But What about the Littles?
Yesterday we discussed a number of topics that should form important parts of discussion as states begin the process of re-opening.
Entirely by chance, the Governor of Illinois published the plan for his state to return to normal yesterday as well.
It’s entitled “Restore Illinois,” and is available in .pdf from the Governor’s website. It was also discussed and commented upon in a post on our go-to all-Illinois politics blog, Capitolfax (link to the site).
Pritzker’s plan features 5 phases of “return to normal”: (1) Rapid spread; (2) Flattening; (3) Recovery; (4) Revitalization, and (5) Illinois Restored.
We borrow from Capitolfax for the main points before we discuss one big challenge which we also had struggled with in yesterday’s essay: namely, what are we to do with young children – say, those in grades K-8 – who aren’t in school and whose parents work, particularly in essential jobs?
The two phases of interest to us are Illinois’s (3) Recovery and (4) Revitalization:
Phase 3 – Recovery: The rate of infection among those tested, the number of patients admitted to the hospital, and the number of patients needing ICU beds is stable or declining. Manufacturing, offices, retail, barbershops and salons can reopen to the public with capacity and other limits and safety precautions. All gatherings limited to 10 or fewer people are allowed. Face coverings and social distancing are the norm.
Phase 4 – Revitalization: The rate of infection among those tested and the number of patients admitted to the hospital continues to decline. All gatherings of up to 50 people are allowed, restaurants and bars reopen, travel resumes, child care and schools reopen under guidance from the IDPH. Face coverings and social distancing are the norm.
Note: Illinois is currently (just barely) entering phase (2), although the number of cases continues to rise (partly due to increased testing) and on May 5, 2020 the state suffered its largest death toll to date (176).
Now, once offices open up and full-service retail returns (non-essential retail shops can provide curbside pickup currently), the question of who cares for young children, and where this care will take place, for children in households where one parent works full-time, or in those where both guardians work the same shift, becomes crucial. Even now, in phase (2), this is a major issue, and it’s not clear to us who is looking after 5- to 12-year-olds when parents working in essential jobs are away.
[Note: In many families, grandparents perform this role when school’s out and parents are continuing to work, but given the fact those over 65 are especially vulnerable to the virus, this is not a viable solution.]
Illinois has closed all its pre-schools and K-12 schools (they will not re-open this academic year), so is now depending on private care providers (either in-home or in an daycare centers for the youngest children). The IDHS (Illinois Department of Human Services), the program’s administrator, is offering a 30% stipend above and beyond normal remuneration-per-child, and both licensed and formerly-licensed day cares can now operate under these conditions.
For infants and toddlers, we assume that whatever arrangements the parent/guardian had prior to the pandemic continue in place. We also assume that operators of both existing and re-activated daycare centers have in place alternative arrangements should it be necessary to close their own facility for some unspecified period; these arrangements should be explained to parents/guardians so that everyone knows what to do in case Covid-19 breaks out at such a facility.
But what happens with childcare for those who were attending regular pre-school, kindergarten, and primary school? Who’s going to care for ages 5-12 for the next several months (remember: schools won’t open until Illinois enters Phase (4), Revitalization).
One possibility is to set up small-group care facilities in homes, after fully-vetting the caregiver (who should have some experience and training in caring for children of the age they are providing help for). The caregiver should have an assistant, and the home should maintain scrupulous standards of cleanliness and do regular disinfections.
What’s the ideal number? As few as possible. Care providers should if at all possible be physically near the families whose children they are looking after; walking distance for families should be the gold standard.
But what about older children, those in regular school (Grades 1-8), who normally have in-school care after their school day ends, or who are old enough to go straight home after school. The legal age for a child to be allowed in a home on their own in Illinois is 14, but it’s hard to imagine that that’s being observed at present. A more pertinent question would be how many children younger than 12 are on their own during their parents’ shift[s] – and, relatedly, how many are responsible not just for themselves, but for younger siblings as well?
The parents of 5-12 year-olds-need help too, and a lot of it, over the coming months – years (Illinois won’t be deemed “restored” before a cheap, effective treatment and/or a vaccine is available). Illinois parents and guardians of 5- to 12-year-olds may need assistance for months, perhaps a year or more.
There’s been some talk about creating a national Covid-19 health corps to serve as tracer-trackers once testing is fully up and tracing becomes possible; the suggestion is that between 100,000 and 300,000 people might be needed to carry out effective tracing throughout the U.S. Given the number of newly-unemployed (30 million+), the idea was that the corps could provide a source of federally-sponsored employment that performed a vital public service. San Francisco has actually proceeded to hire tracer-trackers (to carry out such a program statewide, it’s estimated around 10,000 people are needed), but the fact that the program currently covers only part of the state somewhat vitiates the program’s potential. It needs to go national.
Why not do something comparable for education, in other words create a Covid-19 education corps? Such a corps would, like the national corps of tracer-trackers, be funded by the federal government and distributed to state agencies. In the case of Illinois, this would mean the ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education). The idea would be to provide in-home or small-group care for first through seventh (or eighth) graders for as long as it takes before normal classes resume.
The corps could be recruited from among college students majoring in education, many of whom will be doing distance learning or even sitting out 2020-2021 entirely. A central registry of families needing a teacher-care giver could be matched by school district with a registry of candidates, the goal being to match families and candidates geographically (walking distance where possible) and in terms of focus (students in early childhood, primary education with 5-7-year-olds, students enrolled in programs for the upper grades matched with the older children).
Ideally, this would be an in-home program, with the student coming to the home of the child (or children) – it would be child care enhanced with the active presence of someone able to provide support for remote learning, as well as for learning-at-home, a role that in the first two months of the pandemic has been taken on – not always willingly or successfully – by frazzled and stressed-out parents, many of whom are themselves attempting to work from home.
Should demand exceeded the number of candidates, ISBE in collaboration with the local school district and health department could set up “small group” centers for no more than five students of the same, or nearly the same age. The routine – support and facilitation of remote learning, making sure the children eat (meals delivered by the school district each day), and get to do some fun stuff – exercising, puzzles, brain twisters, reading hour, even – for the littler ones – a rest hour. Every center would have a computer station for each child, and, it goes without saying, a reliable broadband connection.
What sorts of venues could be used for these “small-group learning support centers”? Empty shops! Small community centers! Pre-constructed “classrooms” in vacant lots! Lots of them, but none beside each other and all of them fully up to code. There could be anywhere between one and “as many as needed” in a given school district. Cleaning and disinfection every evening or early each morning – perhaps performed by another group of members of an expanded Covid-19 health corps (the need for cleaning/disinfection is going to be enormous moving forward).
How much will all this cost? Those proposing a national Covid-19 public health corps have suggested between $17 and $25 an hour – so, between $30,000 and $50,000 per year. It might be possible to institute a sliding scale, with some portion of the cost paid by those parents who could afford it, and the service provided free of charge to those without means.
Thousands of pre-college and college students will be off campus much of the next year or so, or until an effective treatment and/or vaccine is available. What better complement / enrichment to their own studies (probably to be done almost entirely online for the foreseeable future) than hands-on instruction and learning support for 1-5 students throughout the pandemic?
And why shouldn’t the work these students perform count for credit towards their degree? It could count either towards regular coursework, given appropriate research and writing assignments, or towards student teaching, an important component of all K-12 education programs, or even a combination of both.
Doubtless there are many other approaches to ensuring that our K-8 students are facilitated in continuing to learn, and that their parents can enjoy the peace of mind they will need to return to work in Phase (3) – which could be many months before the start-up of regular schools again in Phase (4).
But something needs to be done.