Reopening Resources from Chiefs for Change and Partners

District-Specific Resources

The following webinars and related resources were produced in partnership with McKinsey & Company and the Council of Chief State School Officers:

• Practical planning for fall reopening—June 25, 2020: video, presentation
• Testing your reopening preparedness—July 9, 2020: video, presentation
• Day-in-the-Life simulation—July 9, 2020: This resource helps systems simulate a typical school day for students, staff, and families. The resource can be used to test processes, identify gaps, refine plans, and share those plans with the community.
• Facing the challenge: monitoring and evaluating—July 23, 2020: video, presentation
• Insights from district leaders—August 13, 2020: Superintendent Susan Enfield of Highline Public Schools in Washington and Superintendent Robert Runcie of Broward County Public Schools in Florida discuss their planning process for supporting student learning amid COVID-19 and share their thoughts on effective leadership, communication, and decision making. video, presentation
• Local education agency resource guide: Designing and managing school models during the pandemic—August 18, 2020

Resources for COVID Testing, Contact Tracing, and Vaccinations

• Tracking Staff Vaccinations in Hamilton County Schools—This case study explains how Hamilton County Schools in Chattanooga, Tenn., worked with the state department of health to determine actual staff vaccination rates in an effort to minimize quarantines, maximize in-person instruction, and combat vaccine hesitancy.
• How Baltimore City Public Schools is Responding to Covid-19—This case study explains how Baltimore City Public Schools adopted health protocols, worked to improve indoor air quality, and partnered with public health officials and local universities through the district’s Health Advisory Committee to implement comprehensive Covid-19 testing for students and staff.
• COVID-19 Testing and Vaccination Programs Frequently Asked Questions—This document is designed for leaders to use as they consider common questions regarding COVID-19 screening, testing, and vaccination programs for their education systems. The resource is intended to support the overall development of successful return-to-learn and return-to-work plans.
• Consolidated Tabletop Exercises—Chiefs for Change has created a series of interactive Tabletop Exercises for school system leadership teams to use in tandem with The Rockefeller Foundation’s Covid-19 Testing in K-12 Settings: A Playbook for Educators and Leaders. These exercises, accompanying tools, and graphic organizers guide teams through the process and decision-making steps to operationalize the implementation of the playbook:

• Safely Reopening and Operating Schools: Deep Dive on COVID-19 Testing as One of Many Potential Measures—This March 5, 2021, webinar explains how COVID-19 testing programs can help schools safely reopen—and remain open—for in-person learning. The session provides an overview of various COVID-19 mitigation measures, followed by an in-depth explanation of COVID testing models, the processes that districts have used to implement those models, and specific case study examples.
• Covid-19 Testing in K-12 Settings: A Playbook for Educators and Leaders—Testing for America, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation and the Skoll Foundation, released this how-to guide to reopen–and keep open–the more than 130,000 K-12 schools in the United States fulltime. The playbook provides detailed, step-by-step guidance to help educators, leaders, and their public health partners design and implement effective testing programs in schools.
• COVID-19 Vaccination DILO case studies—This resource helps systems simulate a COVID-19 vaccination program for staff. It explains the end-to-end process, including pre-vaccination event activities and communications, event logistics, and post-event tracking. Case study examples can be used to test processes, identify gaps, refine plans, and share those plans with the community. These case studies complement the COVID-19 testing DILO case studies and the school reopening DILO resources.
• School Health Tracker—Chiefs for Change partnered with Welfie, a health equity company founded by doctors, to develop software that supports schools and school systems in tracking, managing, and reporting COVID-19 cases on campuses. The School Health Tracker complements Welfie’s COVID-19 screening and testing software to provide a package of tools that can support districts in safely reopening, and remaining open, for in-person learning.
• Recording of January 13, 2021, Chiefs for Change press conference calling on the federal government and states to immediately release all doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and to make all teachers and school staff eligible for vaccination now.
• Contact tracing for COVID-19: New considerations for its practical application—This resource, produced by McKinsey & Company and shared with members of Chiefs for Change, provides information on contact tracing both internationally and domestically. It contains an overview of the available technology and considerations for implementation.
• Taking Back Control: A Resetting of America’s Response to Covid-19—This document, produced by The Rockefeller Foundation, presents a plan for the largest domestic COVID-19 testing initiative to date and proposes 14 executive actions the president could take to rapidly alter the trajectory of the pandemic in the United States.
• National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan—Created by The Rockefeller Foundation, this resource lays out the steps necessary to enact robust COVID-19 testing, tracing, and coordination.
• A Way Forward: Reopening Schools—This episode of The Rockefeller Foundation’s “Breakthrough” livestream series features a panel discussion with Chiefs for Change board member and Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie and others about what it will take to reopen schools.

State-Specific Resources

• Memo: Planning for Continuity of Education—This document is organized by topics for state education agencies and school districts to consider as they continue to respond to COVID-19, plan for future closures, and reimagine fundamental policies and practices.

The following webinars and related resources were produced in partnership with McKinsey & Company and the Council of Chief State School Officers:

Strategic Financial Planning and Covid Resources

• ESSER Planning Workbook—This workbook was designed in partnership with Thru to help systems plan for how to spend their federal emergency Covid relief aid. The resource contains information on the various types of funding and provides guidance for how to organize and receive the funds, prioritize initiatives, and identify partners. It also includes sample graphs, charts, and other tools that systems can use to create visualizations of how the aid will be allocated to address students’ social, emotional, and academic needs. The master workbook will be updated periodically with new information. Systems wishing to customize the workbook for their own use should please click here to make a copy. For answers to questions or to inquire about implementation support, please contact CFCTA@chiefsforchange.org.

The following webinars and related resources were produced in partnership with Bellwether Education Partners and Allovue.