemptions would be granted for medical reasons.

In addition, students and staff inside school buildings would be required to continue wearing masks indoors. In situations where everyone in a room is fully vaccinated, a mask would not be required. The district would maintain current safety protocols such as social distancing, symptom checks, and the use of hand sanitizer. But fully vaccinated students wouldn’t have to follow some of those rules, such as the symptom checks.

Those attending Tuesday’s meeting were able to submit questions that were read to Vitti by Sharlonda Buckman, the district’s assistant superintendent of family and community engagement. While Vitti’s presentation covered a wide range of topics, most of the questions were about his reopening plans.

Vitti, addressing a question about whether the district could also allow Montessori students to learn online, said it’s impossible “to staff full-time Montessori and full-time virtual Montessori.” Montessori programs are distinct in the way they focus on giving children the space to learn and explore at their own pace.

“It’s not a funding issue. We have COVID money. We can’t recruit teachers in enough time to train them and orient them to run two schools.”

He suggested that some Montessori students could learn online, following along with lessons taking place in a school building. It’s a flexibility he said could be available to other students. But he stressed that the teacher in the classroom would be focused on the students in the class, and not the online learners.

Vitti, in making an argument for why more students need in-person learning, cited data he has shared with school board members monthly. The data show the overall percentage of students who failed at least one course was 56%, up from 36% during the 2019-20 school year. That’s despite flexibility in grading Vitti announced earlier this year.

Broken down by quarter, and by mode of learning, the differences are stark. In the first quarter of this school year, 32% of face-to-face students failed at least one course, compared with 60% of virtual students. What’s even more interesting is what happened during the second quarter, when in-person learning was shut down in November because of increasing COVID-19 case rates. The failure rate for the second quarter rose to 46% for in-person students, and 57% for virtual students.

Last summer, the district negotiated a letter of agreement with the Detroit Federation of Teachers that gave teachers the option of teaching in person or online. Most chose online. But with a vaccine now readily available, more teachers are likely to consider returning to school buildings. Vitti said last week that about 56% of the teachers have told the district they are fully vaccinated.

Terrence Martin, president of the union, said some of the details Vitti has shared will need to be discussed at the bargaining table. The district and the union are in the middle of bargaining and Martin said he hopes to wrap it up before the end of the school year.

“We all want students to return in the fall, and we want schools to have more of a consistent face-to-face structure,” he said.

The union is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, whose president recently called on schools to reopen in the fall with five days of in-person instruction for all students.

Martin said it makes sense that district officials are looking to offer a virtual school and a face-to-face option.

“We have a lot of members who have medical conditions and are fragile. And we have members who are still fearful of what this virus is and what it can do. There’s some legitimate fears there,” Martin said.

Keep those masks on at school, kids. Michigan districts will likely keep requirements.

2021-05-18T21:13:21+00:00

Changes to state and federal guidance on mask-wearing sent a new dose of uncertainty through Michigan school communities in recent days, sparking thorny debates and confusion about who should wear masks at school and under what circumstances.

But little seems likely to change in classrooms across the state: Federal health authorities clarified over the weekend that schools should continue with their current safety precautions, which generally include mask requirements.

“For the most part, the mask requirement will remain the same for the year,” said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, noting that the district was still reviewing state and federal guidance on the matter and will release more details this week. “There will be flexibility for vaccinated employees and students if everyone in the room is vaccinated or if they are outside.”

Another of the state’s largest districts, Grand Rapids Public Schools, said this week that masks would still be required indoors, but that masks would no longer be mandatory outdoors.

While masks in schools aren’t bound for the scrap heap yet, the sudden changes to official guidance on mask-wearing underscore the challenges schools will face as they try to reopen safely.

The confusion for schools started last week, when officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that vaccinated people did not need to wear masks or maintain physical distance under most circumstances. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer soon followed with similar guidance.

Schools weren’t mentioned in the initial recommendations, even though the guidance is especially challenging for schools to follow. Children under age 12 are not eligible to be vaccinated.

“We clearly have a group of students who can’t get vaccinated,” said Steve Matthews, superintendent of the Novi Community School District in suburban Detroit, on Friday. “But the majority of teachers are vaccinated. How do you encourage the 10-year-old to continue to wear their masks when the adults don’t have to?”

Michigan officials updated their guidance to align with the federal health agency on Tuesday. “We are providing guidance to schools recommending that they complete the remainder of the school year with the indoors COVID-19 mitigation measures they already have in place to keep students and families safe — including masking up indoors,” said Bob Wheaton, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, noting that these are not requirements.

In online chat groups, parents who have vocally opposed most COVID-19 safety measures celebrated the news and began pressing their school districts in suburban, majority-white communities like Saline and Owosso to allow vaccinated students to attend classes unmasked.

By contrast, the new guidance was received with skepticism by some in Detroit, where Black communities suffered high COVID-19 death tolls and have been reluctant to send children back to school.

“Keep the masks on,” Dawn Wilson-Clark, a parent-activist with 482Forward, an education advocacy group based in Detroit, told Chalkbeat. “It’s too soon.”

Meanwhile, district officials said that the logistical problems raised by the new guidance showed how challenging it will be to loosen mark requirements in schools.

For example: To enroll in a Michigan public school, parents have to share their child’s vaccination history with public health officials or sign a waiver explaining why they choose not to do so. But that requirement doesn’t yet extend to the COVID-19 vaccines because federal authorities approved them on an emergency basis and haven’t yet received full approval.

“It makes it very difficult for us to say, ‘If you’ve been vaccinated you no longer have to wear a mask, because we can’t go out and collect that information,” said Bill Good, spokesman for Ferndale Public Schools in suburban Detroit. “It’s really hard to go on the honor system when you have immunocompromised students who deserve an education just like everyone else.”

Ferndale will continue to require masks for everyone in its school buildings through the end of the school year and will reevaluate the policy over the summer.

Detroit district offers $500 incentive for employees to get vaccinated

2021-04-21T22:58:30+00:00

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is offering a one-time $500 incentive to encourage educators and other eligible staff to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The incentive, which applies to those who already have been vaccinated or plan to be by June 30, 2021, also includes up to 16 hours of sick leave to account for possible vaccine side effects.

“This incentive is a way to promote the greatest protections to all employees as we work to minimize the threat of COVID-19 while respecting an individual’s choice not to vaccinate,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a statement.

The district is not requiring staff to get vaccinated. However, it said there has been a 10% increase in the number of employees who filled out an internal volunteer COVID-19 completion survey since the program was announced over the weekend.

The district is using federal coronavirus stimulus money to pay for the incentives, said Chrystal Wilson, spokeswoman for the district.

The Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees and the Detroit Federation of Para-Professionals are not eligible for these incentives at this time, she added.

Other districts across the country are offering similar incentives. In Indiana, fully vaccinated teachers and staff can expect to receive a $150 bonus.

“We are in agreement with the district to allow this to happen,” Detroit Federation of Teachers President Terrence Martin said. “We have had a number of members who have taken advantage of it.”

About 2,000 district staff across the district have been vaccinated, he said. The district could not identify how many DFT union members have been fully vaccinated.

The Detroit school board voted to pause in-person learning until its next meeting on May 11, and if COVID infection rates haven’t improved by then, DPSCD could stay virtual for the rest of the school year. Learning centers are set to open April 26, with students and staff testing weekly for COVID

How COVID funds are meeting urgent needs in Michigan districts

2021-04-16T20:35:59+00:00

Jamie Phelan spent the last year helping her three elementary-age children learn online, and she’s ready for them to return to the classroom.

That’s why she’s keeping a close eye on her district, Livonia Public Schools, as it decides how to spend $15 million of federal coronavirus aid.

“I’d want them to go back to in-person next year,” she said. “Hopefully [the district will] use the money to lower the class sizes to space them out a bit more. That’s really going to be the big decider for me.”

Michigan schools are receiving billions of dollars of federal aid, the largest single infusion of cash ever, and have spent millions already. School leaders say the money will help more students return to classrooms and ease the academic and emotional burdens the pandemic has placed on students and staff.

Statewide, schools have already spent tens of millions of dollars to purchase computers and upgrade building ventilation, but most of the federal aid hasn’t yet reached districts.

Districts are on track to receive three rounds of federal funding, each larger than the next. In total, Michigan districts will directly receive more than $5 billion, plus additional aid distributed by the state. The funds are being allocated using the same formula as Title IA, a civil rights-era program designed to support low-income communities.

Political leaders in Michigan clashed over distributing the second round of funds. Republican lawmakers have refused to allocate all of the money unless Gov. Gretchen Whitmer accepts limits on her pandemic powers, which she is refusing to do. The state has parceled out less than half of that round to school districts so far.

While there’s no sign that the political standoff will end, observers say it’s only a matter of time before all of the funds are distributed.

Districts have broad discretion to spend the money, and the coming months will be a crucial planning period as many districts finalize their annual budgets. Acceptable uses include addressing learning loss, offering summer school and after-school programs, supporting students from low-income families, and improving air quality in schools.

Playing catch-up

Many school districts plan to use the funds to hire short-term staff who will be responsible for helping students cope with the academic and emotional consequences of the pandemic.

But because the funds must be spent within a few years, school officials are wary of hiring new staff and then running out of money to pay them, said Robert Dwan, deputy executive director of Michigan School Business Officials.

Still, Mia Roetherford, the mother of a first grader at Detroit Achievement Academy, a charter school in Detroit, said she wants her district to spend its federal funds on additional staff and tutors.

“They need more bodies and they need to be paid for the work that they’re doing,” she said.

As more federal aid reaches the state, a spending pattern has emerged, Dwan said. Districts spent the first money they received on urgent needs such as masks, hand sanitizer, and additional staff to clean school buildings.

Once those measures were in place and many students returned to classrooms, districts began developing plans to spend the rest of the money.

“People are still a little bit shell shocked on how much money it is,” Dwan said. “At this point what they’re doing is coming up with a strategy.”

That was the case in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the state’s largest, which is set to receive roughly $1.2 billion in federal funds. It spent more than $300 million on personal protective equipment, COVID-19 testing, hazard pay, and other measures designed to make schools safe for students.

District leaders plan to spend about half of the funds — $613 million— on addressing a long-running facilities crisis, alleviating pressure from a mounting repair bill that the district hadn’t been able to cover.

Classrooms in Niles, a small city in the southwest corner of Michigan, have largely remained open since Labor Day. But about 20% of families opted to keep their students home. Of those students, more than one-third fell behind academically this year, said Dan Applegate, Niles superintendent.

“Most of our students who have been in person are on pace,” he said. “We are worried about some of the students in the virtual learning program.”

Applegate predicts that it will take two or three years for those students to make up for the learning time they lost this year.

That’s why the district plans to spend $1.6 million — a significant part of its more than $10 million in federal funds — to hire one extra teacher in each of its schools to work with students who are struggling academically, an arrangement Applegate expects will last several years.

Coloma Community Schools, a rural district of 1,200 students in western Michigan, is also putting a large portion of its COVID-19 aid into staffing. Attendance is down 10% this year, said Superintendent David Ehlers, and some students have fallen behind. The district will hire academic aides to work with elementary schoolers.

“We’re going to make sure that we keep class sizes manageable in the next few years,” he added. “We couldn’t have done what we’re doing without the federal funds.”

Officials urge long-term thinking

Federal officials made clear that the relief funds should be used to help schools offer face-to-face instruction to any student that wants it. Most schools in the state had already reached that goal this month, although some have closed their doors temporarily amid Michigan’s worst-in-the-nation spike in coronavirus cases.

Dwan said the sheer volume of funding flowing into Michigan schools means that schools can think far beyond simply reopening their doors during the pandemic. He said many districts have already begun to tap the one-time funds to make infrastructure improvements that they otherwise couldn’t afford.

“If we’re only looking at short-term uses, we’re shortchanging ourselves,” he said. “Five years from now, if the money is used in a strategic manner, [it] will put that group of kids in a better position,” especially in the event of another pandemic.

That often means improving ventilation systems, which are a key tool for controlling the spread of the coronavirus but are badly outdated in many school districts.

The needs are more obvious in some districts than others. In Michigan, schools don’t get state funds for building repairs, and must rely on local property taxes. That means that repairs often come late or not at all in low-income communities where property values tend to be lower.

Districts in these areas are planning to use their federal aid to make long-delayed improvements.

In August, voters in Hamtramck, one of the communities in Michigan with the lowest income, rejected a tax increase that would have raised $35 million to pay for improvements to school buildings. District officials shelved plans to install air conditioning and make other basic improvements to the buildings, some of which were nearing 100 years old.

Those plans are back on track thanks to an estimated $54 million in federal aid. Once the renovations are completed, it will be far easier for the district to hold summer school, a key component of many schools’ plans to help students make up for learning lost to the pandemic.

“When I found out, I was in tears,” said Jaleelah Ahmed, superintendent of Hamtramck Public Schools, of her district’s expected share of federal aid, adding: “We immediately contacted our architect and said, ‘pull out the timelines and proposals, we’re going to get these projects up and running.’”

Detroit district will pause in-person learning until May

2021-04-15T23:46:18+00:00

The Detroit school board voted Thursday night to suspend in-person instruction until its May 11 meeting, a pause that could be extended if the city’s COVID-19 infection rates haven’t improved.

The board vote, taken during a special meeting, came two days after several board members failed in an attempt to suspend in-person learning for the rest of the school year. The 3-2 vote on Tuesday failed because the board needed at least four “yes” votes for it to succeed.

“The district would continue to monitor infection rates,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. “If they are roughly where they are now, or even slightly lower, we would make a recommendation to suspend in-person learning from the May meeting until the end of the school year.”

During Thursday’s meeting, Vitti said he has spoken to individual board members and incorporated their feedback in a proposal the board eventually backed unanimously.

The plan says:

In-person instruction will not resume until May 11, the date of the next school board meeting.
The district’s learning centers, where students can go to complete their virtual learning under the supervision of a staff member, will reopen on April 26.
Teachers can voluntarily choose to work in their classrooms with any student who wants to come into the school building to learn.
Beginning April 26, the district will begin weekly COVID-19 testing — using saliva tests — of students and staff who have returned to the learning centers.

The regular COVID-19 testing is a “significant safety strategy to keep our employees and our students safe,” Vitti said.

“Employees and students legally will have an opportunity to opt out,” Vitti said. “We don’t foresee many opting out. We believe most if not everyone will test.”

During the public comment period, one parent asked what would happen if people opt out of testing. Vitti replied that the district by law cannot force students to be tested. The district can require employees to be tested, and the district has done so when schools reopened this school year.

The district is currently paused. It was among some school systems in the state that halted in-person learning after spring break, because of fears that COVID-19 could spread from people who traveled while off school.

The district had planned to reopen its buildings for face-to-face instruction and for students to attend the learning centers on April 26. Now, with the board action, only the learning centers will reopen.

More difficult conversations lie ahead for the board. District officials previously set a threshold of a 5% COVID-19 positivity rate when determining whether to open or close schools. The city’s positivity rate is now about 20%.

“The COVID rate of infection will probably not be 5% for a very long time,” said board member Corletta Vaughn.

Vitti said that threshold will need to be reexamined, with consideration given to the city and state infection rates, the rates in surrounding school districts, and positive cases in schools. He said the district also could set different thresholds for high schools than it does for elementary and middle schools, as well as have different thresholds for certain groups of students, particularly students with special education needs.

During the public comment period of Tuesday’s board meeting, many of those who spoke cited safety concerns in urging the district to shut down its buildings. On Thursday, the board heard from those who urged the district to continue having an option for parents and children who want to be in school.

“Just remember that there are parents like myself and students that really need to be in the learning centers,” said Sharene Nathan, a parent action leader at Ludington Magnet Middle and Honors School, where she is a liaison between the school and parents.

Whitmer urges two-week halt to youth sports and face-to-face instruction in high schools

2021-04-09T16:26:21+00:00

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is asking for a two-week pause to in-person high school classes and youth sports as Michigan leads the nation in new daily cases of COVID-19.

“We all have to step up our game for the next two weeks to bring down rising cases,” Whitmer said during a Friday morning press conference.

Michigan’s daily case totals have shot up faster than any other state in recent weeks and are nearing the mark reached during the December spike, when most schools statewide opted to close their classrooms. In Wayne County, which includes Detroit, 18% of COVID-19 tests are coming back positive, well above the threshold for closure set by many districts. Several districts in the area had already announced plans to remain closed in coming weeks.

The closures will add to the emotional and academic toll students have borne throughout the pandemic. Virtual learning isn’t as effective as face-to-face instruction for most students.

Hours after Whitmer spoke, several districts announced that they would heed her call for a pause.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District said it would pause in-person instruction for three weeks, one week longer than previously announced.

Ferndale Superintendent Dania Bazzi said in a Facebook post Friday that the district would “honor the governors’ request and pause in-person learning and indoor sports.” The pause in the district only affects secondary schools. In-person learning resumes April 26, she said.

Other districts, though, said they had no intent to follow the governor’s request. Royal Oak Superintendent Mary Beth Fitzpatrick said high school sports and in-person learning would continue as scheduled.

“Our district, like many others, was surprised to hear this during a public press conference, without any direct prior notice to school leaders,” she said in a statement. “MDHHS and county health departments have the authority to mandate closures rather than putting these health-related decisions on school districts.”

Reopening decisions have been hotly contested in many school districts, as school officials scramble to balance the interests of families who are afraid to send their children to school face-to-face and those who strongly prefer it. While Whitmer’s administration can require classrooms to open or close, in recent months it has stuck to making recommendations.

That’s not fair to school leaders who aren’t trained in public health, said Mark Greathead, superintendent of Woodhaven-Brownstown Schools and president of the K-12 Alliance, an association of school districts.

He said Whitmer’s announcement “raised serious concerns about the rapid rise in COVID-19 numbers while leaving us to determine how to respond to that on behalf of our students’ health, a decision that I, as an educator, am neither qualified nor should be expected to make.”

Whitmer’s comments come after thousands of teachers from across the state signed a petition calling for a pause in face-to-face instruction.

Key education leaders echoed her call for a two-week pause.

“The skyrocketing caseloads among 10-to-19-year-olds threatens the health of individual students, their classmates, their families and their communities,” said Paula Herbart, president of the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.

State Superintendent Michael Rice also asked school leaders to heed Whitmer’s request.

“Michigan educators, students, and families have risen to the challenge over the past year, and I am confident they will continue to do what is needed to help save lives as we keep fighting the pandemic.”

The Michigan Department of Education said in a press release Friday that it would provide an option to delay the administration of high school state exams, which were set to begin next week, for schools that pause in-person instruction.

Since January, there has been broad agreement among leaders in Michigan politics and education that schools should offer more in-person instruction. In recent weeks, the vast majority of students in the state had the chance to learn face to face.

Whitmer allowed high school sports to resume in February after parents strongly pushed her to do so. Public health experts say sports and other extracurriculars have contributed substantially to the spread of the virus among students.

“As a parent and former student-athlete myself, I understand how important athletics are to our children’s physical and mental health. However, parents and athletes need to understand the risk involved with youth sports if they choose to participate,” said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive in Michigan. “We’ve seen that the younger population has played a significant role in transmission during this most recent spike.”

One conservative group pushed back immediately on efforts to temporarily close classrooms.

“While students are locked out of classrooms, we’ve seen too many fall into a crisis of despair,” said Beth DeShone, executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project, a think tank connected to former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. “Our kids deserve better from Governor Whitmer and the public school bureaucracy. They deserve safely open classrooms.”

Whitmer urged citizens to get vaccinated as quickly as possible, noting that vaccines are the best way to prevent new cases of the coronavirus. Everyone in the state 16 or older is eligible to be vaccinated.

Classroom closures now will further raise the stakes of Michigan’s efforts to help students recover from the academic and emotional trial of the pandemic, said Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, an education advocacy group. The state is set to receive billions in federal COVID funding, in part to support those efforts.

“Especially with the ongoing interruptions to learning, it’s essential for state leaders to plan now to address unfinished learning that will take several years, especially for students who have the most needs and have suffered the greatest impacts from the pandemic,” Arellano said. “That means targeting state and federal dollars to research-driven, solution-based strategies like intensive tutoring, and making sure dollars are geared in an equitable way to students and schools that need them most.”

‘Skylar Forever’: Memorial honors Detroit COVID victim, age 5, as her parents push for more vaccinations

2021-04-07T19:53:10+00:00

Skylar Herbert’s parents haven’t touched her bedroom since the 5-year-old died of COVID-19 complications nearly a year ago. They still hear her voice. They still see her dancing the way the bright, friendly girl loved to do. And they still cry every day.

Skylar was the first child in Michigan to die from COVID-19, and in her honor, the city of Detroit has changed the name of the main Detroit Public Safety headquarters gathering room from the Michigan Room to the Skylar Herbert Room. Skylar’s parents, LaVondria and Ebbie Herbert, are both first responders.

For the parents, who spoke with emotion and tears and wore black face masks with the words “Skylar Forever” in white at a press conference Wednesday, the honor is humbling.

“Just to have her honored — this is overwhelming,” said Ebbie Herbert, a Detroit firefighter. His wife is a Detroit police officer.

Skylar Herbert, 5, who died of COVID-19 complications April 19, is shown in a video shown during a memorial event Wednesday at Detroit Public Safety headquarters.

Speakers during Wednesday’s event said her death last April was a catalyst to help people understand the dangers of the virus. Now, organizers hope people will look back at COVID’s impact on the city over the past year and understand the importance of getting vaccinated. The event ended with this message: “Take it for Skylar.”

“Detroit, let’s get vaccinated,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who survived COVID-19 last year, said. “Let’s save lives. Let’s get past this.”

When Skylar became sick, Detroit was in the midst of a serious surge in positive coronavirus cases. A year later, that surge is back, not just in the city but across Michigan. Positive COVID-19 cases have risen sharply. So have hospitalizations.

But at Wednesday’s event, the focus was on Skylar and honoring her memory.

“The loss of Skylar touched the hearts of every single person in this city, because of her age and because she comes from a family who spent their whole lives protecting us. It hit even more personally,” Mayor Mike Duggan said.

Ebbie and LaVondria Herbert unveil a memorial that will go inside a gathering room in Detroit Public Safety headquarters that was renamed for their daughter, Skylar Herberg, 5.

LaVondria Herbert said she’s still trying to cope with her daughter’s death. She prays often, but there is still that nagging question of, “Why did this happen to me?”

“People don’t know my story. This was my first child. I had her at 41 years old. And I didn’t want to have kids and then I had this miracle baby. I was so excited once I found out I was having a girl.”

Skylar was a little girl with a big heart and an even bigger smile whose personality lit up the room. She liked to sing and dance, even though “she wasn’t a dancer at all, but you couldn’t tell her that,” her mother said.

“She’s probably dancing around right now like, ‘Oh my God, did y’all see my picture? They got my picture up.’ She was always happy, such a sweet girl. Very compassionate.”

In a video that played during the event, Ebbie Herbert said one of the most difficult things for him to cope with is that his job as a firefighter requires him to risk his own life to save strangers.

“And I see my own daughter and I can’t help her. What can I do?” Ebbie said. “It was devastating to our family.”

The two have become vaccination advocates. They see it as a way to honor their daughter’s memory. They’ve both been vaccinated.

“Skylar’s death won’t go in vain,” Ebbie said. “If you say you’re taking it for Skylar, I’m fine with it.”

UPDATE: Detroit district’s pause on in-person learning now extended another week as COVID continues its surge in Michigan

2021-04-04T02:00:47+00:00

UPDATE 4/9/21: The district has extended the pause on in-person learning again. Students will continue learning virtually through April 23, with plans to return to in-person learning on April 26. The announcement in Detroit comes as positive COVID-19 cases continue to surge, and after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer earlier Friday urged districts to pause in-person learning and sports in Michigan high schools for two weeks.

