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How Rosh Hashanah Celebrations are Adapting in the Age of Coronavirus

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Online and outdoor services have been prepared and will dominate this holiday season to mitigate COVID-19 risks.

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Michael Hill

At the Chabad of Bayonne, Rabbi Yisrael Bennish took NJTV News on a tour to show what COVID-19 era preparations and adjustments are being made for the Jewish new year celebration Rosh Hashanah, that starts Friday night at 7 p.m.

“We’re doing nothing indoors, we’re doing everything in this tent, so half outdoor, half indoor. It meets the guidelines of the Bayonne Health Department,” said Rabbi Yisrael Bennish, the director of Chabad of Bayonne.

Montclair State University epidemiologist Stephanie Silvera says outdoor and online services are the best way to respect the coronavirus and practice one’s faith.

“I know that in some of the reform communities, for example, they’re broadcasting their services via Zoom, which is another option. I know that’s more challenging for our conservative and orthodox community members, so in those cases if there’s a way to have an outdoor celebration, our outdoor services,” Silvera said.

Rabbi Dan Selsberg of Temple Sholom in Bridgewater says the loss of 11 people in his community has put a great weight on his shoulders, so holiday services will be online and outdoors with face coverings and social distancing.

“We have to respect where people are at. It’s important to take precautions,” Selsberg said. “Judaism, of necessity, has been built for hard times. And for better or worse, we’ve been through worse than this, so it’s designed to help carry us through periods when life isn’t ideal.”

COVID-19 realities have made Selsberg philosophical.

“Jews have been gathering at these holy days for thousands of years, literally since the dawn of civilization. I’ve had moments of fear that will this practice of thousands of years end on my watch?” he said. “God willing, we’re resilient enough that we will get through this hard time and we can make it to a period where we can flourish again and we can reinvent ourselves for whatever the world looks like post-pandemic.”

 

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Laptop Shortage, Lack of Internet Access Behind Bumpy Start to Remote Learning

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With internet access going from luxury to necessity, communities can wind up completely out of the loop as state’s virtual curriculum looks to gain traction

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Raven Santana

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop pointed to Zoom glitches, laptop delays and not enough Chromebooks as some of the issues the city experienced while opening the virtual school door last week for some 30,000 students.

“Early August, there was a rush from every municipality, literally across the county, to secure Chromebooks and that’s created delays, and obviously frustration, along with that,” the mayor said.

The issues were addressed by Jersey City Public Schools Superintendent Franklin Walker during a virtual town hall meeting.

“We had almost 10,000 parents complete the survey. And during that period of time, 24% said they needed a device, so we were looking at 2,400 requests. And based upon that, that’s what we planned our survey around and planned our need to fulfill the technology support for students,” Water said.

“I hear really mixed feedback from parents. A lot of them are struggling with some of the information, but, you know, it’s really uncharted territories for the Board of Education and the superintendent. It’s not easy and people are doing their best to work with them, but there is a degree of frustration,” Fulop said. “We hope that parents are patient. We are doing our best as a city and hopefully we’ll be back in school sooner than later.”

Sen. Michael Testa (R-Cumberland) says the technological gap expands far beyond the basic problems of not being able to provide students with Chromebooks.

“I think what has fallen through the cracks in this state is the fact that there are still sections of our state that don’t have access to the internet. So even if that student had a Chromebook or had a laptop given to them, the internet access is spotty at best,” Testa said. “Access to the internet for years was deemed a luxury, but now it’s a necessity. There are sections, significant sections, of my home county that do not have easy access to the internet.”

Gov. Phil Murphy addressed the issue at his coronavirus briefing on Monday.

“I’m not happy at all with the existence of any digital divide — rural, urban or suburban,” Murphy said. “But I don’t think any state is doing as much as we are doing right now to close that, and it ain’t going to be overnight.”

Vineland High School principal Suzette DeMarchi and assistant principal Jacqueline Roman Alvarez say their students now have internet every day. Their remedy for spotty internet came in the form of a grant for hotspots.

“What this does is it gives us the opportunity to get a free device with internet access — that hotspot — in our students’ hands that are in need. Yes, many of our families do have access. However, we need to make sure it’s in the hands of all,” DeMarchi said.

