Title: Expressing the sense of Congress that reopening schools for in-person instruction should be a critical priority for local, State, and Federal policymakers, and that funding for K-12 schools under the American Rescue Plan and State vaccination guidelines should be used to help get children back in the classroom.
Policy area: Education

Summary:
This resolution expresses the sense of Congress that school districts should use certain COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) relief funds to reopen elementary and secondary schools for in-person instruction as soon as possible.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 241 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 241

 Expressing the sense of Congress that reopening schools for in-person 
instruction should be a critical priority for local, State, and Federal 
  policymakers, and that funding for K-12 schools under the American 
Rescue Plan and State vaccination guidelines should be used to help get 
                    children back in the classroom.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 16, 2021

    Ms. Sherrill (for herself, Mrs. Watson Coleman, and Mr. Payne) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                         on Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of Congress that reopening schools for in-person 
instruction should be a critical priority for local, State, and Federal 
  policymakers, and that funding for K-12 schools under the American 
Rescue Plan and State vaccination guidelines should be used to help get 
                    children back in the classroom.

Whereas many K-12 students have spent almost a full year outside of the 
        classroom due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent school closures, 
        with their learning entirely remote;
Whereas there is a growing body of evidence that remote learning can have 
        significantly negative impacts on student learning and educational 
        achievement, potentially harming long-term educational and career 
        success;
Whereas recent studies have shown that students' learning in math over the past 
        year was at least 30 percent lower than expected and their learning in 
        reading was at least 10 percent lower than expected;
Whereas other research has found that school closures in the spring and summer 
        of 2020 may have reduced student learning gains by up to one-third in 
        reading and up to one-half in math relative to a typical school year;
Whereas new studies have found that school closures have caused a decline in 
        children's skill attainment, with those impacts being particularly 
        severe for students whose parents have low educational attainment;
Whereas the shift to remote learning has also significantly amplified 
        educational disparities along socioeconomic lines throughout the 
        country;
Whereas research has found that majority non-White school districts saw much 
        larger learning losses than the average school district, with students' 
        learning in those districts falling almost 10 percent more in both math 
        and reading relative to expectations than in the average school 
        district;
Whereas access to in-person instruction itself has been highly unequal during 
        the COVID-19 pandemic, again stratified along socioeconomic lines;
Whereas recent reports have found that almost 70 percent of Black, Hispanic, and 
        Asian students were in remote-only school districts in the fall, 
        compared to slightly over 50 percent of White students;
Whereas school closures have also left behind students with disabilities, who 
        have had to get by with limited access to the special education programs 
        that are supposed to be guaranteed to them;
Whereas recent surveys of families with children in special education programs 
        have found that only 1 in 5 families said they were receiving all of 
        their children's support services and that 4 in 10 families said they 
        were receiving none of those support services;
Whereas the Government Accountability Office found that school closures have 
        created significant educational challenges for English learners and 
        students with disabilities, who already had large achievement gaps 
        compared to other students prepandemic;
Whereas school closures have also been linked to declines in students' mental 
        health, as children are deprived of social interaction at school as well 
        as critical mental health services that schools provide;
Whereas this mental health crisis has been highlighted by large increases in 
        mental health emergencies among children at hospitals during the 
        pandemic, and an increase in worrying mental health behavior as reported 
        by school districts;
Whereas new studies have found that the proportion of emergency department 
        visits that were mental health-related has increased by over 20 percent 
        for children aged 5-11 and over 30 percent for children aged 12-17 from 
        2019 to 2020;
Whereas the employment crisis facing our country has also been exacerbated by 
        school closures, as parents (predominantly women) have had to leave 
        their jobs to stay home and take care of their children;
Whereas new research suggests that over 1,000,000 mothers have left the 
        workforce since the pandemic started because of school closures;
Whereas among the 140,000 job losses reported by the December 2020 employment 
        report, the entirety of the jobs lost were held by women;
Whereas President Biden recently said that he hopes ``a significant percentage'' 
        of schools will reopen 5 days a week within his first 100 days;
Whereas President Biden also recently urged that teachers be vaccinated to 
        support this school reopening process, saying that ``we should move 
        [teachers] up in the hierarchy'';
Whereas the recently passed American Rescue Plan provides an unprecedented 
        $130,000,000,000 in funding specifically to help K-12 schools reopen 
        safely, with funds to reduce class sizes to comply with social 
        distancing, modernize HVAC systems, and hire more school custodians and 
        nurses;
Whereas the most recent CDC research finds that it is safe to reopen schools as 
        long as safety precautions such as universal masking, social distancing, 
        and sanitation and cleaning rules are in place; and
Whereas other CDC research has found little evidence that schools have been a 
        major contributor to increased community spread of COVID-19: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) schools reopening for in-person instruction as quickly 
        as is safely possible should be a key priority for all levels 
        of our government;
            (2) school districts across the country should use funding 
        for K-12 schools under the American Rescue Plan to safely get 
        children back into the classroom; and
            (3) States should consider how best to reopen schools when 
        developing their vaccination rules.
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