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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Today, Governor Brown announced that in-person public education classes throughout Oregon are canceled through the end of the school year, thereby extending the executive order that previously was scheduled to end on April 28. She directed K-12 school districts, community colleges, and universities to complete the final weeks of the regular academic year by supporting their students through distance learning that is already underway.
This is difficult news, but probably not a surprise to many of you. I support the Governor’s actions – it’s the right thing to do to keep as many people as safe as possible. I want to thank all the parents, family members, and educators who have made tremendous sacrifices in recent weeks for the sake of their children and students. Thank you for your perseverance.
The Oregon Department of Education has been saying since last week that it was unlikely K-12 schools would be open again this school year. Consequently, they have been working diligently with local school districts to implement guidelines for distance learning.
Additional guidelines were also announced for graduating seniors to make it clear they can graduate on time if they were on track to pass their classes before in-person classes were canceled. Teachers are being asked to work with seniors who may not have been on track to graduate so that they can work to earn passing grades. Those students will have until the end of August to do the work to pass those courses.
Parents and students will have many questions. I hope the links below will be helpful and provide some of that information. As always, please email me if you have further questions not answered by those materials.
Finally, how parents navigate this new reality with their children is really important. Will the pandemic and school closures only be a bad experience, a traumatic thing? Or will this experience be one that helps children build resilience instead?
Please take a couple minutes to watch a video from Kali Thorne Ladd, the executive director of KairosPDX. Her message of hope is based on research. This pandemic as an adverse experience for students can have an impact on their brain development. It’s important to intervene and build resilience through positive experiences, like finding opportunities to check on their well-being and give them your undivided attention.
Portland Public Schools has information available here on times and locations for Chromebook device pickup to help students with home-based learning. The devices have been sanitized and are bagged for health and safety.
As a reminder, emergency child care is available for health care workers, first responders, emergency workers, health care professionals and other essential workers. If you think you are eligible, call 211 for a referral.
Here’s how:
- Call 211 and follow the prompt for Child Care.
- Text the keyword “children” or “niños” to 898211 (TXT211).
- Or, email children@211info.org.
- The Oregon Health Authority announced 58 new diagnosed cases of coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 1,239. Tragically, 38 people in Oregon have now died from the virus. Modeling continues to tell us that our state is expected to see its peak of cases in mid-to-late April, assuming that all Oregonians continue to follow the Governor’s Stay Home, Save Lives directive.
Willamette Week published a helpful article looking at organizations who have been making masks for frontline health care workers, and The Oregonian published guidance from public health professionals on how to clean and maintain masks to wear out in public to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
For up to date information, please check this link to the Oregon Health Authority where regular updates are posted: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ERD/Pages/News-Releases.aspx
Please email me at Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov if you have specific concerns that have not been addressed by the OHA. Our office will do all we can to help and protect all Oregonians.
Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.
Best,
Tina Kotek
State Representative
House District 44
Speaker of the House
email: Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1200
address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek
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