“There are layers to this that we are still honing in on. Again, this is a pandemic. It is uncharted territory,” Roman Alvarez said.

It’s called lesson planning on the fly and there’s no previous syllabus to draw from for administrators.

 

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Up to 40,000 NJ Unemployment Claims Still Backlogged

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This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Brenda Flanagan

Rockaway resident Alfred Cararo waited weeks for New Jersey’s Department of Labor to pay his unemployment claim.

“Just to not hear anything, just to not get any relief, it’s so frustrating,” Cararo said. “As you can imagine, getting close to a year, bills are piling up, and piling up and piling up.”

State Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo told the Senate Budget Committee some 30,000 to 40,000 unemployment claims remain backlogged, mostly because of complicated situations with out-of-state wages or disability.

“We completely empathize with the frustration and uncertainty each worker felt, and in some instances, still feel,” said Asaro-Angelo. “This is not a situation any state, no matter how well-funded or how modern their resources, could have prepared for,” Asaro-Angelo said.

“It’s been a difficult task. We’re all frustrated at times, so we look forward to hearing from you, sir,” Sen. Paul Sarlo said.

In a hearing focused more on the department’s flawed performance during the pandemic than its budget, Asaro-Angelo admitted the state computer system handling applications does need a serious upgrade. But he pointed to overly complicated federal unemployment laws — red tape — as the real problem.

“I’m not trying to deflect blame, I’m trying to talk about the facts. The most modernized systems in the country are having the exact same problems we’re having,” Asaro-Angelo said. “They still can’t make systems that work because the regulatory system that underpins it is so complicated.”

Asaro-Angelo says the department’s spending the $4 million it received earlier this year on outside call centers to help speed claims processing. But lawmakers complained that even callers who get through have issues.

“Once they get through, they get someone on the phone and sometimes it’s obvious the person has absolutely no idea what they’re talking about,” said Sen. Declan O’Scanlon.

“Every day we have calls with our vendor, Navient, about the call center, about training the staff, about what script they’re using” Asaro-Angelo said.

He also noted problems also arise because call center staffers can’t approve claims — they can only refer applicants to trained processors. But the state’s paid out $15 billion to 1.36 million people since the pandemic lockdown threw so many out of work in March. Still, it takes two to three weeks to pay a simple, uncomplicated claim.

“The state’s still trying to staff up and train people to handle all of the crush of unemployment. Again, it’s a complex problem. A lot of people seeking benefits, putting a crush on a system that was already a little bit handicapped, in the sense that it was using outdated technology that has been identified as problematic years ago,” said NJ Spotlight News Budget and Finance writer John Reitmeyer.

Asaro-Angelo expects New Jersey to receive and distribute six weeks worth of the new $300-per-week Federal Emergency Management Agency pandemic relief payments in a lump sum for claimants. He wants to see federal unemployment law reformed.

For Al Cararo, it’s just more red tape.

“I’m so angry, I can’t even put it into words. That you pay into a system your entire life and now they just keep telling me, ‘your claim is not payable at this time,’” Cararo said.

A bill requiring the state auditor to review New Jersey’s unemployment division is making its way through the legislature.

Meanwhile, Tuesday was the last official budget hearing. Lawmakers now have until Oct. 1 to hammer out a state budget.

 

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Op-Ed: Yes, It’s Possible to Care Safely for Frail Seniors in Their Homes

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The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that better ways are required to meet all the needs of this vulnerable population

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Jill Viggiano, Michael DiBiase, Christine Lesicko, Pinni Friedman

As New Jersey’s population ages, keeping the frail elderly safe in their homes is a growing challenge — one that has been made all too clear by the COVID-19 crisis. Already, we’ve begun to see the analyses and recommendations for improving our elder-care system, all of which inevitably conclude, “there has to be another way.”

In fact, there is another way. It’s called PACE, or Programs for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, a community-based approach that provides comprehensive medical and social services to frail, elderly or disabled people still living in their homes. We’ve been there for our participants throughout COVID-19 and believe that PACE deserves a closer look as we explore ways to offer more options for holistic, coordinated and cost-effective care in the community for these vulnerable populations.