The Detroit school district is extending its pause on in-person learning until April 19 as COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Michigan.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District had previously planned to pause learning inside buildings after the spring break that ended Friday for one week.

The update, posted on the district’s Twitter account Saturday afternoon, means students who had been learning face to face, or attending the district’s learning centers, won’t return for two weeks.

The pause comes after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday urged schools to keep students virtual after spring break. Whitmer also called on Michigan residents who traveled during spring break to get tested upon their return.

“Students and families traveling across Michigan, to other states or out of the country risk being exposed to and carrying COVID-19 with them,” according to a statement from the governor’s office. “This in turn could fuel outbreaks within their households and the communities where they live or visit.”

Michigan has been in the midst of a COVID-19 surge. On Friday, WDIV-TV reported Michigan had the highest spread of the virus in the nation.

The state is creating 37 pop-up testing sites to accommodate spring break travelers.

In the Detroit district, staff will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test before they can return to in-person learning. The district is also expected to begin random saliva testing of students.

Meanwhile, other school districts have also decided to pause in-person instruction, including Hamtramck Public Schools, which said its plan to return K-6 students to in-person learning on Monday has been delayed until April 19.

“We believe it is important to continue to respond to the changing pandemic, and to always put the safety of our school community first,” Hamtramck Superintendent Jaleelah Ahmed said in a statement.

Detroit district pausing in-person instruction for one week after spring break to prevent COVID spread

2021-03-30T23:08:27+00:00

The Detroit school district has decided it will pause in-person instruction next week to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after spring break.

“This is to allow employees and students a week of social isolation after spring break to limit the spread,” a note on the district’s web site said Tuesday.

The decision in the Detroit Public Schools Community District comes as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Michigan and as school district leaders weigh whether they can continue holding face-to-face classes. Many Michigan schools began reopening in recent weeks under pressure from state officials. Bridge Michigan reported Tuesday that there were 241 confirmed cases of COVID outbreaks in state K-12 schools as of March 25. That was up from 201 the previous week. An outbreak occurs when there are two or more related positive cases in a school.

The district is on spring break this week. The move to keep students home next week will affect students who were taking classes in a classroom with a teacher as well as students attending learning centers located in each school building. The centers give students an opportunity to take all of their classes online, but in a room supervised by a staff member.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told reporters last week that the district was considering the pause.

“We know extended families will be visited. We know churches will be open,” Vitti said at the time. “We are concerned about the infection rate.”

In the note on the web site, district officials said they don’t anticipate another district shutdown.

They said the introduction of vaccinations, mitigation and safety measures, and the ability to identify isolated cases and quarantine students and staff “mean that we should expect that schools remain open, even if the infection rate in the community is more elevated than previous months.”

The district said it would continue to consult with public health experts and make adjustments if necessary.

Earlier in the day Tuesday, the city of Detroit cited rising COVID-19 cases in issuing an order barring in-person government meetings. The order noted that the positivity rate in the city was 7% the week of March 14 to March 20. That’s up from 3.2% the week of Feb. 7 to Feb. 13.

During the week of April 5, those who had spent time learning in buildings will learn online. They will return to buildings April 12.

Employees will be required to receive a negative COVID-19 test before returning to buildings. The district also plans to launch random COVID-19 saliva testing for students the week of April 12.

About 9,000 students have returned to attend the learning centers and in-person instruction since the district reopened buildings in February and March. Only about 1,000 students are receiving full-time, in-person instruction. The rest are either attending the learning centers full time or receiving a mix of in-person instruction and online classes.

The district enrolls 49,000 students.

Panel: To educate Michigan’s missing students, districts have to address systemic issues beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

2021-03-22T21:11:01+00:00

Chronic absenteeism isn’t a new issue in Michigan, but it has been greatly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chalkbeat Detroit convened a conversation last week to foster suggestions for how districts could improve attendance, find disengaged students, and prepare them for the fall semester. Enrollment in Michigan public schools plunged last fall by 61,940 students in preschool through 12th grade. That loss underscores the need to provide students with extra academic and emotional support.

“When you look at 2017-18 chronic absence data, we had about 8 million kids nationwide who were chronically absent,” said Hedy Chang, panelist and leader of the non-profit advocacy organization Attendance Works. That makes Michigan eighth highest among states, she said. “In a pandemic, we know that kids are more likely to face challenges in getting to school and the most likely to miss virtual school.”

The Rev. Larry Simmons, a panelist and a longtime education advocate in Detroit, described some students he knew as “disoriented, isolated, and depressed,” because they are out of the daily rhythm of going to school. But he cautioned school leaders from viewing all students who aren’t showing up for class as “missing.”

“Parents know where their children are,” Simmons said. “Children haven’t disappeared from their homes. What we have to do is use our networks to reach out to families to offer them resources to help them get their kids to school.”

Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies in Wayne State University’s College of Education, said during the event that districts have to look at the biggest barriers to getting to school, including transportation, health care, and other factors related to poverty.

Bo Torres agreed that this is especially true for Latino communities and other communities of color, who long have faced barriers in getting to school. “When we start addressing these systemic issues, then we can take a closer look at chronic absence.”

One barrier reinforced by the pandemic is the technological divide preventing families from taking full advantage of virtual learning, said Torres, who created the Padres Fuertes Initiative in Kent County.

Find the full recording of our conversation below. This event is the second in a series of conversations hosted by Chalkbeat Detroit, the Education Trust-Midwest, and the Detroit Free Press.

What to do about Michigan’s missing students
What can decision-makers and school leaders do to find and help Michigan’s missing students? What should school districts be preparing for as school buildings slowly reopen? Join Chalkbeat Detroit now for a moderated conversation with: -Tabitha Bentley, Education Trust -Koby Levin, Chalkbeat -Hedy Chang, Attendance Works -Sarah Lenhoff, Wayne State University -Larry Simmons, Brightmoor Alliance and Every School Day Counts -Bo Torres, Strong Beginnings – Healthy Start
Posted by Chalkbeat Detroit on Thursday, March 18, 2021

The panel included:

Koby Levin, Chalkbeat
Hedy Chang, Attendance Works
Sarah Lenhoff, Wayne State University
Bo Torres, Strong Beginnings – Healthy Start
Larry Simmons, Every School Day Counts and Brightmoor Alliance

What to do about Michigan’s missing students? Join the conversation Thursday.

2021-03-12T23:44:18+00:00

Enrollment in public schools across Michigan has fallen. In the fall of 2020, more than 53,000 students didn’t show up for class — a decline of nearly 4% from the fall of 2019. That’s twice as many students as the state lost during the final year of the Great Recession, the last time a wave of economic instability uprooted tens of thousands of families.

The figures underscore the disruptive effect of the pandemic on thousands of students’ educations. Some families may have moved during the pandemic because of job loss or housing instability, while others are home-schooling their children. But many students are not accounted for, and educators worry that they aren’t attending school at all.

Join a virtual conversation about Michigan’s missing students at 4 p.m. Thursday. During this free event, a panel of experts will talk about what decision-makers and school leaders can do to find and help students, and ensure they thrive as schools return to in-person learning.

Tabitha Bentley, director of policy and research at the Education Trust-Midwest, will lead a conversation with:

The Rev. Larry Simmons, co-convener of the Every School Day Counts Detroit initiative, an effort to end chronic school absence in the city.
Koby Levin, reporter at Chalkbeat Detroit
Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works
Sarah Lenhoff, director of the Detroit Education Research Partnership at Wayne State University and co-author of “Why Do Detroit Students Miss School: Implications for Returning to School After COVID-19”
Adnoris “Bo” Torres, project supervisor, Strong Beginnings – Healthy Start, a Grand Rapids social service agency

You can register for the conversation here and submit a question to the panel.

This event is the second in a series of conversations on education hosted by Chalkbeat Detroit, the Education Trust-Midwest and the Detroit Free Press.

‘I don’t want to forget him’: How a close-knit Detroit school coped with the death of a mentor and role model

2021-03-12T18:29:36+00:00

Every once in a while, Latrell Maxwell turns to the photo of Thomas Fields that sits on the dresser in his bedroom, and he has the kind of conversation he used to have when Fields was alive.

He tells Fields about his school day. He talks through any problems he’s having. And he imagines Fields giving him the kind of pep talk that made so many students feel seen at Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy in the Detroit school district.

Do well in school, Fields would often tell them. Make your education a priority. Don’t give up.

Melissa Redman’s son Latrell holds a photograph of Thomas Fields. He keeps the picture on his dresser and talks to him.

“It feels good to know that even though he’s not presently here, he’s spiritually here,” said Latrell, an eighth grader at the school. “I just try to remember all the good times we had.”

It’s been a long, emotional year since Fields died from coronavirus complications, leaving a deep void at the school where he was the school culture facilitator, a role that required him to work with students who have behavior problems. In the midst of a harrowing public health crisis that hit the city particularly hard, this tight-knit school community has sought to cope with his death and honor his memory.

But the grieving process has been challenging. The school, which has an African-centered focus, hasn’t held face-to-face classes for a year. And for parent leaders like Aliya Moore, who are used to seeing students regularly in the building, that means “I still can’t wrap my arms around our babies.”

Field’s death came March 30, 20 days after the first positive COVID-19 case was recorded in Michigan, and shortly after schools shut their buildings and shifted to remote learning. In the wake of his death, the Detroit Public Schools Community District provided counseling to students and staff. The PTA held a socially-distanced outdoor memorial and released balloons. Graduating students each received a key chain with a photo of Fields.

But many are still grieving, and school leaders know they need to continue helping students and staff cope with the loss of the staff member who often cheered them up.

In the year since his death, Field’s name frequently comes up — in classroom chats, during a Black History Month celebration, and in everyday conversations. Fields, Principal Jeffery Robinson said, managed to connect with students in ways others couldn’t. It’s one of the reasons Robinson had frequently encouraged Fields to pursue a teaching degree.

“He was that good,” Robinson said.

Fields, who was 32, didn’t have a long tenure at the school, having been hired in 2019. But he already had a deep connection.

Years ago, when Malcolm X Academy and Paul Robeson Academy were separate schools with a focus on African-centered education, Fields was a student attending Malcolm X. Robinson, a longtime educator in Detroit, was a teacher at the school. He and Fields remained in contact over the years, and Robinson has described hiring Fields as a proud moment.

Schools like these were built around the idea that Black children need to understand their history and culture to succeed academically. Such schools once thrived in Detroit, and the model was replicated elsewhere in the country. But now, there are only a few of these schools remaining in the city. More than a decade ago, Malcolm X and Paul Robeson were combined, with Robinson taking on the principal’s role. He’s led the school for 12 years.

Thomas Fields, far right, is shown during his middle school days at Malcolm X Academy, which later merged with Paul Robeson Academy. Fields was the school culture facilitator at the combined school when he died March 30.

It was at Malcolm X that Fields learned about the importance of community and the school family. Adults are called Mama and Baba, African terms for mother and father. And the schools place a premium on developing connections between the staff and families that help raise strong children.

By the time Robinson approached Fields to work at the school, the latter had already earned a degree from Grambling State University and was a U.S. Navy veteran. He spent most of his time working closely with students who got into trouble because of bad behavior, giving them tools and encouragement to make better choices. Fields, Robinson said, took the job because he wanted to give back to the school that had given him so much.

He had a knack for reaching some of the most troubled children and he became so popular that at least one boy got in trouble on purpose so he could spend time with Fields.

“He never forgot the feelings and emotions of being a youth,” Moore, the PTA leader, said.

One day in late September, weeks after the school year had begun, Robinson and several staff members were hit with a wave of grief while in search of a place to store technology equipment.

Thomas Fields, the school culture facilitator at Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy, is shown with Melissa Redman, the school’s parent action leader. Fields died March 30 from coronavirus complications.

Long before the pandemic, Fields had pushed Robinson to OK the purchase of board games and video games that would be an incentive for good behavior. Robinson had given his blessing for the purchase earlier in 2020, then thought little of it. So when he opened the door to the storage room, he saw that not only had the games arrived, but Fields had organized and marked them with numbers.

“All of us stood there and cried,” Robinson said. “Nobody had been in that room since Thomas had been there.”

It was another reminder of how much they miss Fields. He was the person who greeted students at the front entrance every morning, hyping them up for the day’s lessons. He played basketball with the kids and taught them old-school games like red light, green light. He was someone who encouraged and inspired students. And Fields, an avid cook who frequently posted videos of himself in the kitchen, had made plans to teach students how to cook.

Just last week, Melissa Redman, Latrell’s mother, recalled running into Fields on the last day classes were in session in the building. Fields was in the gym during his lunch break, cracking jokes. With the anniversary of his death approaching, Redman has been thinking about that day lately, her thoughts often turning to Fields..

“I keep his picture around my neck,” she said, referring to a blue lanyard with Field’s picture attached that she wears every day. “I don’t want to forget what happened a year ago. I don’t want to forget him. I always want to keep his name lifted.”

Fields’ loss came at a devastating time for the city of Detroit, which was confronted with many COVID-19 cases and deaths in the early months of the pandemic.

The passings reverberated across the city as some prominent community leaders lost their battles with the virus. In school communities, students, staff, parents — many of them lost relatives or knew someone who died.

Robinson felt the deaths intensely. Just days after Fields died, Robinson suffered an even bigger personal loss. His mother, Evelyn Grace Robinson, died alone in a city hospital. It was Easter Sunday, and she had COVID-19. The year before, his granddaughter and a grandmother had died.

Also a minister, Robinson has officiated at nearly 70 funerals in the last year. In a typical year, he does about a dozen.

“I haven’t properly grieved,” Robinson said of the deaths of his mother, Fields, and so many others. “What I know of psychology and being an educator for 30 years … I know I have to. It has been a rough couple of years.”

Robinson said he finds solace in seeing to the needs of others. The school has been handing out food boxes to those who need it.

“That’s where I sort of grounded myself,” he said.

There is a wall outside the main office at Paul Robeson Malcolm X that pays tribute to people who have passed who had a connection to the school. Soon, Robinson will add Fields to that wall. He knows his students need closure, for many different reasons.

“Our kids have lost people, and they’re going to bring that (grief) back,” Robinson said.

The school is one of a small number in the Detroit district that hasn’t returned to face-to-face instruction — a decision Robinson made with input from parents. Most parents and teachers, he said, aren’t ready to return due to safety concerns.

Robinson wants the school to hold some type of event that will help students get the closure they need. It may be another balloon release ceremony. It may be something else, like a tree planting.

“We have to do something,” Moore said. “It’s about healing and it’s about mental health. I have faith that between administrators, teachers and us being parents, we will wrap our arms around these kids and focus on their mental health.”

But she knows that the first day back to in-person instruction — whenever that will be — will be a difficult one, since students became so accustomed to seeing Fields greeting them at the door.

“To come to the door and no Baba Fields? …”

Latrell will be graduating from Paul Robeson Malcolm X this year and heading to Cass Technical High School in the fall. He said he won’t forget Fields, and how well he understood students.

Thomas Fields, the school culture facilitator at Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy, also loved to cook. He died March 30 from coronavirus complications.

“We talk about him all the time,” Latrell said. “We just talk about all the good times we had with him. He used to play basketball with us. He helped us with our science fair projects.”

Moore said it’s important for students to understand that one of the best ways they can honor his memory is to remember what he taught them.

“He’s still with us,” she said. “Your behavior, what you do moving forward, will continue his legacy.”

Robinson will need to hire a new school culture facilitator for the upcoming school year. But he doesn’t like to say Fields will be replaced. That, he said, is impossible.

“I tell the students, ‘Close the book, but remember the story.’ “

Whitmer signs bills to send $1.1 billion in school funds to Michigan students. Another $800 million is still in limbo amid political battle.

2021-03-09T21:03:51+00:00

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill Tuesday to send coronavirus aid to schools, but vetoed a related bill that would have limited the state government’s epidemic powers, leaving part of the $1.9 billion in limbo.

“Why the Legislature rushed this bill to my desk while they continue to let billions of dollars for schools and aid to Michigan families gather dust is a mystery to me,” Whitmer said in a letter to Republican lawmakers. Republicans, who control the state legislature, didn’t negotiate with Whitmer over the bills.

Even as many states quickly passed federal aid on to schools, the money has become a bargaining chip in an ongoing political battle over Whitmer’s pandemic powers. GOP leaders want to limit her ability to close schools and cancel sporting events even though she has pushed schools to open in recent months and most have done so.

Schools have already received some COVID-19 relief funds and the state did not cut their budgets this year as expected. Still, school leaders have pressed the legislature to appropriate the funds, saying that schools needed the money quickly to plan for summer school and next year’s school budgets.

Roughly $1.1 billion out of $1.9 billion in federal and state aid can now be distributed to schools. Under the Republican plan, the remaining $800 million could only be distributed if Whitmer signed a separate bill that would prevent her from closing schools or canceling sports games “during an epidemic involving coronavirus.”

Whitmer believes those limitations are unconstitutional, which would mean she can send the remaining money directly to schools without signing the bill.

Whitmer’s administration will review the restrictions on her pandemic power to determine whether they are constitutional, said Steve Liedel, an expert on the Michigan constitution and a member of the law firm Dykema. While the legislature could challenge the administration’s ruling, it probably wouldn’t have standing to challenge Whitmer in court over the issue, he said.

The aid would come mostly from a federal aid package passed in the last days of Donald Trump’s presidency. Most would go straight to school districts to cover costs associated with COVID-19, such as cleaning, personal protective equipment, and helping students close learning gaps.

Districts would receive $1.78 billion in federal money under the bills Whitmer signed, plus an additional $170 million from state coffers.

Most of the federal money would be distributed directly to school districts based on the Title I formula. The remaining 10% of the federal money would be spent on summer school and credit recovery programs, among other programs.

Whitmer vetoed a part of the bill that would have sent $87 million in state money to private schools, as well as $10 million that would allow parents to pay for private after school programs. Whitmer may be open to including that money in a future bill, her budget director said Tuesday, if GOP leaders are willing to negotiate further on the school funding. Last year, former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos tried unsuccessfully to divert hundreds of millions of dollars in federal school aid to private schools.

In addition to the federal aid, the bill Whitmer signed on Tuesday sends $170 million in additional state funds to schools, most of which would ensure that even upper-income school districts receive at least $450 per pupil of coronavirus aid. The formula for federal school aid is designed to send more money to districts in low-income communities. Some in Michigan had criticized the federal formula, arguing that all schools incurred additional costs related to the coronavirus, even those in affluent communities.

As Detroit classrooms reopen, district hopes safety measures will put teachers at ease

2021-03-08T22:43:08+00:00

Sultana Gambrell had only been back in her classroom at Ronald Brown Academy for a couple of hours, but she was already on a roll with a lesson about the water cycle.

“High five!” she called out to a student who’d just given a correct answer. She started to move toward him, then thought twice.

“Well, we can’t touch, but high five!” she said, miming the gesture to her student, who returned it.

It wasn’t quite business as usual in the Detroit Public Schools Community District on Monday as teachers returned to classrooms in Detroit for the first time in months. Staff kept a close eye on students to make sure they stayed six feet apart and wore their masks over their noses. And many students still took some lessons online because not enough teachers agreed to return to their classrooms to meet demand from families.

Even without full attendance, Monday marked another step toward a pre-pandemic normal. An estimated 20,000 students were expected to report to school, or about 40% of the total. That’s about twice as many as last fall, when the district reopened classrooms until rising COVID-19 cases forced a suspension in mid-November.

At the same time, the district expected 20% of teachers to report to their classrooms, ensuring that some students who wanted in-person instruction wouldn’t get it. Nikolai Vitti, district superintendent, said he wouldn’t know how many teachers and students showed up on Monday until later in the week.

“I was ecstatic,” said Sonya Haynes, an English teacher at Brenda Scott Academy, of the return to work. She hasn’t been vaccinated yet, but she said she strongly prefers teaching in-person to teaching virtually. “I was like a little kid last night getting ready for school. Clothes ironed, lunch made.”

Vitti visited schools on Monday morning with Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the district’s largest educators union.

Both said they expect more educators to come back to work in person in coming weeks. Earlier in the pandemic, the district and union agreed that teachers would be able to choose whether to work in person or virtually. Other staff, including assistant principals, deans, and paraprofessionals, were required to report to work on Feb. 24.

“My biggest concern is that we’re not completely matching student demand with teacher willingness to come into the classroom,” Vitti said. “But I’m optimistic that over the next weeks or months, that when these teachers talk to other teachers about the safety standards that we have in place, more will come back.”

Guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention say schools can be opened safely even if teachers aren’t vaccinated. However, many teachers are leery of returning to work before receiving the shot.

Health officials in Detroit estimate Detroit health officials estimate that they have vaccinated about 9,000 teachers — including charter school teachers — but federal law prohibits the city from telling the district which teachers have been vaccinated without the teachers’ consent. The district sent a voluntary survey to its roughly 3,800 teachers asking whether they have received vaccines, but so far has received only a few hundred responses.

Vitti said Detroit teachers are particularly concerned about the dangers of the virus because many lost family members in the spring, when the city was hit especially hard.

Despite the agreement between the district and teachers union, some teachers are concerned that they will be forced to work once they are vaccinated, Vitti said. Vitti has said that the district will not require teachers and families to get the vaccine.

Martin, the union president, said the district “has done everything that it can do to ensure safety.”

“I’m seeing mitigation strategies implemented,” he added. “I’m seeing small class sizes, students six feet apart in classrooms. It’s going to take some time for folks to get more comfortable. But I’m pretty confident that we’re going to start to see those numbers increase over the next few weeks.”

When a student comes to school and their teacher doesn’t, the teacher will still give lessons online. For older students, that might mean taking a virtual lesson from their teacher while sitting in a classroom supervised by another adult. The next hour, they might have a face-to-face class with a teacher who opted to return.

For younger students, who often only have one teacher, this can mean spending the day in one of the district’s learning centers. Each school has a center where students can learn virtually at school.

There were more than a dozen students in the learning center at Brenda Scott Academy on Monday. Most had laptops on their tables, while a few read books. Several students weren’t using headphones, and all their teachers’ voices were audible at once.

At Ronald Brown Academy, Michael Foster, a fourth grade math teacher, was teaching students virtually and in person at the same time.

As he walked his students through a lesson on fractions, a voice came from a speaker at the front of the classroom: “I can’t see your screen at all.”

There were a dozen students in Foster’s classroom, and several more had been following the lesson at home. At least one of the virtual students was struggling to stay connected.

Foster tried to keep talking about fractions and fix the problem at the same time.

“How many parts are inside two-fifths?” he asked.

“I can barely hear you,” the student interjected. “I still can’t see the screen.”

More than a dozen students from various grade levels at work in a “learning center” at Brenda Scott Academy in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Students are assigned to the centers if their teachers decline to work in person. Each student does classwork independently or listens to their teacher through a virtual platform.

What you need to know as the Detroit school district restarts in-person learning

2021-03-05T22:42:28+00:00

As classes in the Detroit school district reopen for in-person instruction Monday, teachers will welcome back those who began the year learning inside school buildings as well as thousands of students who will step foot in buildings for the first time since the pandemic began a year ago.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District restarts face-to-face classes after suspending them in mid-November, when positive COVID-19 cases were surging. The district will join a growing number of districts in Michigan whose school leaders have reopened buildings as positive case numbers decline and educators gain access to vaccines.

The return to in-person instruction has been pushed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and President Joe Biden, who have stressed the drawbacks of virtual learning.

But even as the Detroit district sees a big increase in the number of families who want in-person learning, a significant portion of the school population, including parents and staff, isn’t ready.

“We do know that the COVID fear is very real and the threat of COVID is still in existence despite a vaccine,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a recent school board community meeting.

Here’s what you need to know in Detroit:

More families want face-to-face instruction, but few will get it full time

The district expects 20,000 students to return next week. The number of students returning is double what the district had in the fall, Vitti said in a statement Friday.

