Essay on Covid-19 Impacts and Policy Options

The lack of standard expectations of COVID-19 protocols gives way for a hazardous learning environment for both the students and staff. Creating an overwhelming public health issue. COVID-19 first presented itself in Indiana on March 6, 2020 (IN.gov,2022). It has since caused uncertainty in the world, especially for entities such as education. Before the pandemic, many hadn’t realized the support that education systems provide to families.

At the beginning of the pandemic, schools closed and many parents were left to find a source of child care, this is something many overlooked. Families also relied on schools to provide lunches, especially those in high poverty areas. During these closing times, many were wearing masks, social distancing, and quarantining as needed. You could say we as a society were very precautious of COVID-19.

Jump a year forward and we now have vaccines. Protocols are starting to lift, but variants of COVID-19 are starting to spread. Many are in COVID-19 fatigue and are social distancing and masking less. Policies have continued to change across the state of Indiana as we continue this rollercoaster of high and low COVID-19 numbers. So much, it has become different for people to know and understand what the new guidelines are. This miscommunication and lack of trust can cause safety risks to the public health.

Policy Options Descriptions:

Option number one, we would implement a statewide policy, this policy would follow the CDC recommendations. We would base the policy on current covid numbers per 100,000 in the population of that county. Each following county would be on a county by county basis of how their school district would deal with COVID–19 protocols. This would allow the community to know what we’re looking at to make the decision.

Option number two would be the creation of a public health liaison. This liaison would work with each school district and the health department in their county. They would help track data to help their school district make informed decisions on handling public health issues. Once the data hit a certain predetermined threshold specific protocols would be activated. This liaison would be a face in the individual communities to answer questions.

Policy Option 1: Sydney

We are proposing a statewide policy, which coincides with CDC recommendations. Guidelines will be based on current COVID-19 numbers per 100,000 in the population at the specific county level. Based on CDC recommendations this number would be 48 cases per 100,000 (Center for American Progress, 2020). This will be the threshold in order to minimize the spread of COVID-19. Once a county reaches this threshold its schools will need to transition to COVID-19 protocols. If the county does not reach this threshold it will not be required to continue with COVID-19 protocols.

This policy will eliminate the wandering factors and data that prompt schools to follow COVID-19 protocols. Through the transparency of this policy administrators, teachers, staff members, students, and parents will all understand when COVID-19 protocols will be in place. This will mitigate the miscommunication and mistrust many feel with COVID-19 protocols in schools.  

This policy will be easy to adapt as each county will be given a number and if COVID-19 cases surpass that number in their county, they will enact COVID-19 protocols that next school day. These protocols will be the same as they have been in the past. Guidelines will be wearing masks, social distancing to 3 feet, contact tracing if needed, and quarantining if needed. This policy will be simple to initiate as it focuses more on the driver of when to start COVID-19 protocols. Its purpose is to give clarity to the public on when to expect COVID-19 protocols to be in place.

The benefits to this policy are that you will be creating a safer school environment by creating transparency and standardization of COVID-19 guidelines. Through this policy parents, teachers, and students will have a better understanding of when and if their schools must follow the guidelines and why. You are building the trust of the community through standardizing the trigger for enacting COVID-19 guidelines.  

One of the biggest risks and complications of this policy would be when schools compete with each other. There will have to be a clause that explains what happens in that situation. We suggest this clause note the intention of rescheduling with the school. Another risk is those that border counties and may cross over between the two, elevating the risk of spreading COVID-19. I believe there could be some pushback when one county of schools is required to follow guidelines and another is not.

There are many winners in this policy, as you are building communication and trust within the community. There will be numerous positive outcomes from a policy such as this. An undesirable outcome would be schools not following the COVID-19 protocols once enacted within their county. A way to combat this outcome is to educate the importance of staying vigilant in the prevention of COVID-19. Another way would be to give community reminders of the consequences to the public health if we fail to follow the guidelines set out by the state and CDC. I believe that each stakeholder will support this bill as it adds transparency to COVID-19 guidelines and ensures public safety.

Policy Option 2: Dwayne

When analyzing the COVID-19 pandemic there is one thing that stuck out from the beginning to us, that was access to correct information and having someone that the public trust to give them that accurate information.  With our proposal, each school district of Indianapolis would be assigned a healthcare liaison. This Liaison would work closely with the Marion County Health Department and each individual school district that they are assigned to. They would monitor public health data in the district. This liaison will monitor the district and the Marion county public health department data. They would be able to help their district make informed decisions on how they should handle a public health issue.

For a COVID-19 specific situation, the liaison will track COVID-19 data. Once their district reaches above a 20% positive rate threshold, they will start COVID-19 protocols. We believe that this position would go beyond a COVID-19 specific role. This role can be utilized to track multiple public health issues within their district. A public health liaison can be best described as “Public Health Liaisons serve as customer service agents to bridge the gap between public health, the private medical community, and the community at large”

This proposal would be effective with the right support from the school districts and the health department. We will have a threshold for when changes are made in a school district. This could also be used for any other public health concern the districts already have someone to consult with.

This policy would be very simple to implement once you find the Public Health Liaison. It gives a specific person who has experience looking at data sets, to find caution points to notify the school board or superintendent what guidelines need to be put in place to improve safety. The liaison tracks the data at all times and when it reaches the threshold the public health responses are already decided upon by the state so the district would have to implement them.

The biggest benefit would be for the district families; they would be able to see what the numbers were and when we reach that threshold how the district will respond and what policies they already have in place to address different public health situations. This would also give them a contact to trust and who is qualified in public health who they could ask questions. The biggest risk of implementing this person to be in charge would be finding someone who is qualified and cares for the community. Another risk would be the community not trusting the liaison, and refusing their recommendations. When discussing the winners and losers of this program I don’t see a situation where the community would be a loser unless the liaison started not listening to the science and data of what was going on with the situation.

Looking at possible undesirable outcomes would be the school administration and school district not taking the professional opinion of the public health liaison and not honoring what the data is showing. The best step for keeping people engaged would be the liaison continuing education for students, staff, and their families about the importance of public health. We can’t only be active when an outbreak is going on, we have to be proactive in our knowledge of public health issues. In this event, I can’t see stakeholders turning down the opportunity to try and make an impact with the people of the community and especially seeing how everything has transpired the last two years dealing with the COVID-19.

Our group decided to move forward with policy option two. This recommended policy would create a Public Health Liaison that will work with an individual school district and the department of health in their county. This liaison would track the department of health and school district data to help their specific school district make an informed decision on a public health issue. This liaison would be able to help answer the general community's questions about what is going on and be able to reiterate how important public health is. This will also be creating many jobs around the state and wouldn't have to be limited to COIVID-19 issues. We believe this policy will have the biggest positive impact on public health for school districts in Indiana.