An expected vote on a bill that would raise new barriers to remote schooling was deferred Thursday amid a wave of opposition that left lawmakers scratching their heads.

would limit most instances of remote schooling and levy new hiring requirements on districts still struggling to staff up their classrooms. The bill鈥檚 supporters said regulation is needed amid an uptick in remote instruction following the pandemic, which saw as some districts moved to virtual schooling for months at a time.

But the numerous opponents who assailed the bill to the Senate Education Committee warned it would restrict district staffing amid a longstanding shortage of teachers and cut student offerings by requiring state approval for remote instruction that a district can鈥檛 provide in person.

鈥淲e certainly can appreciate some of the concerns that prompted the drafting of this bill, but the approach that was taken really, for lack of a better description, is a sledgehammer when a scalpel will be more appropriate,鈥� said Jennie Lamon, assistant director of government relations for the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association.

The bill would require the state鈥檚 education commissioner to approve students鈥� individual requests for virtual options of classes their schools can鈥檛 offer in person, like advanced foreign language courses serving handfuls of students.

Critics say they worry the bill鈥檚 hiring requirements, which mandate schools to directly employ everyone whose job requires a certification from the State Board of Examiners, would exacerbate existing staffing shortages and could limit the sorts of classes taught at a given school.

鈥淐ontracting out for personnel may be the only way that a district can offer certain classes or services to our students,鈥� said Jessie Young, legislative advocate for the New Jersey School Boards Association. 鈥淩estricting the ability to contract out may have the unintended consequence of limiting educational opportunities for students when a district cannot find personnel to directly employ.鈥�

Exceptions in the bill would allow districts to bring some workers 鈥� like substitute teachers, instructors providing individualized lessons, and those involved in special education services 鈥� on as contractors.

Francine Pfeffer is the associate director of government relations for the New Jersey Education Association, the state鈥檚 largest teachers union, which supports the bill. Pfeffer warned that when new technology like virtual learning is introduced, it 鈥渟tarts getting used without bounds.鈥�

鈥淭here are no guardrails, there are no limits to virtual instruction anywhere in law or in regulation, and we need those guardrails to prevent it being used in ways that are inappropriate,鈥� she said.

Under current law, Pfeffer said, there is no guarantee companies contracted for virtual services, however limited, are employing people qualified to teach remote courses. She warned that, while advanced virtual courses serving a small number of students could work when taught remotely, most students would suffer if virtual schooling became more common.

鈥淲hen you have three kids to take AP German, you can offer that virtually, but for the vast majority of students, students need to have that teacher in front of the room who can address their concerns right away and is on top of it,鈥� Pfeffer said. 鈥淵ou cannot do that through a screen.鈥�

The opposition to the bill, which was introduced in the Assembly on Monday and in the Senate on Thursday, surprised lawmakers.

鈥淚 think all of us who鈥檝e spoken so far don鈥檛 really understand the level of the opposition, even though everybody spoke, said their reasons,鈥� said Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex). 鈥淲e鈥檙e confused.鈥�

Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) wondered whether some of the opposition stemmed more from cost than it did from the difficulties of hiring. Independent contractors do not receive the same benefits as public employees.

Though the panel鈥檚 members indicated they generally support limiting the prevalence of virtual classrooms in favor of in-person instruction, most backed holding off a vote. But one could come as early as next week, said Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), the education committee鈥檚 chairman and the bill鈥檚 prime sponsor.

鈥淚 understand the concerns, so we will go through and I think we will work it out. I think everyone is, in theory, in agreement that virtual learning can have a negative impact on a child,鈥� he told reporters after the meeting. 鈥淎 teacher has to be in the classroom.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com. Follow New Jersey Monitor on and .

When Clint Myrick graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2010, he left with two consequential pieces of paper: a diploma for a bachelor鈥檚 degree in music education 鈥� and an eye-popping student loan bill.

The Milwaukee native was one of the first in his family to attend college, and Myrick said he entered with little knowledge of how to pay for it.

鈥淚 was totally unprepared,鈥� Myrick said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know how much it cost 鈥� I kind of had to figure out everything on my own.鈥�

Myrick held a number of jobs during college to help pay the bills, from working at a flower shop to running a cash register at the UW-Milwaukee student union. He earned about $6 an hour, and student loans allowed him to pay for school.

