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Students may find that their “new normal” resembles what they experienced in quarantine: a curriculum oriented towards flexibility that supports not only day-to-day life disruptions but a majorly unstable and unknowable future.

The future will be quite different than the immediate past. We can anticipate a world-wide interdependent civilization shaped by economic turbulence from artificial intelligence and globalization, climate change, and advanced social and immersive media (Dede, 2018): what we are calling “the synergistic digital economy.” Although written before the pandemic, a just-published book, The 60-Year Curriculum: New Models for Lifelong Learning in the Digital Economy (Dede and Richards, 2020), describes the looming challenge/opportunity of a coming, epic half-century whose intensity of disruption will rival the historic period civilization faced from 1910-1960: two world wars, a global pandemic, a long-lasting economic depression and unceasing conflicts between capitalism and communism.

To fulfill their responsibilities in preparing students for a turbulent, disruptive future, educators at every level are now faced with developing young people’s capacity for ceaseless self-reinvention in an uncertain and changing workplace, and for inventing and mastering occupations that do not yet exist. Students must develop personal dispositions for “thriving on chaos”: creating new value, reconciling tensions and dilemmas, and assuming moral/ethical agency on equity and respect for diversity (OECD, 2018). To accomplish this, educators will need to impart and sustain knowledge and skills that are underemphasized in current curriculum standards, compartmentalized by institutions and omitted from today’s high-stakes summative tests: fluency of ideas, social perceptiveness, systems thinking, originality and conflict resolution (Bakhshi, Downing, Osborne, and Schneider, 2017).

After decades of delay, higher education finally has been spurred by necessity to enter the 21st century. However, we worry that the forced tactical migration to online education will end up as a waste of a crisis unless the response becomes strategic and embraces the forces of change and adaptation that have produced the synergistic digital economy in which education henceforth will take place. People believe they need additional resources to transform standard practices, but—when people have extra assets—they use these to do more of the same: old wine in new bottles.

Transformation comes primarily when people have no choice–when the current model cannot be sustained–and they must do something radically different. In our tactical responses to moving teaching online because of the pandemic, we have the strategic opportunity to develop a new model that blends higher and continuing education and realizes the potential of next-generation methods of instruction and assessment (National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, 2018) to focus on lifelong learning.

Dr. Gary Matlin at UC-Irvine coined the term “60-Year Curriculum” for this new perspective on instruction, oriented toward continuous education and centered on a lifetime of learning in the context of repeated occupational change and transition (Branon, 2018). This new model of learning, teaching, and “curriculum” overarches all the elements of educational experience–not only andragogy and educational content, but also services that sustain instructors and learners at multiple stages of lives and careers.

A new metaphor is needed for this novel model of learning and teaching that serves a lifelong need. Education previously adopted first factory and then office models of education, but these no longer apply (if they ever did). The metaphor for the 21st-century workplace of education is a global network, in which participants with multiple careers or “gigs” within each career reflect the shift from a centralized to a distributed workplace and from a role-based job to a consultant model of agency. The metaphor highlights a corresponding shift from centralized to distributed organizations and from pre-defined to ad hoc work. Students’ capacity to cope with rapid, unpredictable change in such a workplace and society throughout six decades of working life depends on instructors helping them to build and exercise 21st century skills across multiple domains of competency–not only during the university experience but in pre-K–12 and post-university experiences as well.

The student/worker functions as an entrepreneurial consultant who works simultaneously on multiple ad hoc teams with changing collaborators. The student consults in a variety of roles on multiple projects of the moment in a distributed environment. The model of the student’s mind is an agile network of data and processes. Learning takes place just in time, depends on underlying transferable skills, and relies on relevant content and processing tools being readily available.

