ABCFT YOUnionews for January 14, 2022
KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Negotiations Update By Ruben Mancillas
The negotiating team is scheduled to meet virtually with the district next Wednesday, January 19. This will be the day after the board meeting. We look forward to receiving the district's response to our most recent proposal.
ABCFT leadership recently met with Academic Services regarding recommendations for secondary grading for the fall semester of 2021-2022. A number of the recommendations are likely what our members have already been factoring into their grading practices given all of the COVID-related disruption to our instruction and assessment. Again, these are recommendations and not mandates. The intent is that students not be negatively impacted due to the recent surge in infections. One definite shift in our typical grading schedule will be that the secondary fall semester grading window has been extended. The last day for students to submit work is Monday, January 24. Secondary teachers have until Thursday, January 27 at 4:00 p.m. to submit grades in the Aeries system.
I will be at the board meeting next Tuesday night and encourage fellow members to join your fellow ABCFT members if you are available. It is helpful to have the board see and hear from us about both our challenges and accomplishments during these most difficult of circumstances. The negotiating team can use anecdotes at the table to support our arguments but having members share their own experiences directly is invaluable as we strive for support for our many sacrifices throughout this pandemic.
In Unity,
MEMBER BENEFITS - Wellness Wednesday Archive
Maintaining our mental health and well-being is important for all of us. Last year, ABCFT offered Wellness Wednesdays members had an opportunity to virtually participate in Guided Meditation and Chair Yoga. These weekly sessions gave members a chance to practice self-care. Even if you were unable to attend these wonderful restorative practices you can still access the archive by using the link below.
Click here to view the recording of the
Guided Meditation and Chair Yoga for the weekly archives
In partnership with Kaiser Permanente, you can also access mindfulness resources for all ABCFT members. For Kaiser members, you have free access to the app Calm and myStrength which offers personalized self-care programs based on the cognitive behavioral therapy model. Please be kind to yourself and find time in your busy schedule to take care of yourself.
MEMBER-ONLY RESOURCES
Share My Lesson and Catherine Zack, a meditation teacher and executive mindfulness coach, for a new, free wellness series on stress solutions for educators.
This experiential workshop series is designed to give you both a better understanding of the science of stress and its impact on your body and real tools that you can use right now to manage stress, avoid feeling overwhelmed and create resiliency-building daily habits. You’ll leave this series with the foundations of a daily meditation practice and learn the building-block basics of mindfulness-based stress reduction.
You are invited to experience some immediate stress relief through guided relaxation, mini meditations and breathing exercises to help you reset your attention, refill your cup and relax at the end of a busy day.
The sessions topics are Exploring Mindfulness, Mindfully Manage Stress, Transforming Stress Reactivity into Mindful Response, Restorative Yoga for Burnout Recovery Workshop, and Guided Relaxation and Deep Rest Workshop
Register for all the upcoming live and on-demand sessions with this easy one-step registration for any or all upcoming sessions.
ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
This month’s academic service update is vital for all teachers. We hope that you will take a moment to look at this monthly report which discusses changes in academic services. This document provides the union with a means of giving the District feedback on the many programs or changes they are proposing at any one time. Without your feedback or questions on these changes, it is harder for ABCFT to slow down and modify the district’s neverending roll out of new projects. Please submit your comments and questions to the appropriate ABCFT liaison.
For Elementary curricular issues please email Kelley at Kelley.Forsythe@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
For Secondary curricular issues please email Rich at Richard.Saldana@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
Click Here For This Month’s Full Report
ABCFT PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Communication is a union’s most important tool for advocating for its members at the bargaining table. Every conversation with the membership is focused on the end result of negotiating for the future prosperity and wellbeing of ABCFT members. This weekly report aims to keep the membership informed about issues that impact their working/learning conditions and their mental well-being. Together we make the YOUnion.
“ Ch-ch-ch-changes” belted out David Bowie in the 1970s during a decade of the most societal and economic upheaval since World War Two. I think we’ve seen more change in two years than in most decades. Vaccine changes, quarantine changes, and changes driven by politics have made the past couple of weeks beyond challenging in tackling the challenges brought upon us by the Omicron variant. In ABC, every school and every classroom have impacted teachers' workloads causing people to feel heightened anxiety, fear, frustration, and anger. These feelings are valid and logical but the way these feelings impact us makes it hard to maintain our balance. Acknowledge those feelings but let's focus on some good news this week.
