COVID-19 + Schools
Resources on COVID-19 + Schools
This section provides a curated set of resources specific to COVID-19 to help support parents, teachers, school health providers, custodial staff, and school leaders and policymakers.
Healthy Schools Campaign Publications
- Resource: Guidance on Using COVID Relief Funding to Support School Health
- Policy Brief: Providing Health Services During School Closures: Lessons Learned + Recommendations for Action
- Resource: In-Person Learning Resources for Parents and Caregivers at Chicago Public Schools | en Español
- Resource: Guidelines for COVID-19 Cleaning and Disinfection
- Webinar: COVID-19 School Response and Operationalizing CDC Guidelines
- Webinar: COVID-19 and University Response
- Playbook: Planning for the Next Normal at School: Keeping Students, Staff, and Families Safe and Healthy (with Thriving Schools)
School Buildings
School Reopening
School Health
Food Access
School Buildings: Cleaning & Disinfection
Guidelines for COVID-19 Cleaning and Disinfection
Healthy Green Schools & Colleges’ Guidelines for COVID-19 Cleaning and Disinfection provide K-12, college and university facility, custodial and housekeeping managers actionable best practices to protect students, staff and custodial personnel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 School Response and Operationalizing CDC Guidelines Webinar
In this webinar for school custodial teams, Healthy Green Schools & Colleges committee members from K-12 districts and higher education share the lessons they’ve learned in responding to COVID-19. This session builds on the previous two webinars in this series.
COVID-19 and University Response Webinar
In this webinar for school custodial teams, Healthy Green Schools & Colleges committee members share the lessons they’ve learned responding to COVID-19 and answer questions to help the school facility community benefit from their experiences.
Disinfectants for Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The EPA has identified the disinfectants on this list as effective in killing coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) when used according to the label directions.
Indoor Air Quality
CDC: Ventilation in Schools and Childcare Programs
Ventilation is one component of maintaining healthy environments, and is an important COVID-19 prevention strategy. This site includes ways to improve ventilation in school and childcare settings, whether in a large building or in a home.
ASHRAE: Reopening of Schools and Universities
This resource from American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers aims to help designers retrofit and plan for the improvement of indoor air quality and to slow the transmission of viruses via the HVAC systems.
Public Health Guidelines
CDC: Colleges, Universities and Higher Learning
This CDC resource for administrators, faculty, staff and students provides a wealth of information for all phases of COVID-19 planning and strategy.
Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting All Students’ Needs
The U.S. Department of Education offers initial strategies for providing equitable and adequate educational opportunities that address the impact of COVID-19 on students, educators, and staff.
Schools for Health: Risk Reduction Strategies for Reopening Schools
This resource from Harvard Chan School’s Healthy Buildings Program presents a range of control strategies that should be considered in discussions of school reopenings.
CDC: Resources for K-12 Schools and Childcare Programs
This CDC guidance offers strategies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and maintain safe operations. It is updated regularly. This resource is also available in Spanish.
School Reopening: Recommended Toolkits
Planning for the Next Normal at School: Keeping Students, Staff, and Families Safe and Healthy
This playbook offers an evolving collection of recommendations, co-authored by Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Action for Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools Campaign, SHAPE America, and FutureEd to address the total health needs of the school community for in-person and virtual learning environments.
Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 at Chicago Public Schools
Is my school taking the right steps to keep students safe? Read Healthy Schools Campaign’s essential resource for expert answers.
American Academy of Pediatrics: COVID-19 Guidance for Safe Schools
The purpose of this guidance revision is to continue to support communities, local leadership in education and public health, and pediatricians collaborating with schools in creating policies for safe schools during the COVID-19 pandemic that foster the overall health of children, adolescents, educators, staff, and communities and are based on available evidence.
Safe Return to Play & Recess Guidelines
Playworks’ Recess Guidelines are based on CDC and state guidelines as of July 2020. Additional updates are available on Playworks’ website.
National Association of School Nurses: COVID-19 Reference
NASN’s COVID-19 Reference contains condensed information and evidence-based references and resources designed to assist school nurses in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic as they formulate nursing judgement and participate in planning and policy development.
School Health: Public Policy
Guidance on Using COVID Relief Funding to Support School Health
Discover how COVID relief funding to support school health can be used for capacity building and infrastructure, and also to access additional funding streams, such as Medicaid, to ensure the efforts initiated with federal funds are sustained.
Providing Health Services During School Closures
This Healthy Schools Campaign publication offers recommendations for how federal and state agencies can disaster-proof school health services before the next public health crisis or natural disaster.
Child Trends: Laws By State on How Schools Should Address Pandemics
This resource from Child Trends and EMT Associates, Inc. provides the text of state statutes and regulations—as well as noncodified guidance from state health and education agencies—that relates to pandemic planning for schools. This tool is designed as a resource for educators, policymakers and general audiences to learn more about pandemic planning for schools within their states.
U.S. Department of Education COVID-19 Resources for Schools, Students and Families
COVID-19 resources are available for states, communities, educators and families. These resources include guidance and policies related to elementary and secondary education, special education, post-secondary education, and other aspects of lifelong learning.
National School Boards Association: Preparing for Widespread Illness in Your School Community: A Legal Guide for School Leaders
This document provides guidance to school leaders when planning for COVID-19 challenges in their district, including a planning checklist, and a catalogue of relevant resources.