The instructor/collaborator functions as a coach, providing continuity, perspective and methods. Performance assessment focuses on project deliverables. Preparation for a lifetime of such work requires developing the ability to learn continually and the capability to adapt to new and unpredictable situations. Consequently, education in the network era requires a 60-year curriculum that employs an andragogy combining collaborative tactical problem-solving with the strategic objective of developing transferable competencies—interpersonal, intrapersonal, and cognitive.

Moving existing face-to-face classes to Zoom Meetings was merely a tactical response to crisis. The pandemic is simply accelerating an already existing trend of moving to online learning that removes artificial, residential and temporal constraints on courses and utilizes instructional platforms that achieve immersion and enable open agency. The resulting hybrid 60-year curriculum makes it possible for learners, instructors, and institutions to establish and sustain six-decade-long relationships. To realize this vision, our book describes models from higher and continuing education that address how conventional courses and degrees will adapt to serve the “new normal,” a world in which life-long interactions between students and educational providers evolve to a lifelong relationship centered on upskilling and capacity building.

References

Bakhshi, Hasan, Downing, Jonathan, Osborne, Michael, and Schneider, Philippe. 2017. The future of skills: Employment in 2030. London, England: Pearson and Nesta. 

Branon, Rovy. 2018. Learning for a lifetime. Inside Higher Ed. November 16, 2018. 

Dede, Chris. 2018. The 60 Year curriculum: Developing new educational models to support the agile labor market. The EvoLLLution. October 19, 2018. 

Dede, Chris and Richards, John (Eds.). 2020. The 60-Year curriculum: New models for lifelong learning in the digital economy. New York, NY: Routledge.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 2018. The future of education and skills: Education 2030. .

Abstract

As the United States considers reopening schools after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers and administrators need to consider how to reopen in a way that keeps students and staff safe. This brief provides insight into health and safety guidelines and social distancing strategies used in other countries that have successfully reopened their schools in the context of COVID-19. Examples are intended to support school policymakers and administrators in the United States as they plan for reopening.

Introduction

Schools across the United States canceled in-person classes beginning in March 2020 to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In many states and districts, school buildings are closed for the duration of the school year. Across the country, policymakers and school leaders are making plans to reopen schools for the next academic year, and some are preparing to do so sooner. In order to reopen schools safely and mitigate disease spread, state and district leaders will need to address several important health considerations.

This brief compiles preliminary information on health and safety guidelines from five countries that have continued or reopened schools during the COVID-19 outbreak: China, Denmark, Norway, Singapore, and Taiwan. (See “Selected Countries With Open Schools.”)  

Each of these countries has been successful, to date, in avoiding spread of COVID-19 in schools. Countries that have reopened differ significantly from the experiences so far in the United States, however, in terms of the extent of their testing and tracking of cases. The capacity to test and track cases, and to isolate individuals who have been exposed to infection, is related to the success of these strategies.* As states plan to reopen schools, they should thus do so in close coordination with their state and/or local health authorities.

The brief focuses on guidelines in three areas: attendance, social distancing, and hygiene and cleaning. Information was gathered from health and safety guidance documents from each country’s Ministry of Education (as of May 3) as well as media and journal articles.(01)

*The Learning Policy Institute has not investigated the health implications of using any of these practices in the United States and does not endorse the safety or effectiveness of these practices or of any medical practices.

Attendance and Health Screening

An important step to supporting safety in schools is allowing at-risk students and staff to stay home and ensuring that all suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 are immediately quarantined. It is thus important for schools to provide ongoing distance learning and continuity plans to support students and staff who are in and out of school for health reasons. It is also likely that schools may need to be prepared for distance learning in situations in which schools need to close temporarily to prevent further spread of the virus.

