Rapid Response Team Frameworks for School Districts

Choose optimal reopening schedule balancing health, childcare, and equity concerns. Create modified daily and weekly course schedules to accommodate smaller class sizes and time-consuming screening and hygiene policy.

Assistant Superintendent Instruction, Principals, Facilities, Transportation, Teacher Union Rep, IT

These are not an exhaustive list of questions Rapid Response teams must take, but fundamental decisions that are important, time-sensitive, and require local analysis of capabilities and culture. Don’t let the 1,001 other questions that will arise distract from getting consensus on these issues.

Key decisions include:

• Designate a monitor for state public health guideline metrics for transitioning between reopening stages, and update leadership weekly
• Calculate safe building capacity (students + teachers + staff) under preferred social distancing guidelines
• Identify indoor and outdoor spaces that can be repurposed for instruction if needed
• Consider on-premises “bubbles” or satellite locations for physically vulnerable special needs students
• Assess and select general reopening strategy
  • Full reopening
  • Elementary and Special Needs Students F2F, Older Students Remote
  • A/B Days (alternating days or two-day blocks)
  • A/B Weeks
  • Fully Online
• Evaluate outcomes-complexity tradeoffs of “modified A/B plans”, where young students get the most in-person school days, with progressive fewer in upper grades
• Assign students to cohorts, ensuring siblings can come to school the same day
• Assign entrance/exit doors for student cohorts, and evaluate need for staggered entry/exit schedules to preserve social distancing
• Adjust class bell schedule to allow time for hand washing, temperature screening and onsite testing policies
• Choose meal service strategy: grab-and-go, staggered cafeteria times, lunch delivery to classroom
• Collaborate with curriculum coordinators and teachers on how course length and pacing will change
• Ensure adequate device, WiFi and screen availability for in-building class livestreaming

This group’s most important goal is to minimize student and staff contacts by managing common area traffic patterns and group size, and ensure there are materials, trainings and cultural reinforcements for hand washing, social distancing and mask-wearing. Avoid the mistake of promising more health and safety measures than the district can realistically afford and enforce. Students and staff are healthier and feel safer if a smaller number of provenly effective measures are solidly observed. Pledging a larger number of safety measures and then failing to enforce or resource them sends the message that all rules are optional and can make the community feel less safe because it’s apparent not all “essential” measures are being observed.

Assistant Superintendent Operations, Facilities, Principals, HR, Nursing, Teacher Union Rep

These are not an exhaustive list of questions Rapid Response teams must take, but fundamental decisions that are important, time-sensitive, and require local analysis of capabilities and culture. Don’t let the 1,001 other questions that will arise distract from getting consensus on these issues.

Key decisions include:

• Masks for students: no mask, plastic masks, cloth masks
• Masks vs PPE for teachers, bus drivers, custodial and cafeteria staff
• Temperature screening policy: at bus stops, building entrance, in-class? Model impact on bell schedule
• Designate team member to monitor availability of point-of-care COVID test kits. Plan necessary number of test sites for desired student and staff testing coverage at 3 minutes per person per test. Create HIPPA-compliant site for communicating test results
• Staff:student ratios per classroom based on state or community public health guidance
• Feasibility of grade-specific entrances and grade-restricted building zones
• Corridor and restroom traffic management: one-way corridors? Cohort bathroom breaks?
• Operationalize every-hour hand washing: in-class? Cleaning stations across buildings?
• Signage and other cues for hand washing, limited touching and distancing, Consider polite “call-out” etiquette words for students and teachers to help each other follow guidelines
• Procedure for isolating and tracing students and staff exhibiting symptoms based on state or community public health guidelines
• Triage school buses for deep cleans. Buses idle more than 30 days don’t need cleaning
• Ensure adequate PPE for bus drivers and choose plexiglass vs. plastic curtain driver protections. Consider legality of altering the bus.
• Create bus schedule ensuring same driver, same vehicle, same students each school day
• Athletics and performing arts social distancing

Estimate the number of teachers, principals and instructional specialists who need or want to stay home after schools reopen and match them to roles aligned with student and teacher support needs. Some districts also have this team do the same analysis for administrative staff, custodians and bus drivers.

Assistant Superintendent Instruction, HR, Principals, Teacher Union Rep, Scheduling

These are not an exhaustive list of questions Rapid Response teams must take, but fundamental decisions that are important, time-sensitive, and require local analysis of capabilities and culture. Don’t let the 1,001 other questions that will arise distract from getting consensus on these issues

Key decisions include:

• Administer survey asking teachers, principals and staff about intention to return if schools reopen for fall terms
• Evaluate feasibility of on-demand PPE for teachers who want to teach in person but desire protection stronger than cloth masks
• Determine which roles best align with district instructional capacity needs. Some suggested roles include:
  • Online-Only Instructor
  • Virtual Class Co-Teacher
  • Virtual 1:1 Tutor
  • Distance Learning Coach
  • Grading Specialist
  • Family Customer Service
• Write job descriptions for new roles, specifying skills, PD trainings and required household IT capabilities
• Schedule training and orientation for new roles for remote teachers
• Schedule training for in-person teachers about how to work with remote teachers
• Determine re-entry points in schedule for remote teachers ready to return

Estimate learning loss problem areas by grade, subject and at-risk student type; determine formative assessment approaches; determine how much learning recovery will be accomplished by seat time extensions vs. streamlined curriculum vs. extra remediation

CAO, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Elementary and Secondary Principals, Elementary and Secondary Academic Coordinators

These are not an exhaustive list of questions Rapid Response teams must take, but fundamental decisions that are important, time-sensitive, and require local analysis of capabilities and culture. Don’t let the 1,001 other questions that will arise distract from getting consensus on these issues

Key decisions include:

• Determine whether the district will conduct learning retention measurement over the summer, by what means:
  • Summer assessment vs. fall formative assessment vs. state diagnostic assessments
  • Formative assessments vs. vendor-provided metrics vs. external consultant
  • “Prepare to Learn” Orientation days vs. In-Person samples for grades and at-risk populations
• Estimate learning loss, if possible, by percent decrement on scores, or months behind expected academic pace, and determine how many school terms the district needs to recover pacing
• Evaluate financial and logistical desirability of seat time extensions
  • Extra hours on selected days or extra days in selected weeks
  • Summer school extensions or early starts in 2021
• Determine learning recovery opportunity from streamlining non-essential curriculum, and design PD plan training teachers to self-audit pacing plans
• Assess capacity to train teachers in skills-based grouping for reading and math remediation
• Assess need and capacity for remote tutoring programs using staff networks, contracting retired teachers, and community volunteers