ABCFT has been negotiating, consulting, and pressuring the district for clarity, support, and concrete examples of how the school board and administration are supporting principals, teachers, and students in the ABC school district. First, I hope that you were able to read the joint communications and the union communications this week to help you get a better understanding of the overall situation. I apologize for the cryptic email on Monday that stated that more information was forthcoming. Our intent was just to make sure that members knew that we were working on solving issues and that more information was being gathered. ABCFT is always working to keep transparency and attentiveness in what we are doing for members. Your emails, calls, and text messages over the past two weeks have been invaluable. Thank you.
In the district's COVID Compliance meeting this Wednesday, I learned some valuable updates concerning test kits and masks. As of Wednesday, the district was set to receive 18,000 student antigen tests from the Los Angeles County of Education which should be arriving at your schools today or early next week. The district has also purchased 18,000 PCR test kits for employees which will help provide another way for employees to check their status if they are a close contact or exposed. These kits for employees will be available as soon as the warehouse can break down the kits and distribute them to schools. In addition, the district is receiving 100,000 KF94 masks for employees which will be sent to schools as soon as the warehouse breaks down the packages and bundles them for school distribution. Although we only received half of the student test kits promised to ABC by the State, it is a starting point for improved safety measures and we have been told by both the State and Federal government that more testing kits for both students and employees will be made available soon. In fact, beginning January 19th you can order free rapid tests shipped to your home. The ABCFT leadership is continuing to make the teacher/nurse safety and safety of the students in your classrooms a top priority but it is your member voice that has provided the incentives for board members and administrators to address these needed safety measures.
What about the raise? Is there an update?
Yes, here is the latest information about the 2021-2022 compensation package and what you can do to support this important proposal. As stated in earlier emails this week, the ABCFT proposal will be looked at by board members on Tuesday evening next week. We hope that board members will have a favorable view of this proposal so that when we meet with the district negotiating team on January 19th we will hopefully be able to sign a tentative agreement.
What you can do to help this negotiation process?
Please either call in or attend the school board meeting on January 18th. I think there is nothing more important for the board members to hear than how hard you are working in the current situation. Even if you decide not to speak at the meeting, I hope that you will wear your ABCFT YOUnion polo shirts so that the board sees a sea of blue shirt teachers filling the school board meeting. The board needs to know how important it is for employees to feel like they are valued members of the community. You have gone far above and beyond the call of duty and that FACT needs to be recognized. Now is the time to have your voice be heard or your blue shirt seen. ABCFT will provide some talking points on Tuesday for members to help us keep a clear and consistent message. Compensate us now!
I look forward to seeing you next week in the YOUnion chat prior to the board meeting and if possible I hope you can attend the board meeting too. Thanks for all you do!
In YOUnity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
DECEMBER 8, 2021 CORONAVIRUS STAFF SHORTAGE
Overwork, underpayment, burn out and blame, lead to staff shortages
Unions speak to pandemic-driven shortage of teachers, subs, paras, classified
For years, California elementary and secondary schools have had teacher shortages, particularly in areas of special education, math, and science, but it’s grown worse since the pandemic started, with fewer teacher candidates getting credentials, and 26% more teachers retiring in 2020 than the year before.
The latest CFT articles and news stories can be found here on the PreK12 news feed on the CFT.org website.
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
Attendance down at schools nationwide due to pandemic
Public-school attendance across the U.S. has dropped to unusually low levels, complicating efforts to keep schools open, as districts also contend with major staff shortages. Officials say many students are off sick due to COVID, or are being kept home by anxious parents wary of the Omicron variant. New York City, the nation’s largest school district, saw its overall attendance rate fall below 70% when classes resumed after the winter holidays, far beneath the district’s pre-pandemic average of over 91% students at school each day. Elsewhere, Boston Public Schools says student attendance has hovered around 70% since winter break ended January 4th. Since last week, more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 involving students have been reported, the district said, with hundreds of its 4,400 teachers also testing positive. Heather Hill, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, said some teachers she knows around the U.S. are teaching new material despite high absenteeism, though more slowly than usual. Some teachers are trying to keep absent students up to speed by holding after-school Zoom calls or having students in class stream video to their peers at home. “As a teacher, it really makes it hard because you’ve got to think about who has what content, who needs what content, what you need to do to make sure kids catch up,” she said.