New Jersey’s six PACE organizations provide care to more than 1,000 elders and disabled participants in their homes and at PACE centers, which participants usually travel to several days a week. But since the state’s first coronavirus case in March, PACE organizations rapidly transformed to “PACE without walls” by implementing new technology, including telehealth, Facetime check-ins and even gaming platforms to bring the full complement of PACE services into their homes. Redeployment of PACE staff to add even more home visits, make daily meal deliveries and conduct virtual group leisure activities has kept participants connected to the PACE team and to one another — and most importantly, allowed them to remain safe in their homes.

Rapidly, readily adaptable

The quick pivot amid a pandemic illustrates the adaptability of PACE. Day in and day out, participants have received services in their homes to assist with their medical treatments, medications, activities of daily living and personal care, thanks to our teams of nurses and home health aides, with the necessary personal protective equipment and screening processes to keep them and participants safe. Each day, PACE nurses and social workers have made follow-up phone calls to participants to check on their health and wellbeing. Participants also received balanced meals in their homes prepared in our PACE kitchens, with cooks and servers shifting gears to package hundreds of meals daily. The PACE transportation teams have made sure our vehicles were clean and safe for the delivery of those packaged meals and for providing rides for any other required care. At the same time, the clinical team of physicians, nurses and therapists inside each PACE center has made sure that immediate-care needs are still being met by arranging safe visits to the PACE clinic when home visits or telehealth visits were not able to address their needs.

These actions have helped maintain the health and independence of the PACE participants who live in their own homes, and also prevented unwarranted emergency room visits and hospital stays, especially during the height of the pandemic.

In short, PACE successfully transformed itself from a program based at a center where individuals came each day into an entirely home-based model. That was made possible by staying true to PACE’s foundation of delivering flexible, person-centered care, to meet people where they are best served.

PACE is focused on the Medicare and Medicaid population who often have multiple complex chronic conditions and are at high risk for receiving health services that are not well-coordinated. To enroll, a person must be at least 55 years old, able to live safely in the community at the time of enrollment and need nursing-home-level care.  Approximately 90% of PACE participants are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. We’re very proud that PACE participants typically experience fewer stays in nursing homes and hospitals than similar beneficiaries, and their satisfaction and experiences with PACE are consistently rated high. That creates good value for the state’s Medicaid dollars

Stressing life in the community

The PACE organization is responsible for providing and coordinating all services, including medical care, behavioral health care and long-term services and supports across all healthcare settings. They receive set monthly payments from Medicare and Medicaid to cover all services from at-home care to hospital care. In other words, PACE is completely responsible for addressing the care needs and supporting the independence of participants within a set fee. PACE organizations have the flexibility to use funds for any service that will help participants remain safe and healthy in their homes — even needs like home modifications or household appliances. These are outside the realm of usual healthcare services, but they focus on social determinants of health like safe and appropriate housing that are essential to our participants’ ability to live in the community.

COVID-19, with its unforgiving aim at seniors who are frail or who have underlying chronic conditions, has been a foe that PACE has confronted with flexibility and resolve. There have been many valuable lessons learned since March, when New Jersey’s PACE centers were required to stop bringing large groups of elders and disabled participants into our those centers for social activities, services, therapy and support.  Without a doubt, the use of technology-enabled visits, monitoring and social interaction has enriched the PACE organizations’ trusting relationships with participants. PACE organizations are committed to using this experience as a foundation for even greater service to our participants going forward. Also among the lessons learned: the power of ingenuity to deliver more person-centered, flexible, community-based care for even the frailest population of elders. PACE has led by example. Now let’s make the PACE success story available to every New Jersey community and to new populations as we seek to achieve a more responsive, better-coordinated, higher-value approach to serving New Jersey’s most frail and deserving residents.

— The authors are members of the New Jersey PACE Association board of directors.

 

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Superintendent Walker Doubts JC Schools Will Reopen Before November

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At the Jersey City School Board meeting this past Thursday evening, Superintendent Walker cast doubt that Jersey City’s schools would reopen before November.

“My concerns are that if we are out in September, there is a good chance we will be out in October as well,” the superintendent said. He added that if they do decide in September that the schools will reopen, it will still take weeks to put things in place:

“There is a good chance with us not going back in September it probably means we will not go back until November, if we go back. If we do not go back in November, we could be out till January. Our position is to err on the side of caution when it comes to the safety and welfare of our children.”

