ool districts’ provision and continuity of learning for the 2020-21 school year.
Returning to School During and After Crisis: A Guide to Supporting States, Districts, Schools, Educators, and Students through a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Framework during the 2020-2021 School Year: Describes the use of a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework to support students, families, and educators during the transitions back to school during and following the global pandemic in a manner that prioritizes their health and safety, social and emotional needs, and behavioral and academic growth.
Seven Ways Schools Can Maintain Supportive Climates: A positive school climate is crucially important to school success. Climate affects attendance, engagement, learning and even graduation rates. This infographic provided in English and Spanish by the Region III Equity Assistance Center, IDRA EAC-South shares ways that school districts can ensure safe and supportive campus climates for students, teachers, staff and families during this pandemic.
Best Practice Guide: Five Ways to Talk with Students Returning After Pandemic Closures: Describes five common situations educators might expect to see, due to the stresses of the pandemic, as students return to school, and offers five ways educators can start a one-to-one conversation to help understand what’s underlying a student’s behavior, based on those situations. This tip sheet was developed by Kognito, and draws from the American Academy of Pediatrics and adaptations of evidence-based motivational interviewing (MI).
What Students Are Saying about What It's Like to Be Back in School: Provides a variety of first-person insights by high school students as part of the New York Times’ Learning Network series, Current Events Conversation. Many teenagers are back in school for the first time since March 2020. Some are thrilled to be with their peers and teachers again, while others have had a hard time adjusting. But most agreed that going back to school in an ongoing pandemic feels “far from normal.”
American Rescue Plan Funds Can Transform Education for Young Adults: Delineates program and funding strategies states can adopt to effectively support students who are in great need. This brief from JFF Foundation and the National Governors Association [NGA] explains the American Rescue Plan Act [ARPA] opportunities states now have to use federal stimulus funds to create innovative educational programs to support students who have fallen behind, or have disappeared from schooling altogether during the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief shows how LEAs can partner with local employers, community colleges, alternative high schools, training programs and other community-based organizations to provide pathways and supports that connect disconnected youth to build college- and career readiness skills.
Addressing Student Re-Engagement in the Time of COVID-19 -- Resource Guide: Highlights emerging strategies, tools, frameworks, and policy guidance to address the subset of students considered missing or “non-contactable” since March 2020 who need reengagement. On behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families, and the Institute for Educational Leadership’s Coalition for Community Schools intend for readers to “blend and braid” the included strategies and tools to match each community’s unique needs, cultures, and priorities.
Attendance Playbook: Smart Solutions for Reducing Chronic Absenteeism in the COVID Era: Provides ideas and strategies from FutureEd and Attendance Works for addressing absenteeism during distance learning. Attendance Works has recently added a new implementation guide.
Re-engaging Disconnected Students Online and at School: Focus on Intrinsic Motivation: Presents practice notes from UCLA’s Center for Mental Health in Schools and Student Learning Supports that consider numerous options for reconnecting with students and then sustaining their involvement in instruction. Favored strategies should be predicated on an