The expectations are based on responses to surveys the district asked families and staff to complete earlier this year. Those surveys found the number of families wanting face-to-face instruction had risen from about 20% in the fall to about 40% now.

The 20,000 figure includes a small number (about 1,000) who will have in-person instruction full time.

The remaining students will spend a portion of their day in the building learning face to face, and the rest of the day in the building learning virtually. How much time they spend online depends on the availability of in-person teachers. A student could spend much of their day in the classroom learning in-person, but if their music teacher has opted for virtual teaching, that class would be taken online.

A letter of agreement with the Detroit Federation of Teachers, signed prior to the beginning of the school year, gives teachers the choice of teaching in person or remotely. The number of teachers willing to be in school buildings has increased, but not enough to meet demand.

An option for students who can’t get any in-person classes is the district’s learning centers, which are located in each school building. The centers give students a safe option for taking their virtual classes while under the supervision of a staff member. About 5,000 students are attending the centers.

The district reopened the learning centers Feb. 24.

How to find out about positive COVID-19 cases

The district posts weekly updates about positive COVID-19 cases that are reported to school officials.

The districtwide data shows the total number of positive cases and the number of students and staff who are quarantined. There is also a breakdown of the number of outbreaks by school. An outbreak is defined as two or more potentially related COVID-19 cases on school grounds.

You can find the information here.

Expansion of COVID-19 testing

The district, as part of a partnership with Wayne State University and Henry Ford Health System, began offering free, voluntary COVID-19 tests to staff and families. Vitti has said recently in meetings that the effort will be expanded so the testing is available in more locations.

More details are still to come. But you can find current testing locations here.

Lawmakers and parents push Michigan districts to reopen

2021-02-23T23:32:00+00:00

Michigan lawmakers, parents, and doctors argued during a hearing on Tuesday that schools should be open.

With most districts in Michigan now offering some in-person instruction, they aimed their frustrations at the dwindling ranks of school districts that still don’t have a plan to offer some face-to-face instruction.

“Our home is a battleground during the school week,” said Katie Shea, whose children attend school in Ann Arbor. “Our kids are fighting with us every day to turn off their Zoom classes.”

The hearing came one week before March 1, the date Gov. Gretchen Whitmer set as a target for schools to offer some in-person instruction. Whitmer’s reopening push, combined with parallel efforts by President Joe Biden and sharply declining COVID-19 cases in Michigan, have led most schools in Michigan to open classrooms to students at least part-time.

Case counts and deaths have fallen dramatically and researchers have built up more evidence regarding the health risks of in-person learning for students and teachers. At the same time, educators and medical experts have sounded the alarm about the negative impacts of learning from home on children.

Pressure is mounting on districts that don’t have plans to reopen their classrooms this year, such as Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, and Plymouth-Canton. In Chippewa Valley, parents are attempting to recall four board members for refusing to support in-person instruction.

In November, a spike in COVID-19 cases prompted many districts to shutter their classrooms. Since then, a growing number of districts have offered in-person instruction. The trend accelerated this month, as the number of districts planning to offer only remote instruction fell by more than half. About 6 in 7 districts, including charter schools, planned to offer some form of in-person instruction this month.

The hearing on Tuesday was arranged by Republican lawmakers who have been pushing since last summer to reopen schools. In recent weeks, GOP leaders have held up federal COVID-19 aid, demanding, among other things, that school districts reopen before receiving the money.

“We’ll have to ask the [Michigan Department of Health and Human Services] or the schools or someone why, if the science is saying it’s safe, we have so many schools that are remote only,” said Sen. Jim Runestad, a Republican from White Lake.

Several doctors — all of them signatories of a recent letter pressing the Ann Arbor district to offer in-person learning — said during the hearing that with the right precautions, open classrooms don’t pose a grave safety risk to students and staff.

“Even at higher levels of transmission it’s possible to have in person learning,” said Emily K. Stoneman, a medical doctor and associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Michigan.

Stoneman said that the COVID-19 vaccine could help make schools safer, but that it is not necessary for classrooms to reopen.

Some parents still aren’t ready to send their children back to school, a view that was not represented in the hearings Tuesday. When Grand Rapids reopened classrooms in January for the first time in nine months, just half of its families opted to return to in-person instruction. In Detroit, parent surveys have indicated that a substantial minority of parents are still leery of sending their children back to classrooms.

For other parents, though, the need for an in-person learning option is only growing.

Venus Harris said she pulled her 12-year-old son out of the Plymouth-Canton district because his special education plan wasn’t being met. She and her husband, both of whom work full time, are home-schooling him, but they’d prefer to send him back to the classroom.

Her older son has stayed in virtual classes, she said, but is struggling.

“Most of my 15-year-old son’s day is spent sitting in a chair in front of a screen, and he is not absorbing the information that is presented to him,” she said. “We are concerned about how far behind he is and how that will affect his future.”

Any decision about reopening Plymouth-Canton schools is up to the district’s elected school board.

But Ken Horn, a Republican member of the Senate Education Committee, promised that he would work to pressure school boards to offer an in-person learning option.

“I think that this is something that we’re going to be pressing on harder and harder,” he said.

Want to fix the chronic absenteeism problem in Detroit schools? Start with transportation.

2021-02-19T23:10:15+00:00

Transportation struggles aren’t the only reason chronic absenteeism is so pervasive in Detroit schools, but it is the most common reason so many students aren’t showing up for class on a regular basis, Wayne State University researchers say in a new report.

About 50% of students in district and charter schools in Detroit are considered chronically absent, meaning they miss about 10% or more of the school year.

The Wayne State researchers, who are part of the Detroit Education Research Partnership, warn that the pandemic has exacerbated the problem, and that seems to be validated by increased chronic absenteeism so far in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The researchers predict chronic absenteeism will get worse in the fall unless school and community leaders come up with new solutions for school transportation.

As part of the study, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with Detroit parents, high school students, and school staff during the 2019-20 school year. They also analyzed attendance trends in the city.

Here, we highlight several key findings from the research. You can read the full report here. And check out the sidebar below to see some of the recommendations.

Solutions to addressing chronic absenteeism in Detroit

A report from Wayne State University on chronic absenteeism in Detroit offers a number of immediate, medium-term, and long-term recommendations for school and community leaders. You can read the full report here. Below are the key suggestions.

Detroit school and civic leaders must develop system-wide solutions for school transportation to ensure students can access public schools. Those solutions include immediately advocating for more resources to maintain health and safety protocols on school and public transportation, developing creative solutions for back-up transportation, and aligning school transportation with other efforts to strengthen neighborhood vitality in Detroit.
Detroit school leaders should provide clear guidance to families about health and school attendance, advocate for resources to ensure that schools are safe when students and staff return to in-person learning, and proactively establish contingency plans for when in-person learning is not safe.
School and community attendance initiatives should prioritize support more than accountability. Partnerships should be developed and strengthened to remove barriers to attendance and strengthen the conditions for student attendance at every level of Detroit’s educational ecosystem.

The Wayne State researchers also released a report Thursday on the tie between chronic absenteeism and third grade reading achievement. You can read it here.

Transportation is a major barrier

Transportation “was the most frequently requested resource when we asked parents what would help them with their child’s attendance,” the report says. But the issues aren’t just about access to transportation.

Some parents don’t own a car and some who did said their car was unreliable, or broke down frequently and needed repairs they can’t afford. Some said taking city buses was unreliable or unsafe. And some expressed frustration that they don’t have access to school transportation. Walking to school, the parents said, isn’t always a safe option because of crime, inclement weather, or because their children are too young.

Meanwhile, some parents pointed to a “lack of social support that often left them with limited transportation options when their routines were disrupted and they had to find backup transportation to get their children to or from school.”

“I don’t have a lot of people, or pretty much nobody to rely on to be able to take her to school if I’m not able,” one parent told the researchers.

The report says that the pandemic is likely to mean more families will have fewer resources to get their kids to school, and they won’t be able to rely on an already limited social and family network to help because of social distancing protocols.

Health concerns are also a barrier

Illnesses — because of conditions such as diabetes, severe asthma, or allergies — added “a substantial number of days on top of other reasons that students were absent.” The researchers said these issues are compounded by problems with access to health care.

Mental health, too, affects student attendance, the researchers said.

The pandemic will only exacerbate these issues, they said, because families “are more likely to keep their children home if they appear sick or if they are concerned about sickness.”

Parents want their kids in school

The researchers found that parents are keenly aware of the importance of having their kids in school because they want “to instill in their children a view that school was important and that they should not make excuses to stay home.”

Some, in fact, reported they go to great lengths to try to get their kids to school — including turning to any relative they can find to help and adjusting their work schedules.

Despite that, many said they often find themselves making trade-offs, prioritizing their children’s safety and health and their family income.

“The fact that decisions about well-being often required a trade-off with attending school reflect the unjust conditions they face — conditions that may demand even more trade-offs in light of the public health and economic impacts of COVID-19,” the report says.

As classrooms reopen, stagnant water pipes pose a health risk — and schools don’t have to do anything about it

2021-02-17T23:19:59+00:00

Water safety experts say thousands of students returning to Michigan schools that have been closed for months are potentially walking into a health hazard.

Water left stagnant in school plumbing systems during COVID-19-related shutdowns could contain dangerous bacteria or elevated lead levels, potentially posing a threat to students and staff.

Schools can eliminate the danger by flushing plumbing systems with fresh water, a process most districts complete after summer breaks. But experts say schools may need to take extra precautions now, because COVID-related closures have stretched to 11 months in some communities — ample time for bacteria to grow and for lead to leach out of pipes.

As more schools reopen, advocates worry that the intense focus on preventing COVID-19 will lead overstretched school staffs to forget about drinking water hazards.

The state doesn’t require schools to ensure water quality or to regularly test their water. Even districts that say they are flushing their water systems may not be doing enough, said Elin Betanzo, founder of the consulting firm Safe Water Engineering.

“Everyone will say, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve been flushing.’ But that can mean different things to different people,” she said.

State guidance and water quality experts suggest weekly flushing, but that isn’t enough to guarantee safe water.

Officials in Ann Arbor say they followed state-recommended flushing procedures twice a week throughout the summer. But tests of the district’s water in October revealed potentially dangerous levels of bacteria in water pipes at several schools. The district is now flushing its pipes three times a week, said Bernie Rice, executive director of physical properties.

How to flush a school water system

Flushing school water can literally require flushing. Toilets move a lot of water quickly and can help restart a dormant plumbing system.

But it’s not so simple to prepare school water systems for returning students after a months-long closure.

Michigan offers detailed guidance for safely restarting school water systems. The steps include planning to ensure all pipes are flushed, running hot and cold water through pipes, and, if possible, testing the water for contaminants.

Water experts recommend flushing pipes for 12 weeks before students return to school in order to restore corrosion control treatment. Elin Betanzo, founder of the consulting firm Safe Water Engineering, said schools should use bottled water as long as they aren’t sure their running water is safe.

Click here to find slideshows and recorded webinars focusing on restoring drinking water in schools before reopening.

More classrooms are open to students in Michigan than at virtually any other point during the pandemic after Gov. Whitmer urged schools to offer an in-person option by March 1. In January, 60% of districts planned to offer an in-person option, up from 50% in December. That figure will grow as large urban districts in Flint and Dearborn are set to reopen.

Concerns about water quality for returning students is not limited to Michigan. Schools in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York have reported elevated levels of legionella in their drinking water after returning from a COVID-19 closure. Legionella can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially deadly type of pneumonia, when it is inhaled through mist or steam generated by faucets or shower heads.

Still, a small survey of school administrators in Michigan suggests that some schools aren’t doing everything they can to mitigate the danger. Of 252 people surveyed, 14% said their schools don’t normally flush their plumbing systems after summer break. Another 37% said they don’t know if their schools flush plumbing systems.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy conducted the survey. The survey is anonymous, and the department doesn’t know how many of the state’s 842 school districts are represented in the results.

“We aren’t very confident that the right people are getting the message,” said Patrick Kelly, a senior health care analyst at the Center for Health and Research Transformation, a nonprofit based in Ann Arbor. He said he’d been in contact with school district officials who didn’t know they needed to worry about the safety of their drinking water in addition to the coronavirus as students return to school.

“The possibility of people returning to schools in the near term makes this a very urgent issue,” he said.

If schools don’t have time to make their water safe before students return, experts recommend passing out water bottles until the plumbing can be flushed. That’s what happened in Birmingham, a wealthy Detroit suburb, but it is easier said than done in lower income communities that may lack the means to provide bottled water to all students and staff.

Some districts, including the Detroit Public Schools Community District, use filtered drinking water systems capable of removing lead. A minority of those also have filters capable of removing bacteria such as legionella.

But many districts don’t have filters. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s new budget proposal attempts to fill the gap by spending $55 million to install water filters in schools statewide.

If a school doesn’t flush its plumbing system and doesn’t have filters, students and educators could be in danger of lead poisoning or bacterial infections.

“Schools need to take action now so we don’t have another health risk for students,” said Kristin Totten, education attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. “We can’t focus so much on COVID that we miss this underlying nemesis that has been in our schools for a long time, which is lead in the drinking water.”

Water that normally runs through school plumbing typically comes from public water plants, where it is disinfected and often combined with anticorrosive agents that work to prevent pipes from leaching lead into the water.

When new water isn’t pumped into school pipes for weeks at a time, those treatments dissipate, allowing bacteria to form and lead to get into the water.

Most school plumbing systems contain some lead, Betanzo said. She played a role in detecting lead in Flint after a state-appointed emergency manager there changed the city’s water source, causing lead to leach into its water supply. Nearly 9,000 children were likely exposed to lead.

“During the extended shutdown, there may not be corrosion control treatment left,” Betanzo said. “If a school is opening and expecting kids to be drinking the water, they should have been flushing 12 weeks prior” on a regular basis.

She added: “There’s no safe level of lead exposure.” Lead is a potent poison that damages brain development.

Betanzo said that districts that have already found legionella in their plumbing — including Ann Arbor and Birmingham, where she has two children attending schools — should serve as a warning across the state.

Legionella was discovered in November in the Birmingham district, then again in January, days before some students were scheduled to return to in-person classes. Students were asked to bring bottled water and showers were shut down.

Betanzo said that the presence of legionella suggests that other bacteria might also be present in the water. Other common bacteria that grow in untreated plumbing systems can cause infections of the skin or digestive tract.

“If one thing can grow, then a lot of things can grow in the water,” she said.

She added that the results of the school administrator survey, which show that some schools don’t flush their water systems after an extended break, “don’t surprise me at all.”

Flushing water systems “hasn’t been an area of focus,” she said. “We have no requirements for drinking water quality in school for schools that get public water.”

When schools nationwide shut down in March, school officials in Ann Arbor knew they would have to regularly flush district plumbing systems in order to offer safe drinking water when students returned.

Rice, the district’s top facilities official, said his staff started out flushing the pipes once a week. Then they met with a water safety consultant, who recommended that they follow the state’s recommended flushing methods twice a week.

Bacteria grew anyway, prompting district officials to begin flushing the pipes three times a week. The Ann Arbor district hasn’t indicated when classrooms will be reopened, but Rice said he is increasingly confident that school water systems are ready for students.

“It’s kind of crazy to me that it’s voluntary,” he said. “You’d think that with all the stuff that happened in Flint someone would say ‘Hey, this is mandatory.’”

Editor’s note: Feb. 18, 2021: The story has been updated to clarify that most Michigan schools have some lead components in their plumbing systems, not necessarily pipes, and that corrosion control treatments don’t guarantee that no lead will leach into drinking water.

State leaders: Michigan districts should tap coronavirus aid to improve air quality

2021-02-10T21:23:09+00:00

School districts should jump at the opportunity for a state-subsidized inspection of air quality systems and strongly consider using upcoming federal COVID-19 aid to make upgrades this year, state leaders said this week.

Many Michigan schools lack heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems capable of filtering COVID-19 from the air, Chalkbeat reported last week. Earlier in the pandemic, federal officials estimated that 41% of schools nationwide needed HVAC system upgrades.

Those upgrades could help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in schools as a growing number of Michigan districts reopen their classrooms. Health and education leaders in Michigan said school districts should take advantage of pandemic aid funds to make in-person learning safer.

“I would tell [schools] to invest in their HVAC system,” said Pamela Pugh, a member of the state Board of Education. Improving air circulation “is going to be huge in regard to stopping the spread of the virus in schools.”

The state is covering the cost of professional HVAC inspections for school districts to give district leaders an idea of what improvements they could make and at what cost. Michigan schools are on tap to receive $1.7 billion in federal COVID-19 relief, which must be spent over the next three years. That’s equal to roughly 10% of the state’s usual annual spending on schools, and there could be more on the way.

While the money is currently tied up in a political fight in Lansing, most of it will eventually go directly to school districts, where superintendents and state school boards will have broad discretion over how to spend it.

So far, nearly 300 schools representing 145,000 students — nearly 10% of the state population — have filled out a survey in order to participate in the state’s HVAC consultation program, and there is enough money for more schools to receive a free inspection. As of last week, the state had spent less than half of the $300,000 allocated for the inspections.

Many Michigan schools are more than 50 years old and don’t have modern air circulation systems capable of filtering the virus from the air. The state doesn’t help districts pay for their facilities, so districts are dependent on their local taxpayers to improve and maintain schools. That means many schools — especially in low-income areas — have gone without upgrades and essential maintenance.

Public health officials say that up-to-date ventilation systems are an important tool for reducing COVID-19 spread in school.

“Really good ventilation systems are helpful with some of those smaller particles,” said Natasha Bagdasarian, senior public health physician for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, during a state board of education meeting on Tuesday.

“Ventilation was something that was not stressed early on during the pandemic,” she added. “The thought was that if you kept people far apart there would not be any spread. We now understand that there are smaller particles that also contribute to spread, and those are aerosols.”

After learning about the state HVAC consultation program, David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers Michigan, a statewide teachers union, said he hoped more districts enrolled.

“My next step is to see how we can get more school districts to take advantage of this free analysis,” Hecker said.

From there, he said district leaders should consider using federal COVID-19 aid to improve their HVAC systems.

“We understand that this state does not provide a dime for infrastructure for schools, which has to change,” he said. “But we’re in this time where there is some money available for upgrades. So this is a time to get your HVAC system looked at and figure out what experts say is needed. Then use the money that is available. Ventilation systems need to be as good as they can be.”

Even before the federal aid arrives, there’s a lot schools can do to improve air quality and prevent the spread of COVID-19, even with outdated air systems and few resources.

Opening windows and doors, increasing air circulation in existing HVAC systems, and installing portable air purifiers are all effective methods of improving air quality.

“We should be doing everything we know to do,” Pugh said. “We should focus on addressing our soft spots, strengthening our building systems, our infrastructure, getting them up to par like they should have been years ago.”

Many Michigan schools lack air filters that would help fight COVID-19

2021-02-05T23:53:02+00:00

Tens of thousands of Michigan students are learning in classrooms with decades-old heating and ventilation systems that do little to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Across the U.S., few schools have invested in systems capable of pumping optimal amounts of fresh air into classrooms. The same holds true in the 285 Michigan schools that submitted information to the state in recent months about their heating and ventilation systems.

Few of those schools have filters capable of removing viral particles from the air, a key, experts say, to fighting the virus indoors.

“I would say that it is right up there right behind face masks,” said Stuart Batterman, a professor of environmental health sciences at University of Michigan and an expert on indoor air quality.

“You want to have decent filters. When you cannot open a window or be near an open window, having clean air coming to you through a filtered system is kind of like the equivalent,” he said.

The districts shared information about their HVAC systems as part of a state program that offers guidance on using heating systems in schools to fight COVID-19. They have combined enrollments of 145,000, or nearly 10% of students in the state, almost half of whom were learning in-person at the time of the survey. In more than a quarter of the schools, HVAC systems hadn’t been updated in 20 years or more.

Scroll down to see if your school district responded to the state’s HVAC survey.

Technical help available to schools

In Michigan, school districts aren’t required to report to the state about the condition of their HVAC systems.

More than 50 districts shared that information with the state in recent months as part of a program that offers free technical assistance to districts. In order to receive assistance, districts had to fill out a survey about their HVAC systems. Chalkbeat obtained the survey responses to date through a public records request.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy is paying for districts to consult with HVAC experts about how to improve the safety of their air during the pandemic.

So far, the department has spent less than half of the $300,000 available for the program. A department spokesman said they hope 200 districts will eventually sign up.

The state doesn’t fund improvements to those systems, leaving districts to rely on tax revenue from local communities. Many districts haven’t been able to afford the HVAC upgrades that would have helped them reduce the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms, although some have begun to make improvements with federal aid funds.

More students and teachers will likely report to classrooms this month than at any other point in the pandemic. New, more contagious variants of COVID-19 are spreading, and there is widespread concern about the safety of in-person learning.

There’s a lot any school can do to prevent infections in classrooms, even with an outdated HVAC system. They can require mask-wearing, sanitize surfaces, open windows, and keep class sizes small enough that students and teachers can space out. The available research and data suggest that Michigan schools have largely used these safety measures to prevent the virus from running rampant in classrooms.

But the fact remains that Michigan hasn’t invested enough in its schools to give them a critical tool in fighting COVID-19: up-to-date HVAC systems.

Nearly every student is attending class in person at Reynolds Elementary, a 350-student school in a rural area along Michigan’s southern border.

To limit the spread of COVID-19, students and staff wear masks and do their best to maintain 6 feet of separation. But their HVAC system isn’t much help. The school was built in 1955. The HVAC system was last updated in 1993, and it doesn’t use modern air filters.

“It’s kind of low tech,” said Principal Dennis Irelan. “Some teachers have windows open, fans blowing toward outside. We had classes outside as much as we could.”

The school has seen upwards of a dozen COVID-19 cases among students and staff since the fall. No one has fallen seriously ill so far, Irelan said.

When the school receives its share of federal coronavirus aid, Irelan said part of it will go toward installing modern heating ducts with air filters in the school.

“It’s working,” he said of the school’s efforts against COVID-19. “But we need to be better. Everyone is doing the best they can with what they’ve got.”

Meet MERV

One of the ways the coronavirus passes between people is through the air.

As an infected person breathes out in an indoor space, more virus particles float in the air. As more particles accumulate, other people are more likely to inhale them and become infected.

Some solutions to this problem are cheap and readily accessible to schools. Masks work. So does opening windows or increasing air circulation to bring more virus-free air into the building.

Another effective, if more expensive option is removing viral particles that are already floating in the air.

This is where air filters — and MERV — come in. MERV stands for minimum efficiency reporting value. It indicates how efficiently a filter removes particles from the air.

Most MERV-rated filters improve the air quality in a school, but only filters rated 13 or higher reliably catch the virus, Batterman said.

A MERV rating of eight was the most common among survey respondents, with 154 districts saying they use filters rated 10 or less.

Out of 286 schools that responded to the survey, 46 said they had filters rated 13 or higher. Another 86 didn’t share a filter rating, said they didn’t know what their filters were rated, or, in the case of one district, simply wrote “no idea.”

Improving air filtration in schools won’t be easy.

For starters, any school HVAC system may need dozens of filters, which need to be replaced as often as monthly. A single, standard MERV 13 filter of the type used in schools costs $20 online. The costs add up.

Even if districts could pay for filters, many don’t have systems capable of accommodating a MERV 13. Strong fans are required to push air through a MERV 13 filter.

“The higher the [MERV rating] the more it filters, but then the more resistance it has,” said Tom Kasefang, director of maintenance for the Lenawee Intermediate School District in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The district’s seven buildings were mostly built in the 1960s and ‘70s, and “some of the older systems aren’t capable of pushing the air through,” he said.

The district largely uses MERV 8 filters.

