{"id":19994,"date":"2021-04-16T15:40:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T19:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/?p=19994"},"modified":"2024-03-13T09:54:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T13:54:42","slug":"the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/","title":{"rendered":"The nation needs a plan to vaccinate students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

President Biden has introduced a\nmassive infrastructure plan that would, among other things, invest $100 billion\nin building and restoring American public schools. In the meantime, students\nand teachers everywhere are returning to school. Most will be at school for\nonly a fraction of the time they used to spend there. These are \u201chybrid\u201d\nschedules, where students attend in cohorts, in an effort to follow COVID-19\nsafety guidelines in our over-capacity and underfunded public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As students begin to return, the question lies less with whether they will <\/em>go back \u2014 most students will be attending school in person at least part of the time this school year, and there is an expectation that most students will return in full. The question we have to answer is how<\/em> to return students to school safely, and to address their needs and supports to make sure they are healthy \u2013 mentally and physically \u2013 and able to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One barrier to learning during the pandemic has been the digital divide. While schoolwork and research have moved increasingly online during the pandemic, 20% of parents said their kids likely lacked access to the resources necessary to finish their homework online<\/a>. However, for years before the pandemic, the homework gap has contributed to massive achievement disparities. Students without access to reliable broadband struggle to keep up as school and learning increasingly incorporate technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many have underlined the necessity of confronting \u201clearning loss.\u201d There is good reason to dispute the validity of these concerns<\/a>. In addition, the pandemic has given many educators the opportunity to reconsider learning<\/a>, questioning long-held assumptions about what is and isn\u2019t learning. Regardless, it is important to recognize that high-stakes testing is not the answer. In the best of times, high-stakes testing undercuts the nature of learning by treating learning as something to be objectified. The story of learning cannot be told by multiple-choice and when teachers, schools, and students are judged on this metric, classrooms and curriculums become cold and formulaic. During the coronavirus pandemic, high-stakes testing will punish the very schools that it purports to help. The schools and students that have been most hurt by the pandemic will be the same schools that see their funding siphoned by charters, increased teacher shortages, and even shutdowns<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mental Health<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As we try to return to \u201cnormal,\u201d schools must work to support students who experienced trauma during their time out of school. Many students lost loved ones or experienced economic, mental, or physical distress over the course of the pandemic. The mental health care needs of children are rapidly increasing.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, mental health-related emergency room visits for children increased by 24% for children ages 5-to-11 and 31% for children ages 12-to-17 last year. Counselors, school nurses, wellness offices, social workers, and homeless liaisons must be prepared to provide compassionate care to students. Underfunding means that these staff will often be overwhelmed and under-resourced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American Rescue Plan, recently\nsigned into law by President Biden, includes millions of dollars in funding\ndirected to children\u2019s mental health efforts. This is a positive start but it\nwill take a sustained effort to address the existing and new mental health\nneeds of children. Schools will receive nearly $130 billion to aid them in\nreopening. Mental health services and social-emotional learning are allowable\nuses of those funds, but not required. First Focus on Children recently joined\nnearly 100 other organizations in asking the Biden Administration to issue\nguidance for schools focused on the mental health supports and social-emotional\nlearning that we believe will be necessary as students return to school and begin\nto recover from the trauma suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We must\nmaintain focus on the mental health needs of children as we all begin to\nrecover.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As President Biden looks to see\nevery adult vaccinated by summer, we are still waiting for a vaccine for our\nchildren.\nThe story of COVID-19 has\nlong been that it does not affect children, but it has in innumerable ways,\nincluding through their health. As of\nApril 1, 2021<\/a>,\nnearly 3.5 million children have tested positive for COVID-19, and 284 have\ndied due to the virus. That is 284 preventable deaths and 284 families in\nunspeakable pain. And this number represents an undercount, as not all states\nreport this data or report it in the same way, and the child share of overall\nCOVID-19 cases in this country is on the rise. Children have been susceptible\nto Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), and 75 percent<\/a> of children with this illness did\nnot experience any COVID-19 symptoms at the time of infection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students will be back in school soon.\nThere is little uncertainty on that. What\u2019s necessary is that we make sure\nstudents and school staff are supported and safe in returning to schools. For\nthat, we need massive investments in the infrastructure and personnel within\nthose schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, as states begin to loosen their COVID-19 restrictions and protections, more adults get vaccinated, and more social activities begin to return to pre-COVID-19 practices, unvaccinated children will be increasingly at risk. We call on the Administration to create a plan \u2014 tailored specifically for the unique needs of children \u2014 for getting children of all ages vaccinated against COVID-19 as expeditiously, efficiently, and effectively as possible. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Biden has introduced a massive infrastructure plan that would, among other things, invest $100 billion in building and restoring American public schools. In the meantime, students and teachers everywhere are returning to school. Most will be at school for only a fraction of the time they used to spend there. These are \u201chybrid\u201d schedules, … <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"issue":[1514,1511,1512],"partner":[],"staff":[1164,1173],"updates-type":[1572],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe nation needs a plan to vaccinate students | First Focus on Children<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Biden has introduced a massive infrastructure plan that would, among other things, invest $100 billion in building and restoring American public\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The nation needs a plan to vaccinate students | First Focus on Children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Biden has introduced a massive infrastructure plan that would, among other things, invest $100 billion in building and restoring American public\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First Focus on Children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/firstfocus.children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-13T13:54:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/VaccinateStudents-990x557.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@first_focus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/\",\"name\":\"The nation needs a plan to vaccinate students | First Focus on Children\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/VaccinateStudents-990x557.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-16T19:40:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-13T13:54:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"President Biden has introduced a massive infrastructure plan that would, among other things, invest $100 billion in building and restoring American public\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/VaccinateStudents.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/VaccinateStudents.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Updates\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/updates\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The nation needs a plan to vaccinate students\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/\",\"name\":\"First Focus on Children\",\"description\":\"Making Children and Families the Priority\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"First Focus on Children\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/ff-logo-icon.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/ff-logo-icon.png\",\"width\":103,\"height\":97,\"caption\":\"First Focus on Children\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/firstfocus.children\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/first_focus\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The nation needs a plan to vaccinate students | First Focus on Children","description":"President Biden has introduced a massive infrastructure plan that would, among other things, invest $100 billion in building and restoring American public","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The nation needs a plan to vaccinate students | First Focus on Children","og_description":"President Biden has introduced a massive infrastructure plan that would, among other things, invest $100 billion in building and restoring American public","og_url":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/","og_site_name":"First Focus on Children","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/firstfocus.children","article_modified_time":"2024-03-13T13:54:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/VaccinateStudents-990x557.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@first_focus","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/","url":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/","name":"The nation needs a plan to vaccinate students | First Focus on Children","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/VaccinateStudents-990x557.jpg","datePublished":"2021-04-16T19:40:07+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-13T13:54:42+00:00","description":"President Biden has introduced a massive infrastructure plan that would, among other things, invest $100 billion in building and restoring American public","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/VaccinateStudents.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/VaccinateStudents.jpg","width":1600,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/update\/the-nation-needs-a-plan-to-vaccinate-students\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Updates","item":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/updates\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The nation needs a plan to vaccinate students"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/","name":"First Focus on Children","description":"Making Children and Families the Priority","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#organization","name":"First Focus on Children","url":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/ff-logo-icon.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/ff-logo-icon.png","width":103,"height":97,"caption":"First Focus on Children"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/firstfocus.children","https:\/\/x.com\/first_focus"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update\/19994"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/update"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update\/19994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26203,"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update\/19994\/revisions\/26203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19994"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=19994"},{"taxonomy":"partner","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partner?post=19994"},{"taxonomy":"staff","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/staff?post=19994"},{"taxonomy":"updates-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firstfocus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/updates-type?post=19994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}