Over a decade later, Myrick鈥檚 student loan debt has only ballooned, even after years of payments. In 2015 he consolidated $118,473 worth of loans, but interest has pushed the debt to $152,039, the highest it has ever been. The husband and father of three works multiple jobs to service the debt. He spends an extra 20 to 30 hours a week as an Uber driver outside of his full-time job for a bank and duties as president for the Milwaukee chapter of the Black fraternity he belonged to in college, Alpha Phi Alpha.

Myrick is not alone in this struggle. In Wisconsin, about , with the median debt at $17,323, according to Gov. Tony Evers鈥� 2020 task force on student loan debt. Nationally, the toll of crippling levels of student debt on tens of millions of Americans has prompted some calls for wide-ranging loan forgiveness.

That burden weighs on students unevenly. According to , Black and African-American college graduates owe around $25,000 more in student loan debt on average than their white counterparts. The same report also found that four years after graduation, 48% of Black students owe around 12.5% more than they originally borrowed.

Such disparities are particularly stark in the Milwaukee area, according to a In majority-minority ZIP codes in Milwaukee, Waukesha and West Allis, 23% of the population has student loan debt, compared to 19% of majority white ZIP codes. The real difference comes in the proportion of those loans that are in default. In ZIP codes where most residents are people of color, 21% of the loans are in default, compared to just 6% in majority-white areas.

Evers鈥� task force recommended Wisconsin take several steps to ease the student debt burden, including expanding financial literacy education for K-12 students; increasing need-based financial aid; loan forgiveness for graduates entering certain professions; state tax credits; and a mechanism to refinance student debt to lower interest rates.

It concluded that 鈥渇inding solutions to tackle racial and ethnic inequity in student debt is a critical aspect of finding solutions for Wisconsin鈥檚 student loan borrowers.鈥�

Disparities deep in Milwaukee

A variety of studies have named Milwaukee the nation鈥檚 , home to structural inequality that makes it tougher for Black residents to bolster their standard of living compared to white residents. A 2020 compared Milwaukee鈥檚 Black community to those in the country鈥檚 50 largest metropolitan cities. The report found that Milwaukee鈥檚 Black residents fared among the worst nationally regarding income and economic mobility, with many enduring 鈥渃aste-like conditions鈥� forged by a range of discriminatory policies and practices in government and the private sector.

The study identified a vast gulf between Black and white young people in income and future earning potential, finding that Milwaukee over four decades trailed all but three major metro areas in upward mobility for Black youth. During that same time, Milwaukee saw the 18th best upward mobility for white youths.

Myrick said these statistics show how racism inhibits the overall well-being of Black folks.

鈥淭he base of it is racism. Racism is the driving force in the disparities between Black and white people,鈥� Myrick said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not receiving the same education, the same resources or the same facilities.鈥�

During a March on student loan forgiveness, Ashley Harrington of the Center for Responsible Lending said many Black students are severely burdened by this loan debt. The nonprofit works to protect homeownership and family wealth by opposing abusive financial practices.

鈥�(Student debt) is disproportionately weighing on borrowers of color, Black borrowers in particular, who are more likely to borrow, to borrow more and to struggle in repayment,鈥� said Harrington, federal advocacy director for the group. 鈥淭hat is the direct result of centuries of racially exclusionary policies and practices that continue to this day.鈥�

At Myrick鈥檚 alma mater, UW-Milwaukee, many students are racking up crippling debt to lenders.

The of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) found the percentage of UW-Milwaukee students taking out student loans in the 2018-19 school year was 7 percentage points higher than the median of a comparison group of similar institutions. Additionally, UW-Milwaukee students in the same year took out an average of $7,499 a year in student loans 鈥� roughly $1,000 more than the median amount.

Myrick said he understands why so many students take out loans without necessarily knowing how to pay them back.

鈥淭hey sell you on the dream. 鈥楯ust take out the loans, and you鈥檒l get a job where you鈥檒l be able to pay that stuff back!鈥� You really believe it,鈥� Myrick said.

More debt, more defaults

Loan debt at UW-Milwaukee disproportionately affects Black students in other ways too.

Nationwide, 45.9% of Black students graduate with a bachelor鈥檚 degree within six years, according to . But at UW-Milwaukee, only 25% of Black and African-American students at UW-Milwaukee achieve this, according to the . That is roughly half of the graduation rate for white UW-Milwaukee students and the lowest among all racial and ethnic groups at the university.