Kasefang knows that those filters won’t remove coronavirus particles from the air. He has compensated by increasing the amount of fresh air pulled in by the HVAC systems.

So far, the district has reported 82 COVID-19 cases among more than 1,400 students and staff, including more than five cases this week that shut down several district buildings.

Why don’t Michigan schools have up-to-date HVAC systems?

The answer comes down to funding.

Many schools haven’t invested in classroom air quality for decades due to a lack of funding and a lack of knowledge about the benefits of the invisible improvements, experts say.

“They just don’t have the money to do a lot of” air filtration and air circulation, said Jim Newman, a fellow at the Engineering Society of Detroit and an expert on indoor air quality. “That’s been the real problem.”

Funding for facilities improvements such as air circulation generally comes from a school’s local community, not the state.

Local school boards must ask residents to pay more in taxes to make major improvements. That’s much easier to do in wealthy areas, where high property values mean even a small tax increase can bring in enough money to make major repairs.

And it’s why school districts in low-income areas are least likely to have up-to-date HVAC systems now.

“The way that we fund capital improvements in the state is very disparate,” said Peter Spadafore, communications director for the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators.

Some schools are using federal COVID-19 relief funds, Spadafore said. Brandon School District in southeast Michigan upgraded all of its air filters and put additional, portable air purifiers in classrooms.

“For in-person learning, MERV 13 filters and air purifiers rank at the top along with social distancing and mask-wearing,” said Karl Heidrich, interim superintendent of the Brandon district.

Download the complete Michigan K12 HVAC Survey Results as of (as of Jan 20, 2021)

Whitmer creates council to help steer schools out of the pandemic

2021-02-04T19:34:30+00:00

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is tapping dozens of Michiganders to help schools chart their post-pandemic futures.

The governor’s Student Recovery Advisory Council, created Thursday through an executive order, is tasked with producing recommendations for supporting students’ academic and mental health.

“COVID-19 has exacerbated inequities in our education system, and we know more work is needed to address the significant impact this pandemic has had on our children,” Whitmer said in a statement. “This council will be integral to ensuring our students and educators are equipped with everything they need to thrive.”

The group’s recommendations will add to a growing national conversation about how best to help students bounce back from the upheaval caused by COVID-19. Typical proposals include tutoring programs, summer school, and adding days to the school year. The recommendations could influence how districts spend their share of $1.6 billion of federal COVID-19 aid that is headed to Michigan schools (those funds are currently being held up in a political battle between Whitmer and Republican lawmakers).

Parents, school leaders, educators, experts in public health, pediatrics, mental health, community members, and a student will have seats on the council. Chairing the group is Kevin Polston, superintendent of Godfrey-Lee public schools in suburban Grand Rapids.

Many members also served on the council that helped to guide Whitmer’s back-to-school recommendations this summer.

One notable addition: Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, school board president of the Detroit Public Schools Community District. No public school leaders from Detroit were included on the last council.

A list of council members is below. You can find their full bios here.

Kevin Polston, Grand Haven, superintendent of Godfrey-Lee Public Schools, was appointed to represent school leaders and is designated to serve as council chair.
Angela Blood Starr, Kalamazoo, regional school health coordinator for the Calhoun Intermediate School District, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Nicole Britten, St. Joseph, health officer for the Berrien County Health Department in Benton Harbor, was appointed to represent individuals with expertise in public health.
Craig Carmoney, Sanford, superintendent of Meridian Public Schools, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Johanna Clark, Frankenmuth, principal of Frankenmuth High School, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Mary Gebara, Okemos, trustee with the Okemos Public Schools board of education and chairperson of staff outreach for the Okemos Education Foundation, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Dominic Gonzales, Lincoln Park, high school senior in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, was appointed to represent students.
David Hecker, Huntington Woods, president of the American Federation of Teachers in Michigan, was appointed to represent community members.
Paula Herbart, Lansing, president of the Michigan Education Association, was appointed to represent community members.
Melissa Isaac, Mt. Pleasant, director of education for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Elizabeth Koschmann, Ann Arbor, licensed psychologist and an assistant research scientist in psychiatry at the University of Michigan, was appointed to represent individuals with expertise in mental health.
Stephen McNew, Monroe, superintendent of the Monroe County Intermediate School District, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Vic Michaels, Detroit, assistant superintendent of student services and athletics for the Archdiocese of Detroit Catholic Schools and director of the Catholic High School League, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Justin Michalak, Grosse Pointe Woods, assistant superintendent for special education for the Macomb Intermediate School District, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Faye Nelson, Grosse Pointe Woods, director of Michigan programs for the Kellogg Foundation, was appointed to represent community members.
Nicholas Paradiso III, Grand Rapids, vice president of government relations for National Heritage Academies, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Lisa Peacock, Traverse City, health officer for the Health Department of Northwest Michigan, was appointed to represent individuals with expertise in public health.
Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, Detroit, president of the Detroit Public Schools Community District board of education, vice chair of Detroit Youth Sports Commission, and a member of the Detroit Public Schools Foundation board of directors. Peterson-Mayberry was appointed to represent school leaders.
Bill Pink, Ada, president of Grand Rapids Community College, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Gwendolyn Reyes, Grand Blanc, assistant clinic director at the Hurley Children’s Clinic, director of the pediatric residency program at the Hurley Children’s Hospital, medical director for the Flint Community Schools Wellness Program, and a clinical assistant professor in the Michigan State University Department of Pediatrics and Human Development. Reyes was appointed to represent individuals with expertise in pediatrics.
Robert Shaner, Shelby Township, superintendent of Rochester Community Schools, was appointed to represent school leaders.
Anupam Chugh Sidhu, Canton, instructional technology manager for Wayne RESA and president of the Plymouth-Canton School Board, was appointed to represent parents

Detroit learning centers set to reopen Feb. 24; in-person instruction delayed until March

2021-02-01T16:15:50+00:00

The Detroit school district will reopen its learning centers Feb. 24, giving students learning online a safe, supervised space to learn during the day. But the district is pushing the return of face-to-face classes until the middle of March.

The in-person classes include face-to-face instruction from a teacher in a classroom. Learning centers house virtual learning classes inside a school building.

The Monday news comes after the Detroit Public Schools Community District suspended in-person classes and the learning centers in November because of rising COVID-19 cases. It also comes as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer urges schools to provide a face-to-face learning option for students by March 1.

The district had operated learning centers in all its buildings when the school year started. In those centers, students learn virtually, but they are under the supervision of support staff and school administrators. The centers have helped parents who work during the school day or are otherwise unable to supervise their children’s learning.

“Through our home visits and outreach to families and students, we know too many families and students are struggling with schools closed,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a statement Monday, reiterating a concern he raised during a school board committee meeting last week. He said then that school officials conducting home visits were finding some students learning at home with no supervision.

Vitti also raised concern about a significant drop in attendance for learning center students.

He has been a strong proponent of offering an in-person learning option for students. The district said earlier this year that in-person classes would begin again in early to mid February. The district did not say why the restart won’t happen until March, but said in a statement that it is committed “to resuming in person learning with teachers once the city’s positive infection rate is solidly below 5%.’

How far below 5% is unclear. The statement noted that the city’s “seven day positive rate has remained near 5%, with daily rates falling below 5%.”

When in-person classes begin in March, the district expects more students and teachers to participate. Survey results show the percentage of teachers willing to teach face-to-face is now 40%, up from 20% in the fall. The percentage of families wanting in-person learning has grown from about 25% to 50%, Vitti said last week.

He also said that principals are working through schedules to see what can be offered at various grade levels. A lot will depend on the ability to match teacher preference with parent demand in individual schools. Some schools, for instance, may only have enough teachers to offer in-person classes at some, but not all, grade levels.

Teachers will be required to get tested for COVID-19, as they were prior to the beginning of the school year.

More Detroit families and teachers want in-person learning, survey responses show

2021-01-25T21:09:06+00:00

More students and teachers are likely to show up when the Detroit school district reopens its doors for in-person learning next month, according to the latest results of an ongoing survey.

With about 80% to 90% of district teachers responding so far, 40% of them say they’re willing to teach face to face. That’s up from about 20% in the fall, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a school board committee meeting Monday.

The family survey shows 50% of parents who responded want their kids in school in person. That’s up from 25% in the fall, Vitti said.

Families can still take the survey here.

The discussion comes as more school districts transition from virtual learning to face-to-face learning in Michigan, where the positive COVID-19 cases are on the decline. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Jan. 8 urged school districts to offer an in-person option for students by March 1, if not earlier.

The Detroit district canceled in-person classes in November and transitioned students online because of rising COVID-19 cases. Vitti said earlier this month that he hoped to bring students back by mid-February.

Vitti said principals are working through schedules now to see what can be offered at various grade levels. A lot will depend on the ability to match teacher preference with parent demand.

It’s likely that some students will return to a hybrid model, where they’ll be in school some weekdays and learning at home on the days they’re not in the building.

“We will have very different situations at different schools,” Vitti said. “We’ll have some schools where all grade levels will offer in-person learning. We’ll have some schools that offer just kindergarten in-person learning.”

Superintendent Vitti wants some Detroit schools to be COVID-19 vaccination sites, speeding up access for teachers

2021-01-13T12:00:00+00:00

The Detroit school district, in a bid to increase access to the COVID-19 vaccine for its employees, is working with city officials to establish a handful of schools as sites for the shots.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti made that announcement during a school board meeting Tuesday night, a day after the state expanded access to the vaccine to include K-12 teachers and child care workers. In Detroit, school employees have been required to sign up for the vaccine through the city, with the vaccinations taking place at the TCF Center.

Noting that employees have reported long delays in getting through to the call line, Vitti said, “I believe we can help with access through our schools.”

Much is riding on educator vaccinations. State officials, in urging schools to provide more in-person learning options for students by March 1, see widespread vaccination of school staff as a clearer path toward that goal. But as quickly as many educators are signing up to get the vaccine, some teachers say they still won’t be comfortable going back to face-to-face classes until all of their colleagues are vaccinated and there is a vaccine for all children.

The vaccines would be available at selected high schools and large K-8 schools beginning late next week or the following week. The district is still working with the city health department to define the rollout efforts at schools.

Detroit school board has new leadership

Angelique Peterson-Mayberry was elected president of the Detroit school board Tuesday, the first change in leadership on the panel since it was established in 2017.

The board’s previous president, Iris Taylor, lost her seat on the board in November’s election. Two other board members who successfully ran for re-election — Sonya Mays and Misha Stallworth West — were sworn in at a school board organizational meeting Tuesday. New member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, who up until December was a state lawmaker, was also sworn in. Gay-Dagnogo is a former teacher in the district.

Peterson-Mayberry was previously the board’s vice president. The vote to elect her president was 5-2, with members Deborah Hunter-Harvill and Gay-Dagnogo voting no.

“Thanks to all of those who voted in favor and for those who didn’t, hey we are a team and we’re going to move on and do this work,” Peterson-Mayberry said after the vote.

Hunter-Harvill was elected vice president at Tuesday’s meeting.

Meanwhile, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced Tuesday he was hiring Taylor to be the director of nursing at the Detroit Health Department. Taylor is the former chief executive officer of Detroit Receiving Hospital.

The vaccines given at Detroit schools will not be available to the general public. School nurses will help administer the shots.

Vitti added he anticipates the district may receive a limited number of vaccines from the city’s health department, and the district may not be able to inoculate every employee.

Demand for the vaccine this week has been high, with city officials reporting they are adding additional employees to answer phones and schedule appointments. The first vaccines will be administered Wednesday at the TCF Center. While officials did not say how many of the early vaccine seekers are educators, media reports across the state indicate that teachers are interested in getting the shot. Older residents and other essential workers were among those who were able to get the vaccine beginning this week.

Elsewhere in the nation, state officials have been under scrutiny over the vaccine’s slow rollout for educators. New York state officials announced a new wave of vaccine eligibility for school workers, but cautioned it could take months for them to be inoculated. Chicago Public Schools reopened school campuses for prekindergarten and students with special needs, even though vaccinations aren’t yet officially available for school staff.

Michael Chrzan, who teaches at the School at Marygrove in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, plans to get the vaccine. But he said on Monday he won’t return to in-person learning until students also can be vaccinated. Currently, there is no vaccine available for children under the age of 16.

“I’m really uncomfortable with the idea of being 100% open and everyone getting back in the building,” he said. Although he would be protected from the virus, “I would hate to see ... these kids are getting sick.”

Another teacher wants to see the number of COVID-19 cases drop before returning to the classroom, even after getting inoculated. “I’m definitely taking the vaccine as soon as I can,” said Madeleine Battey on Monday, a teacher at Mumford High School.

“My hope is that we can get back to face-to-face before the end of the year, but with even offering the vaccination to teachers, the only way we can expect people to get back in the classroom is the case count,” she said.

If Detroit’s COVID-19 infection rate falls below 5% and stays constant, the district plans to offer in-person learning starting in February. The city’s current infection rate is about 7%. For the current 2020-21 academic year, district teachers had the option to work remotely and will continue to have that option. About 75% of Detroit district students were learning online before school buildings closed in November because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the city.

Districts can’t mandate the vaccine, but some may require teachers to report to classrooms anyway, Sarah Reckhow, an associate professor of political science at Michigan State University, said in an interview this week. Reckhow has worked on policy reform in Detroit and other cities nationwide.

Vitti said during the meeting that the district’s role isn’t to require the vaccine but instead to help create awareness.

If large numbers of teachers don’t take the vaccine in areas where cases surge, students may face more learning disruptions, such as staff quarantines and school closures, which would “keep those elements of instability alive,” Reckhow added.

The district wants to avoid such instability as the school year progresses.

“I don’t want to open again and close again this school year,” Vitti said.

In Detroit, some lingering distrust of the vaccine remains among Black people because of past bias and racism in healthcare. Results of a recent University of Michigan survey of Detroit residents found more than 60% of those who participated said they were unlikely to get the vaccine. About 1,641 residents were surveyed, and about 62% responded.

The district also plans to survey teachers and families beginning Wednesday, asking whether they prefer in-person, hybrid, or virtual learning, if teachers are willing to take the vaccine, and how vaccinations of staff will affect attitudes toward in-person learning.

New board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo said the district will play a key role in “removing the hysteria” over vaccine fears. She also suggested the district should allow teachers who’ve already taken the vaccine to share their experiences with other staff.

Member Misha Stallworth West said the district should play a role in educating staff and families about vaccine safety, but cautioned against becoming advocates for getting the vaccine.

“We know much of the skepticism in our community is well-earned,” she said.

District parent Jessica Ouinissi and other parents also question the safety of in-person classrooms, even if school staff take the vaccine.

“I still don’t know what the perfect scenario would look like for me to send her back,” she said in an interview last week.

When Carrie Russell’s students returned to Cody High school from winter break on Jan. 4, she asked them if they wanted to return to school campuses. She said Monday that most didn’t feel comfortable, while others said their parents would think it’s still too unsafe.

“If we come back, it doesn’t mean the kids will follow us,” she said.

Why $1.7 billion in COVID school aid won’t be spread equitably among children from low-income families

2021-01-08T22:14:40+00:00

Michigan schools are in line to receive roughly $1.65 billion in coronavirus relief from a federal aid package passed in December.

Critics of the aid formula worry that this round of funding will be even more inequitable than the last one because four times more money will be distributed through a controversial formula that accounts for district size and other factors that aren’t related to student poverty levels. That could leave smaller districts — even ones with high concentrations of poverty — more vulnerable to potential coronavirus-related budget cuts.

During the last round of coronavirus relief, much of the federal aid was routed through the state, which distributed the funds on a per pupil basis. In Michigan, as in many states, education funding increased this year with help from the federal aid, rather than the sharp decline predicted at the pandemic’s outset.

This time, the state government won’t receive anything (although the state’s department of education will receive roughly 10% of the school aid). That means that schools will receive far more money directly. Educators in Michigan worry that the state will cut budgets because it didn’t receive aid, leaving smaller districts that receive less aid especially vulnerable. The aid, which was announced Tuesday, is roughly equivalent to $1,100 per student. However, some districts will get much more than that, and many will get less — regardless of how many poor students they enroll.

Grand Rapids Public Schools is expected to receive $2,224 per student, while the Detroit Public Schools Community District will likely receive $6,740, and the Dearborn Heights School District $733 per pupil, according to an analysis by the Citizens Research Council, a nonpartisan Michigan think tank. In all three districts, 81% of students are considered economically disadvantaged.

Why does the formula spread the aid so unevenly? The federal COVID-19 aid for schools is being distributed using the same formula as Title I, the federal government’s largest school funding initiative. Title I experts have been arguing since last summer that the formula should not be used to distribute coronavirus aid.

Although the program aims to support students from low-income families, it doesn’t always achieve that goal. For instance, it sometimes routes more money to districts simply because they are larger, not because they have more poor students. Also, some states receive much more than others, and those states have managed to kill efforts to change the formula.

There are few limits on how schools can use the money, though they must plan to spend it by September 2023, according to the Citizens Research Council. Schools may spend the funds on technology to support remote instruction, mental health services, and summer or after-school programs.

While most of the money — about $1.5 billion — will go directly to school districts, about $166 million will be controlled by the Michigan Department of Education. Mark Greathead, superintendent of Woodhaven-Brownstown Schools and president of K-12 Alliance, an advocacy group, urged state officials to use their share of the funds to even out inequities created by the distribution formula.

“It’s critical that [state officials] quickly turn their share of the money around and distribute it to local schools on a simple per-pupil basis without strings attached to ensure that students, regardless of which school district they live in, are able to get the support they need,” he said in a statement.

Across the U.S., K-12 schools are slated to receive $54 billion in federal aid. Private schools are set to receive $2.8 billion subject to several restrictions, including that they can’t receive education aid and also apply for aid as small businesses.

Editor’s note: January 9, 2021: This story has been updated to show that schools must spend funds from the new round of federal aid by September 2023.

Gov. Whitmer urges Michigan schools to offer in-person learning by March 1

2021-01-08T17:44:50+00:00

With COVID-19 cases declining in Michigan and teachers set to receive vaccines beginning Monday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued her first specific recommendation about whether Michigan classrooms should be open.

Whitmer urged K-12 schools to offer an in-person learning option by March 1, if not earlier, during a press conference on Friday.

“The value of in-person learning for our kids is immeasurable and we need to do everything we can to help our kids get the great education they need, and to do it safely,” she said, adding that young students, students with special needs, and English learners especially struggle with virtual learning.

Whitmer asked schools to offer in-person learning, but did not require it. Local school boards may still choose to continue fully virtual learning.

Whitmer hadn’t previously called on schools to open their classrooms to students during the pandemic. Her recommendations came after President-elect Joe Biden vowed that schools will reopen within the first 100 days of his presidency. Over the summer, her administration released recommendations for reopening classrooms safely, but did not take a position on whether that was the right path.

At that time, the issue of school reopening had become bitterly partisan after President Donald Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made an unsuccessful effort to force schools to reopen.

Some teachers in many areas in the state have objected to in-person learning due to safety concerns. In Detroit, teachers sought to block school buses that were bringing the first students back to classrooms this summer.

Leaders of the state’s education unions, including its largest teachers union, said in a statement that “it’s time to work together to plan how to safely reopen schools.”

However, they stopped short of calling on schools to open by March 1, saying reopening decisions and the accompanying safety protocols must be made locally.

“As statewide organizations, we’re committed to supporting our local members in that planning process toward Gov. Whitmer’s March 1 goal of as much in-person learning as feasible, keeping the best interests of students at heart and with a close eye to everyone’s health and safety.”

State Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement that he believed the new recommendations would encourage more students and teachers to return to their classrooms.

“The guidance provided today will help get our students, teachers, and other staff members safely back into our schools and engaged in learning, which has been disrupted over the past 10 months,” he said, adding:

“In-person instruction matters,” Dr. Rice said. “Learning at a distance is not a substitute for in-person instruction for most children.”

Asked whether Whitmer’s new recommendations would increase the number of schools offering in-person instruction, Paul Liabenow, executive director of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association, said he hopes so.

“I hope that schools will provide an in-school option if it is at all feasible, per the governor’s guidance, unless community COVID-19 spread is growing in their district,” he said.

Bob McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance, a statewide school advocacy group, welcomed the recommendations, but said in a statement that widespread distribution of the vaccine would be necessary for schools to reopen.

“We will now need the support of our health officials to provide vaccines and guidance to ensure that teachers and students can return to classrooms safely and successfully,” he said.

Whitmer’s administration shuttered all Michigan high schools in November, then allowed them to reopen beginning in late December. Many schools in Michigan have only offered remote instruction in recent months due to a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Some districts have laid plans to reopen as cases fall and the first teachers prepare to get the vaccine. The Detroit Public Schools Community District said earlier this week that their students will be able to return to school in person in February.

Some critics believe that schools should have offered as much in-person instruction as possible in the early fall, before cases began to rise again. Many districts didn’t open their doors at all. Educators and parents say virtual education during the pandemic is exacting a heavy academic and emotional toll on many children.

Research based on COVID-19 data from this fall suggests that opening classrooms does not accelerate the spread of COVID-19 as long as the spread is low or moderate in surrounding communities.

Along with the new recommendations, Whitmer’s administration released a simplified version of its protocols for safe in-person instruction. Whitmer stressed that these measures should be in place for schools to open safely by March 1:

When feasible, assigning children to cohort groups and limiting their interactions to their cohorts to reduce the number of contacts.
Keeping children 6 feet apart from one another to the extent feasible, making creative use of school spaces to facilitate distancing.
Providing adequate hand sanitizing supplies and reinforcing proper handwashing techniques.
Improving air ventilation.
Having staff and students conduct self-screenings for symptoms at home every day before going to school

Six education issues we’re closely watching in Michigan in 2021

2021-01-04T22:15:12+00:00

The year 2020 may be over, but the challenges it brought to schools across the state because of the pandemic will persist — for months and possibly longer.

This new year brings plenty of questions about how Michigan’s public schools will continue to adapt to new ways of learning, as well as the pandemic’s long-term effects.

It’s been nearly 10 months since the first cases of COVID-19 hit, forcing schools to shift to online learning. The first half of this school year has been marked by debates about the safety of reopening schools, concerns about student achievement and student mental health, and the disappearance of thousands of students.

Here are six issues Chalkbeat Detroit will be watching during 2021:

A return to in-person learning?

A number of schools across the state halted face-to-face classes during the fall because growing numbers of COVID-19 cases were raising safety concerns. Many districts planned to reopen schools for in-person learning in January. But will that happen? And for how long? Much depends on what happens as a result of holiday gatherings. Schools in areas of the state that see spikes likely will have a difficult time transitioning from virtual instruction. And then there’s the question of what effects frequent transitions will have on students and teachers.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District, which halted its in-person classes in mid-November with plans to resume Jan. 11, told Chalkbeat Monday positive COVID-19 cases are still too high and they are now looking at a February return.

The vaccine effect

As Michigan continues to roll out COVID-19 vaccines, some are optimistic life will begin to return to normal. That’s especially the case given that teachers and other school employees will be among the first to receive the vaccine, after frontline essential workers such as hospital and emergency services staff.

But there are a lot of questions, such as whether large numbers of school staff will get vaccinated and whether they’ll feel safe returning to school after being vaccinated.

Some educators have argued that it won’t be safe to return to school until vaccines are widely given to students and staff. There is not yet a COVID-19 vaccine available for children under the age of 16. Also, some residents do not plan to get the vaccine. In Detroit, more than 60% of those surveyed recently said they were not likely to get it.

Improving online learning

We keep hearing that virtual learning is here to stay, even if it’s just for a small number of students. But will it improve? Students have complained about too much screen time, too many classes, too much isolation, and growing mental health challenges. In the Detroit district, a task force is being created to suggest changes.

Meanwhile, there are serious questions about whether schools will do a better job of serving the needs of students with special education needs, some of whom aren’t receiving the services they need to succeed.