----- SUBSTITUTE TEACHER CHANGES IN CALIFORNIA -----
Executive order on staffing
Gov. Newsom today released Executive Order N-3-22 to provide immediate, short-term solutions to address educator shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent Omicron surge. The latest order seeks to provide staffing flexibility and builds on previously issued Executive Orders that lowered barriers for retired teachers and classified staff to return to the classroom. Provisions take effect immediately and expire on March 31, 2022.
To utilize these flexibilities, the school district superintendent, county superintendent of schools, or charter school leader is required to make a written finding stating that the temporary staffing flexibility will provide support and allow continued in-person services for students despite staffing shortages caused by a rise in Omicron cases. Key provisions of the Executive Order include
Emergency Substitute Permits:
Many of the eligibility requirements for an emergency substitute teaching permit has been suspended. Temporary certificates may now be issued to applicants with a bachelor's degree and a background check.
Substitute Teaching Extension:
Previously, the length of time a substitute teacher may serve in a single general education classroom was extended from 30 days to 60 days. This order has now been extended it once more for 120 days.
Student Teachers:
Student teachers may be assigned to a classroom without the supervision of a credentialed teacher; penalties will be waived.
For retired educators:
Suspends post-retirement compensation limitations for compensation earned during the 2021-22 school year (comparable duty compensation limits are still applicable).
Suspends certain procedural requirements for approving a retired educator’s return to work.
Seeks to expand the currently suspended 180-day sit-out requirement for additional types of retired educators.
CalSTRS will be providing further guidance on implementing these provisions.
ACSA Governmental Relations staff is also working to clarify details on how districts can maximize the intended benefits and will provide updates as soon as they become available. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Edgar Zazueta, ACSA Senior Director of Policy and Governmental Relations at ezazueta@acsa.org
----- FEDERAL COVID TESTING SUPPORT IS COMING -----
White House Says COVID-19 Tests Will Arrive In Schools In Two Weeks
Reuters (1/13) reports a White House official said US schools should start to receive the first additional COVID-19 rapid tests made available by the federal government in about two weeks. The tests “must be ordered through state governments, but the White House is also making available lab capacity to support five million monthly PCR tests that schools can order themselves if their states are not being helpful, the official said. Those should arrive in seven to 10 days.” The official said the extra rapid tests would come from a “dedicated portion” of an existing contract, and there is sufficient capacity given contracts the Administration is now signing to obtain 500 million rapid tests.
White House to provide schools with 10m free COVID tests per month
The White House is promising to provide 10m free coronavirus tests each month for schools, aiming to help keep classes in person at a time when testing across the country is uneven. The administration said it would distribute 5m free rapid antigen tests to K-12 schools each month, to be used in two types of testing. The first is screening tests, in which a portion of students are tested on a regular basis in hopes of finding those who did not realize they were infected. The tests may also be used to create test-to-stay programs, for which students exposed to someone with the coronavirus are allowed to stay in school rather than quarantine at home as long as they periodically test negative. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed this approach last month. The first shipments of the tests are expected later this month. The White House said it also was making lab capacity available to process an additional 5 million PCR tests, which screen for the presence of genetic material from the virus and are more accurate than antigen tests, though they take longer to produce results. Throughout the pandemic, testing — subsidized with billions of dollars in federal funding — has been viewed as a key way to keep children in classrooms and ease the toll of remote learning on emotional health and academic progress. But public health experts say few districts are testing enough, or strategically enough — particularly in the wake of Omicron. “Asking if school testing works is like asking if a dishwasher works — yes, it works, but only if you load the dishes,” said Meagan Fitzpatrick, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who specializes in infectious disease modeling.