That disparity stems at least in part from students having to drop out of school for financial reasons, said Victoria Pryor, UW-Milwaukee鈥檚 Black Student Cultural Center student services program manager. Pryor said many Black students face a troubling dilemma: Take out more student loans or leave school.

鈥淚鈥檝e seen several students who have had to drop out because they might not have had that last little bit of money for tuition or they might have fallen on hard times,鈥� Pryor said. 鈥淭hey may get their degree but still have $40,000 to $50,000 in student loans to repay. That鈥檚 the worst thing 鈥� to have that much money to pay back, and you still don鈥檛 have that degree.鈥�

Black students are taking particularly big financial risks when attending higher education, UW-Madison鈥檚 Fenaba Addo said in a for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

鈥�(Black students) tend to rely on student loans more than whites, have higher debt burdens, express more concern about the affordability of loan payments, and are more likely to default,鈥� said Addo, a faculty affiliate at the university鈥檚 Institute for Research on Poverty.

Financial aid scarce

To avoid the possibility of piling on more loan debt, many UW-Milwaukee students turn to the university鈥檚 financial aid office.

However, the university lags behind similar institutions in regard to financial aid. The same 2020 IPEDS found 58% of UW-Milwaukee students received grant aid in the 2018-19 school year 鈥� far below the comparison group median of 84%. UW-Milwaukee that year offered students roughly half the aid that comparison universities provided.

Increasing financial aid could combat loan disparities, but Tim Opgenorth, UW-Milwaukee鈥檚 director of financial aid, said the university lacks funding to cover the need.

鈥�(The IPEDS data) doesn鈥檛 surprise me. We have a very small amount of institutional, need-based aid that we can give to students,鈥� Opgenorth said. 鈥淭he campus is aware that they have a ways to go, and they鈥檝e been trying to raise money to address it.鈥�

Pryor and the multicultural student success coordinators at UW-Milwaukee鈥檚 aim to address this gap through academic, career and personal resources and helping Black students search for financial aid.

鈥淭he one thing I always preach to them is that I want them to leave here with as little debt as possible,鈥� Pryor said.

Pryor, a 1988 UW-Milwaukee alum, said working a job to help cover college costs was less  common when she was in school as it is today.

鈥淚 look at these students today. They come in with so many challenges and obstacles,鈥� Pryor said. 鈥�… We want to make sure that we provide a space and have resources to make sure those students are equipped with those tools to be successful.鈥�

Pryor said she and other members of the Black Student Cultural Center hope to start by working with the university to establish an emergency grant fund for students.

鈥淚 do think if we could get some more scholarship money for our students, that could really close the (racial) gap,鈥� Pryor said. 鈥淚 think our students would be able to be more successful and would not have to work two or three jobs. They could focus more on their studies, and they might not have to drop out.鈥�

Pryor said that UWM Black Student Cultural Center staff is also doing more outreach to new students, to build trust and relationships prior to the beginning of the semester. 鈥淚f students have an established relationship and know the staff members earlier, that could alleviate some of those challenges and obstacles,鈥� she said.

鈥業t would change everything鈥�

The national conversation around addressing student loan debt is getting louder since President Joe Biden took office. Biden鈥檚 plan to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt per person even triggered a question in February鈥檚 CNN at Milwaukee鈥檚 Pabst Theater. Some in the Democratic Party call Biden鈥檚 plan too modest.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren are among those for the 43 million Americans who collectively owe more than $1.5 trillion.

In a February from Warren, Schumer said canceling more student loan debt could address debt disparities and even start to fix the national racial wealth gap.

Democratic Party leaders also hope the Biden administration鈥檚 of Richard Cordray as chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid increases opportunities to excuse more student loan debt nationwide. In a , Warren said she believes Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, can greatly benefit borrowers struggling with student loan debt.

鈥淩ich Cordray has spent years fighting on behalf of American families 鈥� I鈥檓 very glad he will get to apply his fearlessness and expertise to protecting student loan borrowers and bringing much needed accountability to the federal student loan program,鈥� Warren said.

But some are criticizing this push to eliminate debt across the board, worried it would give a break to the wrong people. During the recent , Reason editor-at-large Nick Gillespie said forgiving student loan debt for all would give wealthy families help they don鈥檛 need.

鈥淭here is no reason on God鈥檚 green Earth that wealthy people should not be paying their way. When they take out loans or their kids take out loans, they should pay them back,鈥� Gillespie said.

Brookings Institution fellow Adam Looney argues that 鈥渆ven modest student loan forgiveness proposals are staggeringly expensive and 鈥� would exceed cumulative spending on many of the nation鈥檚 major antipoverty programs over the last several decades.鈥� Looney proposes more

But Harrington of the Center for Responsible Lending said canceling all student loan debt could be an effective way to address racial gaps in debt and wealth.

鈥淒ebt cancellation is absolutely a way to begin to address racial inequities. If you cancel the debt, and it disproportionately impacts Black and brown people, now they have the ability to do other things,鈥� Harrington said. 鈥淚t will literally move so many families to positive wealth from negative wealth. That is not nothing. That is powerful.鈥�

With no relief yet in sight, Myrick continues to chip away at his six-figure loan debt, which continues to exact a steep toll. The debt kept his family from qualifying for the lowest rate on a home loan, and it has stalled plans to begin investing in real estate.

Myrick said canceling all student debt would transform his family鈥檚 life and help address the deep racial disparities in Milwaukee and nationally.

鈥淪ome people wouldn鈥檛 even have debt if you eliminate those. I鈥檓 one of them,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 have to work a second job if they wiped them clean. I would have more time with the family. Wiping student loans across the board for Black folks 鈥� it would change everything.鈥�

This story was produced as part of an investigative reporting class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication under the direction of Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin Watch鈥檚 managing editor, who contributed to this story. The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch () collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

There鈥檚 no going back.

That is the consensus emerging from education leaders across the country as the nation enters a second year of schooling in a pandemic.

A public school district in Arizona is looking to become a service provider for parents who have pulled their children out to home-school them. In Oklahoma, students are having a say in where and when they learn. And educators everywhere are paying closer attention to students鈥� mental well-being.

鈥淣one of us would have ever wanted to go through this,鈥� said Deborah Gist, the superintendent of schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 鈥淲e have a chance now to make it something that will change teaching and learning forever for the better.鈥�

At the outset of the pandemic, schools nationwide had to make swift and drastic changes in public education to keep students learning. And while teachers, principals, district leaders and parents forced to shift to virtual learning are eager for an end to the emergency measures, many are already looking ahead and considering which education solutions have worked well, and what parts of public schooling should be permanently altered.

In many districts, educators are reconsidering old norms about schedules and thinking about how to incorporate more community-based learning. The pandemic鈥檚 disruptions have also forced schools to get more proactive about communicating with families, especially in places where remote learning has turned homes into classrooms. Some educators are listening more closely to student and parent voices, and . And they鈥檙e placing greater weight on the emotional well-being of all members of a school community, a gratifying development for experts who have long called on schools to pay attention to the way home life can affect children.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 see parents wanting to go backwards.鈥� 鈥� Emily Anne Gullickson, CEO and founder of A for Arizona

鈥淭his is a disruptive moment鈥� for schools, according to Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. 鈥淭here are so many discoveries, realizations 鈥� so much innovation,鈥� she said.

The Center on Reinventing Public Education collaborated with the RAND Corporation, Chiefs for Change, the Council of the Great City Schools, and the education consulting firm Kitamba last year to assemble and a panel of more than 375 school district leaders and charter management organizations from around the country about the changes the pandemic has wrought. (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored the project and is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.)

The big takeaway: 鈥淧ublic education will never be the same,鈥� according to Lake. 鈥淭hey said, 鈥榃e鈥檙e never going back fully to the old ways.鈥� 鈥�

Forced by necessity to be more flexible to individual student needs, some schools are thinking about how they can better design learning around kids鈥� interests and passions. 鈥淭he ability to be unbounded by the offerings that are in a school building and the kind of one-size-fits-all approach has been liberating for people,鈥� said Lake.

Tulsa Public Schools is one example of a district thinking about education solutions outside the classroom box. Even before the pandemic forced its schools to go remote, the district was piloting ways to move education out of the classroom and into the community. One program, , gave a small group of students at several district high schools 鈥� in partnership with educators and community members 鈥� the opportunity to design and implement a new vision of what high school should look like.

