As schools are set to reopen nationwide for the new school year — and with some students are already back to school in parts of the country — uncertainty is at an all-time high amid surging COVID-19 cases, debates over mask mandates and questions about the safety of returning to in-person learning.
A recent CBS News-YouGov poll showed that 69% of Americans are concerned about their children getting COVID at school, and 58% think masks for children should be required — and on the question of masks, parents are deeply divided along partisan lines.
But one of the country’s most prominent educators, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, says that “it will take all of us coming together” to keep schools safe and open this year.
Dr. Biden, who continues to teach at Northern Virginia Community College while serving as first lady, wrote in a op-ed for ABC News that the “complicated realities” of the COVID-19 pandemic “are keeping parents awake at night.”
“Experience has already shown that virtual learning can leave kids feeling isolated and alone: The kindergartener who is exhausted by constantly focusing on her computer screen—but doesn’t have the language to express her discomfort,” Dr. Biden wrote. “The middle-schooler who can’t get the hands-on guidance he needs and starts to believe that he is a failure—that he’s falling behind because he just isn’t smart enough. The talented high-schooler, hoping for an athletic scholarship in a sport she’s unable to play because sports have been cancelled.”
“As this school year begins, families across the country thought we could exhale after so many difficult months and now we’re holding our breath once again,” she added.
Dr. Biden pledged to parents that “your child, your school and your family are at the heart of all that my husband, Joe” — better known as President of the United States Joe Biden — “is doing to help our country defeat and ultimately recover from this pandemic.”
“As a teacher for over 30 years, and a mom even longer, I know that classrooms are so much more than places where our children learn math and reading,” Dr. Biden said, noting the importance that schools play in teaching children to resolve conflict, find confidence and build lifelong friendships, as well as parents’ reliance on schools while they work or pursue education of their own.
“This Administration is doing all we can to keep schools open and at the same time safeguard our children,” the first lady pledged. “Public health officials have laid out clear guidelines on how schools can bring kids back to the classroom safely and the American Rescue Plan has provided the support schools need to hire additional staff, including nurses.”
Dr. Biden also said that they are helping schools hire more social workers and counselors to help children deal with the “grief, loss, and trauma” that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, adding: “In order to truly serve our kids, schools must support mental health with the social and emotional resources that students need to recover, learn and grow.”
“I have so much faith in the community of educators who serve our students—from teachers to bus drivers to cafeteria workers,” she continued. “Their job is more than just a paycheck. They come to work because they care about students almost as much as parents do.”
“Still, we do know that vaccines and wearing masks provide the best protection available against this virus,” Dr. Biden concluded. “To keep our schools open and safe this year, it will take all of us coming together—being honest about the risks we face, listening to science, and working as one.”
