Quick signature: Tell President Biden you support his administration’s actions to protect schoolchildren from COVID-19. *When you click, you’ll automatically sign on if we already have your information. TAKE ACTION

Dear Friend,

“I thought we were dodging the bullet, almost 2 weeks in and as I perused the COVID dashboard for my county. No COVID cases at my daughter’s school. I let out a sigh of relief. And then, one call, two calls, a call that it was someone in one of her classes. The message told me that someone from the department of health would call for contact tracing if needed. No mention of the fact that the department of health in my county is behind on contact tracing due to the overwhelming uptick in positive cases we are seeing in Florida.” [1]

- Sili, a mom in Florida

At this moment, the Delta variant is sickening an unprecedented number of children, pediatric ICU beds are filling up, and schools are opening for the fall. There has been a patchwork of different approaches to protect kids during this back-to-school season and some governors have been taking mind-boggling actions to block and intimidate local school officials from requiring masks to slow the spread of COVID-19.

**Quick signature: Add your name in support of the Biden Administration using its authority against governors who are blocking local school officials from preventing the spread of COVID-19 in their schools. *When you click, you’ll automatically sign on if we already have your information.

What’s happening? While parents across the country are adding masks to their back-to-school supplies list to protect their kids (and others’ kids!) from contracting COVID-19, Republican governors in at least eight states are actually BANNING school districts from requiring masks. [2] This is contrary to public health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [3] and pediatric hospitals are overflowing with COVID patients! [4]

President Biden announced last week that he would not stand by and allow governors to prevent local school districts from protecting their students with mask mandates while cases of COVID-19 are skyrocketing. [5] He is directing Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, to “assess all available tools” against states banning sensible safety measures to protect students’ health while at in-person school—which could be a civil rights violation. [6]

Over a year and a half into this pandemic, we know what public safety measures can stem the spread of COVID-19. Our leaders should be doing what they can to protect the health of our children and keep them in school. The American Academy of Pediatrics outlined what we can all do to make sending our kids back to school as safe as possible: vaccination, universal mask use, ventilation, testing, quarantining, and cleaning and disinfecting. [7] It is irresponsible for school officials not to take these steps and for governors or other politicians to stand in their way.

Sign on now! Tell President Biden you support his administration’s actions to protect schoolchildren from COVID-19 and keep them in school!

When you click, you’ll automatically sign on to our letter that reads:

Dear Biden Administration,

Thank you for taking actions to protect schoolchildren from COVID-19 amidst Republican governors’ blocking local school officials from implementing safety measures. We support the Department of Education working to ensure children in all states are able to attend school, in-person, as safely as possible.

To protect our kids and keep them in school, we need all hands on deck in support of a layered approach to prevent the spread of COVID-19 with state and local officials working alongside parents and schoolchildren to stem the spread. We need our leaders to follow the guidance from experts at the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy of Pediatrics. We need everyone who can to get vaccinated. And we need universal masking while COVID numbers are up.

Thank you for taking action against governors who are blocking these safety measures and placing our children at risk.

Don’t forget to sign on! Add your name to our letter of support to the Biden Administration for taking action to protect schoolchildren from COVID-19.

The more people who speak out, the bigger our impact. Please take a moment to forward our action link to your friends and family and share it on social media: https://action.momsrising.org/sign/biden-bts-covid/

Thank you for taking action and for all that you do for our families’ health.

- Felicia, Sili, Tina, Kristin and the whole MomsRising / MamásConPoder team

P.S. We want to hear from YOU! Tell us your concerns about going back to school amid COVID-19. You can either write us a note or record a short video.

P.P.S. We know there are still a lot of questions about COVID-19 and getting back to school, so we are partnering with 50 organizations for a live Q&A with world-renowned infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday, August 30th at 12pm PT / 3pm ET. Register at https://amhp.us/back2school/. This webinar will be led by American Muslim Health Professionals (AMHP) and the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) and provide guidance on COVID-19 vaccination efforts for parents, students, and teachers as we transition back to in-person schooling.

[1] MomsRising Blog, Back-to-School, Stressed and Exhausted. How Are You Parenting In This Pandemic?
[2] U.S. News & World Report, GOP Governors Double Down on Orders Barring Mask Mandates in Schools
[3] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools
[4] Miami Herald, Florida children’s hospitals see pediatric COVID cases soar amid delta variant surge
[5] Vox, Biden backs school districts in fight against GOP mask mandate bans
[6] AP News, States banning mask mandates could face civil rights probes
[7] American Academy of Pediatrics, COVID-19 Guidance for Safe Schools

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