School Health: Equity
Learning Beyond COVID-19: A Vision for Thriving in Public Education
The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association put forth five priorities for nurturing students’ learning now and beyond COVID-19: a focus on assessing students’ needs, supporting our most vulnerable students, expanding learning time and planning for summer academics and enrichment, ensuring professional excellence for learning and growth, and establishing an education system that centers equity and excellence.
Attendance Playbook: Smart Solutions for Reducing Chronic Absenteeism in the Covid Era
FutureEd and Attendance Works expanded their Attendance Playbook to reflect schools’ realities during and after the pandemic. It offers ideas for how to encourage and track attendance during distance learning and includes more than two dozen effective and readily scalable approaches to reducing chronic student absenteeism in the wake of Covid-19.
Analysis of School Reopening Plans
Johns Hopkins University eSchool+ Initiative tracks which categories are present in state and territory school reopening plans. The data is regularly updated. The eSchool+ initiative formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to develop tools and resources for schools to think responsibly about caring for students during school closures and reopenings.
Equity in Pandemic Schooling: An Action Guide for Families, Educators & Communities
Dr. Erica O. Turner and her colleagues from the Equity in Action Committee (of the Lapham-Marquette Parent Teacher Group in Madison, Wisconsin) published a digestible and robust resource to empower families, educators and community groups to take action toward greater equity and justice in pandemic schooling.
School Health: Social & Emotional Learning
The Mindful Blog
The Mindful Blog website offers short essays, videos, and free activities for educators and others to support Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in the home and classroom.
Social Emotional Learning for Home & School
This resource can help increase positive relationships and build in time for addressing well-being and mental health needs with your students. Created by Class Catalyst & Mindful Practices. Available in Spanish.
Reunite, Renew and Thrive: SEL Roadmap for Reopening School
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) created the SEL Roadmap to support school leaders and leadership teams in planning for the transition back to schools. The roadmap focuses on four social and emotional learning practices and includes specific activities for each.
Food Access: School Meals
Pandemic EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer)
Here you will find everything from a state-by-state guide to receiving and using your P-EBT to using this benefit when school is out. Promoting the P-EBT? This site is for you, too.
USDA: School Meals
The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service offers accessible information about nutrition assistance and explains how and where children and their families can access food during the school year and when school is not in session. This section goes into depth on rules and waivers concerning the distribution and pick-up of school food.
Chicago Public Schools Grab and Go Meal Sites Interactive Map
This Chicago Public Schools interactive map provides the locations and hours of sites where parents and children can pick up meals. Each child gets a bag with breakfast and lunch for three days. Children do not need to be CPS students.
Food Access: Programs
Federal Nutrition Programs
The Food Research & Action Center provides updated information about federal nutrition programs, including Pandemic EBT, School Breakfast Program, National School Lunch Program and more.
USDA Federal Nutrition Assistance Programs
Learn about the programs and services that aim to increase food security and reduce hunger, including Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and school meals.
At Home: Health & Wellness
Alliance for a Healthier Generation COVID-19 Resource Hub
Healthier Generation provides free, evidence-based resources to support the physical, social, and emotional health of children and their caregivers. Here you will find a selection of these resources designed to support parents and educators in reducing stress, eating healthy, moving regularly, getting quality sleep, and more.
CDC: Cleaning and Disinfecting Your Home
This CDC guidance provides recommendations on cleaning and disinfecting households where persons under investigation or those with confirmed COVID-19 reside or may be in self-isolation. These guidelines are focused on household settings and are meant for the general public.
At Home: Meal Preparation
Big Green Homegrown
Big Green’s new online hub and weekly email series full of fun and educational activities for kids and families.
Common Bytes Digital Learning Platform
Common Threads is providing its digital learning platform for free. This platform provides students, parents and educators ways to learn about food and learn how to cook food.
Start Simple with MyPlate: Food Planning During the Coronavirus Pandemic
This USDA guide contains information on food planning, including what to buy, how much to buy, and preparation tips.
At Home: Movement
Fit to Learn Physical Activity At-Home Tracker
Healthy Schools Campaign created this poster to help students track physical activity, recess and brain breaks at home.
Chicago Run Family Fit Kit
Chicago Run believes running and fitness are critical to the physical and mental health of our young people and communities. The site offers family fitness ideas and at-home resources to stay healthy and active during COVID-19.
The Exercise Game Video
Instructions and recording sheets are available in English and Spanish. Instrucciones en inglés y español.
Playworks Play at Home
This free resource provides a library of videos, games and activities families can play at home. Each of the activities meets CDC requirements of social distancing and limited equipment. Playworks is also hosting warm-ups, games, and cool-downs live on its Facebook page.
Recursos en Español
Guia para prevenir la propagación de COVID-19 en las escuelas públicas de Chicago
Después de casi un año del cierre de escuelas y de aprendizaje a distancia debido a la pandemia mundial del COVID-19, las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago (CPS) reabrieron edificios escolares para el aprendizaje en persona.
Yoga + Geometría
Encuentra y dibujes los triángulos mostrados en cada pose. Creado por Mindful Practices.
Movimientos / Poses de Yoga divertidas y simples
Para el hogar o la escuela. Creado por Mindful Practices.
Aprendizaje social y emocional el hogar & la escuela
Este recurso puede ser un comienzo para aumentar las relaciones positivas y construir el tiempo para abordar las necesidades de bienestar y salud mental con sus estudiantes. Creado por Class Catalyst & Mindful Practices.
