teachers

Gov. Mike DeWine, following U.S. Centers for Disease Control guidelines, has called for Ohio’s K-12 teachers and school staff to be next in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, along with residents older than 65 and those with developmental disabilities.  

DeWine’s plan includes getting Ohio educators – everyone from teachers to bus drivers and cafeteria workers – vaccinated beginning Feb. 1, with a goal of getting students back into schools, either full-time or as part of a hybrid model, by March 1.

Updated: 4:50 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020

The process of vaccinating health care workers and people living in nursing homes is going too slowly, according to Gov. Mike DeWine.

Updated: 4:21 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 24, 2020

The state will provide vaccines to school staff in early 2021 to encourage a return to in-person learning, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Wednesday.

Any school moving from remote to in-person learning will have access to vaccines for adults working in the buildings as part of the state’s second stage of vaccine distribution, the governor said, which is coming after healthcare workers and those living and working in congregate care settings are vaccinated.

Updated at 7:43 p.m. ET

President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate Miguel Cardona, the head of Connecticut's public schools, to be his secretary of education.

In a statement Tuesday evening, Biden called Cardona a "lifelong champion of public education."

Cardona makes true on an early Biden promise to pick an education secretary who was a teacher: "A teacher. Promise," Biden told the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, back in July 2019.

Ohio’s K-12 students should be learning remotely, starting now, and not return to the classroom until Jan. 11, according to recommendations from the Ohio Education Association (OEA), the union representing most of the state’s teachers.

The Ohio chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police filed a brief in the state’s highest court Monday arguing against arming teachers, as the policies would “make an already dangerous situation even more dangerous for law enforcement, for school staff, and for the students themselves.”

The Ohio FOP laid out a series of dangers posed by arming teachers without extensive training. First among the points: anyone involved in a gunfight becomes less accurate.

Teaching is already challenging enough without a pandemic shaking up how the classroom operates. As schools reopen, many districts are focused on keeping their staff and students safe from COVID-19. But the pandemic is also taking a toll on teachers’ mental health. 

As the school year starts in many districts across the country, a new national poll of teachers from NPR/Ipsos finds overwhelming trepidation about returning to the physical classroom.