Superintendent Walker also spoke about scheduling and other matters.

There will be a “hybrid schedule for staff and possible furlough for others,” he noted, and class schedules would be posted on the district’s website. Teachers will take attendance at the start of each class and, as requested by parents, all schools will have “a nurse and an assistant.” The superintendent also reported that terminal pay for retirees had been approved by the board and would be released.

The meeting also featured remarks by Victor Pennetta, whose company, Pennetta Industrial Automation, has been brought in by the district to address concerns over ventilation in the schools.  Pennetta said that the board had “kept up with code” over bring fresh air into classrooms and other spaces in the schools including the older buildings over the years. He noted that each classroom has ventilation equipment that brings in the legally requisite amount of fresh air and has an exhaust system that pulls the inside air out.

“We are constantly bringing in fresh air, and we are  constantly purging classrooms,” Pannetta said. “The air goes through a filtering system before being distributed. When reducing students in the space, the ventilation will be much better, and there will be additional ventilation and exhaust. They have been going through the buddings with Facilities [the Facilities Department] making sure systems are up to snuff, and so far everything has been pretty good.”

Finally, the meeting featured discussion about when the school board should meet next. Board member Mussab Ali asked whether the next meeting, which is slated for September 24, should be moved up to give parents more notice should the district decide to reopen schools in October. Given the length of time needed to prepare for reopening and the fact that it is already late August, Superintendent said that the next meeting could indeed remain September 24.

The next virtual Jersey City School Board meeting will be held Thursday, September 24, at 6 p.m.

For past coverage of Jersey City School Board meetings, please click here.

 

 

 

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Murphy to Allow Indoor Restaurant Dining on Friday

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Make your reservations now! Starting Friday, dining al fresco will be optional in New Jersey.  This morning Governor Phil Murphy tweeted the following:

“Restaurants statewide will be able to open for indoor dining beginning this FRIDAY at 25% capacity and with social distancing between tables. Reopening responsibly will help us restore one of our state’s key industries while continuing to make progress against #COVID19.”

Unsurprisingly, Eric Speck, co-owner of the Downtown hot spot Pet Shop, approves of the move.  “As a restaurant and bar, we are excited to initiate limited indoor dining, especially as our patrons look to move inside during the colder months. We think the guidelines the state put forth seem reasonable and we plan to make the safety of our staff and patrons the utmost priority.”

Bill Gray, co-owner of Light Horse Tavern, reports that  “lots of neighbors are excited that the restaurant can reopen. Everyone misses the Light Horse Tavern Meatloaf.”

It’s been a long time in coming.  It was on March 16th, as the seriousness of the pandemic became clear, that Governor Murphy closed restaurants for eat-in dining.  See video.

 

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‘This Pandemic Has Taken Everything from Us’ — Student Rep’s Plea to State Board

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Incoming senior at second state Board of Education meeting urges help for fellow students

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

The student representative to the State Board of Education typically gets a few words at the beginning of the monthly meetings, often focusing on a specific issue of interest.

But the start of the board’s virtual meeting yesterday offered a chance for Sabrina Capoli, the newest student member and an incoming senior at Seneca High School in Tabernacle, to touch on a topic on everyone’s mind: reopening schools in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And she didn’t mince words.

Capoli, also president of her high school’s senior class, spoke of the sacrifices her generation has made over the past six months and the challenges ahead. With the help of the state’s student council association, she conducted her own survey of more than 1,000 middle and high school students across New Jersey — not exactly scientific polling but including some good advice and insights for the adults. And she talked about the mental-health toll on students that everyone will need to pay attention to as schools reopen both in buildings and remotely.

The following is a lightly edited version of her full statement:

“Thank you, Madame President and good morning, everyone.

“The New Jersey Department of Education has been committed to promoting social and emotional learning in schools in the past, but I believe that I speak on behalf of every student in New Jersey when I stress that this commitment is more important now than ever before. This pandemic has taken everything from us. For many of us, this virus has stolen precious moments from our hands that we will never get back.