The resulting three models varied, but each called for real-world, hands-on, work-based learning experiences. The new models had been operational for a semester when Covid forced them to pause. But the pandemic also opened a door: All Tulsa schools closed when Covid hit, according to Andrea Casta帽eda, the district鈥檚 chief innovation officer. 鈥淎ll of a sudden [students] got a level of independence, time management and decision-making autonomy that a traditional school usually doesn鈥檛 afford,鈥� she said, whetting their appetite for more such opportunities.

Now, the district is determined to sustain the program and create new, richer opportunities that could eventually take all students outside school more often.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be able to grow and expand on [learning outside the school building] more than we would have been able to do before the pandemic,鈥� said Gist, the superintendent. 鈥淥ur students need the ability to learn outside of their school through internships, through apprenticeships, through concurrent learning with higher education and technical schools.鈥�

The district is going to be 鈥渋nvesting heavily鈥� in these programs in the future, according to Casta帽eda, using federal funding to support the design and administration of this doubling down. 鈥淥ur goal is to have rich programming available across the district,鈥� she said.

In Arizona, schools across the state have taken advantage of to get creative about education solutions, according to Emily Anne Gullickson, CEO and founder of the nonprofit , which funds innovation in public education. 鈥淭hat flexibility to adapt quickly allowed school leaders to step back and look at what is and isn鈥檛 working and how to pivot quickly,鈥� she said.

Her organization has given grants of $20,000 or more to schools and districts to launch a number of new programs. The proposals included after-hours study groups for third graders to work with a qualified teacher or tutor to stem learning loss during the pandemic; an outdoor learning hub to reengage students who weren鈥檛 attending online classes; and an in-person small learning community with social and emotional supports for students suffering from trauma.

A student receives one-on-one reading instruction via Zoom from Kathy Goolsby, upper right, Vail School District special education case manager, as Jacquelyn Hannah, a student teacher, takes notes. Vail is taking advantage of relaxed regulations during the pandemic to offer home-schooling families a menu of district services and supports from which to choose. Credit: Vail School District

Vail School District in Vail, Arizona, had parents in mind when it applied for and received a $60,000 grant from A for Arizona to offer school services a la carte to the 150 families who switched to home-schooling during the pandemic and need support. 鈥淲e were thinking as educators, but just as much as parents,鈥� said Darcy Mentone, a spokesperson for the district, who was part of the brainstorming team that came up with the idea.

The grant targets students living in remote, rural parts of the district with limited or no access to Wi-Fi and cell service, students in difficult family situations and high schoolers struggling to stay on track for graduation.

When the program is up and running, parents will be able to make a wide range of requests for services, including live instruction by a certified teacher and meeting spaces for 鈥渕icro schools鈥� organized by parents. It鈥檚 similar to what the district has offered to kids in its digital learning programs for 15 years. The 鈥渕enu鈥� will also include social and emotional supports and instruction by trained counselors; art and music lessons; and access to the district鈥檚 online textbooks and instructional materials. It will even help students connect with clubs and other extracurricular groups to meet their social needs. This is a third option (in addition to its two existing digital programs) that will allow the district to meet the needs of home-schoolers who are struggling, according to Mentone.

鈥淭his is a disruptive moment.鈥� 鈥斅�Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education

None of this would have been possible before Covid. 鈥淐urrently, in statute, none of this is legal,鈥� Mentone said, but the governor鈥檚 executive order made it legal for the current school year. The program is also free to families and won鈥檛 have a fiscal impact on the district, she explained; it is paid for entirely by the grant. It will be up to the state legislature to decide whether it will continue afterwards.

鈥淭hese are all kids in our community,鈥� Mentone said of the choice to offer services even to families who have unenrolled children to home-school them. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 something we can do to help families with their kids, we鈥檙e here to do it. That鈥檚 why we exist.鈥�

Remote and project-based learning have prompted some educators to revisit the school day.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a great deal of respect now that learning can happen outside of the four walls. People knew it, but the regulatory environment wouldn鈥檛 have suggested that was a fact,鈥� said Gullickson. The question now, she said, is: 鈥淗ow do we redesign school schedules? How do we readjust teacher schedules where they want to, [and] where students might flourish outside the 鈥榯raditional model鈥� and still be public school kids?鈥�

The CRPE/RAND survey showed some districts are considering a four-day school week for high school students so they can spend one day a week off campus, learning at career centers or doing community service, apprenticeships, internships and, in some cases, paid employment.

