H. Res. 241, Resolution on Reopening Schools for In-Person Instruction (March 16, 2021)
Summary
H. Res. 241, a resolution submitted in the House of Representatives on March 16, 2021 by Ms. Sherrill, Mrs. Watson Coleman and Mr. Payne and referred to the Committee on Education and Labor. It expresses the sense of Congress that reopening schools for in-person instruction should be a critical priority for local, State, and Federal policymakers. The preamble cites studies on learning loss during remote instruction and unequal access to in-person instruction. The resolved clauses say school districts should use K–12 funding under the American Rescue Plan to get children back into classrooms and States should consider reopening schools in their vaccination rules.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
- Issuer
- Congressional materials
- Document type
- Bills Bills 117Hres241Ih Bills 117Hres241Ih
- Case
- Bills Bills 117Hres241Ih Bills 117Hres241Ih
Cite this document
“H. Res. 241, Resolution on Reopening Schools for In-Person Instruction (March 16, 2021).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/bills-bills-117hres241ih-bills-117hres241ih/
, SHA-256 04bb5f1dfa650335188059c70f8921e54b73d28edb55efa8a5f7e2d508e28d15.Full text
IV
117TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. RES. 241
Expressing the sense of Congress that reopening schools for in-person instruc-
tion should be a critical priority for local, State, and Federal policy-
makers, and that funding for K–12 schools under the American Rescue
Plan and State vaccination guidelines should be used to help get children
back in the classroom.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 16, 2021
Ms. SHERRILL (for herself, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, and Mr. PAYNE) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on
Education and Labor
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of Congress that reopening schools
for in-person instruction should be a critical priority
for local, State, and Federal policymakers, and that
funding for K–12 schools under the American Rescue
Plan and State vaccination guidelines should be used
to help get children back in the classroom.
Whereas many K–12 students have spent almost a full year
outside of the classroom due to the COVID–19 pandemic
and subsequent school closures, with their learning en-
tirely remote;
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
Whereas there is a growing body of evidence that remote
learning can have significantly negative impacts on stu-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:33 Mar 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR241.IH HR241
2
dent learning and educational achievement, potentially
harming long-term educational and career success;
Whereas recent studies have shown that students’ learning in
math over the past year was at least 30 percent lower
than expected and their learning in reading was at least
10 percent lower than expected;
Whereas other research has found that school closures in the
spring and summer of 2020 may have reduced student
learning gains by up to one-third in reading and up to
one-half in math relative to a typical school year;
Whereas new studies have found that school closures have
caused a decline in children’s skill attainment, with those
impacts being particularly severe for students whose par-
ents have low educational attainment;
Whereas the shift to remote learning has also significantly
amplified educational disparities along socioeconomic
lines throughout the country;
Whereas research has found that majority non-White school
districts saw much larger learning losses than the aver-
age school district, with students’ learning in those dis-
tricts falling almost 10 percent more in both math and
reading relative to expectations than in the average
school district;
Whereas access to in-person instruction itself has been highly
unequal during the COVID–19 pandemic, again stratified
along socioeconomic lines;
Whereas recent reports have found that almost 70 percent of
Black, Hispanic, and Asian students were in remote-only
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
school districts in the fall, compared to slightly over 50
percent of White students;
•HRES 241 IH
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:33 Mar 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR241.IH HR241
3
Whereas school closures have also left behind students with
disabilities, who have had to get by with limited access
to the special education programs that are supposed to
be guaranteed to them;
Whereas recent surveys of families with children in special
education programs have found that only 1 in 5 families
said they were receiving all of their children’s support
services and that 4 in 10 families said they were receiv-
ing none of those support services;
Whereas the Government Accountability Office found that
school closures have created significant educational chal-
lenges for English learners and students with disabilities,
who already had large achievement gaps compared to
other students prepandemic;
Whereas school closures have also been linked to declines in
students’ mental health, as children are deprived of social
interaction at school as well as critical mental health
services that schools provide;
Whereas this mental health crisis has been highlighted by
large increases in mental health emergencies among chil-
dren at hospitals during the pandemic, and an increase
in worrying mental health behavior as reported by school
districts;
Whereas new studies have found that the proportion of emer-
gency department visits that were mental health-related
has increased by over 20 percent for children aged 5–11
and over 30 percent for children aged 12–17 from 2019
to 2020;
Whereas the employment crisis facing our country has also
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
been exacerbated by school closures, as parents (predomi-
•HRES 241 IH
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:33 Mar 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR241.IH HR241
4
nantly women) have had to leave their jobs to stay home
and take care of their children;
Whereas new research suggests that over 1,000,000 mothers
have left the workforce since the pandemic started be-
cause of school closures;
Whereas among the 140,000 job losses reported by the De-
cember 2020 employment report, the entirety of the jobs
lost were held by women;
Whereas President Biden recently said that he hopes ‘‘a sig-
nificant percentage’’ of schools will reopen 5 days a week
within his first 100 days;
Whereas President Biden also recently urged that teachers be
vaccinated to support this school reopening process, say-
ing that ‘‘we should move [teachers] up in the hier-
archy’’;
Whereas the recently passed American Rescue Plan provides
an unprecedented $130,000,000,000 in funding specifi-
cally to help K–12 schools reopen safely, with funds to
reduce class sizes to comply with social distancing, mod-
ernize HVAC systems, and hire more school custodians
and nurses;
Whereas the most recent CDC research finds that it is safe
to reopen schools as long as safety precautions such as
universal masking, social distancing, and sanitation and
cleaning rules are in place; and
Whereas other CDC research has found little evidence that
schools have been a major contributor to increased com-
munity spread of COVID–19: Now, therefore, be it
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
1 Resolved, That it is the sense of Congress that—
•HRES 241 IH
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:33 Mar 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR241.IH HR241
5
1 (1) schools reopening for in-person instruction
2 as quickly as is safely possible should be a key pri-
3 ority for all levels of our government;
4 (2) school districts across the country should
5 use funding for K–12 schools under the American
6 Rescue Plan to safely get children back into the
7 classroom; and
8 (3) States should consider how best to reopen
9 schools when developing their vaccination rules.
Æ
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
•HRES 241 IH
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:33 Mar 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR241.IH HR241
File and source
- File
- BILLS_bills-117hres241ih_bills-117hres241ih.pdf
- Size
- 233,700 bytes
- SHA-256
- 04bb5f1dfa650335188059c70f8921e54b73d28edb55efa8a5f7e2d508e28d15
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov