People across the United States are eager to return to some semblance of “normal.” To do so, we must meet a herculean challenge: remaking our society and the places in our lives we hold dear—public schools and colleges, places of worship, workplaces, restaurants and more—in ways that hold paramount our ultimate priorities: the safety and well-being of our children, families and communities; the safety of our members and every frontline worker; and the health of our economy and economic well-being of working families.
In this resource, you will find:
- A plan that provides a roadmap for navigating the next steps to reopening. It provides specific guidance for transitioning from lockdowns to other public health tools to limit the transmission of COVID-19. It focuses on reopening school buildings in particular, because the safe reopening of public school buildings means students can go to school, and parents, who work outside the home, can go to work.
- A guide intended to be used along with the AFT’s “A Plan to Safely Reopen America’s Schools and Communities.”
- A Roadmap to Safely Reopening Our Schools for in-person learning is forged by ensuring transparency and building trust with the education community, starting with the safety standards and resources needed to keep everyone in our schools safe. That means reopening plans must be developed with the education community, including educators and their unions, and they must be based on scientific standards that minimize COVID-19 transmission in schools. Teachers and school staff understand that remote learning is not an adequate substitute for in-person learning and that reopening schools is vital for our children’s well-being and education, but in-person learning must be safe for everyone.