Attendance Policy

The decision to return to school in the countries studied here was generally made when local infection rates had slowed significantly and other parts of the economy were being reopened. In some cases the decision to reopen schools was informed by multiple stakeholders. In Denmark, for example, the Ministry of Education made the choice to reopen in consultation with teacher and student unions. In South Korea, the Ministry surveyed families and teachers to solicit input about reopening schools.(04)

Given the health risks, however, on-site school attendance has generally been voluntary for all students in the first wave of reopening. Denmark and Norway, for example, have made on-site student attendance optional for the 2020–21 school year, and school employees over the age of 60 and those with designated health risks have been given the option to contribute to school operations from home. By Denmark’s second week of reopening school, 80–90% of primary school students and half of children in preschool and kindergarten had returned to school. Denmark has adjusted staffing to accommodate the small number of employees who stayed home for medical reasons, but officials say that schools are operating at capacity and cannot yet accommodate all students.

Health Screening and Quarantine Procedures

Screening: Health screening occurs daily for students and staff in schools that have reopened. Health and safety guidelines include temperature checks and reporting symptoms upon arrival, before entering the building. China and Singapore advise at least two temperature checks daily, a practice used in Singapore in 2003 during the SARS outbreak. In Singapore, students take their own temperatures, and families must additionally report any international travel to teachers before a student enters the building.(05) Some countries require that staff wear protective gear when taking students’ temperature, such as masks and gloves, and clean thermometers after each use. In Taiwan and some parts of China, these materials are provided by the government.

Students in Singapore undergo temperature checks at the gate before entering school. (Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images.)

Quarantine: Students and staff are immediately sent home if they exhibit any symptoms of the virus or if they report having been in contact with someone who is infected. (In Singapore, contact with infected individuals is also tracked by the voluntary use of a phone app.(06)) If symptoms are identified upon arrival, the individual must wait in a designated room until picked up. Quarantine procedures vary by country. In Denmark, children who come to school with symptoms are sent home immediately for 48 hours, and students who live with someone known to be infected with COVID-19 are not allowed to come to school. Norway allows students to return to school after they are symptom-free for 1 day, and students with a cold or pollen allergies are specifically allowed to attend school if they do not have a fever. In China, students who have had contact with someone with COVID-19 must self-quarantine for 14 days before returning to school; students who have symptoms themselves must be taken to a hospital for evaluation and may return to school after they recover.

School Closure

Administrators must develop contingency plans for closing classrooms or schools in the event that students or staff contract COVID-19. Taiwan, for example, follows procedures, called classroom suspension, that it used during the H1N1 influenza outbreak. If one or more students or staff persons in a class is confirmed to have COVID-19, that class is suspended for 14 days; in high school this applies to all classes the person attended. If two or more cases are confirmed in a school, the school is closed for 14 days. If one third of schools in a city or district are closed, then all schools must close. 

Social Distancing

Studies of previous influenza outbreaks show that schools can safely prevent the spread of disease in some contexts if measures are put into place to support social distancing.(07) Social distancing has two main components, as identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization: keeping individuals at a safe distance from one another (3 to 6 feet) and reducing the number of people with whom an individual interacts face-to-face. Countries are taking various approaches to accomplish social distancing in schools, including reducing class size, keeping students in a stable homeroom class, seating students farther apart with assigned seats, canceling large-scale gatherings such as assemblies and sporting events, and using staggered school schedules so that fewer students attend school at the same time or are congregated in common areas at one time.

Social Distancing in Classrooms

Denmark’s guidance requires students to maintain 2 meters (6 feet) of separation in class and recommends that classes be divided into one or more stable groups. In practice, this has meant reducing group size to 10 or 11 students. Staff are limited to working with one or two classes, and support staff help teachers cover the split classes. In addition to using primary school classrooms, schools are using outside areas, gyms, and secondary school classrooms because, at the time of this writing, older children had not yet returned to school.(08) When older students return to face-to-face classes, they will stay in their homeroom classes while teachers rotate in and out, with the exception of biology and chemistry classes, which will continue to take place in lab rooms.

Norway’s guidance is similar to Denmark’s, limiting class size to 15 students per class in primary school and 20 students in middle school. It furthermore allows two staff members to work together to teach a split class. Guidance makes clear that social distancing may be difficult with young children and that, while distance should be maintained as much as possible, “comfort and contact for the smallest children in child care should be maintained.” 

