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Teachers and Parents, Socializing Is Still Vital for Normal Adolescent Development

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Teachers and Parents, Socializing Is Still Vital for Normal Adolescent Development

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Emotional Health

Why teenagers need to see their friends...and how to make that happen

Photo by Julie Ricard via Unsplash

Let me preface this entire article by saying that I take being in a pandemic very seriously. We conscientiously follow all of the recommended safety guidelines...

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Monica Gupta Mehta, M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)

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Teachers and Parents, Socializing Is Still Vital for Normal Adolescent Development

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Let me preface this entire article by saying that I take being in a pandemic very seriously. We conscientiously follow all of the recommended safety guidelines...

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Guidelines for Safe Reopening of Schools

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Guidelines for Safe Reopening of Schools

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Healthy screen time is one challenge of distance learning

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Healthy screen time is one challenge of distance learning

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Find numerical data to share about the impact of screen time during distance learning.

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coronavirus: A family of viruses named for the crown-like spikes on their surface (corona means "crown" in Latin). Coronaviruses cause the common cold. The family also includes viruses that cause far more serious infections, including SARS.

COVID-19: A name given the coronavirus that caused a massive outbreak of potentially lethal disease, beginning in December 2019. Symptoms included pneumonia, fever, headaches and trouble breathing.

diabetes: A disease where the body either makes too little of the hormone insulin (known as type 1 disease) or ignores the presence of too much insulin when it is present (known as type 2 diabetes).

epidemiologist: Like health detectives, these researchers figure out what causes a particular illness and how to limit its spread.

Federal Communications Commission: An independent agency of the U.S. government, which is overseen by the U.S. Congress. It regulates communications and enforces U.S. laws covering communications between U.S. states and between the United States and other nations. Those communications can be by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable.

high school: A designation for grades nine through 12 in the U.S. system of compulsory public education. High-school graduates may apply to colleges for further, advanced education.

internet: An electronic communications network. It allows computers anywhere in the world to link into other networks to find information, download files and share data (including pictures).

mental health: A term for someone's emotional, psychological and social well-being. It refers to how people behave on their own and how they interact with others. It includes how people make choices, handle stress and manage fear or anxiety. Poor mental health can be triggered by disease or merely reflect a short-term response to life's challenges. It can occur in people of any age, from babies to the elderly.

metabolic syndrome: A health condition made up of any three of the following six problems: obesity, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, high levels of bad fats alongside low good cholesterol, extra blood components that cause inflammation and extra blood components that lead to clots. People with metabolic syndrome have an increased risk of developing diabetes or heart disease.

metabolism: (adj. metabolic) The set of life-sustaining chemical reactions that take place inside cells and bigger structures, such as organs. These reactions enable organisms to grow, reproduce, move and otherwise respond to their environments.

myopia: The medical term for nearsightedness. An inability to focus on anything much more than an arm's length away.

navigate: To find one's way through a landscape using visual cues, sensory information (like scents), magnetic information (like an internal compass) or other techniques.

obesity: (adj. obese) Extreme overweight. Obesity is associated with a wide range of health problems, including type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

online: (n.) On the internet. (adj.) A term for what can be found or accessed on the internet.

pandemic: An epidemic that affects a large proportion of the population across a country or the world.

physical: (adj.) A term for things that exist in the real world, as opposed to in memories or the imagination. It can also refer to properties of materials that are due to their size and non-chemical interactions (such as when one block slams with force into another).

pressure: Force applied uniformly over a surface, measured as force per unit of area.

range: The full extent or distribution of something. For instance, a plant or animal's range is the area over which it naturally exists. (in math or for measurements) The extent to which variation in values is possible. Also, the distance within which something can be reached or perceived.

smartphone: A cell (or mobile) phone that can perform a host of functions, including search for information on the internet.

social: (adj.) Relating to gatherings of people; a term for animals (or people) that prefer to exist in groups. (noun) A gathering of people, for instance those who belong to a club or other organization, for the purpose of enjoying each other's company.

survey: To view, examine, measure or evaluate something, often land or broad aspects of a landscape. (with people) To ask questions that glean data on the opinions, practices (such as dining or sleeping habits), knowledge or skills of a broad range of people. Researchers select the number and types of people questioned in hopes that the answers these individuals give will be representative of others who are their age, belong to the same ethnic group or live in the same region. (n.) The list of questions that will be offered to glean those data.

syndrome: Two or more symptoms that together characterize a particular disease, disorder or social condition.

texting: The sending of a text message from a mobile (cell) phone.

virtual: Being almost like something. An object or concept that is virtually real would be almost true or real - but not quite. The term often is used to refer to something that has been modeled - by or accomplished by - a computer using numbers, not by using real-world parts. So a virtual motor would be one that could be seen on a computer screen and tested by computer programming (but it wouldn't be a three-dimensional device made from metal). (in computing) Things that are performed in or through digital processing and/or the internet. For instance, a virtual conference may be where people attended by watching it over the internet.

wake: An area of disturbed air or water left behind an object (such as a boat or animal) moving through it. Or a term for the collective events kicked off by a momentous decision or occurrence.

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Healthy screen time is one challenge of distance learning

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How you use screens is more important than the amount of time you spend on them. Sit less, experts say, and use those screens mainly to learn and engage with others.

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Remote learning can be a pain for kids in more ways than one

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Remote learning can be a pain for kids in more ways than one

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Learn about physical symptoms that doctors are seeing in younger people as a result of too much computer time.

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Amid the chaos of getting my three kids up and running with distance learning, proper computer ergonomics admittedly were not top of mind. We were scrambling to get everyone logged into their Zoom sessions, troubleshoot technology glitches and keep up with the information onslaught from more than a dozen teachers.

Though my house doubled as a makeshift school, it didn't look much like a classroom should. My high-schooler worked while sprawled across a beanbag on the living room floor, hunched over his computer. My middle-schooler, laptop in tow, rotated throughout the day from his desk to the kitchen counter to the couch to the backyard patio table. My fifth-grade daughter worked at a desk most of the time, but her laptop screen was too low, forcing her to look down while she worked, and within a few weeks she started complaining of neck pain.

No wonder.

Early into a school year dramatically reshaped by the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 30 million public school students are doing virtual learning either every day or part time, according to Burbio, a company that is tracking school openings across the nation.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
With so many students spending unprecedented long hours on their computers to keep up their grades, experts are reminding parents that without a proper home workstation, remote learning may cause aches and pains and potentially lead to injuries over time.

"We don't think of kids getting repetitive stress injuries or fatigue injuries or musculoskeletal aches and pains like the parents and grandparents get," said Dr. Theodore Ganley, an orthopedic surgeon at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics section on orthopedics. But children "are not immune from these things," especially if they work at computers day after day in awkward postures, he said.

"If kids are slouched and sitting with their feet off the ground, they're hunched over, they're staring for hours upon hours without breaks, they can get neck strain, back strain, eye strain," Ganley said. "These are the kinds of things that can affect anyone."

Doctors know that poor posture while working on a computer can cause discomfort, with pain developing in a relatively short time. More serious repetitive stress injuries such as tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome usually take at least six to 12 months to develop.

Computer-related injuries on the job can be tracked in adults via workers' compensation claims, but there is no central database tallying these issues in kids, experts say. While children typically haven't worked as intensely on computers as adults on the job, distance learning now requires many kids to spend much more time on computers than in the past and in a home environment that may not be properly equipped like a classroom. Exactly how this may impact them is unclear.

Researchers have observed that the average age of onset of these injuries has declined from the early 40s in the mid-1990s to the early 20s now, according to ergonomics expert Alan Hedge, a professor emeritus at Cornell University. He worries that kids who are doing a lot of computer work in bad postures might start incurring cumulative damage that may not reveal itself until they develop injuries later on, even as they become adults entering the busy workforce. He's also concerned about the possibility of spinal deformities in young children who spend excessive time hunched over a computer while their bones are still developing.

"These injuries tend to be slow and they tend to be progressive," starting as discomfort, then aches, then pains, then injuries, Hedge explained. "So you have time to break in and stop that progression from happening."

Here's how you can help your child stay safe.

Distance learning can be quite challenging, so it may be difficult to get kids to sit properly at a desk all day with every other stressor they are dealing with right now. So do your best to help them improve their posture most of the time, experts say. Once they realize how much more comfortable they feel, they may even thank you.

Ideally, children and adults alike should maintain a neutral posture while sitting at a computer, with the spine not twisted or bent, the lower back supported and the neck straight.

Forearms and thighs should be roughly parallel to the floor, and feet should be flat and supported, not dangling.

Arms should rest comfortably at the sides, with wrists straight and relaxed.

The work area should be well-lit with the monitor positioned at approximately arm's-length and the top part of the screen comfortably at eye level.