鈥淲e鈥檙e hearing from school districts, 鈥榃hy do all teachers have to work from 8 to 4 every day?鈥� 鈥� said CRPE鈥檚 Lake. 鈥淲hy not allow some to have flex schedules and some schools to operate part time to meet older students鈥� needs around work?

鈥淭ime and space are being completely reimagined,鈥� she said.

鈥淥nce you鈥檝e seen the power of this work, it鈥檚 very hard to turn back.鈥� 鈥� Karen VanAusdal, senior director of practice for CASEL

In Tulsa, two of the three Tulsa Beyond high schools are designed so that students gradually take control over their own schedules. 鈥淸They] imagined an approach that as kids moved from ninth to tenth to 12th grade, we relinquish more scheduling control to them,鈥� said Casta帽eda.

鈥淎dolescents need the opportunity to exercise choice and experiment with independence in ways that ease them into the demands of early adulthood.鈥�

In Arizona, Gullickson sees staying power in these education solutions, because they鈥檝e been built specifically to address student and community needs. 鈥淪tudents, teachers and parents were thought partners,鈥� she said. The grants her organization gave often supported teacher ideas that addressed 鈥渢rue community solutions,鈥� she added.

鈥淧arents recognize that this is the time to reexamine and reimagine education and what those possibilities are for students,鈥� Gullickson said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see parents wanting to go backwards.鈥�

In the CRPE/RAND study, educators said Zoom, Facebook Live and YouTube have been effective, low-cost ways to connect with families. And moving meetings online has increased community participation and engagement. That is, technology is prompting deeper shifts in how schools see the importance of communicating with students and families.

Dawn Ray, a speech-language pathologist at Arbor Hill Elementary School in Albany, New York, said she and her colleagues have discovered distance learning has improved communications with families. 鈥淧arents are a bit more timid about coming into the building,鈥� she said. But now, 鈥渨e鈥檙e invited guests into their homes.鈥�

The online format has allowed her more time to chat with parents once her work with children is finished, which allows her to respond to their questions and bolster the school-home relationship.

Teacher Cassie Shipe practices mindfulness with a group of pre-kindergarten students at Smoot Elementary in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Credit: Peggy Barmore for The Hechinger Report

Getting a view into students鈥� home lives has also underscored how important their mental well-being is. More educators are realizing 鈥測ou鈥檙e not going to achieve the academic gains that you want to see without attending to the social and emotional development of young people,鈥� said Karen VanAusdal, senior director of practice for CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning.

It鈥檚 not a new idea, she said, but the pandemic has heightened educators鈥� awareness. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e really understanding in a profound way that relationships and social and emotional learning are at the heart of all learning,鈥� said VanAusdal.

Prior to Covid, some educators treated social and emotional learning as separate from academic learning, she said. 鈥淭hey weren鈥檛 attending to these simultaneously,鈥� she explained. 鈥淔or some, it did take this moment to truly realize that you can鈥檛 separate these two realms. We are teaching whole children. And, we as adults are whole adults, and we bring that to our practice no matter what type of education we are doing.鈥�

Now, educators are building social and emotional learning into the virtual and in-person school day, including time for journaling, mindfulness exercises, and circle time focused specifically on checking in on students鈥� mental health.

Educators at the Phoenix Union district, an all-high school district in Phoenix, Arizona, have paired an adult with every student to ensure some form of one-on-one contact daily. In El Paso, Texas, the district is installing a districtwide online daily check-in system where students sign in on their phones or devices to say how they鈥檙e feeling, so educators can have an early warning of a student in need of help.