Taiwan, in contrast, has not set maximum class sizes. Schools keep students in a homeroom class with a core teacher, while subject-specific teachers move between classes. Studies suggest that, during the H1N1 outbreak, this approach to social distancing, combined with Taiwan’s classroom suspension procedures described above, contained the spread of disease and reduced social disruption.(09) In addition to maintaining stable homerooms, students as young as kindergarten wear masks supplied by the government, and desks are separated from one another, sometimes using dividers. 

In Singapore, usual class sizes were maintained at about 30 students, but classrooms tended to be large already, allowing for students to be spaced 1–2 meters (3–6 feet) apart. In kindergarten through Grade 2, children sit together in stable clusters. In Grades 3 and up, children have assigned seats in rows set up as if they are taking examinations, and they may not move around.(10) Similar measures are being taken in China, although practices vary locally. Some schools have reduced class size from an average of 50 students to fewer than 30.(11)

Austria, which at the time of this writing planned to reopen its primary schools on May 18, recommends that schools stagger student attendance to allow sufficient space for social distancing. Federal guidance offers sample schedules; for example, schools may send one group of students to school on Monday to Wednesday one week but on Thursday to Friday the following week. Schools are required to send schedules to families weeks in advance so that they can plan accordingly. Hong Kong, alternatively, will offer only half-day classes to facilitate schools’ cleaning of their premises. The week before Singapore schools closed on April 8, schools had 1 day a week of home-based learning, with grade levels assigned different days of the week to reduce school traffic.

Social Distancing Outside of Class

Schools will need to consider how to keep students and staff at a safe distance from one another outside of class, particularly during arrival and dismissal, mealtimes, recess, and class changes. 

Parents and children stand in a queue to get inside Stengaard School north of Copenhagen, Denmark. (Photo by Ólafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT (Photo by OLAFUR STEINAR GESTSSON/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images.)

Arrival: Where possible, schools are generally encouraged to stagger their start and end times and to have designated routes to class with multiple entrances to avoid having students and families congregate. Family members and visitors are not allowed on the school premises, except when needed in younger grades. In Norway, a letter was sent home before school start to explain these procedures. In Denmark, arrivals and departures are sometimes staggered by grade, so the children come into school single file, with markings on the ground to show where students should wait as they enter. In Austria, China, and Taiwan, students and teachers are required to wear face masks and wash their hands as they enter the building. (In Austria, masks may be taken off in class.) Before schools reopened, local officials in some areas of China required staff to run simulations and drills before students returned to ensure an orderly flow of traffic.(12)

Mealtimes: Guidance generally recommends handwashing before and after meals; encourages students to be spaced well apart and stay with homeroom groups; and sets standards for handling food and utensils and cleaning tables. Shared food and buffet-style meals are not allowed. Typically, students eat at their desks. In Taiwan and China, some schools use dividers to reduce germ transmission, as lunch is the one time each day students take off their masks.(13) Some of China’s schools split students up at lunchtime so that some students use the cafeteria with assigned seating that is partitioned or spaced apart, while others eat in their classrooms; cookware, utensils, and towels must be sterilized after each use. Singapore also assigns seating in the cafeteria to be able to trace individuals’ contacts.(14) Norway discourages use of the cafeteria but suggests that, when used, only one homeroom group enter at a time.

Recreation: Indoor and inter-school sports activities have generally been suspended, while outdoor playtime is allowed in small, supervised groups. Taiwan has suspended all sports and physical education; in China, physical education continues in some schools based on local decision-making.(15) Denmark and Norway recommend that schools use outdoor spaces as much as possible, including for gym class. They encourage play in homeroom groups divided into smaller groups—for example five children in one area—with increased adult supervision to ensure that students do not touch one another. Singapore staggered timing for recess for different groups, a practice recommended in other countries as well.

