Key Points to Share about ED's Reopening Schools - Center for Parent Information and Resources

(2021, May) | Useful to Parent Centers, educators, school systems, students, and families in the reopening of our schools.

In April 2021, the U.S. Department of Education published 2 handbooks to help schools reopen safely. Both focus on strategies and practices important for schools to use. CPIR posted information about both volumes as the “Featured Resource” on our website and listed the table of contents for each. Now, we’ve developed an infographic summary of each volume, to give Parent Centers, families, and others quick access to the valuable information within those volumes. While there is no substitute from reading the actual volumes in their entirety, these 2 infographics will give you a taste of the kind of detailed guidance you’ll find in the full publications. As we develop reopening plans and, indeed, as we implement those plans, the strategies described in Volume 1 and Volume 2 will be extremely useful to all involved.

Volume 1 and Its Infographic Summary

Volume 1 is called Strategies for Safely Reopening Elementary and Secondary Schools and is 27 pages long. It’s packed with useful guidance for schools and families with respect to such important reopening aspects as wearing masks, how to address the needs of students who cannot wear a mask, transporting students to school, operating music or athletic programs, and special considerations for communities of color and students with disabilities.

The infographic summary CPIR developed is 3 pages long and will whet your appetite for reading Volume 1 in its entirety.

View or download the accessible PDF of our 3-page summary of Volume 1:
https://www.parentcenterhub.org/wp-content/uploads/repo_items/reopening-schools-vol-1-infographic.pdf

Download an accessible Word version of the summary:
https://www.parentcenterhub.org/wp-content/uploads/repo_items/volume1-keypoints-reopening-schools.docx

Read and download Volume 1 in its entirety:
https://www2.ed.gov/documents/coronavirus/reopening.pdf

Volume 2 and Its Infographic Summary

The 2nd volume published by the Department of Education is called Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting All Students’ Needs. It’s 67 pages long and a very informative read. The volume spotlights research-based strategies for addressing the social, emotional, mental-health, and academic impacts of the pandemic on students, educators, and staff. It also stresses using this reopening opportunity to promote educational equity and address long-standing opportunity gaps that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Our 2-page infographic summary is merely an appetizer for the outstanding information contained in Volume 2.