ms can contribute to such strategies, illuminates examples from the field, and identifies numerous resources that can help programs and practitioners to capitalize on opportunities to rebuild and return even stronger than before COVID-19.
Getting Back to School after Disruptions: Resources for Making Your School Year Safer, More Predictable, and More Positive: Describes how multi-tiered systems of supports [MTSS], such as PBIS, are ideal frameworks for implementing strategies to support students coming back to school after experiencing trauma from public health crises, weather disasters, or other upsetting events that may have exposed them to unpredictable schedules, inconsistent supervision, food insecurity or other disruption. Students in such circumstances desperately need school to be a safe, predictable and positive setting. This practice guide, updated by the Center on PBIS to reflect the current COVID-19 pandemic, recommends six strategies for school teams to ensure a safe, predictable, and positive school year.
Reopening Schools after COVID-19 Closures: Explores options to assist state education leaders’ decision-making about these key questions: (1) When and how should schools reopen, once it is safe from a health perspective to do so?, (2) What could school schedule, student placement and staffing options look like when schools reopen?, and (3) How should we provide support to students (particularly those most in-need) as schools reopen? This toolkit will be frequently updated.
COVID-19 and Whole Child Efforts: Describes the importance of attending to the basic needs and well being of children and youth as central to supporting their success in school, and the particular salience of that holistic approach for supporting students’ return to classrooms in the aftermath of the COVID-19 national emergency. This brief from the American Institutes for Research defines key themes and terms to support shared understanding across community and school system leaders, and crosswalks prominent guidance for school reopening to the related Whole Child framework concepts.
Free Back-to-School Templates for Teachers and Families: Provides a set of customizable templates intended to support teachers, students and their families during the transition back to in-person learning. Common Sense Education observes that, with distance learning, many routines may have fallen by the wayside… but that doesn't mean you can't bring them back this year.” This collection offers customizable templates to help teachers (re-)establish norms and expectations for in-person learning, provide families with an overview of class goals for the 2021-22 year, and provide families some support in the transition back to in-person learning.
Five Ways to Talk with Students Returning After Pandemic Closures: Presents five common situations educators may see more of due to the stresses of the pandemic, as well as five ways to spark critical conversations with students. This guide hopes to encourage effective conversation in stressful situations through building a trusting relationship.
An Initial Guide to Leveraging the Power of Social and Emotional Learning as You Prepare to Reopen and Renew Your School Community: Shares actionable recommendations to help school leadership teams plan for the social emotional learning [SEL] needs of all students and adults during the upcoming transition into summer and the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. This guide positions SEL as a critical underpinning to the success of overall transition planning, recognizing school leaders have multiple other considerations for reopening schools, including academics, operations, access to technology, and physical health.
Analysis of School Reopening Plans: Explores education recovery plans put forth by states, territories, and national organizations, to examine the ways these plans are designed to support students and teachers. This tracker, a product of Johns Hopkins University’s eSchool+ Initiative, notes only whether provisions addressing each of 12 criteria are/are not present