Transportation: Several countries’ guidance discourages the use of public transportation, although all recognize it may be necessary and suggest the use of masks and frequent cleaning. School buses are allowed in China, Denmark, and Norway, but schools are encouraged to use buses at half capacity (e.g., only one student in a row designed for two), and in Norway, students are encouraged to take their own transportation to school when possible. In Jiangxi, China, some schools created new bus routes to accommodate the change in ridership and to reduce the need for students to take public transportation.(16) Taiwan is still running school buses and public transit as usual but requires cleaning and disinfection of seats, armrests, and grab handles at least once every 8 hours, including before and after shifts of students are transported.(17)

Hygiene and Cleaning

Countries have taken common approaches to handwashing, which are consistent with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for frequent handwashing and cleaning of commonly touched surfaces to mitigate the virus. Countries’ guidance on cleaning products and procedures vary, however; states should consult federal and state guidance on the use of disinfectants and allowable chemical use in schools.

Students study in a classroom with transparent dividers placed on each desk to separate each other as a precautionary measure against the spread of COVID-19 at Wuhan No. 23 Middle School. (Photo by Getty Images.)

Hygiene

Masks: In China, masks are required at all times for teachers, as well as for students as young as age 3, and in Taiwan they are required whenever a distance of 2 meters (6 feet) cannot be maintained. The government provides students and staff with free masks to wear at school.(18) Denmark and Norway, on the other hand, do not require students to wear masks. Austria will require masks when students enter and move about the building, but not during class.

Handwashing: Frequent handwashing is recommended in all countries, sometimes as often as every 2 hours. Denmark and Norway have created posters and videos to support schools’ teaching of healthy habits, and guidance requires school employees to receive training on hygiene standards. In Singapore, the Ministry of Education also launched cartoon heroes known as the Soaper 5 to remind students to practice good personal hygiene. Denmark’s guidance allows for the use of wipes and hand sanitizer with 70–85% rubbing alcohol in the case that water is not accessible. When South Korea reopens its schools, it will require that students participate in online classes related to personal hygiene and health and safety measures the week before they return to school.(19)

Cleaning

Areas and materials to clean: Cleaning is frequent, especially in common spaces. In Taiwan, for example, the Central Epidemic Command Center provided guidance for the cleaning and disinfecting of schools and school buses before students returned from their February break, and schools were reminded to institute appropriate cleaning and disinfecting procedures once school resumed.(20) Schools in all countries are encouraged to wipe down high-touch areas, such as doorknobs and desks, every 2 hours. In Norway and Singapore, students wipe their own desks. Windows and doors are left open as much as possible to maintain ventilation. In Norway, toilets and sinks are expected to be cleaned 2–4 times a day, and tablets and computers must be wiped after each use.

Shared materials: Shared materials are discouraged, but when used they must be cleaned before being used by other groups of students. Denmark specifies that toys must be washed twice daily, and those that cannot be cleaned easily should not be used. Computers or tablets, when needed, should be shared by only a few students. In Norway, library books may be used if students wash their hands first, but other countries have closed libraries. 

Cleaning products: Guidelines in China, Denmark, Norway, and Taiwan all recommend careful cleaning with soap and water or disinfectant at least once daily and outline proper waste disposal and removal. In most cases, government entities provide schools with cleaning supplies. Recommended cleaning products vary by country. China’s guidelines, like South Korea’s, recommend wiping or spraying chlorine dioxide concentrations of 500 mg/L on furniture, door frames, doorknobs, sinks, and floors; surfaces should be precleaned with water, and water should be used after 30 minutes to remove disinfectant.(21) In Norway, guidance requires the use of water and ordinary detergents, but it does not require the routine use of disinfectant or protective gear when cleaning most areas. 