Will students return?

Public school enrollment was down by 53,000 students this fall, according to unaudited figures Chalkbeat obtained last month. That’s far above the student count declines Michigan has been experiencing for well over a decade, and it’s particularly concerning because included in that overall number are 13,000 students who are unaccounted for.

Some of those students may be learning at home. Others may have moved to private schools. But some of those students likely aren’t being educated at all, which could have academic implications if and when they return to class.

If the enrollment declines continue into the next school year, they could affect how much money schools receive from the state.

A focus on literacy

Last year, Michigan officials put off requiring some third graders who are far behind in reading to repeat the grade. It’s unclear whether the law will be delayed another year. If it moves forward, the number of students who could be held back would likely increase because of the pandemic.

Also unknown is the fate of bipartisan legislation that would help students with dyslexia. The proposals would ensure students who show signs of dyslexia be identified in the early grades, and give educators more training to identify and work with dyslexic students.

Testing and accountability

Michigan’s standardized testing usually begins in the spring. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education allowed states to skip federal requirements for annual testing. Michigan is among the states that have asked for a waiver for the current school year.

Even if the state exams are cancelled this year, schools still must abide by Michigan requirements that they test students in the fall and spring to monitor student progress.

Michigan continues to halt in-person high school classes another 12 days

2020-12-07T20:46:10+00:00

High schools in Michigan will remain closed for in-person instruction for 12 more days starting Wednesday, as concerns rise over COVID-19 cases in the state, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Monday afternoon.

“The additional 12 days will allow the department to determine the full impact of the Thanksgiving holiday on the spread of COVID-19 across Michigan,” according to a statement from the state.

Students have been learning virtually since mid-November, when the state instituted a three-week pause that placed greater restrictions on restaurants, bars, and gyms. K-8 students were not affected.

The state announced the three-week pause on Nov. 15. It was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.

In addition to halting in-person learning at high schools and higher education institutions, the pause has shut down theaters, stadiums, arenas, casinos, group fitness classes, and organized sports. Restaurants and bars can open only for outdoor dining, takeout, and delivery.

Fewer children in Detroit and the rest of the state are eating school meals

2020-11-23T23:21:44+00:00

The number of students eating meals in the Detroit school district is way down this year, a pandemic-related problem that has officials wondering whether children who need meals aren’t getting them, or if their parents have found other sources of food.

In a typical school year, the district distributes 69,500 meals a day. With three quarters of the district’s students learning online since the beginning of the school year, that number has been reduced to about 16,000 meals a day since September, despite the district’s efforts to provide meals that can be picked up by students learning online.

Now that face-to-face instruction has been suspended until January, and all students will be learning online, the daily count is expected to drop to 4,000, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a finance committee meeting Friday morning.

Here’s where Detroit online learners can get meals during the fall

The declines raise concerns about the well-being of children, especially if their parents are not finding meals elsewhere. Nearly 90% of the students in the Detroit district are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, and many have relied on school to receive meals. Research shows that students who receive subsidized meals from school are less likely to struggle with hunger issues, obesity, and poor health.

It’s an issue being felt across the state and nation, particularly in districts with large numbers of students learning online, said Diane Golzynski, director of the office of health and nutrition services at the Michigan Department of Education.

The state education department has a comprehensive interactive map that helps connect parents to school locations where they can pick up meals, she said.

“But it appears that there are still struggles with getting the food. I don’t have hard data on why but my best guess is transportation, timing, and communication are the largest challenges,” Golzynski said.

Where to find free food:

Families have a number of options if they’re in need of meals during the pandemic. Here are just a few resources:

The Michigan Department of Education’s statewide map will connect families with the closest school meal distribution site.
The Detroit school district provides grab-and-go meals at every school on Mondays and Thursdays (see map above). During the week of Thanksgiving, the Thursday distribution date has been changed to Tuesday.
Gleaner’s Community Food Bank has mobile food sites throughout the region. Check out the list of upcoming dates and locations.
Call United Way’s 2-1-1 hotline, which will connect people to the closest place to access food.

We know there are even more resources out there for families. The United Way of Southeastern Michigan is trying to get a handle on where metro Detroit families are turning for help with food. If you’re a small agency or part of a grass-roots organization, reach out to Bryan.VanDorn@liveunitedsem.org.

You can also share that information with Chalkbeat and reach out at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Vitti, during Friday’s committee meeting, said he believes the numbers are down largely because parents have found other sources of food.

“My sense is that families will continue to rely on other sources,” Vitti said. That may change, though, as COVID-19 cases rise and if the state moves toward a lockdown, he said.

The decline in meals served has community agencies like the United Way of Southeastern Michigan (a Chalkbeat funder) seeking ways to understand the challenges facing families and to get a handle on where families are getting food.

The agency is “engaging both funders and research institutions to study the current state of food security in Detroit as well as the impact that COVID-19 has had on individual family’s access to food resources,” said Bryan VanDorn, manager of health and basic needs for the agency

The drop in school meals also is sparking discussions in the Detroit district about how to keep the 550 staff members in the food and nutrition department employed.

During the Friday committee meeting, Vitti recommended using COVID-19 relief funds or dipping into the district’s $106 million general fund balance, which is set aside for dealing with catastrophes and addressing pressing building repairs. Using one of those two sources would allow the district to cover the $7 million that would be needed to maintain current staff levels.

Another option, Vitti said, would be to proceed with layoffs, but he said “I don’t think our district wants to go through layoffs.” Some employees, though, might be willing to accept a voluntary layoff, he said.

The board will decide what to do at an upcoming meeting.

“This is a really terrible and unfortunate situation, probably one of the most difficult we have faced … in the last few years,” said board member Sonya Mays, the committee chair.

Maintaining food service staff is something other districts are grappling with, Golzynski said. And the issues go beyond serving enough meals to keep everyone employed to also include keeping staff healthy so they can work and finding staff willing to work during a pandemic.

Unlike some other district jobs that can be done remotely, food service workers must work in person, Vitti said.

Every school in the district has served as a grab-and-go site where parents can pick up meals two days a week. On Mondays, they receive three breakfasts and three lunches. On Thursdays, they receive four breakfasts and four lunches, enough to carry them through the weekend. The goal has been to keep as many locations open as possible so parents have easy access to meals, said Machion Jackson, assistant superintendent of operations.

The district also has made meals available to parents and students regardless of whether they’re enrolled in a district school, Jackson said.

“There’s no governance structure when it comes to feeding children,” she said.

As the number of COVID-19 cases grows, the Detroit district is offering free testing to staff and families

2020-11-19T21:17:58+00:00

As positive cases surge across the city, the Detroit school district is offering free COVID-19 testing to staff and families to help mitigate community spread of the disease.

Free testing will be available beginning from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday through Sunday at the Golightly Education Center in Detroit. The Detroit Public Schools Community District is partnering with Wayne State University and Henry Ford Health System to offer the testing. After this weekend, testing will be available at several district schools through mid-December. Appointments aren’t necessary to get tested.

“As COVID rates have been increasing in the city and state, the importance of access to testing has also increased,” said Alycia Meriweather, the district’s deputy superintendent of partnerships and innovation.

The district suspended in-person learning until at least January due to rising COVID-19 cases in the city. The number of people who tested positive in Detroit had reached 6%. When the school year began, school officials made it clear in-person learning would stop if the rate of positive tests fell between 5% and 7%.

State data show the district has COVID outbreaks at Earhart, Munger, and Western International schools. Schools are considered an outbreak site if local health departments report two or more cases of COVID-19 on school grounds, and if the patients may have shared exposure on school grounds and are from different households. The three outbreaks in the district involve staff.

Michigan halts in-person learning in all high schools for 3 weeks as COVID cases rise

2020-11-16T01:32:05+00:00

High schools across Michigan have been ordered to shut down in-person learning for three weeks as COVID-19 cases surge across the state, part of sweeping new orders officials say are necessary to slow the spread of the deadly virus.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the orders from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Sunday afternoon. The policy targets indoor residential gatherings and other group activities.

The Sunday announcement comes several days after the Detroit Public Schools Community District shut down in-person learning until January and as school districts across Michigan move classes to online learning because of the increase in COVID cases.

In addition to ordering high schools and colleges to move to remote learning, the new orders:

Allow bars and restaurants to remain only open for outdoor dining, carryout and delivery.
Prohibit gyms from holding group exercise classes but allow them to remain open for individual exercise.
Closes casinos, movie theaters, and group exercises.
Allows only professional and college sports to continue, without spectators. Other organized sports must stop.

The rules go into effect Wednesday.

“Right now, there are thousands of cases a day and hundreds of deaths a week in Michigan, and the number is growing,” Whitmer said. “If we don’t act now, thousands more will die, and our hospitals will continue to be overwhelmed. We can get through this together by listening to health experts once again and taking action right now to slow the spread of this deadly virus.”

The state says there have been fewer COVID outbreaks in elementary and middle schools.

“In-person K-8 schooling may continue if it can be done with strong mitigation, including mask requirements, based on discussion between local health and school officials,” state officials said in a statement.

Child care facilities can also remain open for working parents, the state said.

The head of the Michigan Association of School Boards said in a statement Sunday that the organization supports the new orders.

“Public schools have had processes in place since late summer to limit community spread, but we recognize the effect of not being able to adequately staff schools as employees are either diagnosed with the virus or need to quarantine due to contact,” Don Wotruba, executive director of the organization, said. “We hope that reducing the number of employees and students in our buildings for three weeks will positively contribute to lowering the numbers in our state while still allowing our most vulnerable student populations to receive the face-to-face instruction that best meets their learning needs.”

Michigan recorded 7,072 positive cases of the virus Sunday, for a total of 251,813 since March. Cases have been rapidly rising for weeks.

Detroit district halts in-person learning due to growing number of COVID-19 cases in the city

2020-11-12T22:10:24+00:00

The Detroit school district is suspending in-person learning and its learning centers until at least Jan. 11 due to an increase of positive COVID-19 cases in the city. The closures are effective beginning Friday.

The announcement comes as the public health crisis escalates in the state. Positive cases have surged in the city and across Michigan to levels higher than what the state experienced in the spring. Hospital executives warned Thursday that hospitalization rates are rapidly rising. And for weeks, districts across the state — including those in West Bloomfield, Troy, and Bloomfield Hills — have abandoned their in-person lessons for virtual learning. Others that started the year online with plans to move to face-to-face classes around this time have said they won’t make that transition.

Similar decisions are being made across the U.S. On Thursday, Indianapolis health officials ordered all K-12 schools to return to virtual learning.

In Detroit, district leaders made it clear before the beginning of the school year that in-person learning would be halted if positivity rates crept up to 5% to 7%.

“Based on this week’s reporting, the infection rate will reach 6% or higher by Friday. There are no signs that these rising numbers will decrease soon,” superintendent Nikolai Vitti wrote in an email sent to staff around 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

“The district reopens after winter break on Jan. 4. If positivity rates decrease by that point, then it will allow the district and schools time to reorganize for the continuation of in-person learning.”

Full online learning across the district will begin Monday. Vitti said in his email that it was important to give families a couple of days to prepare.

Schools will remain open to distribute laptops to families, academic materials, meals, and medical support from nurses. Starting Dec. 1, the district will open 12 technology support sites, where parents can get help with online learning, device repair, and replacement.

The decision to suspend in-person learning is the latest challenge for the Detroit district. Just 25% of the district’s students opted to attend school in person. And some of the students learning online have complained about glitches and schedules that are too packed.

Vitti had urged school administrators to consider offering face-to-face or hybrid learning options for the second quarter if enough staff were willing to work inside school buildings. He has been a strong proponent for in-person learning.

Last month, Vitti reported that enrollment on the official Count Day was down by about 3,000 students. Enrollment declines have been reported across the state and nation.

Iris Taylor, president of the Detroit school board, said in a statement that the priority now is the safety of students.

“We are listening and making the necessary adjustments to uphold our commitment to provide the best public education option for Detroit’s students and that their opportunity is equitable for every family,” Taylor said.

Since the beginning of the school year on Sept. 8, 81 students and staff known to the district have tested positive for COVID, including 10 in the last week. State data show the district has COVID outbreaks at Earhart, Munger and Western International. Schools are considered an outbreak site if local health departments report two or more cases of COVID-19 on school grounds, and if the patients may have shared exposure on school grounds and are from different households. The three outbreaks in the district involve staff.

In addition to the students who were enrolled in face-to-face classes, some students have spent their school day in learning centers, which were created for them to complete their online classes inside school buildings. The learning centers, which were staffed by nonteachers, primarily benefited working parents who needed a safe place for their children to learn during the school day. The district said it would keep those centers open through Monday to support parents struggling to find an alternative means of support for their children.

The health and safety of students and staff inside school buildings has been a top concern in Detroit. Some parents and teachers protested against the decision to resume face-to-face instruction when schools reopened on Sept. 8. Some have continued to organize protests, with one held as recently as last week. The district has made considerable investments in COVID-safety protocols, such as masks, increased cleaning supplies, and the district reduced face-to-face class sizes.

District parent Ebony Graves’ two children were taking face-to-face classes at Schulze Academy of Technology and Arts. Graves said the transition to virtual learning will be challenging, but agrees with the decision.

“It is what it is at this point. Cases are going up. There’s nothing I can do or say. I’m not mad about it. We have to do what we have to do to keep people safe,” she said. “I’m a healthcare worker and I know how crucial it is right now. This is the best solution.”

The activist group By Any Means Necessary had urged the district to shut down in-person learning this fall. BAMN activist and district teacher Ben Royal called the district’s decision a victory for the people of Detroit but said schools should not reopen at all this school year.

“The schools just need to remain closed until the pandemic is contained,” Royal said, citing a need for mass testing and a vaccine. “We need a plan to make sure virtual education succeeds. Any talk about returning is just premature. We can’t keep having that conversation.”

This Detroit math teacher’s formula for connecting with students: forgiveness and a love of sports

2020-10-14T20:17:11+00:00

There are no bad yesterdays in Raven Fisher’s virtual high school math classroom.

Bad days? Sure. There’s an ongoing pandemic, for one thing, she’s teaching in a new virtual format, and many of her students at Central High School in Detroit are still building their fundamental math skills.

But Fisher has cultivated a short memory for the tough moments.

“I’m always like, ‘Okay, tomorrow is a new day. Yesterday was horrible, but today, everything is brand new,’” she said.

That attitude has seen her through five years as a teacher in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, where she’s known for developing especially strong bonds with students in the classroom.

Her relationship-building strategy involves forgiveness, a spirit of collaboration, and sports.

If her students are athletes, she stops by their games, building a rapport with them that comes in handy when they are struggling with a math concept.

If that doesn’t work, she isn’t afraid to ask for their help, telling them: “What I’m doing right now, we both know it isn’t working. So what can we do differently?”

We spoke with Fisher about her favorite bouncy ball lesson, her path into teaching, and her stance on whether students should keep their webcams on during virtual class.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Was there a moment when you decided to become a teacher?

I was working in high school at a summer camp where they paid kids to come and improve their foundational skills. I got hired as an assistant for the math class. That’s when I realized, “Hey, there’s a lot of kids with problems with their foundational math skills.” I was pretty good at math at a time and I was like, “Ok, this is where I’m needed.”

How do you get to know your students?

I ask, “Who has a game today?” Even though we’re in virtual learning, I try to go to at least one of their games, as school sports are still taking place. I’ve been to a football game, a cross country meet, a volleyball game. I still need to go to a swimming meet.

They really like it. It’s always nice to see someone in the crowd who they sort of know.

With the pandemic, I had to be like, “Which one [is my student]? Let me see your face.” Because a lot of the kids don’t turn on their cameras.

How do you think about whether students should turn on their webcams during virtual class?

I highly recommend it, but I don’t require it because you never know what’s going on in a student’s home. On computers you know you can take screenshots, and you don’t want a student to be the victim of bullying.

Plus, a lot of students who I know from last year have gained more confidence with their cameras off. I’m not sure why, but they’ve been speaking up with their camera off. I think it just really depends on the student.

Tell us about a favorite lesson to teach — this can be pre-COVID or virtually. Where did the idea come from?

We have a new curriculum now. In one of my favorite lessons the students bounce a bouncy ball to learn about exponential decay. It gets the kids really active. They’re up and out of their seats, and they really get a visual.

A lot of students started using their phones, and [filming] in slo-mo. They even started taping rulers up against the wall. They started using other skills to do the math. It was really cool.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your class?

I’ll get a lot of students saying, “Hey, I can’t make it to class today because so-and-so passed away.” I’m not sure if people are passing because of COVID, but I’ve been getting a lot of messages about that.

And I can’t see their faces so I can’t say, “Hey, so-and-so looked really down today, let me go and talk to them.”

Some students are willing to say, “Hey, this happened to me, can I have a little bit more time?” But there are others who aren’t saying anything, and you don’t know if they’re okay, and if they’re just not doing the assignment or if there’s something going on with their lives.

That’s big during the pandemic, just not knowing what’s going on with your students.

Tell us about your path to the school where you’re currently teaching.

I feel like I should be where people need me. I feel like I can be of the most assistance in Detroit. I can remember college professors asking me, “Are you sure you want to go to Detroit to teach?” My mom asked me several times during college — ”Are you sure about this Raven, are you sure?” I had to say “yes” a lot of times.

Plus, when I was in high school and college I never had a Black math teacher, or a Black female math teacher, and I just feel like our kids should have teachers who look like them.

Have you learned anything about teaching math by teaching math virtually?

During the pandemic, a lot of students are writing in the chat, they’re explaining their mathematics in paragraph form. It’s not just numbers and symbols. I’ve learned that sometimes that’s a lot better than having them solve an equation.

Detroit Superintendent Vitti wants more face-to-face learning to encourage 3,000 missing students to attend class

2020-10-14T02:28:45+00:00

Enrollment in the Detroit school district is down by 3,000 students compared with this time last year, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a school board meeting Tuesday.

What that number means is unclear because, like last year, the district still has about another month to find these students. When data last year was official at the end of the count period, the district had 51,000 students.

Count Day enrollment numbers must be audited by intermediate school districts, which provide services for schools. The numbers are then sent to the state. The count is more difficult this year because school leaders have to account for students learning in person and online, which is more difficult than last year’s process.

Schools across the state are reporting dips in their preliminary enrollment numbers. Flint Community Schools lost about 500 students compared with last year’s fall count, and Kalamazoo Public Schools lost 248 students.

“I’m very concerned where we stand as a district on student achievement,” Vitti told board members about the large number of missing students. He also was alarmed about students stressed over the academic year, parents struggling to support learning at home, and potential increases in chronic absenteeism.

Losing 3,000 students, even with about a month to boost those numbers, is a significant effect of the pandemic, which has disrupted learning for district students and staff. For weeks, the district has mobilized staff and volunteers to canvass neighborhoods, knocking on the doors of students who haven’t shown up for face-to-face or virtual classes. They’ve been successful in getting 1,000 students in school.

But that still leaves 3,000 students unaccounted for. The loss won’t be a financial hit for the district this year because the state changed the way it is calculating funding for schools. It will, however, hit next year. In Michigan, state funding follows students, so in ordinary years every student lost means a loss of per-pupil funding. The change in state law for this year, because of the pandemic, lessens that blow.

Vitti warned that student absenteeism is climbing this year. A student is chronically absent if they miss 18 or more instructional days in a school year.

In the 2018-2019 academic year, 70% of the students in the Detroit district were chronically absent. The rate improved to 63% in 2019 after the district launched several initiatives, including putting an attendance agent in every school. Chronic absenteeism is also a problem for some of the city’s charter schools.

Although some schools now offer fully remote learning, Vitti urged school administrators to consider offering face-to-face or hybrid instruction during the next grading period to help encourage students to attend classes. A hybrid learning option would have students split time between in-person and remote classes during the week, if enough teachers and staff are willing to work inside school buildings.

“Principals are gonna be at the driver’s seat at this change,” he said.

Board treasurer Sonya Mays asked if the district could improve its efforts to engage students in online learning.

“Is there a way to do online learning better to capture these children?” Mays said. “We’re going to have a lot of kids who won’t be in a face-to-face situation for the next three to six months,” she said, noting that families may still feel it’s unsafe to return to school buildings due to the pandemic.

In the first month of the school year, there have been many complaints from students, parents, and teachers about too much screen time and jam-packed online schedules.

In response to those complaints, Vitti said he is urging school leaders to reduce screen time for students and to offer office hours to support online engagement. Schools may also adjust online schedules based on student and parent demand. The district must approve all schedule changes.

The district is also expanding Parent Academy workshops to help families navigate online learning tools. Yet Vitti stressed that online learning was “not designed for K-2 children.” About 40% of the missing students are in grades K-3.

Parents have been struggling without enough food for their households or a lack of child care, Vitti said, which could also affect the parents’ ability to support learning at home.

“Learning is not the number one priority at this time,” for these struggling parents, he said.

Board member Deborah Hunter-Harvill recommended another board study session to discuss other strategies to support families. A study session was held earlier this year to discuss the district’s reopening plan.

“It all goes back to the fact that our families don’t have everything they need,” she said.

Michigan health department tells school districts to post all COVID data online

2020-10-06T19:35:25+00:00

Schools must notify their communities of all COVID cases linked to their schools, Michigan’s top health official ruled Tuesday.

The order effectively replaces a virtually identical one from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer after the Michigan Supreme Court nullified her executive orders last week. Like the mask requirement issued yesterday by the Department of Health and Human Services, the new coronavirus reporting order stems from a different legal authority than the one at issue in the court’s recent decision.

“Recent outbreaks throughout the country demonstrate that COVID can spread quickly in the school setting,” said Robert Gordon, director of the state DHHS. “Timely communication from schools to parents, guardians, students, teachers, staff and other persons affiliated with schools enables members of the school community to take measures to prevent spread of the virus.”

Michigan has faced criticism in recent weeks for a lack of transparency around coronavirus cases in schools. The state has reported dozens of cases in schools, but cases were left off the list if they didn’t meet the definition of an outbreak, and some of the reported data may have been as much as a week old.

Under the new orders from the Department of Health and Human Services, local health departments must report all new cases linked to schools within 24 hours. Schools are required to post information about the cases in a prominent place on their websites within 24 hours of learning about them. The state will continue posting weekly updates on school outbreaks on its website.

Cases must be reported if they affect “students, teachers, staff members, coaches, volunteers, or any other person who was present on school property or at a school function under circumstances that may result in the transmission or contraction of COVID during their infectious period,” according to the order.

The order takes effect at 8 a.m. on October 12.

A coalition of news organizations called the Michigan School-Related COVID Outbreak Transparency Coalition has pressed the state to keep the public better informed about coronavirus cases in schools.

“Are schools/health departments really going to deny parents and educators this information?” Lisa McGraw, spokesperson for the Michigan Press Association, which is part of the coalition, said in a statement.

UPDATE: Michigan has 18 new K-12 schools with COVID outbreaks

2020-10-05T22:53:51+00:00

UPDATED 10/05/20: The number of Michigan schools with coronavirus outbreaks continues to grow, with the number now reaching 58, according to data the state released Monday.

Schools are considered an outbreak site if local health departments report two or more COVID-19 on school grounds, and if the patients may have shared exposure on school grounds and are from different households.

The data, released every Monday around 3 p.m., show 18 new outbreak sites in K-12 schools this week. There are also 39 schools with ongoing outbreaks. A school can come off the list if there are no new confirmed or probable cases identified 28 days after the last known exposure at the school.

Holy Redeemer, a private that has reported 11 cases, is the first Detroit school on the state list.

Some of the data may be a week old.

Here are the schools added to the state’s list this week:

Holy Redemer Grade School, Detroit

Walkerville Public Schools, Walkerville

Galesburg Augusta Primary School, Galesburg

Lakeview Elementary, Negaunee

Park Elementary, Hudsonville

List Elementary, Frankenmuth

Saginaw Preparatory Academy, Saginaw

Grant Public Schools, Grant

Heritage Christian School, Hudsonville

Newaygo Public Schools, Newaygo

Grand Blanc Building and Grounds, Grand Blanc

Grand Blanc High School West Campus, Grand Blanc

Northwest High School, Jackson

Rockford High School, Rockford

Almont High School , Almont

Tecumseh High School, Tecumseh

Montcalm Area ISD, Stanton

Lutheran Westland High School, Westland

Scroll down for more information. To see the state’s full list, go here.

UPDATED 9/28/20: The number of Michigan schools with coronavirus outbreaks continues to grow, with the number now reaching 46, according to data the state released Monday.

Schools are considered an outbreak site if there are two or more cases of COVID suspected of originating on school grounds.

The data, released every Monday around 3 p.m., show 21 new outbreak sites in K-12 schools. There are also 25 schools that were listed prior to this week. A school can come off the list if there are no new confirmed or probable cases identified.

Beginning Oct. 5, local schools will be required to publicly release any positive or probable COVID cases, whether or not they’re suspected of originating on school grounds.

Here are the schools added to the state’s list:

Carson City Elementary, Carson City
Chippewa Valley Schools Administration, Clinton Township
Indian Hills Elementary, Washington
Macomb Intermediate School District, Clinton Township
Chapman Elementary School, Rockwood
University Liggett School, Grosse Pointe Woods
Atherton Elementary School, Burton
Kent City Elementary School, Kent City
Holy Name Catholic School, Escanaba
Webster Kindergarten Center, Escanaba
Shumate Middle School, Gibraltar
Escanaba Junior/Senior High School
Webberville School, Webberville
Springport High School, Springport
Bronson Community School, Bronson
Coldwater High School, Coldwater
Carlson High School, Rockwood
Swartz Creek High School, Swartz Creek
Lakeshore High School, Stevensville
Sparta High School, Sparta
Leelanau School, Glen Arbor

Scroll down for more information. To see the state’s full list, go here.

UPDATED 9/21/20: New data released by the state shows the number of K-12 schools with coronavirus outbreaks has risen to 28. Last week, there were 11 K-12 locations. One school, the state list indicates, is no longer considered an outbreak site.

These are the schools added to the state’s list Monday:

Central Elementary School, Menominee
St. Martha’s School, Okemos
Superior Hills, Marquette
Brookfield Academy, Troy
Sparta Middle School, Sparta
Salina Intermediate School, Dearborn
Grand Blanc High School, Grand Blanc
Blissfield Schools, Blissfield
Utica High School, Shelby Township
Airport High School, Carleton
Novi High School, Novi
West Ottawa High School, Holland
Unity Christian High School, Hudsonville
Wolverine Human Services, Saginaw
Arnold Elementary, Michigan Center
Caledonia High School, Caledonia
Grandville High School, Grandville
Divine Child High School, Dearborn

Scroll down for more information.

Classrooms have reopened in many parts of Michigan for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and — after initial resistance — state officials are publishing information about COVID-19 cases in schools.

K-12 schools so far have reported 11 coronavirus outbreaks — clusters of two or more cases that may have been transmitted on school grounds, according to data released Monday. The cases have occurred at elementary and secondary schools scattered across nine counties; the outbreaks amounted to a total of 33 cases among students and staff.

The new data doesn’t yet give a clear picture of how safe in-person learning will prove to be during the pandemic. The state plans to publish updated figures every Monday at 3 p.m. on its website.

There’s no guarantee that the numbers won’t take a turn for the worse in coming weeks: They may be as much as a week old, and many students have only been in school for five days. What’s more, even a single case of the coronavirus is dangerous for the infected student and has the potential to spark a wider outbreak in their communities. And the data released on Monday don’t include cases reported at schools that were contracted off campus.

Still, the data suggest at least that it’s safer to send students back to K-12 classrooms than to a college campus, which have seen much larger outbreaks connected to student parties. More than 1,300 cases have been identified on college campuses in Michigan.

Michigan has 1.5 million public school K-12 students. Nearly 90% of schools are offering some form of in-person instruction (it’s not yet clear what percentage of students are learning fully online).

Some of the cases included in data published by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services were previously reported by local news outlets.

Other cases reported in schools aren’t included in the data because they don’t meet the epidemiological definition of an outbreak.

Two students who attended in-person classes last Tuesday and Wednesday at the Academy of Americas in Detroit tested positive for COVID-19. The students, one third-grader and one seventh-grader, were asymptomatic.

Detroit Health Department Medical Director Najibah Rehman said that the department found that “the cases did not meet outbreak criteria as they were epidemiologically linked to a household contact such as a parent. As such, the Health Department recommended that classmates undergo self-monitoring and temperature checks and that the two students not be allowed to return to school, in adherence to CDC-recommended 14 days following a confirmed positive test.”

The district sent a robocall to families and school staff on Friday informing them of the positive cases. Based on the city health department’s analysis and consultation with school administrators, the department is not recommending students and teachers in the classes quarantine because safety measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing were followed, according to a copy of the robocall obtained by Chalkbeat.

Each student who tested positive cannot return to school buildings until that student submits a negative COVID-test.

The two students along with another sibling underwent COVID testing last week after their parent self-reported testing positive to the school, and city health officials confirmed it. The third student tested negative for COVID and was also asymptomatic. Detroit Public Schools Community District spokesperson Chrystal Wilson said the district is anticipating positive cases among staff and students learning in person.

“This is inevitable. We have seen this in the district, in other districts throughout Michigan, including suburban, rural, and private schools, all of which have moved forward with offering face-to-face options for students despite positive cases,” she said. “The key is containment and transparency. We believe we are implementing all of the best practices for COVID safety. In fact, after four days of implementing our COVID safety commitments, we are not hearing examples of non-compliance with over 100 buildings in operations.”

Click here to view the school outbreak data. K-12 schools with reported outbreaks include:

Oakland Christian Elementary School
Bright Beginnings
Birmingham Groves Big Brother Big Sister Program
Notre Dame Preparatory School
Jenison High School
St. Clair County RESA
Luce Road Elementary - Alma Public Schools
Keicher Elementary (9/21/20 update: This school is no longer considered an outbreak site)
Arrowwood Elementary
Parkside Elementary
Thornapple Kellogg Middle School

Schools must still require masks under new rule, even though Whitmer’s orders no longer stand

2020-10-05T22:49:29+00:00

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders are no longer valid, but students still must wear masks in schools.

New orders from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services keep many of Whitmer’s key pandemic policies in place. Last week, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Whitmer “lacked the authority” to issue broad public health orders.

Health said they intended to tap a different legal authority to continue Whitmer’s orders as much as possible.

“In this moment of emergency action following the Supreme Court’s destabilizing order, We aim to preserve the status quo,” Bob Gordon, director of DHHS, said during a phone call with reporters on Monday.

For most of the coronavirus pandemic, Whitmer had the last word about school policy. Throughout the public health crisis, she declared a state of emergency that enabled her to issue dozens of executive orders that went beyond the usual scope of her powers as governor.

In recent months, Whitmer worked with the legislature to enshrine some key policies — such as how to calculate attendance during remote learning — into law. But other school-related rules, such as a recent classroom mask requirement for K-5 students, were only backed by one of Whitmer’s executive orders.

While the mask requirement has been reinstated, it’s unclear whether schools will still be required to report coronavirus cases or whether school boards will still be allowed to meet virtually, as Whitmer ordered last month.

The DHHS rules are based on a different legal authority than Whitmer’s executive orders, Gordon said. The rules go into effect immediately and expire on Oct. 30, at which point the department may amend them based on feedback from across the state, he added.

For many school leaders, the Supreme Court decision opened up uncomfortable conversations about face coverings, which have become a divisive political issue.

“A lot of people are interpreting the orders to mean that their kids no longer have to wear face coverings to school,” said Brad Banasik, legal counsel for the Michigan Association of School Boards. “That’s not the case.”

Peter Spadafore, a spokesperson for the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, which represents the leaders of nearly 600 Michigan school districts, said his organization is counseling districts to stick with their existing plans as much as possible.

“That’s what your staff has worked on. That’s what your parents have understood,” he said.

Whitmer and top Republican lawmakers have pledged to work together to resolve issues left outstanding by the Supreme Court ruling, but it’s not clear how quickly their solutions will come. The legislature was scheduled to be on recess until after the November election.

The new orders from DHHS didn’t tie up all the loose ends created by the Supreme Court decision, said Don Wotruba, president of the Michigan Association of School Boards. Whitmer’s orders allowed school boards to hold virtual meetings; now it’s not clear if they can do so legally.

“Our members and the districts they serve need clear guidelines regarding functions that are integral to the operation of our school communities, such as the legality of virtual school board meetings,” he said. “We call on the legislature to work in a swift and bipartisan fashion.”

Child care gets a boost with new Michigan budget, but structural problems remain

2020-09-25T21:07:23+00:00

Michigan’s new budget extends lifelines to working parents who have struggled during the pandemic to find care for their children — including school-aged children — and to child care providers whose businesses are at risk of closing.

Advocates noted that the new funds come amid widespread budget cuts due to the coronavirus pandemic, and said they were encouraged by the move to help stabilize existing child care programs while offering services to more families.

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” said Erica Willard, executive director of the Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children.

The additional funding amounts to a stop-gap measure, not the overhaul of the child care system that many advocates say was badly needed even before the pandemic, Willard added. Providers have long argued that state payments are unreliable and too small to adequately pay their staff. Teachers of young children make so little money that their own children often qualify for state child care subsidies. And child care offerings in working class cities like Detroit often don’t come close to meeting parent demand.

Those issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and the new budget includes several measures that expand child care access while helping providers weather plummeting enrollment.

The state had refused to pay for child care for K-12 students who are learning online, forcing some low-income parents to choose between going to work and caring for their children, Chalkbeat reported this week.

The new budget offers a solution, setting aside $18 million in federal relief funds that will allow providers to support school-aged children during the virtual school day.

That’s welcome news to parents like Princess Bradley, who was forced to pull her three children out of child care last week and take days off work because the state wouldn’t cover their tuition.

“It’s definitely relieving that I know that my kids will actually be safe and cared for while I’m working, and I’ll still be able to provide for my family,” she said.

Still, the new funds won’t be available until Oct. 1, and Bradley asked why the funds weren’t in place before the start of the school year.

“It should have already been on the table,” she said.

The money for K-12 students could also help child care providers keep their doors open. Many are struggling financially during the pandemic as enrollment craters.

“It means that we’ll at least be able to cover the overhead,” said Monique Snyder, owner of Brainiacs Clubhouse, who lost a dozen school-aged students, including Bradley’s children, when the state said it wouldn’t pay their subsidies. “We’ll be able to bring kids back. With this avenue at least we’ll be able to serve the community and prevent kids from being left at home.”

State officials said that 14,000 children are eligible to receive the subsidy, but noted that the state will only pay for their care if they don’t have the option of returning to school in person. That means students won’t be eligible if they attend the Detroit Public Schools Community District, which is offering in-person learning. However, the district is providing space for students to learn online during the day while their parents work.

Denise Smith, implementation director of Hope Starts Here, a Detroit-based philanthropic child care initiative, said the state shouldn’t deny child care to school-aged children just because their parents don’t want them to attend in-person classes: “Parents should be given a choice.”

Some providers said the new funding doesn’t go nearly far enough. The budget allows centers to bill the state for an additional 60 hours when children are absent — a major issue during the pandemic — those extra hours will soon be used up, said Nina Hodge, a board member of the advocacy group Providers for Change and the owner of Above and Beyond Learning Center.

“We’re going to be through with those hours in probably five months,” she said, noting that flu season could worsen the absenteeism already caused by the pandemic.

Child care measures included in the new budget:

$26 million to expand access to child care for families by increasing the income eligibility from 130% to 150% of the federal poverty level.
$18 million to reimburse child care providers who care for low-income K-12 students whose schools only offered full-time virtual or hybrid learning this fall.
Roughly $80 million in grants to child care centers, allowing providers to bill for an additional 60 hours while subsidized students are absent, a recognition that many students are attending less frequently because of the pandemic. Grant details have not been ironed out yet.
The Great Start Readiness Program for 4-year-olds from low-income families can now be conducted online, and income eligibility for the program is increased to help ensure classrooms are full.
Child care workers are included in the state’s Futures for Frontlines program, which will provide free community college to people who continued in-person work this spring.

Child care centers provided young students a safe place to learn online. Michigan won’t cover the cost.

2020-09-22T22:31:41+00:00

Two weeks into the school year, Monique Snyder had to tell a dozen working parents that they would have to find somewhere else for their children to learn online.

Like many child care providers in the Detroit area, Snyder has opened her centers to young K-12 students whose classrooms remained closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. But Snyder learned this month that the state won’t subsidize care during the school day for children from low-income families.

She told desperate parents that they would have to pay her out of pocket or find another place for their children to learn.

“It was horrible,” said Snyder, whose business is already in danger of closing due to the pandemic. “The biggest question they kept asking me was, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ And I literally did not have an answer.”

The coronavirus child care crunch is falling hardest on low-income families of color, many of whom work in-person jobs in sanitation, grocery, and health care that the state has defined as “essential.” When these families have young students learning online — something that is more likely in Black communities, according to a recent Chalkbeat/AP analysis — many parents find that they have no safe place to send their children during the work day.

“Just imagine the one mom who has to leave the 8-year-old in charge of the 5-year-old and the 3-year-old,” Snyder said. “That’s where my head is, as a parent.”

There’s been no reliable solution to this problem in Michigan, where a patchwork of local agencies have been left to make key decisions about reopening schools and coordinating child care. Some school districts across the state offer free space and support for children learning online, while others charge for child care during the school day or don’t offer any at all.

The same issue is playing out nationwide. In cities where virtual learning is prevalent, kindergarten enrollment is down as low-income families opt to keep their children in in-person preschool programs during the work day.

Many parents in the Detroit area jumped at the chance to drop their children off with their nearby child care provider during the school day, only to be told by providers in the second week of school that the state wouldn’t cover their tuition.

Christina Waller’s 7-year-old son attends a charter school in Detroit, and he will spend the fall learning online. He first attended Snyder’s center, Brainiacs Clubhouse, when he was 2. Waller was relieved when she learned that she’d be able to drop him there while she worked as a clerk at Henry Ford Hospital.

Elementary school students work on virtual school assignments on Sept. 17, 2020 at Brainiacs Clubhouse, a child care center in the Detroit area, while their parents are at work.

Waller is the family’s sole breadwinner. Her income is low enough to qualify him for child care subsidies, and she anticipated that the state would mostly pay for his care. Then Snyder told her that the state wasn’t paying subsidies for school-aged kids — Waller would have to pay $500 a month if she wanted to continue dropping him off while she worked. Waller says she contemplated quitting her job, but ultimately decided she had no choice but to stretch her budget and pay her son’s tuition.

“I can’t afford it, but [not paying] is really not an option,” she said, noting that she was effectively paying out-of-pocket so her son can get a public third-grade education: “I never thought I was going to be paying for public school.”

Other parents had no choice at all — they had to pull their children. Snyder was supporting 17 school-aged kids with virtual learning when she learned from a child care official that the state wouldn’t pay their tuition. After she told parents they’d have to pay, only five of them returned.

State officials say there isn’t enough money in the child care subsidy program to pay for school-aged children. In a typical year, the subsidies provide free or reduced-price care to about 34,000 kids, making it one of the largest child care programs in the state.

The Michigan Department of Education “is aware of the need to support school-age children and providers caring for those children during virtual schooling,” said William DiSessa, a department spokesman, in an email. “However, we need additional funding” to pay providers.

The issue is being discussed as part of upcoming budget negotiations, DiSessa added.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of Shane Hernandez, the Republican chair of the House appropriations committee.

“Somebody needs to figure this out,” said Denise Smith, implementation director of Hope Starts Here, a child care initiative in Detroit. “The early childhood programs are propping up the system in this way, and they’re not being compensated to do it.”

In addition to helping parents, paying providers to care for school-aged kids would provide a badly needed infusion of cash to a child care system on the brink of collapse. In Detroit, one of the largest child care deserts in the country, many providers say their businesses could soon fold as enrollment craters due to the pandemic and federal aid dries up.

This spring, with the help of federal money, the state reimbursed child care providers who cared for school-aged students from low-income families. Memos sent out by the state this summer said that providers would not be allowed to continue billing for these students this fall, but not every provider was aware of the change.

“We’re keeping the children safe,” said Jenice Lomax, owner of Child Star Development Center in Detroit. “We’re keeping an eye on them. We’re helping them out. Why wouldn’t we get paid?”

For many families, child care centers are the only option for keeping their children safe. While some school districts, such as the Detroit Public Schools Community District, provide learning spaces for children whose parents have to work in person, many don’t. Others, like Grosse Pointe Public Schools, charge for child care.

Most of the five elementary-aged students at Lomax’s center attend MacDowell Preparatory Academy, a nearby charter school that opted for fully online learning this fall but doesn’t offer students a space to learn while their parents are at work.

Princess Bradley’s three children also attend a charter school that isn’t opening its doors to virtual learners. For the first weeks of school, Bradley sent the children — ages 6, 7, and 12 — to Snyder’s child care center. But when she picked them up Wednesday, Snyder told her that the state wouldn’t subsidize her children’s care.

Bradley, the sole breadwinner in her house, can’t afford to pay the $1,500 a month she’d need to continue bringing her children to the center.

“That’s rent,” she said.

Since then, Bradley has taken three days off from her job as a bookkeeper for a nonprofit in Detroit to care for her kids. They also spent one day with her mother and one day with her sister, but Bradley thinks she’ll probably have to reduce her work hours.

“I’m digging into my savings,” she said. “I’ve been trying to find different types of funding to pay for them to go to daycare, but I haven’t found anything.”

‘We’re just not prepared for this’: First weeks of online learning in Detroit bring unwanted disruptions, technical glitches

2020-09-16T16:04:19+00:00

The Detroit district is creating focus groups and expanding its technical support hotline to address a number of complaints that have poured in since the first day of school about too much screen time for students and many technology glitches.

The complaints have come in online and filled the public comment period of the district’s school board meeting Tuesday, where dozens of teachers, community organizers, students, and parents shared their frustrations and anger.

These comments reflect complaints that also have come from some of Detroit’s charter schools — and schools across the nation — as districts launch an unusual year while adjusting to the effects of the pandemic on learning. Over the last few days, Chalkbeat spoke with both district and charter students, parents, and teachers. In the district, 75% of the students are learning online.

Among those who spoke at the district board meeting was Ama Russell, a Cass Technical High School senior, who complained of sitting in front of a computer screen for eight hours a day. On Friday, she said, her eyes started burning after class.

“This is absolutely horrible...our mental health is deteriorating,” said Russell, who demanded an immediate change to the way the district is scheduling online classes.

Michigan state senator Stephanie Chang, whose daughter is a kindergartner in the district, told board members she’s disappointed with the “inflexibility” of the current virtual schedule.

“It’s not realistic for a 5-year-old,” said Chang, who nonetheless noted she’s encouraged the district is open to modifying schedules.

District officials addressed the complaints earlier in the meeting, with Superintendent Nikolai Vitti announcing plans to look into screen time, schedules, and other issues.

“I hear students. I hear parents. I recognize modifications are needed,” Vitti said. “We will make changes and we will listen.”

Detroit eighth-grader Anaya Thomas (center) logs into a virtual class with the help of her father Jamal (left). Her ninth-grade sister Karima (right) stands over her shoulder. Anaya said she’s encountered technical glitches during the first weeks of online learning.

Across Michigan, 86% of schools provide some form of in-person learning, but it’s unclear exactly how many students statewide are learning online and how many are learning in schools. In Detroit, concerns about online learning are being expressed across the city.

A parent in a Detroit charter school, Donyetta Hill, has cut back her work hours to be at home for her daughter, a fifth-grader at the Cornerstone Jefferson-Douglass Academy. Hill said she had to choose between “Am I going to work? Or am I gonna sit here and teach my daughter because she can’t do this by herself?” she said. Her daughter’s education won. But Hill, a community organizer, said she wishes parents had more resources to help their children with online learning.

“There needs to be some type of training or some type of online workshop. Or even some type of class to help parents learn how to interact with their children,” she said. “The teachers, the staff. They can’t do this on their own. We all have to work on this together.”

The first two weeks of online learning have indeed been rocky for eighth-grader Anaya Thomas, who attends University Prep Science and Math Middle School, a charter school. On the second day of virtual learning, Anaya’s morning algebra class had an unwelcome visitor: an apparent teenager who entered the virtual room and started “screaming, cussing and playing music” during the teacher’s lecture. Her teacher’s video feed also kept freezing.

“I’m a little bit afraid of what two months, three months, or six months of this is gonna do,” said her mother Angela Lugo-Thomas. “The novelty is starting to wear off already.”

Merarys Popa, a senior at Cass Tech, is worried that too much time will be spent on fixing technical errors, leaving less time for actual learning. She’s worried students will have a harder time meeting academic expectations and may fall behind.

“I feel like we’re just not prepared,” she said during a Monday interview.

But too much screen time is exhausting, said Merarys and senior Lamont Satchel.

“I’ve never been so emotionally drained out of school,” Lamont said. “When you’re online everything moves slow.”

Virtual classroom sizes are also a big issue. Lamont said his financial literacy class has 43 students, and Merarys said her math class has about 30 students. They both said that such huge classes put a strain on the Wi-Fi connection.

“I had an issue for three of my classes getting on. [The software] said ‘We know you’re trying to get in but please be patient’” Lamont said. “I couldn’t hear one of my teachers for 35 minutes of the whole class.” Merarys said she kept getting kicked out of classes.

District teacher Julie Hughes was frustrated because she didn’t believe she had enough training focused on online learning. She was also among several who accused the district of sabotaging online learning.

“You wanted to sink virtual in order to have your face-to-face succeed,” Hughes said to Vitti during the board meeting.

Another district teacher Marnina Falk said that the school district should provide guidance on how teachers can provide live instruction, and how students can use the various software the district needed for online learning.

“Our students and community deserve better than this,” she said, referring to the first week of virtual school.

Virtual class schedules are structured identically to the in-person learning schedule. Lamont said he has a 55-minute first-hour class, a lunch, and the rest of the classes last for 50 minutes. Each student has five-minute passing times to transition to each virtual class.

Vitti stressed that the virtual schedule was made to mirror the in-person schedule for two reasons.

The district wanted to provide rigorous instruction and consistent access to a teacher. He said parents complained during distance learning this spring that students were working independently and had trouble getting help from teachers.

Also, Vitti said the district could receive more scrutiny from the state if it tried to rely on assignments — rather than live instruction — to fulfill legislative requirements for virtual attendance.

“That would create a heavy burden on teachers and students,” he said. If schools can’t provide documented proof of assignments to state auditors, it could also result in a loss of funding.

For Anaya, Lamont, and Merarys there were some bright spots in remote learning. Anaya liked creating a virtual locker for one of her teachers, which she filled with an image of a toolkit to show her interest in engineering. She also liked having conversations with her science teacher and classmates about empathy and social justice.

Lamont enjoyed how his biology teacher began each class with morning stretches. During each stretch, the teacher would give an anatomy lesson, describing the functions of each body part.

During the first week of online classes, district teacher Heidi West is so far optimistic about her sixth-grade students’ virtual attendance. Only a few students didn’t log in to each of her Spanish and English language arts classes.

Even though student interactions were positive, West described the week of technical errors as “a nightmare.”

West couldn’t upload assignments to Schoology, the district’s online learning management system. So she ended up calling a technology support helpline.

“I was on an IT call for an hour before they told me I had to go somewhere to get a Microsoft Office upgrade,” she said. “Then it turns out it wasn’t even my computer. It was another glitch.”

