Health Focus Calendar (2021-2022)
We have created a list for what I will focus on for each month during the school year. These focus ideas are suggestions for council and unit event planning, or just for educational purposes.
Thirty-Third District PTA Speaker Series
In conjunction with the Education and Community Concerns Directors, there will be several webinars produced this school year. The second in the series, was held on Tuesday, September 21 at 7:00 PM. The topic was Mental Well-Being.
Community Resources
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Keep Learning California is designed to empower low-income, English learner, immigrant, and Black urban/rural families to keep their elementary school children learning. We want to ensure parents, family members, caregivers, and teachers have the tools and resources they need to keep children learning at home or at school, whether the instruction is remote, in-person, or hybrid. You can review some helpful resources for educators and families (respectively) here: Resources for Educators – Keep Learning California and Resources for Families – Keep Learning California.
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Los Angeles County Library is now providing FREE access to the educational app, ABCmouse, for ALL LA County library card holders. ABCmouse provides interactive learning activities for children ages 2 to 8, and could be a good tool for the classroom, afterschool programs, and/or at-home enrichment efforts for students in preschool through the third grade. For more information, please visit: Announcing ABCmouse – LA County Library.
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CDC Guidelines for K-12 Schools
On July 19, 2021, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) provided updated guidelines for COVID-19 prevention in K-12 schools. You can access these updates by visiting:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html. Here are some of the “Key Takeaways”:
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Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority.
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Vaccination is currently the leading public health prevention strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Promoting vaccination can help schools safely return to in-person learning as well as extracurricular activities and sports.
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Masks should be worn indoors by all individuals (age 2 and older) who are not fully vaccinated. Consistent and correct mask use by people who are not fully vaccinated is especially important indoors and in crowded settings when physical distancing cannot be maintained.
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CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms, combined with indoor mask wearing by people who are not fully vaccinated, to reduce transmission risk. When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully reopen while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as indoor masking.
Vaccine Mandates
According to an email from LACOE (dated July 15, YEAR??), there is a legal precedent to mandate vaccination of teachers, staff members, and administrators to return to work for the upcoming school year. Here is the information about “Vaccine Mandates”:
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An issue that districts may be considering as they prepare for the new school year is whether to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations prior to staff’s return to the workplace. One concern that districts may have is the potential for litigation. The consensus in the legal community has been that employers, including school districts, may mandate vaccinations because, among other reasons, the FDA’s emergency use authorization (EUA) means the vaccine is safe enough for the public. In addition, the EUA does not extend to the employment context.
The EEOC released a guidance document in May stating that employers can legally require COVID-19 vaccines to re-enter a physical workplace as long as they follow requirements to find alternative arrangements for employees unable to get vaccinated for medical reasons or because they have religious objections. These alternative arrangements might include allowing an unvaccinated employee to wear a face mask and social distance at the workplace, working a modified shift, getting periodically tested for COVID-19, telework or a reassignment. In addition, a handful of cases have been filed addressing vaccine mandates in the employment context.
yer multiple other prevention strategies, such as indoor masking.
Additional Resources
Action for Healthy Kids: COVID-19 resources, childen activities, virtual learning and tips, and more.
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Healthier Generation: COVID-19 resources, healthy living tips, fitness, and healthy eating tips for children and the whole family.
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Sesame Street and Autism: Resources for families, children, newsletter, and more.
South Bay Families Connected: Parent and teen resources, video library, mindfulness, suicide, empathy, substance abuse, and more.
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And more:
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/covid-19-increases-suicide-hotline-calls
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National Domestic Violence Hotline (800) 799-7233
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Have ideas or additional resources you'd like to share? Email our Director of Health and Community Concerns.