‘Hard to recover’

“Teachers, staff and administrators, I call upon you to recognize that you may be able to make up for lost time in future years, but we, the students, will not. Proms, musicals, athletic seasons, graduations — gone. This will be hard to recover from in the coming school year. It is difficult to look at this year with an open mind, or heart for that matter.

“For this reason, students will need to ease back into their normal routine, while staff ensures that they are not overwhelmed with the amount of schoolwork. Along with that, many surveyed students requested academic breaks throughout the day to help reduce stress. This could go hand in hand with another type of break: mask breaks. Implementing a designated time where students can be outside without a mask may reduce the chance of those students removing it during the school day, while promoting responsible decision-making.

“Other aspects of responsible decision-making will include practicing good hygiene and social distancing. Posting song lyrics on bathroom walls that take 30 seconds to sing can help students wash their hands effectively, and purchasing decals placed six feet apart for the hallways may help encourage social distancing.

“When we return to school in the fall, this may be the first time some students will have interacted with their peers in almost six months. This separation most likely has stunted the growth students have made in important aspects of social-emotional learning, such as “social skills” and “pro-social behaviors.” In a survey I conducted that reached almost every county in New Jersey, around 79% of students reacted negatively to their online learning experience. Of that 79%, 91% of those students blamed their poor experience on lack of socialization.

“To ensure that students are getting their social “fill,” classroom or small group discussions could be prioritized in class, and even used as a learning tool, similar to a Socratic seminar or a class debate. This collaboration will also help students later in life when they enter the workforce.

‘Helping remote-only students stay connected’

“Sadly, some students, for varying reasons, may not be able to return to in-person education for the 2020-2021 school year. These students must not be forgotten. Live Zoom calls, or daily messages from staff, help foster an inclusive learning atmosphere which will help promote a sense of self-confidence and a feeling of significance for these to completely remote students.

“Other helpful resources can include guidance counselor sessions, therapy dog visits (which we have at my school and are awesome) and general awareness encouraged by staff, in terms of mental health and the available resources.

“In order to sustain the mental, social and emotional health of the young people of New Jersey, staff members — the people we rely on for guidance — will need to be proactive. A student’s mental health dictates every action they make, from the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep.

“The six-foot divide between us will not divide the students of New Jersey. The bonds we make in school are too strong to let spatial distance separate our hearts. This coming school year will look very different from any other, but I am excited to see where it may take us, students, staff and New Jerseyans alike.

“Thank you.”

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New COVID-19 Front Line? Educators, Health Experts Say It Will Be Schools

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New Jersey lacks adequate guidance for reopening schools in the fall, say those charged with making it happen

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Lilo H. Stainton

While families, policy experts and public officials nationwide wrestle with the pros and cons of reopening schools during the pandemic, education and health leaders in New Jersey seem to agree that districts here lack the regulatory guidance and critical resources to safely restart in-person lessons next month.

The state Assembly Education Committee took testimony Monday from school nurses and public health officials who said districts need help developing testing protocols, ensuring contact tracing programs are in place, and securing sufficient personal protective equipment, or PPE, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

By way of example, one expert said, medical supply distributors don’t recognize schools as health care facilities, making it hard for districts to create the stockpile they need to conduct regular testing or protect nurses who encounter sick students.

Related content: NJ’s Powerful Teachers Union Says Remote Learning This Fall

“We have to acknowledge, the front line of this pandemic is now moving to the schools,” said Dorian Vicente, a middle-school nurse in Morris County and president of the New Jersey State School Nurses Association. “There are still serious concerns to the feasibility of reopening safely and controlling the spread of COVID-19 in schools and school communities.”

At the same time, though, special-education and child-welfare experts warned that remote education — hastily arranged when schools were closed in March — is not effective for some children with disabilities, and those with more significant needs are likely to suffer the most.

Online learning also forces too much responsibility on parents, they said, and exacerbates educational gaps between poor and wealthy children.

“Remote is just not for all learners,” said Teresa Taylor, director of special education in Jackson.

