For Immediate release                                        

December 21, 2021

VIRGINIA PARENT ADVOCACY GROUP: DO NOT CLOSE SCHOOL BUILDINGS AGAIN  

Arlington Parents for Education urges all jurisdictions to prioritize the needs of students.  

(Arlington,VA) - Arlington Parents for Education (APE), a grassroots, bipartisan coalition of parents, students, teachers, and community members, supports continuing in-person instruction.

As an organization, we stood for in-person school last year, and we stand for it again now. Students belong in school. Closing school buildings did nothing to reduce or mitigate spread the first time we tried it and caused extensive harm that has yet to be remedied. The Virginia legislature agreed, passing SB1303 last spring to affirm how important and essential in-person education is.

The state of the pandemic has not worsened since that bipartisan law passed. In fact, we are in a better spot, with effective vaccines and treatments, and have a clear-eyed understanding of the harms last year’s policies caused. SB1303 implicitly rejected keeping children out of school and isolated at home, and in this spirit we urge all school districts to reject all school-related closures and cancellations that put the largest burden on those at lowest risk: children. In-person school, sports, and extracurricular activities can be done safely. Canceling children’s activities will not help end the pandemic any faster and harms children in the process.

As Secretary Cardona said yesterday, “One thing we’ve seen over the last two years is that students learn best in person. We can keep schools open five days a week and students in classrooms with tools like test-to-stay.”

APE will be lobbying the VA legislature in the upcoming legislative session to make SB1303 permanent and for it to apply to extracurricular activities. What happened in APS in the 2020-2021 school year, where, for example, APS elementary school kids only attended in-person the equivalent of 25 days, must never happen again.

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