U.S. senators press Betsy DeVos for answers on Education Department’s coronavirus response - The Washington Post

U.S. senators press Betsy DeVos for answers on Education Department’s coronavirus response - The Washington Post

Senators press Betsy DeVos on Education Department’s coronavirus response

A group of Democratic senators are pressing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to answer some key questions about her agency’s response to the spread of the novel coronavirus across the country, especially about how it plans to help vulnerable students.

More than 20 senators sent a letter late Tuesday urging answers from the secretary about what the department is doing to help students affected by the outbreak of the virus. They asked 14 questions, to be answered by March 24, including about how the department plans to ensure that all students who are asked to study at home because they are sick or their schools have closed have the resources they need to continue learning.

On March 5, DeVos testified before senators to defend the Trump administration’s 2021 budget proposal for the Education Department, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) asked her what the department was doing to help students and schools deal with the crisis around the virus. At that time, Murray said the administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak “hasn’t inspired confidence.”

Here’s the text of the letter:

The Honorable Betsy DeVos

Secretary of Education

U.S. Department of Education

400 Maryland Avenue, SW

Washington, DC 20202

Dear Secretary DeVos:

We write on the topic of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the impact it is having on schools across the country. Increasing numbers of K-12 schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs) are considering school closures in order to mitigate the spread of the virus. We urge the U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) to consider several serious issues related to school closure as it works with school districts, state education agencies, educators, and institutions of higher education, as well as with the President’s Task Force and public health officials.

On February 27, 2020, the Department announced it had launched an internal Coronavirus Task Force led by Mick Zais, Deputy Secretary of Education. On March 4, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights provided guidance about educational institutions’ responsibility to address bullying and harassment of students of Asian descent due to stereotypes related to COVID-19. On March 5, 2020, the Department provided guidance and flexibility to institutions of higher education impacted by COVID-19 to comply with Title IV of the Higher Education Act, but additional questions remain.[1] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also issued interim guidance for IHEs and for K-12 schools.[2]

We do not yet know the scale at which K-12 schools and IHEs across the country may need to close in order to help contain the spread of COVID-19, but we urge you to do everything you can to ensure you are continuing to prepare stakeholders for a variety of scenarios. To date, over a dozen countries have shut down schools nationwide, and the number grows each day.[3] As the virus continues to spread throughout the United States, many schools have closed, and it is becoming increasingly likely many more will choose to do so. For example, on March 6, the University of Washington announced it would cancel in-person classes and move to online classes for its 50,000 students beginning March 9 through the end of the winter quarter on March 20.[4] Seattle University and Northeastern University’s Seattle campus have also moved to online classes, as have Stanford University and Columbia University.[5] Some K-12 schools in Washington, New York, California, and Rhode Island have also temporarily closed.[6]

As schools prepare to make these difficult decisions, they are faced with many legal and practical uncertainties and are looking for clear guidance and direction from the Department.

We are especially concerned by the adverse impact of school closures on certain students and families. In K-12 schools, many families rely on the Federal School Lunch Program and may experience food insecurity if they can no longer access meals at school. Few school districts have experience providing wide-scale educational services online for all students, and not all families have access to home computers and high-speed internet to take advantage of such online options. Online learning cannot substitute for a number of services provided in the school setting, and it raises particular challenges to ensuring equity in access to education for all students.

COVID-19 also could severely impact many students in higher education, as well as federal loan borrowers. Students rely on their colleges for on-campus food and housing services. American students enrolled abroad in foreign colleges face barriers to continuing their education, whether online or at other colleges and universities in other countries and the United States. Depending on the spread of economic effects across the country, federal student loan borrowers affected by the impacts of COVID-19 may experience difficulty in repaying their loans. Finally, online education is not the best or preferred method of learning for many students, including students who may be the first in their families to go to college or come from low-income families. If IHEs move to providing education online, we urge the Department to prioritize and ensure students continue to receive a high-quality education, including live, face-to-face, synchronous instruction between students and faculty as much as possible.

We urge you to consider these issues and provide us, and the public, answers to the following questions by no later than March 24, 2020:

1. What communication has the Department had with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) about the school lunch program to ensure students in schools that have closed or will close continue to have access to meals?

2. What communication has the Department had with the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about school-based health centers (SBHC) to ensure students and families who rely on health care services provided by SBHCs will continue to have access to such services in schools that have closed or will close?

3. Can the Department provide assistance to families without home computers or access to high-speed internet so they can take advantage of online educational options provided by either their school districts or IHEs if they need to?

4. What guidance will the Department provide about meeting the educational needs of students who need to stop attending school, including based on the recommendation of a doctor, because they are sick, due to school closure, or for other reasons?

5. If school districts and IHEs elect to provide online classes, they must ensure access is available for all students, including students with disabilities. What guidance is being provided to support school districts and IHEs in providing accessible instructional material, including ensuring websites are accessible, documents are compatible with screen readers, videos include closed captioning, students can participate in online video discussions, and, as applicable, accommodations for testing are provided remotely?

6. CDC guidance recommends IHEs ensure continuity of mental health services for students feeling overwhelmed with COVID-19 and associated events. What supports and assistance will the Department give to IHEs and school districts in providing remote services to all students?

7. While flexibility for colleges to use online education was addressed in the Department’s guidance, this guidance did not address issues of quality. How does the Department plan to monitor and ensure students receive regular and substantive interaction by their instructor(s) in higher education online programs?

a. What additional specific guidance is being provided to institutions on what “regular” and “substantive” interaction  CONTINUE READING: 

U.S. senators press Betsy DeVos for answers on Education Department’s coronavirus response - The Washington Post