Holistic Framework

This holistic, solutions-oriented approach promotes health and safety without compromising students’ learning potential. The needs and considerations of schools are vast and nuanced. We address the most critical issues affecting schools through three lenses: Educational Adaptation, Health Promotion, and Risk Mitigation.

Risk Mitigation

It is essential to implement strategies that will help to reduce adverse environmental exposures that influence school occupant health and performance in our K-12 facilities. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has developed a hierarchical framework for controlling exposures to workplace hazards that can be applied to schools. (6) The Hierarchy of Controls informs a national initiative called Prevention through Design (PtD), which we apply to the identification and organization of our strategies.

The following levels of control decrease in effectiveness as schools try to keep occupants safe: nj Elimination: remove risk of disease transmission in schools. nj Substitution: provide an alternative environment with lower or no risk of disease transmission. nj Engineering Protocols: design to remove particles before they come in contact with school occupants. nj Administrative Controls: relatively inexpensive to implement but require building occupants to carefully abide by strategies nj Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): keeps the individual safe as long as the PPE is worn properly and not damaged.

Educational Adaptation

We seek to support strategies that support behavioral, logistical, and technology flexibility during shifting teaching needs.

Optimizing Flexibility

The ability to pivot—say, from one classroom space to another, or from one way of teaching and learning to another—is key to effective education. The Universal Design for Learning guidelines are useful because they improve and optimize the educational experience for all people, and are based on the science of how people learn. (7) Other critical factors include limiting classroom disruption, promoting learning, and fostering community without socioeconomic barriers.

Reimagining the Classroom

In order to navigate what comes next, we need to create multi-faceted classrooms that offer increased control and full access to technology. As education continues to evolve –accelerated by the pandemic – we are leveraging research to better understand how learning environments can support students holistically.

Safety

Schools are not going to go back to pre-COVID-19 operations. Education adaptation will be necessary for continuity of learning and teaching under new restrictions. It will also increase schools’ resilience in the event of future challenges and changes.

Health Promotion

Our strategies aim to support the physical health, mental health, social cohesion, and a sense of belonging and safety.

Using the “Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child” model from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we identify a range of strategies to ensure optimal well-being for everyone in the school community. (8)

After all, schools are not just learning environments; they’re also work sites, community centers, food distribution hubs, and physical and psychological health service providers.