To ease eye strain, Hedge suggests the 20-20-20 rule, "which is that every 20 minutes you look more than 20 feet away from you to rest the eyes and blink your eyes for at least 20 seconds."

Desktop computers are more easily adjustable at a workstation, but small, portable laptops and tablets that many kids use can present ergonomic challenges.

"Technology like a laptop computer was never designed to really be an ergonomic product because when the screen is in a good position, it's pretty well impossible to use the keyboard," Hedge said. "And when the keyboard is in a good position, it's really hard to use the screen other than in a very awkward posture."

Children working on laptops may need to place a book or box underneath to raise it up to a comfortable level. Another option for achieving a neutral posture is to get a holder designed for a laptop or tablet. Kids using laptops or tablets also may benefit from an external keyboard and mouse so they can keep their wrists straight.

An adjustable ergonomic chair can help a child achieve proper positioning at a desk or table, but these chairs can get pricey and may not be affordable, especially if there are multiple people in your household working from home. An alternative is to equip a regular chair to make it more comfortable for kids by using pillows to raise up the child or rolling up towels for lower-back support. Kids may need to put their feet on a box or footrest.

Breaks are built into the normal school day as students do things like play at recess, switch classes and walk to lunch. But remote learning can be one long sedentary grind with eyes glued to the screen unless you actively plan to break up the day.

"Try to make sure that your kids don't spend too long, certainly no more than 30 minutes at a time, before they stand up, move around, shake things out," Hedge said.

Dr. Jennifer Weiss, an orthopedic surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles, recommends that kids do stretching exercises, especially activities that uncurl the body from the hunched-over position that many fall into while on a computer.

"No. 1 is doing some sort of counterstretching throughout the day, even in bite sizes," Weiss said. "So when they have their lunch break, have them do some counterstretches, whether it's in the form of putting on a five-minute yoga YouTube video for them, whether it's getting together as a family and having a plank party, doing some planks and some backbending sort of activities."

Lunchtime is also a good opportunity to get the whole family outside for an invigorating walk, game or other activity. Children may be missing recess and sports, but they still need the recommended hour or more of physical activity a day for overall health.

My daughter told me her neck had been hurting, but not all kids will communicate that they're feeling uncomfortable or achy while doing computer work, and they may not make the connection to their workstation.

Red flags include discomfort or pain, commonly in the neck, shoulders, back, wrists or hands, as well as tension headaches. If pain persists even after you make ergonomic adjustments to your child's workstation and incorporate rest breaks, experts advise consulting a doctor.

After adjusting my daughter's workstation to raise up her screen, she felt better right away and hasn't complained since. Now if only we could get rid of that beanbag.
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Remote learning can be a pain for kids in more ways than one

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Amid the chaos of getting my three kids up and running with distance learning, proper computer ergonomics admittedly were not top of mind. We were scrambling to get everyone logged into their Zoom sessions, troubleshoot technology glitches and keep up with the information onslaught from more than a dozen teachers.

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5 Incredible Health Benefits of Face to Face Socializing

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5 Incredible Health Benefits of Face to Face Socializing

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Learn about benefits researchers have found for face to face socialization vs. online socialization.

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Living the digital age, we spend a lot of time staring at glowing screens. Our mobile devices are incredible tools. Through a smartphone we have instant access to unlimited knowledge. However, spending hours each day watching funny cat videos may not be the best use of your time. Americans spend anywhere from 2.5 to 5 hours each day on their smartphones. For those who far exceed those numbers, the habit is damaging to their health.

According to Psychology Today excessive screen time - defined as more than 6-hours per day - restructures the matter that makes up your brain. This restructuring affects the brain's ability to communicate, increases cravings, and results in generally poorer cognitive performance. Excessive device usage has also been linked to a risk of metabolic syndrome: a combination of diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure.

Everything in moderation. Be selective about how and when you use your mobile device. To remedy excessive screen time, we suggest replacing the time you spend "socializing" on social media with face-to-face socializing with your friends and family.

5 Health Benefits of Face-to-Face Socialization

1. Alleviates Depression

Spending time with your friends and family in-person alleviates symptoms of depression. Several high-profile studies highlight the mental health benefits of regular face-to-face social interactions. The individuals who participated in the studies were less likely to report symptoms of depression, compared with participants who relied heavily on phone calls and digital communication for socialization. Use your phone to make plans!

2. Stronger Immune System

You can't get a hug over the phone. Giving or receiving a proper hug, where your heart touches the other person's heart, has numerous positive effects on your health. Hugs release Oxytocin in your brain (the happy chemical!) which alleviates depression, eliminates feelings of loneliness, and even boosts your immune system by reducing stress in your body. A hug a day keeps the doctor away.

3. Improved Cognitive Function

Loneliness is one of the most difficult feelings a person can experience. Don't isolate yourself. According to a 2014 study, socializing can lower blood pressure and decrease the stress hormone cortisol. These positive benefits create a physiological environment that is optimal for peak brain function. More recent studies have even found a link between regular socializing and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's. That's a very powerful incentive to get out with your friends this weekend.

4. Improved Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is the most prominent byproduct of socializing. Having a group of people you "belong" with makes you feel special. This feeling of importance results in a self-esteem boost. Self-esteem doesn't just make you "feel good," it also improves your overall quality of life. People with healthy self-confidence are more likely to be promoted at work and earn more over the course of their lifetime .

5. Reduced Stress and Anxiety

For most people, socializing with a group of friends greatly reduces stress and anxiety. When you're socializing, your mind is occupied with "real thoughts." You are not left alone with your obsessive thoughts, spinning in circles, obsessing about the past, or worrying about the future. You are living in the moment. In essence, through face-to-face contact, you are reaping the benefits of mindfulness.

The same health benefits can be achieved through daily mindful meditation . You can begin your practice today by listening to this 3-minute guided meditation or attend a group meditation or to reap the benefits of socializing!

Visit avsmindfulness.com to learn how more about how instructional mindfulness meditation can benefit your health. Keep an eye out for our app, slated for release in 2018!

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'FaceTime' for Face Time: Socialize Your Way to Better Health

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Living the digital age, we spend a lot of time staring at glowing screens. Our mobile devices are incredible tools. Through a smartphone we have instant access to unlimited knowledge. However, spending hours each day watching funny cat videos may not be the best use of your time.

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Hear an experts thoughts about the importance of socialization for middle schoolers.

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AMLE - Association for Middle Level Education

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When asked about social distancing, Peter Slavin, president of Massachusetts General Hospital, put into words a thought I keep having: "I prefer the term 'physical distancing,' it seems we need social connections now more than ever before." For middle schoolers, with the developmental desire to fit in and seek connection with each other, this statement is even more prophetic than for adults.

The need to maintain academic instruction and to be socially connected collide when considering how we help our students connect when they cannot see each other in person. How we do this will probably change shape over the coming days, but we are aided by seeking the bright side and considering what we know of many students in the middle grades.

Middle schoolers see themselves in relation to others. As they try to understand and define themselves, many do so while comparing and contrasting themselves with others. COVID-19 provides a leveling of experiences as it impacts everyone, albeit in different ways.

Middle schoolers pick up on and respond to the expressed and unexpressed emotions surrounding them. A teacher once described to me, "middle schoolers all seem to be attentionally challenged." I can see how that may seem right. Still, I believe, middle schoolers are not attentively challenged, I think they're overly attentive, seeing everything, sensing the feelings of others, and driven by a desire to connect with others. I find them to be the most authentic group of people letting you know verbally or by action how they are feeling and how they experience you.

As we advance further into our time of physically distancing, the feelings of those around our middle schoolers may become more tense, anxious, and irritable, mirroring what they are experiencing. Among my favorite ways to understand how my students are doing is to ask, "What do you think adults should know about how some students your age might be feeling right now?" And "If you were to design a workshop for parents and teachers about how to best support students, what would you want them to hear?"

One of the most essential parts of a middle schooler's day is the "times and spaces in between" meaning the times between classes and the spaces outside of the classroom. These times and spaces provide the connective tissue between classes and a chance to check-in, touch base, get information, and more. In fact, I once had a student tell me his relationship "began on Monday, ended on Friday, and was really intense in between" all of this while not seeing each other outside of school.

Remote learning and teaching through packets do not necessarily allow for these interactions, but scheduling this unstructured time is possible. Those teaching remotely might try starting class with mics unmuted, allowing the chatter when arriving at class, beginning with a game allowing students to "play together," or scheduling a hangout.

My students are coming back from spring break this week and for our first class will begin with a Google doc with the prompt "Please answer one or more of the following 'How are you?',' How are those you care about?' 'How do you imagine others your age are feeling?'" and then we will play One Thing (one thing I noticed, one thing I heard, one thing I missed, one thing I ate, one thing wondered and so on) and for each class afterward, I am going to ask students to take turns creating a five-minute game for the group to play.

