Duncan Unveils Recommendations on How Learning Continues in Case of Flu Outbreak

Duncan Unveils Recommendations on How Learning Continues in Case of Flu Outbreak

The Secretaries will talk and be able to answer questionsnationally about immunizations and H1N1. We hope thatby getting more people immunized, by letting people knowthat there’s more you can do prevent the spread of thedisease. There’s more that you can do to make sure thatonce we have immunizations ready in the schools that youget them, et cetera, that we can help prevent any schoolclosures not just in the district, but regionally andnationally.

Just to talk a little bit about school readiness across thedistrict,the mayor noted most of the points, but we feelespecially prepared this year because we started ourenrollment process earlier and have more than double thenumber of students pre-enrolled for school than we did lastyear at this time. We mailed out all 18,000 schedules hometo all of our middle school and high school students. Twoweeks ago we redesigned our website for easier access forparents and community members about information havingto dowith the district. We delivered over 36,000 curricularitems over the course of the summer including 2300 sciencekits, teacher text book editions, and sets of mathmanipulative software and audio/visual material.

What we know about the virus is that it transmits very, veryquickly,particularly to the younger population. So we’reworking hard on thevaccine. We think it will be ready bymid-October. The vaccines arecurrently in clinical trials. Sofar the trials look good. We won’t be administering anyvaccine that isn’t proven to be effective and to be safe, butthose tests are under way right now. So Principal Blackwe’vegot some “Avoid the Flu” resource kits for gradesk-12 that we’ll leave here. And I know that SecretaryDuncan is going to talk about the continuation of learningguidance and I don’t want to steal his thunder but the goalis to keep grade schools like this open—to keep kids learning throughout the school year and to make sure thatwe canwork hard for the staff and the children to be as safeandsecure aspossible. So I’m pleased to be here thismorning.Members of thecabinet are going to participate inschoolstart days across the districtand across the countrybecausethe president wants to highlight kids going back toschooland how important this is for the future of ourcountry andso I’m pleased to join my colleague SecretaryArne Duncan.

I know they’ve got children to take to school which is theMostimportant thing going on today but before I begin Ijust want to thankMayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee fortheir remarkable leadership and courage. In two short yearswhat they’ve done here in DC is really a national model ofreform. It doesn’t come without a lot of hard work andblood, sweat and tears. With the mayor’s courage andleadershipin taking over the public schools is remarkable.

And he couldn’t have found a better champion thanChancellor Rhee. And the progress at every level—elementary, middle schools, high school—is absolutely inthe right direction. We all know a lot of hard work ahead of us.We’re not where we want to be yet, but this is all aboutprogress, it’sall about momentum. So thanks to both of youfor your tremendousleadership. To the team here—to theprincipal and to the staff, this is a gorgeous, gorgeousschool. And to think about the possibilities of thatInternational Baccalaureate curriculum. People may notknowthat curriculum was designed for the children of diplomats in Geneva, Switzerland. And the fact thatchildren here in DC are now going to have access to thecurriculum designed for the children of diplomats inSwitzerland talks about the extraordinary happenings—theextraordinary opportunities that are being created here.

And this is notfor gifted kids. This basically a lot of hardwork. This is taking childrenwho want to work hard and goto the next level. If you graduate with that I.B. Diplomaafter high school, that diploma is recognizedworld-wide.You can go to a university not just anywhere in the U.S.but any place in the world. So these children are going to beput on apath. This is going to open up some remarkabledoors for them.Thank you for your leadership and hard work. It’s a really fun thing to see.

This first day of school is a day filled with extraordinarypromise andopportunity. When you stand with yourchildren on the first day they know that you will besupporting them for the entire school year. It’s great to behere in this new school. This building has many really reallygood features. I look forward to eating a breakfast that’sbothhealthy and nutritious and delicious when we get donewith this. I alsowent to see the health services available.

And we’re very veryimpressed by the green technologieshere. And again, as SecretarySebelius said this school isbringing together great academics, a realfocus on healthand wellness and nutrition and on the environment.Again the lessons on many different levels for the childrenhere I thinkis extraordinarily important. This is going to be agreat, great place forchildren to learn. As the school yearbegins I’m concerned that the H1N1 virus might disruptlearning in some schools across the country. We’re allconcernedabout the threat that H1N1 poses to children’shealth. But we also need to be concerned about how thevirus might disrupt education too.And I think that what weall want as parents is two things—we want to keep ourchildren safe first and foremost, and secondly we want tokeep them learning. Some schools may experience largeabsentee rates.Some across the country may even need tobe closed temporarily atsome point during the school year.

We must make sure that learning continues if the flu virusspreads. That is hugely important. Today we are releasingrecommendations for school officials in case H1N1interrupts the academic progress of students or requires aschool toclose temporarily. Principals and teachers need tobe prepared. Theyshould have packages of materials readyto send home with students. They need to find onlineresources for students to learn from at home. They need toknow how to contact parents and students so teachers canmonitor their progress or provide tutorials over the phoneoronline. Here today with us—we’re so thankful they’rehere—arerepresentatives from Apple, Scholastic, Pearson,Curriki, Microsoft, andThe International Association of K-12Online Learning. They all have examples of online and othermaterials that schools can use to ensure that learningcontinues during any disruptions caused by H1N1. There aremany other options available as well. I hope that theteachers herelook at these types of materials and startplanning ways to make sureour children are learning if theyhave to miss school because of H1N1. This has the potentialto be a difficult school year in some schools. But withplanning, foresight, and careful preparation I’m absolutelyconfident that our educators will work together to make it asuccessfulone for our students. Thank you and we’re happyto take any questions you might have.