Conclusion

Research suggests that social distancing techniques, along with careful hygiene, cleaning, and use of quarantine, can reduce the spread of disease in schools. The international examples described in this brief provide insight into how these strategies can be put into operation in various contexts to protect the health and safety of students, staff, and families. 

The COVID-19 crisis has brought school closures to every state in the country; district, charter, and private schools alike have scrambled to provide remote learning in short order. While the current restrictions on student learning will not last forever, the consequences of the crisis on students’ academic progress—let alone on their and their families’ economic and emotional wellbeing— are likely to persist well into the future. How can school systems prepare for what will be anything but business as usual?

Every system in the country will be making decisions around reopening school buildings. It is increasingly clear that the health and safety of school communities will depend on the dramatic restructuring of facilities and schedules. There are lessons to be learned from nations such as Denmark and Japan that have recently reopened, but also stark differences between what is possible there and what will be possible here.

All reopening plans should begin with two goals in mind.

**** Repost from ****

 January 31, 2020

Parents of young children who come to the San Diego Workforce Partnership for help with their career have a range of prior experiences and future aspirations, but they share a common challenge: finding child care they trust and can afford that covers the hours they need to work. San Diego’s child care system is in crisis.

To support —helping parents find family-supporting work while ensuring that their children are healthy and learning—we undertook a study of the region’s child care system and the connection between parents’ child care struggles and the economy. With funding and partnership from The San Diego Foundation’s Early Childhood Initiative, the  was released on January 13 at a press conference that also announced the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce’s new  report about family friendly benefits.  of the press conference signified that concerns about the child care issue are growing.

The release of the reports was followed by a summit about the Workforce + Child Care findings on January 30, 2020. The gathering in downtown San Diego featured local, state and national leaders and experts and focused on actions we can take in our region to better support working parents.

Here’s what we learned:

1. Supporting working parents is good for business and the economy

“High quality child care builds a strong future, but our families’ inability to secure child care also has major effects for business and economy.”  

– Nathan Fletcher, San Diego County Supervisor, District 4

Attracting and retaining talent is important for San Diego region employers, who are desperate to keep jobs filled given our record-low unemployment rate—2.8 percent in January 2020. When parents leave the labor force due to child care struggles, or when a parent is an unreliable employee due to sketchy child care arrangements, the employer is faced with substantial productivity, recruitment and training costs. Council for a Strong America estimates that the annual cost to the economy of the child care crisis is , including lost revenue, productivity and earnings.

How does this show up in San Diego? One symptom of the crisis is that San Diego County has the second lowest female labor force participation rate among ten major metro areas in the U.S. If we were to match Boston’s rate, an additional 74,000 women would be working in our region—a staggering toll of talent that is sidelined.

2. The San Diego region is in the midst of a child care crisis

 found that San Diego region child care is hard to find, hard to afford, often inconvenient and of varying quality. The report presents extensive evidence of the crisis, but one statistic that landed hard with the summit audience: there’s a gap of 190,000 between the number of available licensed child care slots in the region and the number of children who need care because all of their parents work. What this means for working parents looking for care is that they make lots of calls to child care centers only to learn that there are no spots available and the waitlist is years long.

The search for child care is even harder for first responders, health care workers and others who work non-traditional hours. Jack Schaeffer, San Diego Police Officers Association president, explained that his parent members just can’t find options that work for the swing and graveyard shifts that they must take every four months so parents often end up leaving the force. The Association is raising money for a 24-hour child care center to help address this challenge.

3. The child care crisis hits middle income working families hardest

Child care in San Diego County is very expensive—more than $17,000 per year on average for infant and toddler care for example. While  (though slots are limited and only the very lowest income families are assured of landing a spot) and well-off families can afford to pay out of pocket, middle income working families are caught in the middle with few options.

A family of four with two young children in our region can probably afford child care if the parents make over $107,000 annually, as about 35-40% of families do. But those many families—about 30-40% by our estimate—who make too much to qualify for assistance or can’t secure it, yet can’t afford to pay out of pocket, are out of luck. One symptom: as of late January, 2,034 families in San Diego County were on the waitlist for child care support, and most will languish there for months or years.