New York Times Washington Post
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
School teachers begin to run out of paid leave days
Many of the nation’s more than 6m K-12 workers came to rely early in the pandemic on the assurance that they could still get paid if they had to stay home while sick or exposed to COVID-19. However, many districts nationwide, including the Madison schools in Wisconsin, the Wichita schools in Kansas, and the Oakland schools in California, are not currently offering paid leave separate from what their employees already receive in a typical year, meaning that they face having their pay docked if they have to quarantine because they’ve come down with COVID and don’t have any sick time left. Denise Specht, the president of Education Minnesota, that state’s teachers’ union, said some local unions have been able to negotiate the continuation of COVID leave during the collective bargaining process, but others have not. “It is definitely adding to the anxiety and stress here in Minnesota and the uncertainty of what to do,” she said, adding that in some districts, teachers can teach from home while quarantined, but that’s not an option everywhere. “In general, teachers are going to do the right thing and stay home because it’s our nightmare to give COVID to our kids,” said Megan Mullaly, a 6th grade teacher in San Jose, California. But, she added, “it feels like the people who do the right thing are getting punished for it.”
How districts are shaping paid COVID leave policies
In 2020, the federal government required employers, including school districts, to provide COVID-specific paid leave, offering some fiscal support to employers that opted to extend that additional leave. However, these policies have now expired, with only a handful of states passing similar measures to replace them. Some districts aren’t giving employees extra time off beyond their previously allotted sick time, even as the worst public health crisis in a century shows no immediate end in sight. Others, though, have put together COVID-specific paid leave policies for their employees, either in accordance with a state mandate or of their own volition. “If you’re doing everything you’ve been asked to do, you’ve gotten vaccinated, you’re coming to work, you get COVID for no other reason than you’re working in a pandemic, and you have to go home, I don’t think we should charge you a sick day,” said Ken Wallace, superintendent of the Maine Township district in Illinois. “I feel differently in the same conditions if you’ve chosen not to take the vaccine and you catch COVID. The data is right there in terms of the effectiveness of the vaccine.” The downside of this approach is that it may require more paperwork and logistics to verify that people were vaccinated before approving the use of COVID leave days. Districts will also eventually need to consider whether to require COVID booster shots as a condition for paid leave eligibility.
----- STATE NEWS -----
Newsom budget includes over $100bn for schools and community colleges
Funding for schools and community colleges will rise to $102bn for the first time under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget for next year. “I don’t need to tell you the stress and anxiety our kids have been under over the last few years, particularly as it relates to COVID,” Mr. Newsom said Monday in a news conference announcing his proposed 2022-23 state budget. “This is serious, and we’re taking it seriously.” School funding is expected to increase by $8.2bn based on minimum funding guarantees under state law, according to the governor’s proposal, with an additional $7.9bn in one-time funds for facilities, transportation and career development, among other programs. The education budget reflects a healthy state economy with increasing revenue and a pot of leftover funds that the governor and Legislature have to work with for the 2022-2023 budget year. This year, the state did not withhold money for declining enrollment related to in-state migration, birth rate declines and parents opting for alternatives to their local public schools. Many districts would face a precipitous drop in revenue if the state reverts to funding based on how many students are enrolled next fall. The governor proposed softening that blow by funding districts based on whichever is greatest: enrollment from the current year, the prior year or the average of the three prior years. The plan would cost the state an estimated $1.2bn. Mr. Newsom also stressed that the proposal, which will be presented in May, is subject to revision.
EdSource San Francisco Chronicle
Gov. Newsom eases teacher hiring process
California is making it easier for school districts to hire teachers and other employees amid staffing shortages brought on by the latest surge in coronavirus cases. Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order to allow schools more flexibility in staffing decisions like giving additional hours to substitute teachers and rehiring recent retirees for short stints. The order expires at the end of March. The California Teachers Association, which represents some 300,000 educators statewide, said it recognized the need for hiring flexibility and urged school districts “to focus on substitute teachers, recent retirees and student teachers.” “The executive order is by no means the answer to long-term staffing shortages, and we look forward to working with the governor, lawmakers and the education community in rebuilding our educator pipeline, which has been devastated by this pandemic,” association spokesperson Lisa Gardiner said in a statement Tuesday.
