Superintendents' group blasts White House guidance as "inconsistent and incongruous"

The association that represents America’s school superintendents blasted the Trump administration for what it called “inconsistent and incongruous” guidance related to the reopening of schools during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Washington Post reports that Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), issued a statement over the weekend criticizing the federal government for the guidance it has given in relation to opening schools.

Domenech says state and local leaders need “informative and actionable” guidance that they can “implement with minimal confusion and with confidence in the science behind it.”

More than 30 states and the District of Columbia have either ordered or recommended that schools be closed for the rest of the 2019-20 academic year. On Saturday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis became the latest state leader to announce that distance learning should continue.

“I think the last thing you want to do is … to force everyone in school [only] to have half the kids not show up because their parents didn’t want to do it and have teachers not show up,” Domenech says. “It was an easy decision to make knowing we have done so well with distance learning.”

Last week, President Trump announced optional guidelines for states to gradually lift economic restrictions that have been put in place this spring to try to slow the spread of Covid-19, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in the United States. Schools are mentioned in the second of three phases.

Domenech says the guidance relating to the reopening of schools is confusing. But the latest federal guidance focuses on businesses and is “premised on the idea that states have the capacity to both readily test people for the highly contagious covid and trace their contacts to monitor spread, a premise that does not match reality,” he says.

“Specific to what this guidance means for schools, it is an unfortunate continuation of information that appears to be clear and concise, but when applied to the context of schools, is inconsistent and incongruous, at best,” Domenech says.

State and local education leaders, he says, want the federal government to provide “guidance that is clear, concise and applicable, not guidance that leaves them scratching their heads and wondering, ‘But what does that really mean for schools?’”

One example is the recommendation in phase two of the reopening guidelines that social settings with more than 50 people should be avoided and that large venues can operate under moderate physical distancing protocols.

“The average American public school will far exceed 50 people — including staff and students — every single day,” Domenech says. “In the same breath that the guidance highlights a path forward in opening schools, it establishes a scenario where every single school would be in direct conflict with another recommendation.

“We are not asking the federal government for a prescriptive mandate or script on how and when to open schools, but we are asking them to use the expertise inherent to their policy experts to ensure the guidance they draft is informative and actionable, empowering state and local leaders to implement it with minimal confusion and with confidence in the science behind it."