I began this piece with the intent to provide you with a list of things you can do to support students, but as I write it, I am reminded that the best answers about what kids need come from kids. The question, "How do we help students connect socially when they cannot see each other?" is not for us to answer; it's for us to pose to our students. We can ask our students to help solve a riddle perplexing most adults, co-constructing answers with them, and, most of all, listening.

My homework prompt, which can be done by remote learning, email, or phone calls, will be "Many adults are anxious to get things done, to teach you, to ensure you are learning, and I know that the brain is particularly challenged to take in new information when stressed. Adults often underestimate how important it is for students to maintain a connection with each other, so let's work together to generate a list of ideas for parents and teachers to read for ways they can support you to socially connect while physically isolating."

To process this question, we will have norms for how we collect each other's ideas, including listening for learning rather than debate, asking questions rather than disregarding opinions, and building on each other's thoughts rather than taking over. Students may not be able to answer the question for all, but in asking and listening, we are seeing and hearing them, which, after all, is the most robust social connection we can make.

Jen Cort worked as a counselor, principal, and senior administrator for 25 years before moving to consulting for schools on equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice. Jen is the host of a podcast called Third Space with Jen Cort.
jencortedcon@gmail.com
www.jencort.com

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When asked about social distancing, Peter Slavin, president of Massachusetts General Hospital, put into words a thought I keep having: "I prefer the term 'physical distancing,' it seems we need social connections now more than ever before." For middle schoolers, with the developmental desire to fit in and seek connection with each other, this statement is even more prophetic than for adults.

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Covid-19’s Impact on Students’ Academic and Mental Well-Being

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Covid-19’s Impact on Students’ Academic and Mental Well-Being

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The pandemic has shone a spotlight on inequality in America: School closures and social isolation have affected all students, but particularly those living in poverty. Adding to the damage to their learning, a mental health crisis is emerging as many students have lost access to services that were offered by schools.

No matter what form school takes when the new year begins-whether students and teachers are back in the school building together or still at home-teachers will face a pressing issue: How can they help students recover and stay on track throughout the year even as their lives are likely to continue to be disrupted by the pandemic?

New research provides insights about the scope of the problem-as well as potential solutions.

The Achievement Gap Is Likely to Widen

A new study suggests that the coronavirus will undo months of academic gains, leaving many students behind. The study authors project that students will start the new school year with an average of 66 percent of the learning gains in reading and 44 percent of the learning gains in math, relative to the gains for a typical school year. But the situation is worse on the reading front, as the researchers also predict that the top third of students will make gains, possibly because they're likely to continue reading with their families while schools are closed, thus widening the achievement gap.

To make matters worse, "few school systems provide plans to support students who need accommodations or other special populations," the researchers point out in the study, potentially impacting students with special needs and English language learners.

Of course, the idea that over the summer students forget some of what they learned in school isn't new. But there's a big difference between summer learning loss and pandemic-related learning loss: During the summer, formal schooling stops, and learning loss happens at roughly the same rate for all students, the researchers point out. But instruction has been uneven during the pandemic, as some students have been able to participate fully in online learning while others have faced obstacles-such as lack of internet access-that have hindered their progress.

In the study, researchers analyzed a national sample of 5 million students in grades 3-8 who took the MAP Growth test, a tool schools use to assess students' reading and math growth throughout the school year. The researchers compared typical growth in a standard-length school year to projections based on students being out of school from mid-March on. To make those projections, they looked at research on the summer slide, weather- and disaster-related closures (such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina), and absenteeism.

The researchers predict that, on average, students will experience substantial drops in reading and math, losing roughly three months' worth of gains in reading and five months' worth of gains in math. For Megan Kuhfeld, the lead author of the study, the biggest takeaway isn't that learning loss will happen-that's a given by this point-but that students will come back to school having declined at vastly different rates.

"We might be facing unprecedented levels of variability come fall," Kuhfeld told me. "Especially in school districts that serve families with lots of different needs and resources. Instead of having students reading at a grade level above or below in their classroom, teachers might have kids who slipped back a lot versus kids who have moved forward."

Disproportionate Impact on Students Living in Poverty and Students of Color

Horace Mann once referred to schools as the "great equalizers," yet the pandemic threatens to expose the underlying inequities of remote learning. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center analysis, 17 percent of teenagers have difficulty completing homework assignments because they do not have reliable access to a computer or internet connection. For Black students, the number spikes to 25 percent.

"There are many reasons to believe the Covid-19 impacts might be larger for children in poverty and children of color," Kuhfeld wrote in the study. Their families suffer higher rates of infection, and the economic burden disproportionately falls on Black and Hispanic parents, who are less likely to be able to work from home during the pandemic.

Although children are less likely to become infected with Covid-19, the adult mortality rates, coupled with the devastating economic consequences of the pandemic, will likely have an indelible impact on their well-being.

Impacts on Students' Mental Health

That impact on well-being may be magnified by another effect of school closures: Schools are "the de facto mental health system for many children and adolescents," providing mental health services to 57 percent of adolescents who need care, according to the authors of a recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics. School closures may be especially disruptive for children from lower-income families, who are disproportionately likely to receive mental health services exclusively from schools.

"The Covid-19 pandemic may worsen existing mental health problems and lead to more cases among children and adolescents because of the unique combination of the public health crisis, social isolation, and economic recession," write the authors of that study.

A major concern the researchers point to: Since most mental health disorders begin in childhood, it is essential that any mental health issues be identified early and treated. Left untreated, they can lead to serious health and emotional problems. In the short term, video conferencing may be an effective way to deliver mental health services to children.

Mental health and academic achievement are linked, research shows. Chronic stress changes the chemical and physical structure of the brain, impairing cognitive skills like attention, concentration, memory, and creativity. "You see deficits in your ability to regulate emotions in adaptive ways as a result of stress," said Cara Wellman, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University in a 2014 interview. In her research, Wellman discovered that chronic stress causes the connections between brain cells to shrink in mice, leading to cognitive deficiencies in the prefrontal cortex.

While trauma-informed practices were widely used before the pandemic, they're likely to be even more integral as students experience economic hardships and grieve the loss of family and friends. Teachers can look to schools like Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, as a model for trauma-informed practices.

3 Ways Teachers Can Prepare

When schools reopen, many students may be behind, compared to a typical school year, so teachers will need to be very methodical about checking in on their students-not just academically but also emotionally. Some may feel prepared to tackle the new school year head-on, but others will still be recovering from the pandemic and may still be reeling from trauma, grief, and anxiety.

Here are a few strategies teachers can prioritize when the new school year begins:

Focus on relationships first. Fear and anxiety about the pandemic-coupled with uncertainty about the future-can be disruptive to a student's ability to come to school ready to learn. Teachers can act as a powerful buffer against the adverse effects of trauma by helping to establish a safe and supportive environment for learning. From morning meetings to regular check-ins with students, strategies that center around relationship-building will be needed in the fall.

Strengthen diagnostic testing. Educators should prepare for a greater range of variability in student learning than they would expect in a typical school year. Low-stakes assessments such as exit tickets and quizzes can help teachers gauge how much extra support students will need, how much time should be spent reviewing last year's material, and what new topics can be covered.

Differentiate instruction-particularly for vulnerable students. For the vast majority of schools, the abrupt transition to online learning left little time to plan a strategy that could adequately meet every student's needs-in a recent survey by the Education Trust, only 24 percent of parents said that their child's school was providing materials and other resources to support students with disabilities, and a quarter of non-English-speaking students were unable to obtain materials in their own language. Teachers can work to ensure that the students on the margins get the support they need by taking stock of students' knowledge and skills, and differentiating instruction by giving them choices, connecting the curriculum to their interests, and providing them multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.

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Covid-19's Impact on Students' Academic and Mental Well-Being

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The pandemic has revealed-and exacerbated-inequities that hold many students back. Here's how teachers can help.

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How Safe Is Your School's Reopening Plan? Here's What To Look For

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How Safe Is Your School's Reopening Plan? Here's What To Look For

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Look at recommendations for safe reopening of schools and compare those recommendations to what you experienced on the first day of school.

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As schools across the country grapple with bringing kids back into the classroom, parents - and teachers - are worried about safety. We asked pediatricians, infectious disease specialists and education experts for help evaluating school district plans.

What we learned: There's no such thing as zero risk, but certain practices can lower the risk of an outbreak at school and keep kids, teachers and families safer.

If you're considering sending your child back to school this fall or in the coming months, start with assessing both your own family's personal risk and the level of spread in your community. The American Federation of Teachers says it doesn't consider in-person school to be safe unless fewer than 5% of coronavirus tests in an area are positive. As of late July, that one benchmark disqualified eight of the 10 largest public school districts in the country.

If your family is relatively healthy, and local numbers look good, here's how to weigh the key elements of a school reopening plan.