California schools can return to distance learning
Schools faced with the prospect of closing due to COVID-related staffing shortages and student outbreaks can shift students to temporary remote learning programs, the California Department of Education said Wednesday. “It is within the law for them to switch to independent study,” Mary Nicely, chief deputy superintendent of public instruction, commented. "And so we'd actually probably prefer that over actual school closures for staffing shortages.” Hayward USD became the first in the state to switch to a district-wide independent study model this week when parents were given the choice to sign up for virtual learning or send their kids to learning hubs, where they’d receive lessons on their laptops under staff supervision. More school districts will likely explore remote learning models in the next few weeks as staff shortages reach breaking points, said Troy Flint, chief information officer for the California School Boards Association. "We're seeing numbers above 20% in some of our districts, and we haven't even reached the peak of the surge according to most predictions," Mr. Flint said. "So when you have districts that are probably going to be flirting with 30% of their workforce not attending, there's very little meaningful in-person instruction happening in that setting that's safe."
----- DISTRICTS -----
More than 62,000 LAUSD students, staff out with COVID
Hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles USD students returned to campus from winter break Tuesday amid a record-breaking surge in coronavirus cases, as schools grappled with staffing shortages, student absences and anxious parents and students, testing the district’s carefully laid plans to open schools. District data Tuesday showed more than 62,000 active cases among students and staff. More than 760 schools were reporting more than 10 cases, more than 140 reporting more than 100 cases and six high schools reporting more than 300. Interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly said more than 1,800 district employees had been deployed to school sites Tuesday to assist with the return. She acknowledged the delay some families faced when the district’s Daily Pass health screening system wasn’t working well during the morning rush to school. “We thought we might have something like this occur. We apologize for that,” she said at a news conference at Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar. “I think everyone’s getting through,” she said, adding that school principals were prepared with physical paperwork to check students into school. “They have a daily list that they can actually print out and if things get slowed down, they actually can just go to a manual list.”
Los Angeles Times The Hill CNN
Chicago teachers reach agreement
Chicago Teachers Union members have narrowly accepted a safety agreement with Chicago Public Schools, ending the dispute with Mayor Lori Lightfoot over COVID-19 safety protocols and keeping students in classes for the foreseeable future. The vote, which passed with just 56% approval, happened as students returned Wednesday.
The Chicago Teachers Union house of delegates has voted to suspend work action, meaning teachers were back in their classrooms for the first time in a week. The CTU's 25,000 members are expected to vote later this week on whether to approve a formal agreement with Chicago Public Schools. Students are expected to return to in-person learning on Wednesday. Notably, CPS didn't offer to reinstate a threshold for district-wide school closures and didn't agree to an opt-out testing program, two of the union's most prominent demands. Though the district stuck with an opt-in testing program, it committed to working with the CTU to increase student testing and vaccination to 100% by Feb. 1. Also, CPS didn't guarantee that teachers' missed days would be made up at the end of the year, so striking CTU members may not be paid for the days they didn’t come to work.
Palm Springs agrees to new union contracts with teachers and classified staff
Palm Springs USD has approved new collective bargaining agreements on Tuesday with the teachers association and Teamsters, which represents classified staff. Teachers will see their salary schedules increased by 4.5% for the 2021-22 school year, retroactive to July 1st 2021. The district has also agreed to a modest raise of teachers' maximum health and welfare benefits. In addition, elementary teachers will be provided four preparation periods per week totaling 200 minutes. Currently, elementary teachers are given three planning periods. Among other changes, the district and the Palm Springs Teachers Association agreed to pilot a middle school advisory period in 2022-23 designed to foster positive adult-to-student relationships and to address social-emotional learning.
----- CLASSROOM -----
Democrats “More Forcefully” Push Against School Closures As Omicron Surges
The AP (1/12, Riccardi, Binkley) reports, “Nearly two years into a pandemic that shows no signs of waning, Democrats are speaking out more forcefully against COVID-19 school closures, recognizing a rising anger among parents worried that their kids are falling behind. But in doing so, Democrats risk angering some teachers unions, which are advocating for more protections for educators as the omicron variant takes hold and whose support helped get Democrats elected.” The AP says Republicans “are happy to keep dinging Democrats on school closures.” President Biden “has been increasingly vocal about the need for in-person instruction.”