4. We can and must act locally to address the crisis

More funding for child care from the state and federal governments is needed urgently, and speaker Kris Perry, the deputy secretary for the California Health and Human Services Agency, promised that new investments are on the way. But summit speakers also made it clear that local players can do a lot to help working families.

Some recent actions by local government show that policymakers are taking steps to address the child care crisis. On January 28, Supervisor Kristen Gaspar introduced, and the supervisors passed, a plan to review all County properties to find spaces suitable for child care for County employees. And in mid-2019, the San Diego City Council approved a package of zoning and permitting reforms that encourage the inclusion of child care in new developments.

Local philanthropists can spur innovation and growth in the field. A  at The San Diego Foundation alongside new investments by Price Philanthropies and other local funders are launching new child care centers and improving the quality of existing care.

5. Making jobs more family friendly is key

“One hundred percent of businesses need to do something.”

–  Julia Barfield, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

Making jobs more family friendly will help businesses appeal to and keep employees. Businesses can do this in myriad of ways, including offering on-site child care, paid leave, telecommuting opportunities and other benefits.

Sam Whiting, Director of Global Engagement at Boeing, shared that they are constantly thinking about ways to help employees perform better at work and allow them to do what they need to do at home. A couple of the benefits Boeing offers include 12 weeks paid parental leave and up to $10,000 in reimbursements for adoption fees. With the growing challenges of finding good talent, Whiting shares that asking, ”How can we make it so [employees] want to move within the company, not out of it?” is imperative.

While on-site child care is wonderful when possible, it is not an option for most employers. However, every employer can, for example, examine its work schedules to make them more family friendly—which means both flexible and predictable. Paid family leave is another very powerful benefit employers can offer to augment what the state provides since the weeks and months after a baby is born are critical for the health of the baby and mother and it also helps with child care challenges.

More ideas on how employers can better support working families such as providing lactation rooms, flextime, and creating a family friendly work culture can be found in the  and  reports.

6. Asking what parents need is the first step toward supporting them

Curious about how you might support working parents in your workplace? Ask them. Virtually all of the family friendly benefits shared at the event stemmed from direct feedback and conversations with employees.

Sarah Hassaine, Manager of Inclusion and Diversity at Qualcomm shared that they implemented flex schedule and only schedule meetings between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.—two decisions that cost the company nothing and have been incredibly valued by parents.

“There isn’t one answer, we need to be flexible and offer flexibility.”

 – Jack Schaeffer, President, San Diego Police Officers’ Association

What’s next?

We all have a part to play in solving the child care crisis in San Diego County. We need everyone at the table. When government, philanthropy and businesses work together, innovation occurs. We can do this. And we can start now by making changes to include more parents in our current workforce while investing in their children, our future workforce.

Hello Â鶹ÉçÇø Families,

We hope this message finds your family well as we embark upon a new journey of distance learning together. Our goal at Â鶹ÉçÇø is to support you and your child in learning together, which will mean calling on our collective knowledge, creativity, patience, and flexibility.

The Â鶹ÉçÇø Team is working tirelessly to design a distance learning program for your child. Distance learning will begin on April 20th, 2020, after our scheduled Spring Break from April 6th- April 17th, 2020.

As we begin a distance learning program, our first goal as educators is to reestablish relationships and connect with your children utilizing online support and strategies. This will present new challenges, but Â鶹ÉçÇø staff and students are prepared to overcome them. We have been implementing a 1:1 blended learning model since 2014 and our students and staff are accustomed to using technology for learning. We look forward to working collaboratively with you to make the most out of this difficult situation.

**** Repost from edutopia.org ****

Three superintendents, all early adopters of blended learning, explain what it took to make their 21st century models work. (Hint: Good teachers and curriculum are still at the core.)

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