The Rales Center has been at the leading edge of the COVID-19 response in schools. During the pandemic, Rales Center faculty were involved in a variety of efforts to develop resources, materials, and best practices for schools around the globe. In the post-pandemic era, we continue to update resources for schools and school districts to support healthy in-person learning and pandemic recovery. A full archive of resources is available below.
Members of the Rales Center team develop a toolkit to help schools communicate with parents about COVID-19 prevention.Â
School districts were uniquely impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the NIH-funded RADx-Up Return to School Program, a team including the Rales Center’s Dr. Sara Johnson, Dr. Kate Connor, Dr. Beth Marshall, and Gabriela Calderon partnered with colleagues from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Morgan State Univerity. Our goal was to develop resources to support the safe return to in-person school during the COVID-19 pandemic. We engaged a community advisory board comprised of key partners and implemented a survey and focus groups. Community members wanted clearer communication about COVID-19 mitigation policies in schools and were experiencing fatigue and confusion. These insights informed the development of a tailorable communication toolkit. The toolkit was designed to support schools in informing parents about the importance and effectiveness of mitigation strategies for safe in-person learning, promote a sense of community and support, and support school communication teams in effectively communicating information about COVID-19 mitigation efforts. The toolkit, which includes customizable materials for parents in multiple languages, is available here: https://schoolhealth.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PACE-Communication-Toolkit-Version-2-November-15-2022.pdf.  Â