For those still experiencing technical issues, the Detroit district is expanding its hotline services to offer technical support. The hotline number is 1-888-466-3978 and will be available Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

After week one, attendance down in the Detroit school district as 78% of students show up for class

2020-09-15T22:38:14+00:00

After a week of instruction in the Detroit school district, just 78% of the students who signed up for online or face-to-face learning have shown up for class.

The number, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a school board meeting Tuesday, highlights the challenges Detroit and districts across the nation face as “the traditional way of learning and going to school has been disrupted by the pandemic.”

Last year at this time, 90% of the district’s 51,000 students had shown up for classes.

“Active and consistent attendance … is our greatest threat, outside of student achievement,” Vitti said.

Similar drops in attendance are happening across the country. In Chicago on the first day last week, 84.2% of students attended online class, a 10 percentage point drop from the usual first-day figures. But attendance rates varied widely from school to school. In Memphis, district staff in Shelby County Schools are working to contact almost 3,000 students who have been unaccounted for since online classes began two weeks ago.

Vitti said the district will step up its efforts to get students in school, including another round of home visits. Those efforts will intensify up through the period in early October when student attendance will determine how much state aid schools receive. Vitti said the district will keep it up even after this period because “it’s important that we stay engaged.”

He said the district appears to be enrolling more students who are new to the district, but he said it’s too early to be sure.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Vitti gave school board members an overview of what the district has seen since classes began Sept. 8. About 75% of the district’s students are learning online, while 25% are learning in person.

The district provided parents with three options for learning during the 2020-21 school year. In addition to online or in-person learning, parents could choose to have their students learn online while being in a school building in learning centers. A support staff member oversees those learning centers.

Vitti said 2,300 students have attended the learning centers. That number is growing daily, he said.

‘Where are the kids?’ Inside the first day of online learning for one Detroit school.

2020-09-09T21:33:36+00:00

Karlotta Hicks was ready to teach online. Her handmade Zoom background featured numbers and the ABCs, kindergarten concepts she hoped would jog her first graders’ memories after nearly six months away from the classroom. She’d spoken by phone over the summer to the parents of her 14 students, letting them know that virtual classes would begin right after Labor Day at 8 a.m.

“It’s going to be as if the kids were in front of me,” she said confidently a week before classes began at Winans Academy for Performing Arts.

When class began on Tuesday, just one student appeared in her virtual classroom, and his audio wasn’t working. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of students and teachers were troubleshooting their way through glitch-filled first days of online learning. This was going to be tough.

After a spring of incalculable loss, educators in Detroit are scrambling to get students back on track. As the pandemic continues to spin out of control, schools have been forced to choose — with little guidance — from a menu of bad options for resuming classes. Winans Academy, set in east Detroit neighborhoods that bore the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, chose to begin the year entirely online.

This spring, as the virus snowballed in Detroit and the city’s unemployment rate spiked to historic levels, school fell by the wayside for many families. Fewer than half of the students checked in with their teachers in an average week.

“Parents told me, ‘on the scale of things I’m dealing with, school work is No. 5,’” Principal James Spruill said.

Many students at Winans had fallen behind even before the pandemic. The school’s growth scores, which measure student improvement on standardized tests, have remained stubbornly low despite repeated staff shake-ups and state interventions. Experts warn that the pandemic will likely make things worse at schools like Winans, where nearly every student is economically disadvantaged.

The stakes have never been higher for the latest reinvention effort at Winans Academy. After surveying teachers and staff, school leaders announced that classes would be held online until January at least.

Would virtual instruction — a new format for most school staff — allow students to catch up, or at least avoid more backsliding?

Would students even show up?

“Give me a thumbs up if you can hear me,” Hicks said to her lone student. He wore bright blue headphones printed with characters from the movie Toy Story 4. No thumbs up.

Eventually, his mother leaned over the tablet that the school had lent the family, and the audio crackled to life.

“Yay, it’s fixed, wonderful,” Hicks said. “Welcome to the first day of school.”

Karlotta Hicks, a first grade teacher at Winans Academy of Performing Arts, in her classroom on the first day of school 2020. She taught from her classroom via video conference. She chose an outer space theme for her classroom this year, she said, to help students get used to the idea that the pandemic has ushered in a new world.

At 8:12 a.m. Hicks decided to stick with her game plan. She cued up a welcome song she’d found online. She sang along to the video: “Good morning, good morning, how are you?” The student smiled and mouthed some of the words, but the sound was choppy.

“Could you hear me singing when it glitched?” she asked.

“I didn’t hear you because of the glitching,” he said.

“You didn’t hear me, oh my goodness. I was singing, I was going all in!”

“Sorry.”

“No worries,” she said. But she decided to reschedule class for 12:15 p.m.

“I’m going to do the introduction with everyone,” she told the student’s mother. “I just need to call them to see where they are.”

‘I can easily say 100’

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon a week before classes began, it seemed like the entire neighborhood around Winans had gathered at the school to pick up devices and school supplies. Enrollment had been trending down for years, but more than 300 parents had already signed up, and Spruill estimated that at least that many came by. A line of cars snaked around the block.

Near the front door, teachers piled up backpacks stuffed with workbooks, pencils, and other school supplies. Wearing masks and keeping their distance, families and teachers greeted each other as if they hadn’t been together in years.

Lynn Coleman, a middle school math teacher, found one of her top students from the previous year. “Guess who got into Renaissance?” she asked school staff, referring to the selective Detroit high school.

“She worked us hard enough,” the student said, smiling.

Coleman grew up not far from Winans, attending nearby Denby High School, and she takes pride in the easy connections she makes with students.

Those connections took on a painful weight this spring: The coronavirus death rate in the school’s ZIP code, 48224, and in surrounding ZIP codes is more than three times higher than the death rate across Michigan. Coleman says the virus spread rapidly through her large extended family this spring, sickening eight people and killing several.

“I can easily say about 100” friends, family, and acquaintances got sick, she said. “Easily.” Her great aunt and uncle, who had been married for 60 years, died within a week of each other.

“If we are going through that, who knows what our scholars are going through?” she said.

Early in the pandemic, one of her students called her cell phone at 9:30 p.m.

“She said, ‘Miss Coleman?’ I said ‘Yes?’ She said, ‘Oh, I miss you.’” The student got off the phone quickly, but Coleman sensed the call’s significance.

“She only knows what that may have done for her,” Coleman said.

‘Where are the kids?’

Even after the community endured so much grief, the first day of Coleman’s math class felt almost normal.

Her goal for the day was to establish norms for virtual learning and to get to know her students by asking them about their summers, but the kids were playing it middle-school-cool.

“I didn’t do nothing this summer but sleep,” said one student. “I did order some shoes.”

“I didn’t do anything but be in my room on my phone,” another said.

“Were you playing on TikTok?” Coleman asked, referring to the video-sharing app.

That got a surprised laugh.

“Yeah, I know about TikTok,” she said.

They got through the rest of the lesson OK — students agreed that they should mute their microphones while others were talking and refrain from making fun of each other for incorrect answers — but there was a problem: Only nine students showed up of the 25 she was expecting.

Teachers across the school were reporting the same issue. While the school didn’t confirm the actual attendance number, Spruill acknowledged that attendance was low.

“The teachers and I were kind of sad at one point today,” Hicks said. “Like, where are the kids? It was emotional, because we weren’t having that interaction with our students, and that’s what you long for as a teacher. We just had to pull ourselves together, because we can’t let the kids see us like that.”

Hicks got some answers after calling families who had missed her morning class. One family had lost power during a morning thunderstorm that cut power to 4,000 Detroit homes, many of them near Winans. Other families were struggling to log onto their new laptops.

Spruill, who previously worked as a technical consultant for other charter schools in Detroit and who is the primary tech support person for Winans Academy, said he was not surprised by the low turnout.

“It was a constant line of parents not knowing how to log in,” he said. He insisted that attendance will improve throughout the week, adding that many schools in Detroit see attendance fluctuate wildly in the first weeks of school, because parents often sign their children up for more than one school.

Still, a more troubling possibility loomed: What if virtual learning asked too much of families, many of whom had jobs or were looking for one, and didn’t have time to provide full-time academic support for their children?

The phone numbers for three families in Hicks’ class were disconnected — what would happen to those students? And many parents already seemed stretched thin.

“I’m bouncing around to help my other kids,” one parent told Hicks. “I’m here, but I might not be on the screen.”

Amber White, whose son is a first grader in a different class at Winans, said she spent an hour on Tuesday morning just getting her two children logged on.

“This morning, it was really, really rough,” she said. “I was like ‘no, this isn’t going to work.’”

White took a week off work to help her kids get acclimated, but she worries that she’ll need more time. She was among a minority of parents at Winans who said they wanted the school to provide some in-person instruction this fall, and she said the first day of school showed that she was right.

“I mean, I understand the danger,” she said. “But the reality is that y’all might need to open the schools.”

‘We just have to make it work’

By 12:15 p.m., Hicks could breathe a small sigh of relief. Seven students popped into her Zoom class — just half of the total, but much better than one.

Hicks had the students practice what would become their morning routine, starting with the Pledge of Allegiance, then ran through class rules.

The students were visibly delighted to be in class together, virtual or not. They called out each other’s names and pushed their faces right into the camera. One girl wore a T-shirt printed with the words “First Day of Distance Learning 2020.”

“What did you learn today?” Hicks asked.

“Today I learned that school is fun,” said the boy with the Toy Story headphones.

“That makes me smile, my heart is smiling,” Hicks said.

The last part of the first day featured a story. A classroom aide read aloud as Hicks stepped away to take a phone call from a parent. The book, called “I Love School,” traced the routine of a single fictional school day. The pictures showed scenes that must have felt very distant to 6-year-olds who hadn’t been inside a classroom since March: a teacher leaning over students’ desks to look at their work, students eating lunch together in a cafeteria, students sitting in a circle on a rug while their teacher read a story aloud.

“Tell me what the story was all about,” the aide asked when it was over.

“I liked it because it told us about school, and we haven’t been at school for a loooong time,” said a girl with no front teeth and black beads in her braids.

“I miss my school,” said another student.

“And we miss you guys, but it’s so good to see you here now,” said Hicks, sitting back down. “This is our new way of going to school.”

That won’t change until January at the earliest. Winans officials said that they’ll consider moving to a hybrid schedule, bringing students into classrooms in shifts, if local coronavirus metrics take a turn for the better.

Facing nearly four months of online teaching, Hicks says she remains optimistic.

“It’s just Day One,” she said. “Seven came in, and they’re excited. That’s what you want, especially at this age, is for them to want to learn. That’s how you create lifelong learners. I’m excited for that.”

“It’s not like there are other alternatives,” she added. “This is how learning is occurring. We just have to make it work.”

This story is part of a series examining how Detroit schools, including Winans Academy, are adapting to educating students in the pandemic.

Temperature checks, hand sanitizer, and airplane arms greet Detroit students on the first day of school

2020-09-08T13:43:36+00:00

The students in the elementary classroom spread their arms wide as their teacher explained how to keep enough distance between them.

Their arms, Kristin Burnette told her first- and second-grade students, are like airplane wings.

“Show me your airplane. Don’t touch,” the teacher told the students at Harms Elementary School.

Tuesday marked the official start to the 2020-21 school year in Michigan. While some districts and charters had already begun classes weeks earlier, Tuesday was the first day for the 51,000 students who attend the Detroit Public Schools Community District, as well as for students attending more than three dozen other districts in metro Detroit.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti leans over to talk to a student at Harms Elementary School during the first day of the school year Tuesday.

Gray clouds and a steady rain greeted students and parents arriving at Harms. So did computerized temperature kiosks, hand sanitizer, and lessons on social distancing. There were a number of safety precautions in place. At Thirkell Elementary-Middle School, for instance, only two students are allowed at each lunch table, and they must sit side by side so they’re not facing each other.

For many of the students walking into school buildings across the district, it was their first time attending classes in person since March, when the coronavirus pandemic forced school buildings to close and a shift to remote instruction.

At Burton International Academy Tuesday morning, a kindergarten class gets acclimated to the new school year.

Kamya McKinney, a sophomore at Henry Ford High School, was one of about 90 students attending class at the school Tuesday. She said she prefers to learn face to face.

“On the computer I don’t really learn … you’re just giving us assignments that we gotta do instead of like teaching us how to do it.”

Still, all the social distancing in school buildings took some getting used to. Jeria McGhee, a Henry Ford sophomore, said she’s not sure how she’ll get to know her fellow classmates.

“We still can’t even get close to one another,” Jeria said.

A student at Harms Elementary School waits for the first day of school to begin Tuesday, Sept. 8.

The district gave parents the option to choose in-person or online instruction for their children. In addition, the district opened up learning centers in schools for parents who prefer their children complete their remote classes while in a school building supervised by an adult. The learning center at Harms was empty Tuesday morning, but at Burton International Academy, the center held a dozen students.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti traveled to multiple buildings Tuesday, arriving at Harms shortly after 9 a.m. Vitti walked through the building and visited classrooms, weaving around the tiny desks and greeting some of the students with elbow bumps. One student dropped her drink on the floor, and Vitti helped clean up the spill.

Tuesday, Sept. 8, was the first day of school for 51,000 students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Vitti said he wasn’t aware of any major problems at any of the district schools.

“I’m confident that we’re going to have a good year,” he said. “I’m excited to be in a school the first day. I’m excited to see children.”

Inside a third-grade classroom, teacher Karen Warner stressed the importance to the students of following safety rules.

“This is why you have to wear a mask,” she explained.

For parents dropping their children off, there were a few worries.

“I’m a little bit nervous,” Brenda Herrera said after dropping off her son, a second grader. “But I know he’s going to be OK.”

Students in the Detroit Public Schools Community must have their temperatures checked using these computerized temperature kiosks at the entrance of each building.

Like many of the parents who chose face-to-face instruction for their children, Herrera said she believes her son will do better in the classroom.

“It’s the best choice for him. He needs reading help,” she said.

Across the state, 86% of the schools began the year with an option for parents that included in-person instruction. In Detroit, about 80% of the parents chose to have their children learn online.

Learning in person meant a soggy wait in line before students got into the building at Harms.

“It’s raining. It’s cold,” parent Angelia Suppon said after waiting with her two children. The soggy wait was annoying, she said. But she was most concerned that she wasn’t able to enter the building to have a conversation with her son’s teacher.

That may be because the district is limiting visitors. Reporters and a photographer from Chalkbeat Detroit and BridgeDetroit underwent testing in the days prior to the first day to comply with the district’s policy for visitors.

A class at Burton International Academy get acclimated to a new school year Tuesday.

Jennifer Johnson sent her daughter, a kindergarten student, back to school in person while keeping her older children at home.

“I’m not as concerned with my little one,” she said, referring to COVID fears. “I’m hoping for the best.”

At Burton International, students walking into the main corridor were greeted with signs reminding them that face masks are required and telling them to keep a safe distance.

Inside a kindergarten class, the teacher asked her 11 students why 6 feet of distance between them is important.

“Because we don’t want to get sick,” the students responded.

Burton Principal Edwynn Bell said the students whose parents chose face-to-face instruction want to be in school.

“They’re saying I miss the building, I miss the school, I miss the people. We miss them too, I’m a people person. Even when I’m having a bad day, by the time I leave the kids have done something that makes me smile.”

‘We’re still calling’: How a super-diverse Michigan district is ensuring that English learners don’t fall through the cracks

2020-09-03T21:23:02+00:00

Aysha Shamin has a long list of calls to make. With just a week to go before classes are set to begin in Hamtramck Public Schools, Shamin and other district parents are once again calling dozens of families to make sure they were all set for remote learning.

Speaking in Bengali, Shamin asks families if they have the technology they need to access online courses, and if they want to send their children to a physical classroom twice a week for extra help. Other parents call to ask the same questions in Arabic and Bosnian.

As many Michigan children return to online classes this fall, educators warn that online instruction — already challenging for most students — will be especially damaging for students who don’t speak English. In theory, this would be terrible news for the Hamtramck school district: 64% of the district’s students are classified as English learners, while another 14% are former English learners who have learned enough to leave the program.

Instead, Hamtramck’s pre-pandemic support systems for immigrant families have ensured that students don’t fall through the cracks. A team of bilingual parent liaisons, hired two years ago to support newcomers from other countries, worked through the summer to ensure that families had access to food, laptops, and an internet connection. An in-person orientation held weeks before the first day of online classes helped hundreds of U.S. newcomers navigate the challenges of remote instruction.

“I don’t think we had any family” whose students didn’t attend class because of a language barrier, Shamin said. “We’re still calling. We give them our number. If they need anything, they can call us any time.”

Advocates worry that English learners will be especially hard hit by the pandemic because their families are often vulnerable in several ways. They are more likely to have low incomes, face food insecurity, and avoid seeking help due to their immigration status. They’re also less likely to have access to a computer.

“Some of them just abandoned one country because of fear, and now they’re coming into another fearful situation,” said Mirjana Maros, Hamtramck’s facilitator for English language development. “It’s a journey into the complete unknown.”

Those complex challenges make relationships between parents and schools especially important, said Suzanne Toohey, an English learner consultant for Oakland Schools in the Detroit suburbs. That’s why a number of districts in the Detroit metro area are, like Hamtramck, finding ways to prioritize in-person contacts with families who don’t speak English at home.

“Hamtramck is doing all the right things,” she said. “Typically these families are underrepresented in things like a parent engagement committee, or the parents don’t know how to access the American school system. To put a face to an email name is really important for them.”

This is certainly true in Hamtramck, where 16 different languages are spoken within the Detroit enclave’s 2.1 square miles, according to district officials. A sizable minority of families are recent immigrants, and some arrive in the district with little formal education — parents may not be literate in their native languages or know how to turn on a computer, said Amra Poskovic, the district’s school and community facilitator.

That’s why hiring parent liaisons was a top priority for Superintendent Jaleelah Ahmed when she arrived on the job two years ago. Ahmed was previously the director of English learner programs in Dearborn, a Detroit-area district that is home to the largest population of Arabic speakers in the country. She recognized that supporting students learning English would be an essential part of her new role.

The district’s six parent liaisons saw their roles expand once the coronavirus hit. In addition to helping families access schoolwork online, they helped organize an in-person orientation for newcomers to the U.S. and recruited the most vulnerable students to come to school twice a week this fall for in-person help from teachers.

With thousands of students returning to school online, experts say that providing in-person instruction for the most vulnerable students can help prevent “scary” learning losses.

In order to support those families, though, districts first have to connect with them. That’s where Hamtramck has an advantage, said Jihan Aiyash, a liaison for MiStudents Dream, an advocacy group for immigrant students, and a member of the school board in Hamtramck, in an interview this spring. Even before the pandemic, the district was already focusing on its large numbers of English learners.

“If a district didn’t have it before, they’re not suddenly going to have it now,” Aiyash said, adding, “I don’t think our students are being neglected in that way.”

For the parents leading the district’s outreach efforts, this means long days and endless phone calls. Poskovic, who leads the parent liaisons, worries that it means she won’t be at home enough this fall to help her son, an English learner in the district, with his schoolwork.

The combination of record-high unemployment, the pandemic, and the language barrier has made the communities’ needs much more severe, Shamin said. She said she frequently checks in on the family of an autistic child. The father, the sole breadwinner, is unemployed due to the pandemic. They speak only Bengali, and need help connecting not only with the school district but also with their doctors and food services.

Their plight is not unusual.

“Actually, we have too many families to tell you about,” she said

‘We are constantly overlooked’: Detroit support staff, like teachers, want the choice to work from home this school year

2020-09-03T15:20:43+00:00

Two unions that represent support staff in the Detroit school district are demanding the option to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their ask comes nearly a week after the school district and the union representing teachers reached an agreement that allows all teachers to choose between in-person or online instruction. The support staff unions want that same flexibility for the school year that begins Tuesday.

“COVID doesn’t discriminate,” said Donna Jackson, president of the Detroit Federation of Paraprofessionals, which represents about 1,200 staffers, including classroom aides and food service workers. “At least give us the opportunity to have a choice.”

District officials say these employees are needed to provide supervision for learning centers that will operate in school buildings. Although 80% of the district’s students are starting the year learning online, the district is opening the learning centers inside schools, where students can complete their online work.

The beginning of the school year has brought with it labor strife across the nation, as teachers and other school employees raise health and safety concerns about returning to school buildings. In Chicago, the Chicago Teachers Union filed a grievance and a lawsuit last week over a school district policy requiring clerks to assist with student registration inside school buildings, without giving the union an opportunity to negotiate working conditions. In New York City, the mayor announced this week that the school year would be delayed 11 days after union leaders warned it wasn’t yet safe to reopen buildings.

Stephanie Carreker, who heads the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees, said many of the roughly 250 clerical workers the union represents are afraid to continue working in school buildings.

“We have several members with underlying health conditions, are immunocompromised, taking care of elderly parents or taking care of children,” Carreker said.

District superintendent Nikolai Vitti said clerical staff have been required to work in person since June.

“This is not a decision unique to DPSCD. We are not aware of any Wayne County public school district not making the same decision regarding paras and clerical,” he said.

Vitti also said the district is offering all employees working in person during the pandemic hazard pay. The details on the specific amount for those in the paraprofessional and clerical staff unions are being determined as part of current negotiations.

Last week, the district and the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the union that represents over 4,000 employees, many of whom are teachers, reached an agreement over hazard pay, and ensures members have the option to work in person or remotely. That agreement also promises ongoing, voluntary COVID-19 testing for students and staff and the establishment of a joint labor-management safety community to review pandemic health data and make safety recommendations.

However, DFT president Terrence Martin stressed that the union could still institute a “safety strike” if school officials fail to follow these measures. During such a strike, employees would work remotely — not stop work altogether.

As bargaining continues this week, Jackson is frustrated that the work of support staff, essential for keeping schools running, wasn’t getting enough respect even before the pandemic began.

“We are constantly overlooked,” she said. “The work of support staff matters.”

Michigan child care providers struggle to stay afloat as fewer children show up and federal aid runs out

2020-08-28T21:03:54+00:00

This spring, three adults linked to Little Scholars of Detroit Child Development Center died of COVID-19. One staff member lost her husband and her sister, and another lost her mother. Shirley Hailey, the center’s owner, was infected and nearly lost her husband, who was hospitalized for 23 days before recovering.

The next coronavirus pandemic victim might be Little Scholars itself.

Hailey reopened the center in June, determined to keep serving the community where she has worked as a child care provider for nearly 20 years. But just one-fifth of her usual 148 students came back, mostly the children of essential workers. Money from the federal coronavirus relief package helped, but those dollars are running out. Hailey says her business is near the breaking point.

“Two more payrolls after this one and we’re out of money,” she said this week. “I’m looking at 45 days.”

Many parents are keeping their young children at home, making it difficult for child care providers to make ends meet. There is no certainty of further federal aid and no sign that the state will step up to help child care centers survive. Michigan is at risk of losing 41% of its licensed child care slots, according to an April study by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.

Hailey is a member of Providers for Change, a new group that’s pushing to save their centers by making significant changes to the state’s child care subsidy for low-income families. The subsidy is too small and unreliable to support providers through the pandemic, they argue. Many say they could be forced to close if nothing is done.

A rash of child care closures would be bad for children, for schools, and for the economy, especially in the state’s most vulnerable communities. Children rely on child care centers for food, socialization, and to prepare them for kindergarten. Without a safe place for children to go, it’s harder for parents to work and for teachers to teach. And closures mean more child care workers on the state unemployment rolls.

“There’s no economic recovery without child care, period,” said Dawne Bell, CEO of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, a Lansing-based advocacy group.