District-by-district planning

New Jersey’s current plan calls for the state’s nearly 600 school districts to reopen on schedule in early September, with safety modifications in place based on pandemic response plans that must be approved in advance. Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden), the committee chair, said 400 districts have submitted plans for review and many embrace hybrid models that call for groups of students to alternate between in-person and remote learning. Parents also have the option of opting for online education only for their own children.

Lampitt said the committee aimed to ensure that, whatever route they chose, districts plan appropriately.

The panel also advanced three related bills. One would create additional spending flexibility for COVID-related school expenses. Another would enable the state to purchase PPE and other safety materials on behalf of districts. And the third urges the federal government to provide more funding for schools to address the pandemic.

“There’s grave concern,” Lampitt said, describing school-related outbreaks in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee “We’ve got real examples where schools have opened and they thought they had dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s. But if there’s anything we can learn from them, (it’s that) there is more that we can do.”

“The bottom line is we need to make sure our schools are safe for our children to return,” Lampitt added. “And we have only a short window of time to get this right.”

Her colleague on the education committee, Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex), has introduced a measure that would delay in-person school until the end of October. And a growing chorus of teachers unions and education officials are urging Gov. Phil Murphy to opt for remote-learning only for the rest of 2020.

More than 185,000 New Jerseyans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since March, including more than 14,000 who have been confirmed to have died as a result.

‘Unusual’ school year

Murphy notes the state’s goals are to protect the health and safety of students, teachers and staff, and to pursue “the best educational outcomes possible,” while acknowledging that in-person learning “dwarfs” what children can learn online. He has also pledged to continue to listen to all sides as the planning process continues.

“Let’s all accept this is not going to be a normal year,” Murphy said in late July. “This is going to be unusual no matter how we slice it.”

Another critical feature of the state’s plan is flexibility, Murphy has said, which he said will enable districts to create more equitable options for students and staff. The state Department of Education has issued a 104-page reopening plan that outlines minimal standards and references expert guidance from other state and federal agencies, but leaves many decisions up to the individual districts. That was followed at the end of last week by an FAQ document with more than two dozen questions and a checklist for districts to follow as they proceed with reopening.

But stakeholders testifying Monday suggested these documents were not sufficient. Vicente, with the school nurses association, said that in addition to PPE supplies, districts need access to infection control expertise, localized data on coronavirus transmission, and assistance with contact tracing, which the state plan calls for them to do in conjunction with local health departments. And they need better guidance from state overseers, she and others stressed.

“Frankly, during this past spring, schools and local health departments were essentially forced to make decisions in a vacuum without any set guidance from our state [education] department. No one wishes to be in that position in September,” said Megan Avallon, president of the New Jersey Association of County and City Health Officials, and director of the Westfield Regional Health Department. “Unfortunately the local public health infrastructure is underfunded and under-resourced,” she added, which exacerbates the challenges.

Eileen Gaven, a school nurse in Middletown, said her community offered an example of how schools compound the spread of the novel virus. A massive house party in the Monmouth County community led to 68 positive COVID-19 tests results, she said, and contacts with those teens and young adults  have caused her district to face a “continuous cycles” of staff and student quarantines in pre-season fall sports programs and in-person, summer classes for 175 students with disabilities.

“It doesn’t matter where the outbreak started in Middletown, our schools have felt the ripple effect,” Gaven said. “Imagine what will happen in three weeks when we go from 175 (students) in our district (facilities) to 10,000,” she asked.

Some needs unmet with remote learning

Advocates for students with disabilities said that while protecting public health is essential, online learning does not allow the districts to fully meet all needs for some students with disabilities. Social and behavioral issues are hard to address remotely, said Taylor from Jackson, and some students are developing new needs after being isolated for so long.

Others raised concerns about the impact of remote learning on working parents.

Barbara Gantwerk with the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association was among those who urged the state to consider giving in-person education priority to certain students with disabilities, when classrooms are safe. But she said schools need better direction from the state on how to provide services for these children, especially those that require help with feeding tubes, catheters or other medical devices, and they need sufficient staff to make in-person learning safe.

“To me, this is not an issue that should be done school-by-school. This is an issue we should have (statewide) health protocols,” she said.

The DOE did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment on the need for additional direction. A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that agency is working on its own guidance document for schools in conjunction with the education department.