Newsweek (1/12) reports the Biden Administration and Democratic leaders in major cities “are stressing that schools should be kept open for students. However, the message has been met with pushback from some labor unions who contend that staffing shortages and inadequate COVID-19 protocols make such a mission impossible.” Such a standoff concluded Wednesday in Chicago, “as the teachers union voted to return to remote learning temporarily to help keep students and staff safe amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.” Other unions across the country “are also advocating for temporary returns to remote learning or stronger safety protocols.” Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association President Amy Mizialko “told The New York Times that she anticipates a fight with local officials about possibly extending remote instruction. In San Francisco, the local teachers union is fighting for a more robust testing program.”
Newsweek (1/12) adds that Brian Stryker, a Chicago-based Democratic pollster, “said the teacher strike might have been a turning point for some Democrats.” According to Stryker, “When you tell a parent that their kid can’t be in school – a lot of times politics doesn’t touch people’s lives, but that’s a massive impact on parents’ lives that p*sses them off. The Chicago strike may be the moment when Democrats said: ‘Enough. We’re done with all these.’”
School Closures Down In Second Week Of January. Bloomberg (1/12, Querolo) reports “at least 3,193 schools have canceled instruction or shifted to remote learning for one or more days this week, down from the peak of 5,376 during the week started Jan. 3, according to Burbio, which tracks school closures.”
Special ed services threatened by pandemic challenges
Educators across the country are struggling to keep students with disabilities on track academically, with the Omicron variant forcing some schools to switch temporarily to remote learning. Phyllis Wolfram, executive director of the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), a nonprofit whose members include local special education professionals, says the rise of the variant is causing special educators to balance personal safety with their desire to teach in person. Continued experience in supporting students with disabilities during the pandemic has led to some effective practices, such as virtual IEP meetings that help more parents participate in educational decisions for their children and the use of EdTech to supplement in-person instruction and services, special educators said. EdTech companies supporting students with disabilities have been receptive to input from parents and educators, Ms. Wolfram said, adding that CASE is also working to support educators' mental health, through educator self-care and adult social-emotional learning sessions.
----- PUBLIC SENTIMENT -----
Poll Indicates Majority Of Americans Favor Move To Remote Learning To Avoid COVID Exposure Than Continuing In-Person Learning
Axios (1/12, Owens) reports a new Harris Poll shows “more than half of Americans say that it’s more important to protect the health and safety of teachers and students by moving to remote learning to avoid COVID exposure than to keep schools open for in-person learning.” In the poll of more than 2,000 adults taken Jan. 7-9, “56% of respondents said protecting the health and safety of teachers and students is more important. Meanwhile, 44% said it’s more important to have schools open for in-person learning to avoid further interrupting students’ education.” The poll found “Lower-income respondents were more likely to choose health and safety over remote learning than higher-income respondents.” Persons of color were “also more likely to prioritize health and safety than white respondents, although a majority of all races and ethnicities did so.”
Newsweek (1/12) adds that “younger people and parents with children under the age of 18 were more likely to say they chose the ‘health and safety’ of remote learning over in-person classes. More than 60 percent of Generation Z, millennial and Generation X respondents said they favored remote learning over teachers and students being in classrooms, and 62 percent of parents with children young than 18 said the same.” In contrast, just 48% of boomers “said they supported remote learning.”
----- LEGAL -----
Supreme Court Ruling Relieves School Districts From Implementing Vaccine Mandates
Education Week (1/13) reports the US Supreme Court on Thursday, in a 6-3 decision. “blocked an emergency federal rule requiring large private employers, as well as school districts and other public employers in more than half the states, to implement either a COVID-19 vaccine mandate or testing and masking rules.” The majority wrote in its unsigned opinion in National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Department of Labor: “The regulation…operates as a blunt instrument.” The emergency rule by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) “was challenged in multiple lawsuits by business groups and 27 states, as well as by a handful of Catholic and Christian schools.” The majority opinion continued, “Although COVID-19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most. COVID-19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather.”
