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Retrieved from The White House/YouTube on January 21, 2021
K-12 Dive
What Biden's early executive orders mean for K-12
A handful of orders from President Joe Biden will impact districts
nationwide in areas including LGBT rights, DACA and COVID-19 response.
Naaz Modan
Jan. 22, 2021
President Joe Biden signed more than a dozen executive orders shortly
after his inauguration Wednesday and additional orders Thursday,
including a handful with implications for K-12.
Education organizations including the National Education Association
and American Federation of Teachers have welcomed Biden's directives.
While executive orders can sometimes have the effect of federal law,
they can also be overturned by laws passed in Congress, which are then
subject to presidential veto.
With a Democratic majority in the Senate and House, it is possible for
lawmakers to push legislation mirroring Biden's executive orders
through Congress, said Noelle Ellerson Ng, the associate executive
director of policy and advocacy for AASA, The School Superintendents
Association. However, success of that legislation requires "a
collaborative and compromise-driven (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch
McConnell," Ellerson Ng added.
Federal response to COVID-19 in schools
Among Biden's directives were measures to coordinate a federal response
to COVID-19, which includes ensuring education continuity, and
reopening K-12 schools. The orders support the collection and sharing
of data to inform reopening decisions, formation of guidance specific
to schools around virus mitigation measures, and development of contact
tracing for reopening.
On Thursday, the Biden administration also released a 23-page strategy
document for pandemic preparedness and response, which stated the
federal government will:
Support screening and testing programs in schools.
Provide testing protocols for schools and support timely testing results.
Direct the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
Department of Education to provide guidance with metrics for measuring
and monitoring the spread of COVID-19 in schools and help them reopen.
Direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse schools for emergency supplies like personal protective equipment.
Work to reopen a majority of K-8 schools within 100 days.
A coordinated federal response to help reopen schools with the support
of COVID-19 testing and vaccinations has been long-awaited by
administrators and instructors, who are following varying guidance from
local and state leaders. Biden's orders, along with the strategy
document, address many of educators' concerns, including a lack of
timely and widespread novel coronavirus testing, a lack of guidance on
reopening and virus metrics, and declining funds for things like PPE
required to reopen schools.
DACA protections for students and educators
Biden also signed an executive order to protect the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals program, which the Trump administration tried to
roll back in an attempt that was ultimately rejected by the U.S.
Supreme Court. The roll back of DACA, an Obama-era initiative, would
have impacted thousands of educators, students and their families.
The new directive covers at least 15,000 educators, students and their families, according to the NEA.
The order to keep it in place is welcomed by a handful of national
education organizations, including the NEA and AFT, which sent a letter
to then President-elect Biden in December supporting the cause.
However, protecting the program through an executive order means future
administrations can easily overturn the decision, leaving the door open
for a future challenge to the program, wrote Michael McConnell, a
professor at Stanford Law School.
For now, the executive order is "a good read of the room," said
Ellerson Ng, adding Biden recognizes that getting immigration reform
passed in Congress "will be a huge lift."
Read this and other articles at K-12 Dive here
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