Safe and Healthy Environments

Schools, early childhood programs, and campuses rose to the challenge of rapidly adjusting educational environments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to help protect the health and safety of students, young children, families and caregivers, teachers, early childhood providers, faculty, staff, and the surrounding community. As schools, early childhood programs, and campuses continue to collaborate with community partners to keep their communities safe, it remains important for practitioners and policymakers to follow the most up-to-date protocols and guidelines for maintaining health and safety standards such as disinfecting, sanitizing, implementing proper ventilation, and following other safety measures. This remains an important step to helping ensure safe and healthy in-person learning environments. Proper precautions and mitigation strategies will remain foundational for keeping students, young children, families, teachers, early childhood providers, faculty, and staff healthy and safe in their learning environments.

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The resources on this page share school, early childhood program, and campus approaches to implementing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) recommended mitigation strategies for sustaining safe in-person operations. The resources include recommendations across all grade and age levels, with a focus on recovering from the pandemic. Teachers, early childhood providers, faculty, staff, schools, districts, early childhood programs, institutions of higher education, other places of educational instruction, and States may use these lessons learned, best practices, and Federal and State guidelines to plan and implement health and safety strategies in collaboration with their local and State governments and community partners.

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Creating a Culture of Care: A Guide for Education Leaders to Develop Systems and Structures That Support Educator Well-Being

Research pre-pandemic—and even more so now—shows that unhealthy education systems have very real consequences. In order to support students, educators must first support each other and be supported themselves. This guide is for education leaders at all levels—local, regional, and state—in charge of supporting their education staff. It offers practical information and guidance on educator well-being in these ever-challenging times.

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REL Resource | How Has Artificial Intelligence Been Used in Education?

REL Northwest developed a resource sheet entitled Artificial Intelligence in Education, which includes a review of research on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used in education and four considerations for leveraging AI to support education. As the use of AI in education evolves, educators are seeking to understand how they can use it efficiently and ethically. Although this information is relevant to educators across the country, this information was originally requested and used by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

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Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in Schools: An Action Guide for School and District Leaders | CDC

This action guide was designed for school administrators in kindergarten through 12th grade schools (K-12), including principals and leaders of school-based student support teams, to identify evidence-based strategies, approaches, and practices that can positively influence students’ mental health.

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Cybersecurity for K-12 Schools and School Districts: Developing a Cyber Annex

This fact sheet from the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center outlines how core planning teams from K-12 schools can prepare for a variety of cyber threats facing their networks and systems. These threats include ransomware attacks, data breaches, and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks, among others. The fact sheet describes how to incorporate cybersecurity into school emergency operations plans through a six-step planning process.

Submit Your Lessons Learned and Best Practices

Have a lessons learned or best practice that focuses on helping to ensure safe and healthy learning environments as students and educators continue to recover from the pandemic? Visit the Best Practices Submission page to view details on submission requirements, and then e-mail Bestpracticesclearinghouse@ed.gov to share your lessons learned or best practice.

Provide Feedback

Have feedback to share on a resource accessed on the Clearinghouse site? We want to hear from you. Select the button below to share your feedback with the U.S. Department of Education and the Clearinghouse team.

Submit Your Lessons Learned and Best Practices

Have a lessons learned or best practice that focuses on helping to ensure safe and healthy learning environments as students and educators continue to recover from the pandemic? Visit the Best Practices Submission page to view details on submission requirements, and then e-mail Bestpracticesclearinghouse@ed.gov to share your lessons learned or best practice.

Provide Feedback

Have feedback to share on a resource accessed on the Clearinghouse site? We want to hear from you. Select the button below to share your feedback with the U.S. Department of Education and the Clearinghouse team.

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