The health and safety of our children when they attend school in-person is paramount. However, Louisiana kids, parents, teachers, and school staff are being left vulnerable during Louisiana’s 4th wave of COVID-19. We are asking Louisiana State Superintendent of Education, Dr. Cade Brumley and members of the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) to be consistent with CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations to ensure a safe school year for our children. 

Our hospitals are filling up, with younger, previously healthy patients needing to be in ICU. The worst outcomes are happening in unvaccinated people which includes all of our kids under 12. 

Dr. Mark Kline, Physician-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital New Orleans said during a recent press conference, “This delta variant is every infectious disease specialist’s worst nightmare...There was a myth...that children were somehow immune...It has become very clear that children are heavily impacted.”

We demand Superintendent Brumley and BESE adopt the following policies to be required by all school districts in Louisiana for the 2021-2022 school year:

• Delay or immediate pause of all in-person instruction until a switch can be made to fully virtual school. Return to in-person school not considered until SARS-CoV2 percent positivity for the parish is below 5% per the LDH coronavirus dashboard. 
• Elective virtual option for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year once percent positivity is below 5%.
• Virtual work option for teachers who are or have household members who are vulnerable to COVID-19.
• All Louisiana schools comply with the governor’s mask mandate.
• Utilize learning pods to reduce the risk of an outbreak.
• Use the federal government’s $10 billion commitment to COVID19 screening for K-12 schools. Teachers, staff and support personnel undergo weekly, mandatory screening. Encourage optional screening for students.
• COVID-19 leave for all school employees, in case they do become infected.
• Transparency on how COVID-19 relief funds are used to make their child’s school safer. BESE and LDH should publish this data and make it easily accessible on the BESE website and LDH coronavirus dashboard.
• Transparency on the percent of teachers, staff, and support personnel fully vaccinated at their child’s school. This data should be published weekly and publicly available on BESE and district websites.
• Establish community led COVID19 task force tables in each school district for accountability and to explore other mitigation measures such as hybrid school days.

All our children have the right to attend a safe, healthy, and prepared school during the worst global pandemic in 100 years.  

Please sign this petition, authored by concerned Louisianans for safe and healthy schools and communities, to keep our children, teachers, support personnel, and our communities safe from COVID19 this school year.