1) Getting To School: Riding The Bus
Look for: Limited capacity and physical distancing. Plus masks!
Buses combine several risk factors for spread: Kids are in a closed space, for an extended period of time, often with poor ventilation.

"The best option for children getting to school would be for their parents to drop them off," says Dr. Tina Tan, pediatrics infectious disease specialist at Northwestern University in Chicago. Or walk or bike to school.

But that's not an option for many families, so to make busing safer, limit capacity to 50%, says Dr. Ravina Kullar, an epidemiologist and spokesperson for the Infectious Disease Society of America. The children and the driver should be physically distanced by at least six feet and everyone should wear masks. Ideally there's assigned seating, and tape marks designating where kids should sit, she says.

If possible, keep the bus windows open to improve ventilation, says Dr. Judith Guzman-Cottrill, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Oregon Health & Science University. Airflow helps dilute the virus which reduces the risk of infection.

"Students' hands should be sanitized before they enter the bus," says Laurie Combe, president of the National Association of School Nurses. Combe suggests mounting a sanitizer dispenser at the entrance of the bus for children to use as they board.

2) Entry-To-School Guidelines
Look for: Clear policies requiring sick kids and teachers to stay home
Our experts agree: Plans should drive home the message that staff and kids must stay home if they have any symptoms of COVID-19 at all.

"As a society we are going to have to learn that if we're sick, we stay home - always," says Dr. William Miller, an epidemiologist at Ohio State University. It's a big cultural shift, he says, because many of us are used to "powering through illness and sometimes we expect the same of our children."

There is no one perfect way to enforce this. Some experts suggest schools rely on messaging, while others prefer schools screen for symptoms.

Symptom checks at school may not be foolproof, but they reinforce the message that parents should keep kids home if they're sick, says Laurie Combe. "If there was optimal staffing for this situation, then the best practice would be to be able to screen as people enter the building," she says.

The CDC currently does not recommend schools conduct widespread symptom screenings. It suggests parents check their children at home before coming to school.

Kids should stay home even if they have only very mild symptoms, "just a headache or stomach ache," says Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious disease specialist and chief health officer at the University of Michigan. And when parents are sick, children should stay home too, adds Miller. This may be difficult for economic reasons for many families.

If teachers or staff have to miss work, then, Malani says school "policies have to support it, whether it's paid time off or making sure that there's not a penalty for missing work."

To encourage symptomatic kids to stay home, some school districts may need to revisit attendance policies that reward students for showing up consistently and penalize them for missing days.
Under debate: temperature checks
Several experts argue for schools conducting daily temperature checks. A good rule of thumb is that any child with a fever exceeding 100.4 F "should be sent home or to the doctor's office for evaluation," says Dr. Dial Hewlett, an infectious disease specialist who has consulted with schools in Westchester County, N.Y.

Others, like Malani, are skeptical. She says children infected with the coronavirus may show no symptoms, including fever, so temperature screenings can miss the real cases and could be a waste of resources. And Combe questions the accuracy of infrared temperature screening devices and worries about student privacy.

3) Masking Policies
Look for: Consistent, mandatory mask usage for kids and adults
All our experts agree that masks are a vital part of a school's reopening plan.

Especially "in those situations where they cannot physically distance six feet or more from each other," says Tan. This advice is in line with the CDC's school reopening guidelines.

Miller adds, it's critical that teachers and staff wear masks, because "the distance that airborne particles are dispersed is greater for adults than children." Some studies suggest adults are more likely to infect children than the other way around.

But masks aren't optimal for everyone, including anyone with health problems that affect breathing, those interacting with people who are hard of hearing and very young children. The CDC suggests schools consider using masks with a see-through covering over the mouth for young students or students with disabilities.

For younger kids especially, schools should structure in times when students can "take off their masks and have a breather," says Hewlett. These mask breaks would preferably be outdoors, he says.

Under debate: Face shields Some educators like the idea of a clear, plastic face shield as a stand alone face covering for younger children. They're more comfortable, make it harder to touch the face and easier to see expressions. But there's no strong evidence that face shields reduce infection rates, says Miller. And the CDC does not recommend them as a substitute for face masks.

Face shields or goggles could be used in addition to masks, especially for teachers as a way to protect their eyes. In a virtual town hall with the American Federation of Teachers, Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked what teachers should wear in class. "The minimum would be the mask, eye shield if you can have it and possibly gloves," he replied.

4) In Class: Social Distancing And Cohorts
Look for: 6 feet between desks, small class sizes and cohorts
Physical distancing is a cornerstone of coronavirus protection in school, just as it is in the grocery store or at a White House briefing.

Ideally desks need to be placed at least six feet apart, space allowing. Some schools are considering moving traditional classes into larger rooms like auditoriums, music rooms or gyms, says Hewlett. Tan advises holding classes outdoors when possible.

"There really is no one right way to do this," says Tan. Schools have to adapt their space as best they can.

One solution many experts recommend is a system of cohorts and staggered schedules. Each class forms a self-contained pod that doesn't interact with other children. The goal, says Miller, is to reduce the number of people any individual is exposed to and "reduce the density of people in any given space."

Malani suggests bringing special teachers, like art and music teachers, to the pod's classroom. This way, students don't have to rub elbows traveling through hallways.

"If the bubble stays safe then everyone within it stays safe," Miller says.

As part of a cohort system, many schools are opting to set up a staggered schedule, with one group of students going on Wednesday and Friday for example, while another group goes Tuesday, Thursday and each group alternates Mondays. Another option is to have one group of students go in the mornings and another in the afternoons.
Under debate: Plexiglass dividers
Plexiglass dividers have been used in schools in Europe and Asia. But "the data for plexiglass are limited," says Miller, explaining that unless dividers go to the ceiling, "the air currents will simply flow around them." Malani says plexiglass barriers are most useful in front offices, for greeters or security guards sitting in high traffic areas.

5) What To Do When Someone Gets Sick
Look for: Requirement for anyone with symptoms to self-isolate - and collaboration with the local health department
Schools need to have a plan in place before opening for what to do when kids develop symptoms. It's critical this is communicated clearly, says Hewlett, so that "everyone understands what's going to happen if a child develops infection."

Most scientists we spoke to agreed that any student or staff with symptoms should be tested or evaluated by a doctor. But few school plans we reviewed specify this as a requirement for students; instead they simply ask that anyone with concerning symptoms or a known exposure stay home. (Some districts, like Detroit, are asking all staff to get tested prior to the start of school).

With or without test results, anyone with symptoms needs to stay home for at least 10 days after symptom onset and schools should have a protocol for deciding whether others exposed need to quarantine. This would be best done in consultation with the local health department, says Malani, and will be based on the severity of the symptoms, and how much interaction the child had with others.

If anyone does test positive, schools need to collaborate with local health departments Hewlett says, so they can provide contact tracing and guidance for when to shut down a school if needed.

Establishing a stable pod or cohort of students could help prevent school shutdowns, says Guzman-Cottrill, because if a person in the cohort tests positive, exposure is limited to the cohort and only those students need to quarantine.
Future goal: Routine testing
Several experts said regular testing of asymptomatic students and staff is not feasible, with current testing shortages and delays. But if it were, it could help schools open safely.

"Weekly testing would be ideal, as it would identify asymptomatic infections," says Dr. Danielle Zerr, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Seattle Children's Hospital.

Once new technologies are approved and rapid tests are available, schools should do routine testing, says Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist and epidemiologist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "Short of vaccines, daily cheap rapid tests performed at home or at school are a clear avenue to keep cases low and prevent outbreaks from growing," he says.
Look for: Focus on hand hygiene and cleaning high-touch surfaces
The CDC says the major route of COVID-19 transmission is through droplets that are expelled when we cough, sneeze, or talk. But the virus can live on surfaces for hours and possibly days.

But rather than worry about constantly cleaning every part of the school, says Zerr, "focus on frequent hand hygiene and wiping down frequently-touched surfaces."

To promote hand hygiene schools could have sanitzer dispensers in classrooms and hallways, says Malani and keep bathrooms are well stocked with paper towels and soap. Combe wants to see a dispenser on the school bus as well.

Schools should focus cleaning efforts on high-touch surfaces like door knobs, bathroom doors and sink areas multiple times a day. And some opportunities for touching surfaces could be eliminated. "Classroom doors can be left open until class starts so that each student does not need to open the door," Tan says. Cleaning desks is less of a worry, Miller says, because students don't touch each other's desks that often.

It's important to thoroughly clean bathrooms which children routinely use, says Hewlett. These are high-touch areas and can get crowded. Miller recommends "bathrooms must have strong exhaust fans," as airflow dilutes virus that may accumulate in the air.

Open for debate: Disinfectant misters may not be worth it, says school nurse Laurie Combe, because spraying disinfectant willy-nilly might create its own hazards. "I don't know that we have enough data that tells us that that is safe," she says.