鈥淚f a child has three bad days, or they write a comment, 鈥業鈥檓 lost鈥� or 鈥業 need help鈥� 鈥� that will be flagged and the district鈥檚 systems of support will kick in,鈥� said Ray Lozano, the El Paso district鈥檚 executive director for student and family empowerment. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 going to be a huge transformation for us.鈥�

A student at the Young Women鈥檚 STEAM Research & Preparatory Academy in El Paso, Texas, takes a moment to relax and decompress in the school鈥檚 鈥渃alm center.鈥� Districts around the country are placing greater emphasis on student and faculty emotional well-being in the wake of the pandemic. Credit: El Paso Independent School District

Teachers are also building reflection corners or peace centers into their in-person classrooms. Online, they鈥檙e offering breathing apps or books with reflection sheets that help students process feelings. 鈥淚鈥檝e been surprised by the level of creativity,鈥� VanAusdal said. 鈥淥nce you鈥檝e seen the power of this work, it鈥檚 very hard to turn back.鈥�

While school leaders express excitement about the possibilities ahead for public education, they鈥檙e still feeling the stress of the present moment. 鈥淣o matter what decision you make, there are massive negative impacts on people I am responsible for caring for,鈥� Gist said. 鈥淭hat is an excruciating position to be in.鈥�

The list of challenges the leaders confront is overwhelming, and some are nervous that funding cuts or a return to old regulations designed for the traditional school model could thwart some of the recent innovations. But Lake said the fact that the crisis is ongoing means solutions that show promise will likely stick.

鈥淭his wasn鈥檛 just a snapshot in time,鈥� said Lake. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to require us to be in a continual cycle of figuring out new and better ways to do things.鈥�

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Julie Welch starts each school day by heading down the stairs to her basement. Last summer, she turned her guest room into a classroom for the La Crosse School District鈥檚 Coulee Region Virtual Academy, an online charter school created as an alternative to in-person classes this year.

Welch checks email and opens the day鈥檚 online lessons for her 6th grade class before starting their morning meeting on Zoom.

鈥淛ust like if we were in person when kids arrive, we start the day in a circle, greeting each other and just kind of doing that check in, like 鈥楬ey, how are you doing? What’s new? What do you have to share?鈥欌�� Welch said.

For some of her more self-sufficient students, Welch said the 30-minute meeting may be the only time she sees them for the day. The lessons are designed to be done independently, but she offers help sessions for each subject on Zoom and hosts virtual office hours for students who need extra help.

But Welch has been surprised by the relationships she鈥檚 built with students and their families without even meeting them in person.

鈥淚t’s amazing to me how it’s not the same as being in school and being in a classroom with each other, but it isn’t as remote and lonely as I thought it would be,鈥� Welch said.

She said there鈥檚 a special intimacy that comes from seeing into her students鈥� homes and sharing her home as a Zoom backdrop. Family pets often make cameos during their meetings, and Welch said the class has even collectively experienced loss.

鈥淚 lost my dog this year. She died and my kids were heartbroken with me because they knew her. They saw her every day. And so when that happened, they actually helped me through that,鈥� Welch said.

Welch also started what she calls 鈥淐lub Time鈥� on Fridays, when students can share their passions with their classmates. She said kids have done everything from baking demonstrations to origami lessons and video game demonstrations.

When signing up to teach the online program, Welch worried that she would draw only one type of student in her class: kids from families who could afford to keep them at home.

Education equity has always been important to her, and she worried the online classroom would lack the diversity of students that she had taught in person for the past 30 years.

鈥淚鈥檝e been pleasantly surprised. Yes, I do have families who have made the commitment to stay home or to make sure their child is with a grandparent. And some of my students are the caregiver to their siblings,鈥� Welch said. 鈥淚 have students that are home because of medical concerns. And I have students who are home because their parents just didn’t want the back and forth (between in-person and online).鈥�

Still, teaching online is different than being together in person, Welch said.

She said some students have because they have poor internet connections or can鈥檛 attend help sessions throughout the day because of commitments at home.

Welch said some of her students have also experienced isolation. of more than 3,000 Wisconsin families by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found that around 3% of families said remote learning impacted their child鈥檚 emotional health. A similar number expressed concern about their child鈥檚 social development and connections with friends.

Welch said a few of her students switched back to in-person classes after the first semester because of these concerns. She tries to talk with her class about loneliness while seeking ways to foster friendships between students.

鈥淭here are times where I鈥檒l finish my lesson and I鈥檓 like 鈥榊ou鈥檙e welcome to go get some work done or I can just leave this Zoom open for 15 minutes and you all can just chat,鈥欌�� Welch said. 鈥淚t’s so fun just to listen to them and they鈥檙e kids. It’s kind of like sitting in the corner of the room. I鈥檓 just there as a guide on the side, but I don’t really say much and I just let them interact and get the socialization that they need.鈥�

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