The trend toward more collaborative learning environments is incorporating various concepts into school classrooms to facilitate greater creativity and flexibility. You may be exploring approaches including student seating with more mobility, portable storage and partitioning, relaxed and informal seating areas. The 21^st-century classroom shows potential for educational benefits, but you want to pay careful attention to safety considerations and risk management before implementing these measures.

As you wrap up what may be the most unusual school year you have ever gone through, we’re sure you’re hoping this fall will be more normal. Maybe you were able to hold some of your end-of-the-year events, such as commencement, in person but with modifications to keep everyone safe. No one knows for sure how the situation will change over the summer, but with high COVID-19 vaccination rates, live events on campus may again resume.

Returning to the classroom after the pandemic is another major change both your staff and students will be experiencing through these uncertain times. As they prepare for a new normal, teachers will encounter parents with trepidation about letting their kids return to campus and juggling new schedules. Meanwhile, they will deal with their own family adjustments and fears. For some, the pandemic impacted their lives inalterably after loved ones have been seriously ill or passed away. The “new normal” for those individuals will be completely different.

Graduation is a milestone in a young person’s life that they want to celebrate with their family, friends and fellow students. The Coronavirus pandemic put severe limitations on how grads were recognized last year, with traditional ceremonies replaced by virtual events, graduates at their homes with only immediate family, and diplomas received by mail. Graduation 2021 in many communities could have fewer restrictions and more gathering, but COVID-19 safety will still require different approaches compared to pre-pandemic years.

Schools are beginning to reopen and you may be looking into keeping sufficient quantities of hand sanitizer for staff and students to keep their hands clean. To minimize the possibility of COVID transmission, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer (ABHS) should be readily available to those in your facilities. At the same time, you need to be mindful of fire safety in storing and dispensing these substances.

Three COVID-19 vaccines are currently being distributed and administered under federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorizations. As an employer, you may be considering whether you should require your employees to be vaccinated before they return to the workplace. You may also be concerned about your potential liability if an employee has a severe reaction to the vaccine, or if your unvaccinated employee infects others. You are right to be cautious about these risks and to ask questions about implementing a vaccination policy.

As more schools are starting to resume in-person instruction, we’d like to highlight the observance of Child Abuse Prevention Month, April 1-30, 2021. It’s a great time to take inventory of your abuse prevention risk management measures and remind your staff about appropriate boundaries with students as the kids return to the classroom. Litigation and damages against public schools due to sexual misconduct robs millions of dollars from instructional budgets.

Title IX Consultant Megan Ferrell raised these essential points about Title IX training in a recent webinar.

We are now a year into a new reality defined by the Coronavirus. We are sick and tired (and not just figuratively) of COVID-19 and the limitations on our activities and social life. The rollout of vaccines has provided some hope for a return to normal routines, but distribution will take time and relief won’t be instantaneous. We can expect the stress of this pandemic will continue for months to come.

A few weeks ago, we provided you with information for preventing abusive and criminal intrusion of online teleconferencing platforms. Such measures help to protect participants in virtual classrooms and online meetings from external threats. It’s just as important to have policies and protections in place to deter child abuse perpetrators from using your technology tools to cause harm to children and others.