7) Air Circulation
Look for: As much airflow as possible
While person-to-person spread is the greater risk, scientists are also concerned about the virus accumulating in indoor air. So the guiding principle is to bring in as much fresh air as possible to dilute and disperse viral particles. "We simply want lots of air exchange with the outside," says Miller.

Joshua Santarpia, a microbiologist who studies biological aerosols at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, says that schools should assess their ventilation systems to see if they can be modified to optimize air flow in each classroom. "The more air changes the better," he says.

Newer school buildings with modern systems typically are set up to recirculate indoor air because this saves energy, says Peter Fehl, president of building management systems for Honeywell. But by adjusting those settings, it's possible to get "seven or eight times more fresh air," says Fehl.

In addition, schools can replace their system's HEPA filters - which remove most very fine particles - more frequently, probably once a month, Fehl says.

But many schools have older systems that don't have the option of increasing fresh air.

For schools that can't afford to update their systems, Santarpia recommends free-standing HEPA filters. He says the size of the room and noise impact need to be considered when choosing a device, but if used correctly, these filters "could dramatically reduce airborne contaminants."

Unfortunately, the quality of air in classrooms may come down to resources. Wealthier districts will likely have more modern facilities and systems.
Open to debate: UV light systems
There are newer technologies such UV light systems that are garnering attention as well, but "the jury is still out on more novel interventions, like UV light and ionizers," Santarpia says. One challenge: When air is moving through a duct system, it can be difficult to get the kind of UV intensity and exposure time necessary to kill viruses.

8) Lunch And Snacks
Look for: Staggered cafeteria times or in-classroom dining
Eating lunch and snacks requires removing face masks, so social distancing is the key to reducing transmission.

Schools should avoid having kids eat in a crowded cafeteria. "This may mean eating in classrooms," says Zerr, adding that kids should stick with their designated pod, and "remove masks only to eat."

Other experts suggest staggering lunch times to reduce the number of students who are in the cafeteria so they can socially distance and keep students in their social bubbles at lunch time, whether they are eating in their classrooms or the cafeteria.

"Purchasing lunches should be OK if students are spaced out and classes do not intermingle," Miller says. Many schools are planning to serve a bag lunch which students can carry back to their classroom, although there are concerns these lunches may not be as nutritious.

9) Recess
Look for: Outdoor recess in small supervised groups
Kids need to run, play and take breaks, says Kullar. And "we know, outdoor time is less risky than indoor time," she says. Most of our experts agree - recess should take place outside, ideally with enough room for kids to socially distance, so they can remove their masks.

If kids can't stay six feet apart while on recess, our experts agreed they should not remove their masks, especially if they are inside.

Kullar advises staggering recess times, sending kids out in "small, supervised groups." And everyone should immediately wash hands when reentering the building, she adds.

Some of our experts recommended not just a single recess, but multiple "mask breaks" during the day. This could increase chances that kids comply with mask use the rest of the time, says Miller.

10) Gym And Sports
Look for: Outdoor activities and no contact sports
Games should be outside and spaced as much as possible, says Miller, adding that kickball is "relatively safe." Modified forms of no-contact tag, hide-and-go seek, or anything where kids are running around and generally staying away from one another, also work, he says. "If you can't go outside, use the gym or the cafeteria as a larger play space," Miller says.

Avoid sports that involve physical contact, cautioned several of our experts. "Contact sports should be suspended until we see a decrease in cases," says Kullar. This means no team sports like basketball, football, baseball, wrestling, cheerleading, Tan added.

Cross-country running and tennis are safer bets than other sports, says Malani. "With tennis, there's enough distance, particularly with singles play, that other than making sure that you keep your hands clean, there's not a lot of additional precautions that would be needed." Malani says.

Masks can come off if students are breathing hard, as long as they are well distanced, Zerr says.

11) The Missing Ingredient
Look for: A boost in funding
We also asked our experts for other ideas that should be the components of any good back-to-school plan.

The number one answer? Money.

Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, says the things schools need to keep students safe and healthy - from face masks to hand sanitizer - "everything costs money." While recently lobbying for school funding, she recalls one politician complained, "Money, money money, all you guys want is money." What schools really needed, the politician said, was plexiglass dividers. And Eskelsen Garcia said, "Oh, I had no idea they were giving those away! Put me down for 52 million!"

National education organizations have estimated that schools need as much as $245 billion to reopen safely and plug holes in state budgets caused by the pandemic-induced recession. The White House has recommended allocating $105 billion in current negotiations, but wants to tie much of that money to schools physically reopening.

And of course, some schools have more resources to start with. The bottom line is, wealthier school districts will have an easier time implementing some of these safety measures. Without an influx of funding "inequities that exist now will likely be increased," Malani says.

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How Safe Is Your School's Reopening Plan? Here's What To Look For

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As schools across the country grapple with bringing kids back into the classroom, parents - and teachers - are worried about safety. We asked pediatricians, infectious disease specialists and education experts for help evaluating school district plans.

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Online Students Multitask More (Not in a Good Way)

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Online Students Multitask More (Not in a Good Way)

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Learn about the negative impacts of students using more than one device while distance learning from home.

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Andrew Lepp wasn't surprised -- and wouldn't expect most people familiar with higher education to be surprised -- by the headline finding of a study he and several colleagues published last week: that students in online courses said they engaged in more noneducational multitasking than did their peers in in-person courses.

"I would have bet anything that students would have multitasked more in online courses," said Lepp, a professor of recreation, park and tourism management at Kent State University. "In that way this study just confirmed what's obvious."

But "where it gets interesting," Lepp said of the study he and his colleagues published this month in Sage Open, is in the finding that students who were deemed to have similar levels of inclination to multitask were much less likely to do so in face-to-face classes than in online courses.

What that suggests, Lepp said, is that something about in-person courses constrains students from engaging in the texting, web shopping and other behaviors that are widely shown as impeding learning.

What is that something? "The presence of the teacher and other students who might look sideways at a student who is multitasking," Lepp asserts.

Lepp and his co-authors -- Jacob E. Barkley, also an education professor at Kent State; Aryn C. Karpinski, an associate professor at Kent State; and Shweta Singh, a doctoral student at Purdue University -- have done significant work on students' use of smartphones and the relationship to academic success. They take as an article of faith that multitasking and other forms of distraction from academic work are problematic for students.

Their current study was inspired by an incident two years ago in which Lepp and Karpinski happened upon a student entering data into a spreadsheet on a desktop computer, streaming Netflix on a laptop and using headphones to listen to her smartphone. Asked what she was listening to, the student said, "'Oh, that's my online biology course,'" according to Lepp. His reply: "Yikes!"

After scanning the literature and failing to find studies assessing the role of multitasking in online courses, the researchers undertook one. They asked a sample of nearly 300 Kent State students who had taken both fully online and face-to-face courses -- the vast majority of whom lived near the physical campus -- a series of questions about their behaviors in the two settings.

As seen in the table below, students said they were about 25 percent more likely to engage in the set of behaviors (listening to music, texting, social networking, internet browsing and the like) in online rather than in in-person courses.

Students who had greater "multitasking tendency" (as measured by something called the Polychronic-Monochronic Tendency Scale) were, unsurprisingly, more likely to multitask in online settings than were those who scored low on the test. But the same was not true in face-to-face courses.

"In other words," the researchers wrote, "students who have positive attitudes about multitasking and prefer to multitask appear to better control this academically disadvantageous behavior in face-to-face courses." They attribute the students' "control" heavily to what Lepp called the "norms of the classroom" -- essentially, pressure from peers or the instructor not to multitask.

Lepp and his colleagues are careful to note that many students who take online courses, particularly working adults and those far from physical campuses, do so because this is their best or only option.

The findings, then, are most relevant for undergraduate students with "sufficient access to traditional face-to-face courses -- that is, students already enrolled at traditional 'brick and mortar' universities and living on or near campus," they write. For those students, "those teaching online courses should place emphasis on discouraging students' multitasking behavior while recognizing that the methods for doing so may be very different than in face-to-face courses." Additionally, "the developers of online courses should explore technological and pedagogical solutions aimed at keeping online learners focused on their primary task in the absence of a physically present instructor."
Limitations of the Study
Experts on online education took issue with multiple aspects of the Kent State study, even as they acknowledged that multitasking is a problem in many settings.

George Veletsianos, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Technology at Royal Roads University, in British Columbia, cited a common complaint about research like this: the tendency to compare online and face-to-face courses as if all online courses (or all face-to-face courses, for that matter) were the same. Were the online courses synchronous or asynchronous? Were they predominantly lectures of did they engage students with active learning?

"A better (and fairer) comparison for this study," Veletsianos said in an email, "would have been between courses of the same modality that included variations in something like class size or pedagogy. Such an investigation would allow us to evaluate the question of whether students are more likely to multitask when enrolled in larger vs. smaller class sizes. Or, whether pedagogy has an impact on multitasking, which I suspect it does (e.g., are you more likely to multitask when listening to a lecture or when actively working in a group to develop a solution to a posed problem?)"

