On May 20, the NJSBA released a special report on the possible reopening of schools, “Searching for a New Normal … How the Coronavirus Is Changing Education in the Garden State.”
In a video interview with Ray Pinney, NJSBA Executive Director Dr. Lawrence S. Feinsod discussed some of the key issues explored in the report, from measuring students’ progress while school buildings were closed, to meeting students’ emotional needs and providing special education services.
“The report does more than raise issues,” Feinsod told Pinney, NJSBA’s director of member engagement. “It is also designed to begin discussion of ways to overcome problems by offering strategies for consideration by local school districts, and recommendations for action by the state and the federal governments.”
Serious challenges await districts as they attempt to reopen schools, Feinsod said. The report looks at how social distancing and other preventive measures may, or may not, work in classrooms, in cafeterias and gymnasiums, and on school buses. The report explores these and many other issues, and it also looks at the experience of other nations, where schools have reopened.