K-12 Dive (1/13) reports the ruling “relieves school districts in over half of states from planning for and implementing vaccination requirements for employees including teachers and administrators as well as, in some instances, substitutes, bus drivers and other staff. The mandate, which was supposed to take effect Jan. 10, was expected to exacerbate current school staff shortages, especially among school nutrition workers and bus drivers.” Education and labor law experts say OSHA “could still adopt a more targeted approach to a vaccine mandate...as the decision does leave the door open for a future interpretation applicable to industries or workplaces considered ‘crowded or cramped’ – working conditions the decision says OSHA still has the authority to regulate. That could potentially include schools.”
Rhode Island students lose appeal on right to civics education
Students asserting the right to an adequate civics education have lost their appeal of a federal court ruling that dismissed their suit accusing the state of Rhode Island of failing to prepare them for the duties of citizenship. A.C. v. McKee was filed in 2018 on behalf of 14 students and was backed by the Rhode Island Center for Justice and the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, but was also a proposed class action on behalf of all public school students in Rhode Island. It alleged that state officials have failed to provide students with a meaningful opportunity to obtain an adequate education to prepare them to be capable citizens. In October 2020, U.S. District Judge William E. Smith held that he was compelled to dismiss the suit, but he commended the students for their efforts. Now, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, in Boston, has also concluded that their suit could not prevail. The students have the right to seek review by the full 1st Circuit court or by the Supreme Court.
----- TECHNOLOGY -----
Amid Omicron surge, policies restrict districts' remote learning options
Districts in states with tight restrictions around remote learning are finding themselves unable to pivot to online instruction amid another surge of COVID-19 infections and school shutdowns. Instead, some schools facing staffing shortages or high absence rates from the spread of the Omicron variant are relying on inclement weather or emergency days to close schools altogether. These days in some cases must be made up at the end of the school year or, in worst-case scenarios, by docking spring break days. Connecticut and Tennessee are among states with widespread staffing and transportation shortages or high positivity rates, and also tight restrictions around remote learning options. Others include New Jersey, Massachusetts and Florida.
Ransomware attack impacts 5,000 schools websites
A ransomware attack on software provider Finalsite has affected the websites of about 5,000 schools, most of them in the US. About 8,000 schools, including boarding schools, high schools and colleges, worldwide use Connecticut-based Finalsite's software for their websites and public communications. The technology firm says it discovered the ransomware on some of its computer systems last Tuesday. In each of the last three years, ransomware has disrupted more than a thousand K-12 schools in the US, according to cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. The Government Accountability Office, a federal auditor, has called on the Department of Education to do more to protect schools from hacking threats. A GAO report published in November found that the department "lacks an up-to-date plan based on a current assessment of the cybersecurity risks facing" the education sector.
----- OTHER -----
NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
Years ago ABCFT started a working relationship with National Teachers Associates Life Insurance Company. Throughout our partnership, NTA has been supportive of ABCFT activities by sponsorship and prizes for our various events. This organization specializes in providing insurance for educators across the nation. We have been provided both data and member testimonials about how pleased they have been with the NTA products and the opportunity to look at alternatives to the district insurance choice.
To All Members of the ABC Federation of Teachers,
National Teacher Associates (NTA) is committed in our efforts to helping educators through tough times. It’s what we do. After all…in our eyes, you are the heart and soul of our communities.
Protecting you and your families has been our goal for over 45 years. Despite the current global pandemic, we are not about to slow down now. We know that many of you have had our programs for years and sometimes forget the intricacies of how they work. NTA wants to help facilitate any possible claims for now and in the future. Fortunately, all claims and reviews can be done by phone and online. I personally want to offer my services to guide you in the right direction with your NTA benefits.
We also apologize for not being able to finish the open enrollment for those of you who wanted to get our protection. We are still able to help by extending our enrollment window for the near future. Again, this can be done over the phone, email, or online.
Please contact Leann Blaisdell at any time either by phone or email.
562-822-5004
Leann.Blaisdell@horacemann.
Click here to schedule an appointment