Laura Gibbs, an online instructor at the University of Oklahoma who blogs frequently about technology and learning, raised similar questions in a blog post entitled "Attention-Policing and Online Proctoring: Thoughts on a Study."

"Online and face-to-face are delivery modes; they are not course designs," she wrote. "To say that online courses are alike because they are online is like saying that rocky road ice cream and tater tots are the same because you find them in the freezer section. Yes, being frozen is an important part of rocky road ice cream and of tater tots, but that does not mean they are the same thing ... Studying online courses versus face-to-face courses is meaningless unless you know more about the courses in question, and about the students, than just the delivery mode."

Gibbs also balked at the researchers' suggestion that it would be an improvement to limit students' ability to multitask in online settings in the same way they might feel restricted in face-to-face courses.

"Is policing, in-person or remotely, the best way to help students develop better self-awareness and self-regulation? I don't think so," she wrote. "One of the things I like about teaching online is that it means I can give the students so much more freedom, and also so much more responsibility, so that they can, perhaps, learn new things about the best strategies for their own learning."

If students choose to multitask, she argues, they might have good reasons to do so: because they need more information to understand something, they're cramming for a test in another course -- or because they are bored, which just might be the professor's fault, she says.

"We need to ask students about their reasons, and students need to learn to interrogate their own reasons," Gibbs writes. "That's how you develop self-regulation. Sweeping generalizations, especially technophobic generalizations, are not going to help."

Veletsianos agreed that understanding why students are multitasking is essential for suggesting possible solutions. "Are they engaging in such behavior because our pedagogies are uninteresting, because other media are distracting them, because they believe they can multitask when in actuality this is rarely the case?" he said. "The former might require us rethinking how we teach, while the latter might require us to equip student with better study skills."

What might instructors or institutions do to diminish multitasking that is distracting? Might social pressure work?

"Assuming that social pressure reduces the incidence of multitasking, pedagogical practices that heighten instructor-student and student-student interactions might reduce multitasking," Veletsianos wrote. "One could include further opportunities for collaborative problem solving or small-group tutorials. In theory, reducing the amount of time that students work in isolation might reduce multitasking. Another approach might involve including information in assignments/activities that exert social pressure intended to reduce multitasking. For instance, one could imagine a timed assignment in which students are given 60 minutes to solve a problem and prior to the start of the activity they are provided a message that says something similar to this: 'peers who multitask have reported the following X negative consequences' (e.g., not being able to finish on time, earning a lower grade, and so on)."

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Students multitask (on things unrelated to course work) more in online settings, study finds

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Andrew Lepp wasn't surprised -- and wouldn't expect most people familiar with higher education to be surprised -- by the headline finding of a study he and several colleagues published last week: that students in online courses said they engaged in more noneducational multitasking than did their peers in in-person courses.

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Parents Struggle with Remote Learning While Working from Home: ‘I’m constantly failing’

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Parents Struggle with Remote Learning While Working from Home: ‘I’m constantly failing’

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Find numbers and examples related to the challenges parents have trying to supervise their children during distance learning.

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In the early days of the pandemic, when schools suddenly shut down and millions of employees were sent to work from home, many parents looked forward to fall as the point when they believed life would return to normal.

But back-to-school this fall is anything but routine, with schools across the country either going partially or fully remote. What many thought was going to be a short-term problem could drag into 2021 and beyond. As a result, working parents are panicking as they struggle to figure out how to juggle remote learning and full-time jobs.

For many, the concern lies with their ability to keep everything running smoothly without neglecting their kids or their work responsibilities. Over half, 54%, of working parents say they feel guilty because they can't fully care for their children, while 43% report feeling guilty when they're caring for their families because they're not focusing on their work responsibilities, according to Catalyst's recent survey, "The Impact of Covid-19 on Working Parents." The online survey polled 1,000 U.S. working parents of school-aged children in August.

"I'm constantly failing at one thing or the other," says Elizabeth Wiggs, 36. "The trade-off is I'm either doing a bad job at work or a bad job of parenting.

"It's hard to maintain a sense of your personal value and self-worth when the two pillars of my identity - my career and being a parent - feel like they have just massive cracks running through their foundation. This is like an identity crisis."

In order to care for her daughter and do her job, Wiggs is like the 61% of mothers Catalyst surveyed who are putting in long hours outside of the traditional work day. A Seattle-based marketing manager for Zillow, Wiggs typically wakes up around 4:30 a.m. to start work before her 6-year-old daughter gets up for the day. "That usually gives me at least two hours. Fingers crossed, she sleeps late and then I get a little more time," Wiggs says.

But once her daughter is up, her day gets a bit more challenging, especially since her daughter's school is fully remote this fall. "I haven't used any child care," Wiggs says. "My job requires me to be in meetings a lot of the day and so [my daughter] is spending a lot of time in front of the TV. That's my child care."

Wiggs shares custody with her daughter's father. "That helps take the pressure off a little bit," she says, but adds her daughter is with her the majority of her work week. "The days that she's with her dad - just wow - all I do is work. But it's kind of nice to just have only one thing to focus on, so I go into crazy hyperfocus mode."

While Wiggs is managing to balance all her responsibilities without cutting back her hours, 48% of parents surveyed by Catalyst are planning to cut back on work this fall if their children do not go back to school full-time. And that includes those who are opting to reduce their work hours, go part-time and even quit their jobs, at least temporarily.

"I don't think this is going away anytime soon," says Laura Nickel, a 35-year-old single mother living in the Chicago suburbs. With that in mind, Nickel says she's been thinking through how to mentally and physically prepare herself and her 7-year-old daughter to do this for the long haul.

To make it work, Nickel has been starting her work day earlier, but she's also grouping all of her client calls in chunks throughout the day if she can. Generally, she tries to wrap up work in the early afternoon just as her daughter's school Zoom sessions end. "We're able to have lunch together each day and 'recess' bike rides or a trampoline jump," Nickel says, adding she wants to make the pandemic experience as positive as possible for her daughter.

An account director for a small PR firm focused on technology companies and start-ups, Nickel says that while her employer has been supportive, she's the only parent at her company with a school-aged child. And she says it's on her to think through what support she needs and ask for it. Recently, her company has considered reducing the billable hours goals for all employees for the year, a step Nickel supports.

"It's hard to balance working and having a kid," Wiggs says even though she feels she has a lot of support from her employer. At the start of the pandemic, Zillow offered parents the ability to work more flexible schedules, as well as providing 15 days of back-up care through Bright Horizons and 10 days of paid "caregiver time" that can be taken intermittently and on top of the normal paid time off and sick leave policies.

In fact, Zillow is one of several major employers that have rolled out increased child-care benefits through partners like Bright Horizon amid the pandemic. Last month, Citi announced it was increasing the number of discounted back-up child-care days from 20 to 40 for employees. Additionally, the financial company rolled out nanny placement services, as well as waived membership fees and offered discounts to Sittercity.

And for those parents who are juggling remote learning, Citi is offering services that can help parents find educators to help supervise online learning. And if employees are interested in small group learning at home, they can request help finding educators and connecting with other families.

"We wanted to be as flexible as possible to support our colleagues," says Sara Wechter, Citi's head of human resources. "There is so much uncertainty right now about how long this will last and we'll all be at home, so we decided not to offer a set number of additional paid days off."

"We understand the importance of quality child care and how hard remote learning is for working parents," Wechter tells CNBC Make It, adding it's something she's personally dealing with each and every day as a mother of 10-year-old twins. "Since we are all spending most of our time at home, the lines are blurred between work and personal time."

Given this situation, Wechter says employers have an opportunity to play a big role in helping employees navigate all the challenges they're facing, including managing family responsibilities, not just their workloads.

Companies like Accenture, Bank of America and Microsoft also are offering employees the option to send their children to "learning centers" operated by Bright Horizons, which offer small-group school-day supervision for school-age children, according to a spokesperson for the child-care company. Through partnerships with five leading education providers including Sylvan Learning and Code Ninjas, the program has more than 1,800 learning center locations nationwide that provide children ages 6 through 12 with proctors who can help them with their schoolwork.

IBM is also partnering with Bright Horizons to offer employees up to 25 days of subsidized back-up care per year for either center-based care or at-home child care, a spokesman tells CNBC Make It. Additionally, the company recently updated its paid time off policies to provide up to 4 weeks of flexible emergency leave for parents and caregivers. Employees can use this time any way they want, including in two-hour segments, half or full days, or four consecutive weeks.

When it comes to providing supervision and back-up care for younger children, Bright Horizons has approximately 725 of their centers currently open with plans to reopen more into the fall. The company typically operates nearly 1,100 child-care centers globally.