The pandemic has exposed long-standing problems at every level of Michigan’s child care system. Costs can be prohibitive even for relatively well-off families. Detroit is already a massive child care desert, with 27,000 fewer slots than families need. Families living in poverty often can’t find subsidized care, and the subsidies are so small that early childhood teachers often live in poverty themselves.

“There are things we can do now” to help providers, said Sen. Winnie Brinks, a Democrat from Grand Rapids. “But I would say that we should have been doing most of those things before COVID hit. It just uncovered a lot of the challenges that made [the child care sector] really tough before.”

Helping child care providers stay afloat would require additional state spending, Brinks said. The state would essentially need to pay providers for empty seats, something it did for K-12 schools this spring but has never done for child care centers. But with Michigan facing a substantial budget deficit, Brinks said a major change to child care funding would be a “very, very heavy lift” politically unless Congress passes another federal aid package.

“Everyone right now is looking at the federal government,” said Bell.

Detroit centers, which often rely on a subsidy for low-income families, are at particular risk of shutting down.

The subsidy is tiny, one of the smallest in the nation, said Matt Gillard, director of the nonprofit advocacy group Michigan’s Children. Providers know that the parents they serve can’t pay more out of pocket.

“The easiest fix is for the state to dramatically increase the reimbursement rates that we’re giving providers per child,” Gillard said. “The rates are still abysmally low.”

Many providers in low-income communities are used to surviving from payroll to payroll. But the pandemic is proving impossible to navigate, even for businesspeople used to scraping by.

“The math doesn’t add up,” said Candies Rogers, owner and director of CircleTime with Friends Learning Center in Redford, a Detroit suburb. “At this point we probably won’t make it to the end of the calendar year.”

Rogers is one of the providers pushing for changes to the state’s main subsidy program, Child Development and Care assistance. The program spent nearly $200 million in largely federal dollars in 2018-2019 and served about 34,000 kids, nearly as many as the Great Start Readiness Program, Michigan’s banner preschool program for low-income 4-year-olds.

Rogers brings in funds from both programs, but she says DHHS is the reason she might have to close. She only gets paid for the hours that subsidized students are present, which means that she’s in trouble if they don’t show up.

And they haven’t: On a typical pandemic day, Rogers cares for 16 children. Before the coronavirus, she was at capacity — 68 kids — with a waitlist.

For a few months this spring, the state used money from the federal coronavirus aid package to pay providers based on their pre-pandemic enrollments. But those payments stopped by mid-summer.

In order to meet state requirements for teacher-to-student ratios, Rogers needs to have six teachers on staff to care for the children, who include a 6-month-old, a 3-month-old, and two 2-year-olds. “I can’t pay more than two staff members comfortably,” she said.

Further complicating matters for providers who depend on these funds, the hourly rate makes it impossible for providers to know how much money they’ll bring in. If a child leaves early or just doesn’t show up, they lose income. Providers get to bill for some absent hours, but many have blown through them in recent weeks.

“You don’t know what you’re going to get,” said Toya Taylor, owner of Reign Development Center in Detroit, who says virtually all of her income comes from state subsidies for low-income parents. “Your payment is different every two weeks. And I still have … bills that need to be paid.”

The pandemic made the problem worse, Taylor said, by making it harder to predict whether students will show up. She’s also had to adopt a much stricter sick policy, and is now sending students home for the slightest sniffle.

“I’m definitely in a position where I could be forced to close,” she said.

Difficult financial conditions could put a serious dent in the state’s child care offerings. The Make a Difference Learning Center offered care for roughly 30 children on a typical day before the pandemic.

When owner Valerie Draper reopened in July, only two children showed up, so she closed it back down.

“Staying open for a few kids to me is not worth it,” she said. “It doesn’t pay rent.”

Draper has been a child care provider for more than two decades in the suburbs along Detroit’s northeast border, which has one of the most severe child care shortages in the metro area. She says she’ll probably call it quits for good in September if demand doesn’t pick up when K-12 classes resume.

The pandemic, Draper said, has given new weight to something she has long sensed: that early educators aren’t valued by the state. She spent years working to comply with the stringent training and certification requirements imposed on child care providers, and now she feels abandoned.

“I’m devastated; I’m angry,” she said. The state “still treats us like babysitters. We’re not providers, we’re not professionals. They pay us babysitter rates.”

Deal to avoid Detroit teachers ‘safety’ strike would offer COVID-19 testing, hazard pay

2020-08-28T05:03:38+00:00

A deal to avoid a Detroit teachers safety strike would offer COVID-19 testing for students and staff, and provide teachers working in school buildings with up to $3,000 in hazard pay.

Those details are outlined in an email that the Detroit Federation of Teachers, which represents some 4,000 district employees, sent at about 8 p.m. to its members. Chalkbeat Detroit obtained the email later in the evening, but could not immediately reach union officials for comment.

“Our stance in talks with the Detroit Public Schools Community District has been: If there is choice for one, there must be choice for all — and that is what we have secured with this agreement,” Terrence Martin, the union’s president, wrote in the email, referring to members’ ability to choose whether to work in-person or remotely.

The Detroit district and the union had been at odds over safe working conditions for teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The deal comes about a week after union members voted to allow leadership to launch a safety strike if certain demands weren’t met. Such a strike would have teachers working remotely, but not in school buildings. Union officials have stressed that it would not amount to a work stoppage.

About three dozen school districts in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties are beginning the school year with both in-person and virtual instruction, but the debate over such a plan has been particularly intense in the Detroit district.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, in a statement from the district, said he hopes the district and union can work together to serve students and families.

“The need to serve our children never stops,” Vitti said. “Even in a pandemic, we need to find ways to best serve and support our children. For some of our families and students, this means face to face instruction and for others it is online learning. This agreement signals we will work together to provide equitable education opportunities for our children and families.”

Added Iris Taylor, president of the Detroit school board: “We believe our protocols and reopening plan will create a safe environment for learning during this unprecedented time in public education and we have committed to frequent reviews of the reopening plan as COVID-19 has proven to be unpredictable.”

Vitti has been clear for months that he believes parents should have the option to choose between in-person and online instruction. In recent weeks, the district has said that teachers also would be able to choose between the two, and that some buildings have the option of going online only if there aren’t enough teachers who want in person instruction.

“Nearly all schools will offer some level of face to face instruction even if most teachers and students will function online at particular schools,” a press release from the district said.

Martin wrote in his email to members that the union hopes to have a new general contract negotiated with the district by Monday, August 31.

Still, the authorization to strike remains in place, Martin said. He said union members will need to ensure the district follows the guidelines of the letter.

“If needed, we can invoke our rights under the strike authorization vote, as well as remedies contemplated by the new agreement,” Martin wrote.

As part of the agreement, DFT will be conducting walkthroughs of buildings to ensure the district is complying with its COVID-19 safety protocols.

The agreement includes the following provisions:

Ongoing COVID-19 testing for students and district employees working inside school buildings on a voluntary basis. Students and staff would have to consent to the testing.
All union members will be allowed to choose between face-to-face or remote work.
Desks that are placed six feet apart to encourage social distancing in classroom with the maximum of 20 students in a class.
Hazard pay for employees who choose to work in-person in the amount of a $750 bonus for each marking period through June 30, 2021.
The creation of a joint labor-management committee that will evaluate public health data from the Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties and make new safety recommendations when necessary.

The committee would meet weekly to review reopening issues and review pandemic related data, according to the district’s press release.

“This is another layer of monitoring, accountability, and collaboration to ensure commitments of safety are implemented with fidelity,” the release said.

The agreement is opposed by a vocal caucus of the union that has led regular protests against the reopening of school buildings.

“This deal does not change the fact that COVID-19 maims and kills people,” Benjamin Royal, a member of the caucus, said in a Friday morning statement. “It does not change the facts that Detroit is the largest majority black city in the country and we are facing a pandemic that disproportionately kills black people.”

You can read the agreement here and the district’s statement here.

How this Detroit teacher connects with students during the pandemic

2020-08-24T22:19:06+00:00

As Lauren Ortega waited for the phone call, she couldn’t help but wonder if her student was OK.

Weeks later, she finally heard from the student’s family member: They were safe and doing their best to keep up with remote school work.

That story, versions of which played out across Detroit this summer, underscores how challenging it is for teachers to suddenly find themselves distanced from their students’ lives.

“It brings a really eerie feeling,” said Ortega, third grade teacher and fifth grade math curriculum coordinator at Detroit Prep, a small charter school. “It creates a sense of worry, of what’s happening in my student’s life? If i just drive by their house, will I see them?”

In seven years of teaching, Ortega has stood out for her ability to connect with students. She was chosen this year as Michigan’s winner of the National University System Sanford Teacher Award, which recognizes educators who help their students grow emotionally.

Lauren Ortega

Ortega will receive $10,000 to support student development, and she is in the running for the national Sanford prize.

“Referring to the class as her ‘crew’ she urges her students to think of each other as a working community and not just a classroom,” reads a statement accompanying the award, which was decided before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the United States. “Each morning she has her class go around the room and share one thing whether it be an opinion or a fact they want to tell the class.”

During an interview with Ortega earlier this summer, which has been lightly edited for concision and clarity, we discussed the lasting value of picture books, the importance of building connections in the classroom, and the pandemic’s effects on student learning.

How do you connect with your students?

We spend the first two months really doing relationship building with our students. That’s something that’s unique to our school. Through that time I do some identity [activities] where I get to hear how my students describe themselves, and I observe and watch how they interact with each other, and how they do things for themselves, and get to know what feeds their passion for learning.

It’s constant communication with them, and allowing them to be open and explore and ask questions with me.

One of my favorite activities to do with them is a mirror drawing. It gets them really uncomfortable. They sit face-to-face with someone else, and they have to draw that person without looking at what they’re drawing. It puts them into a place where they have to make eye contact and look at each other. But the best part is seeing when they’re done with it, how proud they are. They get excited about it. They feel proud of what they did, and they have an immediate connection with the person they drew.

What’s something you use in the classroom every day?

I read picture books. Even with my older students reading a picture book every single day has been part of my classroom for a long time.

How has coronavirus affected your relationships with students?

Seeing my students on Zoom daily, I could tell that sometimes some of them were sad. You could hear it in their faces or see it in their voice that they were having a hard time. Knowing that that was happening and not being able to be right there to help and give support was pretty difficult.

Eventually that call comes in that you’ve been waiting for them to return for weeks and weeks, it feels really good to know that they’re OK.

How do you see the return to school this fall?

Knowing that staff and community safety is at the forefront, I want to see my students in person and manage that somehow.

Just having that connection with them to start off the year, even if we face another school closure at some point next year. If we hit everything hard at the beginning of the year — we’re a team, and you can do this, and you can do hard things. Just to build that confidence in them that it will be okay

A lot of educators are worried that their children fell behind this spring. What kind of progress did your students make?

The biggest shining moment is the amount of responsibility I saw them take. All of a sudden, it wasn’t, “Ms. Lauren will help guide me through this.” It was, “I have to figure this out.”

They’re able to create routines for themselves and a structure for themselves to continue with their learning. I realized that they can do way more than I expect out of them.

We do student-led conferences with parents at the end of the year, and it was amazing to see how strong their reflections were on how important their learning is, and things that they do really well versus the things that they want to get better at.

How have kids’ attitudes toward school changed?

We kept coming back to, “How are you doing with your routine?” For example, one of my students was like, “In the morning, I put on my Detroit Prep t-shirt, and I’m in school mode.” Then he would take it off at the end of the day.

It was fun to see what they worked out for themselves.

Detroit teachers vote to allow union leadership to call ‘safety’ strike over COVID concerns

2020-08-19T23:05:30+00:00

Detroit teachers have overwhelmingly voted to authorize union leadership to call a “safety strike” if the school district doesn’t meet their demands to start the school year online.

“The action that the union took today is not an action that we wanted to take. It’s an action that we had to take,” Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said during a Wednesday evening press conference.

“It is a vote of confidence from our membership that we will do whatever we need to do to ensure the health and safety of our members.”

Martin said 91% of the union members voted yes. A safety strike would mean teachers would agree to teach and work remotely because of safety issues inside buildings. The union stressed in a press release that it is not a work stoppage.

The vote, held Wednesday afternoon during a virtual union meeting, gave the union members an opportunity to weigh in on the debate over the reopening of schools for the 2020-21 school year. The union has about 4,000 members.

The “yes” vote means union members could now walk if the district doesn’t ensure safer working conditions for members who want to teach face-to-face. Union officials are demanding a virtual start to the 2020-21 school year, saying it isn’t safe to be in school buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If talks break down and we are not able to come to an agreement, we can institute a safety strike,” he said.

In response to the union, district superintendent Nikolai Vitti and the school board issued a joint statement: “While we acknowledge the action taken today by DFT, we are also confident the school board and the district in discussion with DFT will result in a safe reopening of schools.”

Martin said as contract negotiations continue with the district, union officials want to also ensure support staff, such as guidance counselors and social workers, have the option of opting out of in-person work.

The union is asking for hazard pay for those who work in school buildings, COVID-testing for students and staff, and assurances that school buildings have proper ventilation.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, commenting on Twitter before the meeting, said the district and the union are making progress in negotiations.

“Conversations with the DFT have increased over the past week and we are both bargaining in good faith. The reopening process is very hard, on multiple levels, but we will get this right for our students, families and employees.”

During a school board meeting Tuesday night, Vitti said the district will ask some parents to switch their children from in-person learning to the remote-only option, or to consider transferring to a nearby school, if there aren’t enough teachers willing to teach face to face in their school buildings.

Vitti said surveys completed by a four-fifths of the district’s parents indicate 80% prefer to send their children to school online, with the remaining preferring in-person learning. He has stressed for months that parents should have that choice, and has also noted that some children need in-person learning.

Before the strike vote, some teachers outlined why they were planning to vote to authorize a strike. Among them was Erica Webb, a district middle school teacher. Webb said she wants to teach online because her son is still recovering from an illness, and she fears bringing home the virus.

“Any pathogens could possibly be a potential setback, and I’m not willing to take that risk,” she said. “I could be a potential carrier to him, my parents.”

Michigan back-to-school compromise resolves some questions, but funding remains murky

2020-08-17T19:19:36+00:00

Back-to-school legislation that gives Michigan schools a choice between online and in-person instruction but requires them to review their decisions continually is headed to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk as classrooms begin reopening across the state.

Whitmer is expected to sign the package of three bills, which passed the state House on Monday with support from leaders of both parties.

The legislation represents a compromise after months of wrangling over whether — and how — schools should reopen. Schools won’t be required to provide in-person instruction to students in grades K-5, as an initial Republican proposal stipulated. But attendance will be taken, and school funding for the year will depend in part on how many students show up this fall, measures that many Democrats opposed.

“What we’re doing today is a true testament of what can happen when we work together,” said Rep. Lee Chatfield, the Republican speaker of the state House. “Educating our kids should not be partisan.”

The Senate passed the measures on Saturday after Whitmer and top GOP lawmakers ironed out an agreement on Friday night. The bills do not provide clarity on how much money schools will get this year, as the coronavirus-induced recession has depleted state coffers.

Still, school leaders now have a resolution to some key issues:

Online instruction will be counted as equivalent to in-person instruction during the pandemic.
The enrollment counts for 2020-21 that determine state funding will be a combination of last year’s enrollment count (weighted at 75%) and this year’s count (weighted at 25%).
Schools will be required to administer benchmark tests to students and report the results to the state. However, the scores won’t be factored in the state’s school accountability system.
Districts will be required to develop another round of coronavirus learning plans by Oct.1, which must be passed by local boards of education and renewed by local boards every month.

Rep. Lori Stone, a Democrat on the House Education Committee, voted in favor of the bills. She said that she didn’t like all aspects of the compromise, but that her reservations were outweighed by schools’ need for clarity.

“It is unreasonable to ask school districts to balance an equation with so many variables,” she said. “It is time that the Legislature does our part.”

The state’s two largest teachers unions backed the package, as did other top Democrats.

Some in the party voted against the measures. The bills require school boards to reconsider their approach to learning every month during the pandemic, which Rep. Leslie Love called an “undue burden.”

Rep. Darrin Camilleri, a Democrat who voted against the new attendance rules, said schools should not be penalized if teachers don’t have at least one two-way interaction with each of their students every month.

“We are likely to see great fluctuations in daily attendance because of the pandemic,” he said. “Let’s hold our schools harmless.”

5 key questions that could shape the future of virtual learning in Michigan

2020-08-06T14:00:00+00:00

Even with most back-to-school policy in Michigan still up in the air, one thing is already clear about the fall: Schools will continue the extraordinary online learning experiment that began when classrooms closed this spring.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hasn’t announced whether classrooms will be allowed to reopen, but districts across the state are already planning to keep classrooms closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The widespread shift to virtual instruction could accelerate the state’s long-running push to offer more education online, a move with enormous but uncertain implications for students.

Five months ago, only a small fraction of Michigan’s students did much of their learning online. Now school building closures have familiarized most of those 1.6 million students with virtual instruction, and officials are investing tens of millions of dollars in technologies to make it even more widely accessible; Detroit’s school district alone has spent $23 million. Educators and online learning companies are welcoming the expansion, and some policymakers are pushing for back-to-school legislation that would open the door to even more online learning.

Yet experts estimate that at least 25% of Michigan students still don’t have the technology they need to learn online, raising questions about the equity of online learning policies. And there is scant evidence that existing online programs aid student learning.

“There are plenty of virtual learning organizations that are more than willing to provide their services, but we don’t have a lot of evidence that they have a positive effect on student learning,” said Mark Berends, a professor at University of Notre Dame who co-authored a recent study of virtual schools in Indiana.

Here are five issues to watch as this experiment with virtual learning enters a new phase.

What will districts take away from their early efforts to provide online learning?

Fewer than half of Michigan schools were able to transition to full-time online learning when classrooms shut down in March, typically because of poor broadband access. Others took hybrid approaches that combined online instruction with printed worksheets that were sent home with students. More than 10% only sent worksheets home in the spring, according to researchers at Michigan State University.

Some districts that weren’t prepared for virtual learning when the pandemic hit are gearing up for the fall by entering into contracts with online learning companies, said Joe Friedhoff, vice president of Michigan Virtual, a state-funded nonprofit that tracks virtual learning across the state, designs online lessons, and distributes them to districts for free.

If districts pay outsiders to provide online curriculum and track student learning, it could become harder for teachers to embrace virtual learning in the long run, he added, especially if the companies don’t provide training as part of their contracts.

“How are those organizations building local capacity?” asked. “There’s clearly some dependency [on contractors] that’s going to happen this year.”

Will more students get the tools they need to participate in online instruction?

Most schools in Michigan will provide some in-person instruction this fall, in part because so many students don’t have access to the devices and internet needed for online learning, said Peter Spadafore, associate executive director for advocacy at the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators. (Republican lawmakers are seeking to require schools to offer in-person instruction to students in grades K-5.)

At the outset of the pandemic, the Michigan Department of Education estimated that 500,000 students, or one-third of the total, didn’t have the tools to access online classes.

The pandemic has set off a minor spending spree aimed at narrowing that gap. Philanthropies spent millions to buy tablets for students in the Detroit district. State officials are using tens of millions of dollars in federal aid to buy Wi-Fi hot spots and devices for students across the state.

Still, large parts of the state are outside the range of existing broadband internet networks.

Broadband “is a public good that needs to expand to all American households,” Spadafore said, calling on the federal government to get involved in expanding networks.

Will full-time online schools grow even faster? Or will their academic track records hold them back?

Amid uncertainty about the return to school, a growing number of parents are eyeing full-time online schools as an alternative to traditional districts.

“I can tell you right now that we have over 250 enrollment appointments scheduled,” said Kristi Teall, executive director of Success Virtual Learning Center, a full-time online school, referring to meetings with parents who’ve expressed an interest in enrolling their child. “A year ago, we would have been at zero at this point.”

Mary Moorman, head of school at Highpoint Virtual Academy, an online charter school with an enrollment of roughly 1,000, said she’d also seen a spike in interest.

“The applications year over year from last year are up well over 500%,” she said.

Some of those applications may be from nervous parents hedging their bets in case schools are closed, Moorman acknowledged. If classrooms are closed, she said, parents may prefer to send their child to a school with experience providing online education.

Yet Highpoint, like most virtual programs, produces poor academic results, receiving a D letter grade for both growth and proficiency from the state last year. Success Virtual Centers received a D for proficiency and an F for growth.

Statewide, just 8% of 11th graders enrolled in full-time online schools met the SAT standard for college readiness in math last year, far below the state average.

Moorman said the low scores are no surprise because students typically choose online learning after having trouble in a traditional school.

“They don’t go from being proficient or advanced students to, ‘oh gosh, we’re behind,’” she said. “Students are coming to us with these concerns already. Their local district has let them down.”

Researchers have struggled to paint a complete picture of students at virtual schools, but they broadly agree that the schools produce far worse academic results than other types of schools.

The Notre Dame study in Indiana found that students who transferred to fully online schools lost significant ground compared with academically similar peers who transferred to schools that operate in person.

“Students who transfer to virtual charter schools perform worse on standardized tests for at least three years after they transfer,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, a Ph.D. candidate who co-authored the study. “They move from being slightly below average to being extremely below average.”

The combination of poor academic results and low spending have drawn scrutiny from state policymakers.

Most virtual schools rank near the bottom of the state in spending per pupil. Yet, Michigan, unlike states like Indiana and Ohio, sends as much money to virtual schools as brick-and-mortar charter schools. In 2018, then-Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, argued that they should receive less, pointing to research showing that, on average, costs for full-time virtual schools are more than 30% lower than for brick-and-mortar schools. Whitmer, a Democrat, has also sought to reduce funding levels for virtual charters.

The state auditor is also conducting an inquiry into online charter schools, which is expected to be published this year. An audit of online charters in Indiana raised serious questions about the misspending of state funds.

Will COVID-19 budget cuts lead to more online instruction?

In May, administrators in Avondale, a school district in Detroit’s northern suburbs, announced that they would convert their alternative school to a fully online program.

The reason? To save money.

The episode touched a nerve with many educators who fear that budget cuts brought on by the pandemic will prompt more school districts to create new virtual programs — and cut teacher jobs. Since 2016, 20 new full-time virtual schools have opened in Michigan as state spending on schools has stagnated compared with inflation.

To replace its alternative program, Avondale contracted with a company that promised to increase the district’s revenue by bringing in new online students from around the state.

“The virtual academies get more students at no extra cost to the school district,” said Maria Lograsso-Gaitens, a teacher and an organizer with MiCORE, an educators coalition that opposed the closure of the alternative program in Avondale. “That’s a lot of money saved, and it’s very very appealing to save that money.”

How will politics shape virtual learning policy?

Michigan was the first in the nation to require students to have at least one online experience, which can include virtual classes, in order to graduate. The policy was created in 2005 by a Democrat-led state board of education and passed by Republican lawmakers.

Then, in 2012, the Republican-led legislature removed an enrollment cap on full-time virtual schools, setting the stage for rapid growth in the sector. The move was sharply opposed by top Democratic school officials.

That partisan split is still evident during the pandemic: Republican lawmakers are hoping to make it easier for districts to provide virtual instruction as part of proposed back-to-school legislation, but they face fierce opposition from Democrats who argue that the measures amount to “outsourcing” of teacher jobs and an “infomercial” for online learning companies.

The divide has deepened over actions by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who said when she joined the Trump administration that she hoped to expand the presence of virtual schools. As part of the federal coronavirus aid package, DeVos distributed $180 million in grants to states that promised to expand and improve online education.

State Rep. Pamela Hornberger, the Republican chair of the House education committee, said she was called “Pamela DeVos” by opponents of her back-to-school proposal, which would allow districts to contract out for virtual instruction one day a week after the pandemic is over.

Whitmer, who has the power to veto the proposal, said in a statement last week that it “returns to the same Betsy Devos-style tactics of outsourcing education to for-profit business models.”