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Covid-19 shots are included in new schedules of routinely recommended vaccines released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the immunization guidance does not set vaccine requirements for schools, but the summarize current vaccine recommendations for children, adolescents and adults. Key changes to the schedules include the addition of Covid-19 primary vaccine series and recommendations on booster dose vaccination, updated guidance on influenza and pneumococcal vaccines, and new vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and for hepatitis B. The schedule also recommends additional doses of MMR vaccine during a mumps outbreak and administering inactivated poliovirus vaccine in adults who are at an increased risk for exposure to the virus. “This means COVID-19 vaccine is now presented as any other routinely recommended vaccine and is no longer presented in a special “call out” box as in previous years. This, in a sense, helps ‘normalize’ this vaccine and sends a powerful message to both healthcare providers and the general public that everyone ages 6 months and older should stay up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccines (including a booster, when eligible), just as they would with any other routinely recommended vaccine,” Dr. Neil Murthy and Dr. A. Patricia Wodi said in a statement.

 

CNN

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Michael Fullan, global director of leadership for New Pedagogies for Deep Learning, and Kimberly Doughty, principal for Peter G. Schmidt Elementary, in Tumwater, Wash., assert five strategies to retain and recruit teachers. Raising educators’ salaries is one of the most popular strategies states and school districts have used to ease the staffing shortage, they insist, as is developing better partnerships with local teacher preparation programs. Building "bottom-up supports" and tapping into educators’ own passions can also prove key to retaining staff. “The more that we can give students good experiences at school, the more likely a higher percentage of them will become teachers,” Fullan asserts.

 

Education Week

A bill to extend the Family and Medical Leave Act’s (FMLA) benefit to about 2.7m education support professionals has been reupped in the new Congress. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, and Rep. Sean Casten, D-Illinois, reintroduced the ESP and School Support Staff Family Leave Act, which would grant protection to school support staff, such as janitorial staff, food service workers, bus drivers and clerical support staff. These workers would be eligible for FMLA protection if they work more than 60% of the total monthly hours expected for their role, in line with a 2009 provision for airline flight crew workers. “Currently, FMLA protects 56% of the workforce, and gaps in FMLA coverage leave out workers at small employers, folks working one or multiple part-time job positions and those re-entering the workforce or changing jobs. This means some of our most vulnerable workers are the least likely to be protected — people of color and low-wage workers,” Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Illinois, said is week at a U.S. Department of Labor event marking the 30th anniversary of the FMLA.

 

K12 Dive

A Massachusetts teachers' union affiliated with the National Education Association is using a charity fund to help cover costs of hefty fines it received after an illegal strike. The Woburn Teachers Association went on strike for a whole week starting on January 30. Strikes are illegal for public employees in Massachusetts however, and caused the union to incur $85,000 in fines to the state alone. The union also agreed to pay $225,000 to the city in damages over four years, plus $20,000 to local charities. "Any help would be immensely appreciated," the union said this week about its GoFundMe fundraiser. "We have some fines to pay."

 

Boston Herald

Fox News

The Education Department may miss the October 1 deadline for launching its redesigned Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), prompting concerns from advocates who say a delay could be detrimental to students from lower-income households. Speaking at a National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators conference Tuesday, a senior department official said the agency is working hard to carry out a bipartisan law simplifying and easing requirements for the FAFSA form but could not commit to the form’s traditional launch date. Melanie Storey, director of policy implementation and oversight at Federal Student Aid, said the department wants to be “confident that we deliver a stable and secure FAFSA” and pledged to keep financial aid officers abreast of the rollout date.

 

Washington Post

A bill in the Indiana Senate would significantly expand a state law that requires school districts to make their empty buildings available to charter schools. It would require districts to compile an annual report of the buildings it uses for instruction to determine if any are underused, which the bill would define as occupied at less than 60% capacity. Underutilized buildings would be closed, and charter schools would be notified, unless the district could prove it uses a building for other qualified purposes.

 

Chalkbeat

The Florida High School Athletic Association's board of directors has voted 14-2 to remove questions about high school athletes' menstrual history from a required health form for participation in high school athletics. During an emergency meeting, the association's attorney read public comments into the record for about an hour. The comments overwhelmingly opposed requiring athletes to report those details to school athletic officials, citing privacy concerns. The vote comes after weeks of controversy surrounding questions on the medical form, which is typically filled out by a physician and submitted to schools. The board approved a recommendation by the association's director to remove the questions, which asked for details including the onset of an athlete's period and the date of that person's last menstrual cycle.

 

NPR / National Public Radio

Politico