But these benefits are far from standard for most working parents who are juggling work and remote school this fall. The Catalyst survey found, overall 46% of parents say that either their employer has no plans in place to help with child care or they haven't been made aware of them.

And women are more likely to report a lack of support, with 49% of mothers surveyed saying they're not aware of their employer rolling out any child-care support compared to just 39% of men polled.

Simply giving everyone more time off is not enough, Nickel says. The work is still waiting for you when you sign back on. Instead, companies need to be asking employees what they can do to help. And it's going to look different for everyone, she says.

Even when you have a supportive employer, parents are still feeling the pressure. Wiggs, like many parents, worries about the potential long-term consequences to her career.

Parents say they can't really keep their family life and responsibilities separate from their work anymore, especially when kids interrupt video meetings or can be heard on the background of phone calls. "I've been in public relations, communications, marketing for 15 years, and I've spent six of that being a single mom. And I have kept that very, very quiet," Nickel says, worried that it would taint employers' perception of her ability to get the job done. But now, there's no hiding it, she says.

The focus on being a parent does worry Wiggs. "I'm at a point in my career where I'm trying to get to the next level and get myself ready for promotion" Wiggs says. "Even though everyone says it's OK, we don't expect much of you right now, this is unprecedented, I know that I still want to show up as well as I can because I still want my career to keep progressing."

Wiggs says it feels similar to maternity leave. No matter how generous the maternity leave policy is, there's this thought in the back of your mind where it's like, well, technically, this isn't supposed to slow down my career growth, she says. And yet, you see your male coworkers getting promotions while you're on leave, and you're probably not being considered because you're not there.

"I know that everyone is very, very aware that this is a crazy time and this shouldn't impact people's career progression," Wiggs says. "But I'm also aware that somebody who is not with kids is able to perform at a higher level than I am right now."
Don't miss more in this series:

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Parents struggle with remote learning while working from home: 'I'm constantly failing'

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In the early days of the pandemic, when schools suddenly shut down and millions of employees were sent to work from home, many parents looked forward to fall as the point when they believed life would return to normal. But back-to-school this fall is anything but routine, with schools across the country either going partially or fully remote.

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Cheating During Online Class | Is it more common during virtual learning?

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Cheating During Online Class | Is it more common during virtual learning?

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Despite the steps being taken, many students agree that in this type of virtual setting, it's not that hard to cheat.

SAN DIEGO - With the school year just beginning, many students are still learning virtually from home. And that's making it easier for some to cheat.

Westview High School sophomore Nolan Chen says when it comes to cheating, some teachers have specific policies in place.

"They make us turn on our camera so we aren't looking away or on our phone or on another device," Chen said.

Aside from remaining on camera, in some cases, students have to sign an academic integrity agreement to commit to being academically honest.

Westview freshman Katie Ditter has seen similar tactics used.

"They've also in some classes said that we're not gonna have tests until later on until they can decide what their policies are going to be," said Ditter.

Despite the steps being taken, both agree that in this type of virtual setting, it's not that hard to cheat.

"They are always going to cheat no matter where you are. But I think it does make it a little easier to cheat online," Ditter said.

That's where Ethan Fieldman comes in.

"A lot of students cheat for a few reasons. First of all, if it's easy, they're going to cheat," Feldman said.

He is the CEO of Study Edge, a free digital resource that's helping students better navigate distance learning.

He also recently launched anticheating.com, giving both parents and teachers tips on how to prevent kids from cheating, a problem he said continues to grow.

Feldman said, "So, the problem is enormous and it's much bigger than most people realize. In fact, multiple colleges and universities are expelling students right now for online cheating when that really wasn't happening as much before."

He said it's not just up to the teachers to prevent cheating, but the parents too.

Tips for teachers to prevent cheating

use a browser that locks them onto one website

set adequate time limits for quizzes and tests

and use different questions for each class

"If they put a test out there in the world, students are going to upload that test to various websites on the internet and those answers will be available for other students, so what that means is you have to switch up those problems," Feldman explained.

Tips for parents to prevent cheating

confiscating your child's cell phone while in class

sitting in the room when they're taking a test

and providing them with your own academic honesty pledge

"There's a lot of research that shows that if a student is made aware of what cheating is and the fact that they're committing to ethical learning and honest learning, that just their brain changes and they're much more likely not to cheat," Feldman said.

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Cheating during online class | Is it more common during virtual learning?

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Despite the steps being taken, many students agree that in this type of virtual setting, it's not that hard to cheat. SAN DIEGO - With the school year just beginning, many students are still learning virtually from home. And that's making it easier for some to cheat.

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COVID-19: Considerations for Wearing Masks

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COVID-19: Considerations for Wearing Masks

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Read about the rules that make masks effective in schools.

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What the U.S. Can Learn From Other Countries About Reopening Schools in a Coronavirus Pandemic

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What the U.S. Can Learn From Other Countries About Reopening Schools in a Coronavirus Pandemic

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Gather protocols used that have been successful and compare those to the ones we experienced on our first day of school.

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Countries Around The World Are Reopening Schools. Here's What The U.S. Can Learn.

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Here's what the U.S. can learn from Denmark, South Korea, and Israel about how to reopen schools safely during the coronavirus pandemic

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How a College With Zero COVID-19 Cases in 3 Months Safely Reopened

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How a College With Zero COVID-19 Cases in 3 Months Safely Reopened

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Get specific rules and protocols that can be used to open safely.

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The school has prioritized classes that require hands-on learning.

A community college in Ohio has had no reported cases of COVID-19 traced to the school since reopening for in-person classes three months ago.

As of Wednesday, the school, Stark State College, said it hasn't had any confirmed cases across its multiple locations.

The news is somewhat surprising, as most college campuses have not been free of the virus this summer. A New York Times report, looking at a mix of public and private four-year universities, found that at least 6,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were traced to about 270 colleges during the pandemic. One notable outbreak occurred in the University of Washington's Greek Row.

Stark State, which has a main campus in Canton, has implemented a range of protocols to operate with a limited number of students and staff on campus during the pandemic. An overview of their measures and other school factors demonstrate the number of variables that go into safely reopening schools.

'A measured approach, and then some'

For Stark State, the goal has been to take "a measured approach, and then some," Marisa Rohn, vice president of advancement, human resources and partnerships at Stark State, told ABC News.

"We know we're not immune," Rohn said. "Our hope is to mitigate that and take these measured approaches that really limit that risk."

Building off safety and response protocols the school had originally created for H1N1, Stark State has also worked with the local health departments in the counties that it serves, referred to guidelines from the governor and state health department and regularly monitors CDC guidance.

"We have gone point-by-point down the governor's RestartOhio plan for higher education and ensured that we meet, or in most cases exceed, those guidelines for return to the classroom protocols," Rohn said.

For instance, temperature scans -- which the state guidelines do not list as a requirement for returning students -- are conducted at all entrances. The school has also required that anyone on campus wear a facial covering since it reopened for in-person learning in early May. (The initial state guidance recommended students wear masks, and last month it became a statewide mandate.) The school also regularly cleans its air filtration systems, a protocol that is not listed among the state guidelines.

Social distancing and sanitization

The summer semester features a smaller on-campus population in general, with about 80% of students online already, Rohn said. For in-person classes, the school has prioritized classes that require hands-on learning, including commercial drivers license, automotive and health care programs. A little more than 750 students have been to school in person this summer across two campuses and automotive and commercial drivers license locations.

The school has deployed several measures to promote social distancing. There are fewer entrances, to better manage foot traffic as well as conduct health screenings. Class times are staggered throughout the day to limit the arrival and departure of students and at any given time. Class sizes have ranged from 10 to 12 students, with an even smaller number in the commercial drivers license program. (Training in the truck went from a student-instructor ratio of 4:1 to 1:1.)

In common areas and computer labs, seating is roped or marked off to enable a six-foot distance. The cafeteria capacity was cut in half.

The school has also ramped up sanitizing protocols. Hand sanitizing stations are located at all entrances and throughout the campuses. Classrooms are sanitized after each use, including door handles, counters and tables and students are provided cleaning wipes.

Signage at each entrance gives a rundown of the school's safety protocols, as well as a list of COVID-19 symptoms. If someone forgets a mask, there is a supply of facial coverings available, and they are for sale in the bookstore. Should someone become sick, the school will isolate them in a designated area until they can be brought to a clinic or hospital.

Social distancing and sanitizing measures also apply to the school's employees: Faculty and staff rotate on-campus shifts, plexiglass separators have been installed in offices and cleaning supplies are accessible to all.

Protocols in place

Stark State has established protocols should a student or staff member test positive for COVID-19, is notified of exposure or needs to be tested. The school would collaborate with the health department in the county in which the person resides, which would conduct contact tracing and advise the school on quarantining.

So far, the school has had a few reported exposures of staff members off campus who were asked to self-quarantine and monitor symptoms, Rohn said. Should it be notified by a county health department of any confirmed cases linked to its campuses, the school has to notify the public on its website.

"We are prepared, we have our protocols in place," Rohn said. "For us, it's that balancing act. We really need to keep our teaching and learning mission in the forefront, but we also need to keep people safe."

Monitoring community spread

The Ohio health department monitors COVID-19 spread using a four-level system based on seven different indicators -- such as new cases, hospital admissions and ICU bed occupancy -- that's updated weekly for each county. The counties that Stark State's campuses are in -- Stark and Summit -- are both in the second level, meaning there's increased exposure and spread and residents should exercise a "high degree of caution." In one indicator, Stark has just above 50 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents, while Summit has 75. The counties surrounding Stark and Summit are in the first, second or third levels.

Low community spread is key in reopening schools, health experts say.

"If you don't have a lot of community spread, then the chances are it's less likely that you're going to be seeing a lot of cases in the schools," said Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious diseases physician at South Shore Health in southeastern Massachusetts and an ABC News contributor.

The fact that a majority of the college's enrollees are part-time -- about 72% -- may also help with a staggered schedule of students on campus.

The community college also doesn't have dorms or athletics: two key concerns with reopening colleges.

"You don't have people in the dorms, people in close quarters -- that's something they have going in their favor," Wildes said.

Stark State's fall semester starts Aug. 31, at which point it's expected about a third of students will be fully online, a third will be fully in-person and a third will be doing a hybrid, officials said. Annually, the school typically serves around 15,000 students.

Having more people on campus this fall will put their new protocols to the test.

"On a small scale, I think most people are able to manage things very well," Wildes said. "But as we expand the numbers, then things get a lot harder to control."

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map
Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.
A community college in Ohio has had no reported cases of COVID-19 traced to the school since reopening for in-person classes three months ago.

As of Wednesday, the school, Stark State College, said it hasn't had any confirmed cases across its multiple locations.

The news is somewhat surprising, as most college campuses have not been free of the virus this summer. A New York Times report, looking at a mix of public and private four-year universities, found that at least 6,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were traced to about 270 colleges during the pandemic. One notable outbreak occurred in the University of Washington's Greek Row.

Stark State, which has a main campus in Canton, has implemented a range of protocols to operate with a limited number of students and staff on campus during the pandemic. An overview of their measures and other school factors demonstrate the number of variables that go into safely reopening schools.

'A measured approach, and then some'

For Stark State, the goal has been to take "a measured approach, and then some," Marisa Rohn, vice president of advancement, human resources and partnerships at Stark State, told ABC News.

"We know we're not immune," Rohn said. "Our hope is to mitigate that and take these measured approaches that really limit that risk."

Building off safety and response protocols the school had originally created for H1N1, Stark State has also worked with the local health departments in the counties that it serves, referred to guidelines from the governor and state health department and regularly monitors CDC guidance.

"We have gone point-by-point down the governor's RestartOhio plan for higher education and ensured that we meet, or in most cases exceed, those guidelines for return to the classroom protocols," Rohn said.

For instance, temperature scans -- which the state guidelines do not list as a requirement for returning students -- are conducted at all entrances. The school has also required that anyone on campus wear a facial covering since it reopened for in-person learning in early May. (The initial state guidance recommended students wear masks, and last month it became a statewide mandate.) The school also regularly cleans its air filtration systems, a protocol that is not listed among the state guidelines.

Social distancing and sanitization

The summer semester features a smaller on-campus population in general, with about 80% of students online already, Rohn said. For in-person classes, the school has prioritized classes that require hands-on learning, including commercial drivers license, automotive and health care programs. A little more than 750 students have been to school in person this summer across two campuses and automotive and commercial drivers license locations.

The school has deployed several measures to promote social distancing. There are fewer entrances, to better manage foot traffic as well as conduct health screenings. Class times are staggered throughout the day to limit the arrival and departure of students and at any given time. Class sizes have ranged from 10 to 12 students, with an even smaller number in the commercial drivers license program. (Training in the truck went from a student-instructor ratio of 4:1 to 1:1.)

In common areas and computer labs, seating is roped or marked off to enable a six-foot distance. The cafeteria capacity was cut in half.

The school has also ramped up sanitizing protocols. Hand sanitizing stations are located at all entrances and throughout the campuses. Classrooms are sanitized after each use, including door handles, counters and tables and students are provided cleaning wipes.

Signage at each entrance gives a rundown of the school's safety protocols, as well as a list of COVID-19 symptoms. If someone forgets a mask, there is a supply of facial coverings available, and they are for sale in the bookstore. Should someone become sick, the school will isolate them in a designated area until they can be brought to a clinic or hospital.

Social distancing and sanitizing measures also apply to the school's employees: Faculty and staff rotate on-campus shifts, plexiglass separators have been installed in offices and cleaning supplies are accessible to all.

Protocols in place

Stark State has established protocols should a student or staff member test positive for COVID-19, is notified of exposure or needs to be tested. The school would collaborate with the health department in the county in which the person resides, which would conduct contact tracing and advise the school on quarantining.

So far, the school has had a few reported exposures of staff members off campus who were asked to self-quarantine and monitor symptoms, Rohn said. Should it be notified by a county health department of any confirmed cases linked to its campuses, the school has to notify the public on its website.

"We are prepared, we have our protocols in place," Rohn said. "For us, it's that balancing act. We really need to keep our teaching and learning mission in the forefront, but we also need to keep people safe."

Monitoring community spread

The Ohio health department monitors COVID-19 spread using a four-level system based on seven different indicators -- such as new cases, hospital admissions and ICU bed occupancy -- that's updated weekly for each county. The counties that Stark State's campuses are in -- Stark and Summit -- are both in the second level, meaning there's increased exposure and spread and residents should exercise a "high degree of caution." In one indicator, Stark has just above 50 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents, while Summit has 75. The counties surrounding Stark and Summit are in the first, second or third levels.

Low community spread is key in reopening schools, health experts say.

"If you don't have a lot of community spread, then the chances are it's less likely that you're going to be seeing a lot of cases in the schools," said Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious diseases physician at South Shore Health in southeastern Massachusetts and an ABC News contributor.

The fact that a majority of the college's enrollees are part-time -- about 72% -- may also help with a staggered schedule of students on campus.

The community college also doesn't have dorms or athletics: two key concerns with reopening colleges.

"You don't have people in the dorms, people in close quarters -- that's something they have going in their favor," Wildes said.

Stark State's fall semester starts Aug. 31, at which point it's expected about a third of students will be fully online, a third will be fully in-person and a third will be doing a hybrid, officials said. Annually, the school typically serves around 15,000 students.

Having more people on campus this fall will put their new protocols to the test.

"On a small scale, I think most people are able to manage things very well," Wildes said. "But as we expand the numbers, then things get a lot harder to control."

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map
Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.

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How a college with zero COVID-19 cases in 3 months safely reopened

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A community college in Ohio has had no reported cases of COVID-19 traced to the school since reopening for in-person classes three months ago. As of Wednesday, the school, Stark State College, said it hasn't had any confirmed cases across its multiple locations.

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Read about specific things schools can do to reopen safely. Then checkout our current numbers in the resource below this one.

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U.S. policymakers and school leaders can take into account what other countries have done as they consider whether and how to reopen schools.

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Disease Outbreak Control Division - COVID-19

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Disease Outbreak Control Division - COVID-19

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Look at current numbers of infected people for our island as compared to other islands.

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There have been 12,116 cases of COVID-19 identified in Hawaii. Of those cases, 7% have required hospitalization, and 11,337 (94%) were residents.
September 27, 2020 (Updated daily by 12:00 noon) Click here to view the full-size dashboard September 17, 2020 (Updated bi-weekly on Fridays by 12:00 noon) (better viewing experience)
The below table represents the metrics for schools based on the cases per population per island following the Hawaii Department of Health's Guidance for Schools (PDF)
September 25, 2020 (Updated weekly on Fridays by 12:00 noon)
Period: September 1 to September 14 (14 days)
September 25, 2020 (Updated weekly on Fridays by 12:00 noon)
Probable cases are individuals who have a positive antigen test result, or are symptomatic and are epidemiologically-linked to a confirmed case of COVID-19 but have not had confirmatory testing performed. Probable cases are not included in counts of confirmed cases. These data are preliminary and subject to change.

Cases reported to the Hawaii Department of Health within the last 28 days and identified as having exposed staff and/or residents in the facility. Updated 9/24/2020. Due to differences in methodology, validation, and reporting time periods, these data may vary from data reported by National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

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School Reopening Metrics | Probable Cases | Long Term Care Facilities | Epidemic Curve | County Curve | Lab Testing| Age Trends| Outcomes | Race There have been 12,116 cases of COVID-19 identified in Hawaii. Of those cases, 7% have required hospitalization, and 11,337 (94%) were residents.