 

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Boundaries: When Relatives Push to Visit New Baby

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Once upon a time, when there was no pandemic, freshly-minted grandparents who patiently waited to meet the family’s new baby got plenty of satisfaction. They came to the hospital, visited the home, and often set up camp in a spare bedroom or nearby hotel for a few weeks to help out. Those days are gone—at least for the moment. Of course babies are still being born every day and relatives are still anxious to see them. But states have issued different guidelines about infants’ susceptibility to Covid-19, so there’s no one authoritative source on the matter; and even when families members do agree on which expert to listen to, their interpretations of those opinions vary. So, the only thing that is clear is this: Bickering about who gets to see the new baby and under what conditions is now extremely common and intense.

Before the pandemic some pediatricians in the area advised parents not to go anywhere with their newborns until they had received their two-month vaccinations. Mothers fretted over a trip to the grocery store with their babies or stopping to get coffee while strolling them around the neighborhood. They understood that a neonate (zero to four weeks) lacks immune maturity even if breastfed, so any errant germ passed by a random stranger at Starbucks could lead to illness, fever, even a hospital visit where a spinal tap is routinely administered to rule out bacterial meningitis. Though this is quite uncommon, it doesn’t matter to a new mom if the odds are very low: She is blind to the probability and swayed by the possibility. What she hears and how she behaves is driven by a fierce need to protect.

In my prenatal classes I tell parents that the prevailing instinct most parents feel is protection more than love. Biologically we are wired to protect. For this reason, new moms are extra cautious about everything concerning their babies’ health. They are nervous about feeding, sleeping, diaper rash, swaddling, wobbly necks, pacifiers, the cranial soft spot, SIDS, choking, spit-up, and getting sick. It has never been unusual for new parents to restrict visitors or have specific rules about who gets to hold the baby and for how long; but recently parents have also started asking their own parents not to kiss their newborns. This no kissing rule is fairly new and comes from recent studies that show that the herpes simplex virus, which can be dangerous to newborns, exists in a large part of the population. Yet another thing to fret over.

Take all of these concerns and magnify them by a thousand: The result is a level of fear that is both unprecedented and debilitating for many new parents. One might think that friends and family members would respect and understand this, but the opposite is often the case.

“My mother made many passive aggressive statements about her experience being robbed from her,” says Kendra, a first-time mom. But grandparents aren’t alone in their loss. New mothers’ experiences are being hijacked, too: They can’t see friends and family easily, and they might not be able to have that baby nurse or lactation consultant they were counting on. Their entire postpartum experiences are not what they expected.

Still, some relatives are throwing caution to the wind.

“Basically, my dad is just overwhelmed with longing to see his grandchild and keeps wanting to visit, not understanding that he needs to do some very stringent isolation or a Covid test to make sure he isn’t bringing asymptomatic Covid into our house. He pocket-dialed me from the DMV, which is not where he should be just days away from visiting us. This is obviously very concerning,” says Sarah, a local mom.

Trying to negotiate these different interpretations of safety is near impossible to do politely. Relatives may have a much more relaxed view than you do and misinterpret that as a rejection.

“I don’t know how to get him to understand that he simply will not be able to see her as much as he would like. It’s not me trying to keep him from her,” continues Sarah. “On the contrary, I would much prefer that he were able to visit, so I could share her with him and have some more free time. That goes for all visitors! It is really sad that I can’t share our kiddo with all of my friends, take her for swimming lessons, music class, etc.”

And it’s not just the different generations that are fighting each another. Spouses and partners are spatting within households, too.

Tensions can become heated between the new father and mother if one sides with his or her relatives. “My husband told me that he had had enough of being strict and that our family should be able to see the baby. We set boundaries and told our family members that they could see the baby, but they would need to sit outside, keep six feet away, and wear masks. After hearing our boundaries, the family members refused to visit altogether. They did not want to be told what to do,” explains Molly, another new mom. “At this point my husband had reached his limit and told me that I now have to let our family members hold the baby. We have been strict long enough, and he thinks we need to loosen up. I tried to explain that I am not willing to put our baby at risk. This started causing daily fights between us.”

If your partner feels you are being overprotective, sometimes hearing an official position from a family doctor can help. But not always. “Our pediatrician and our primary care doctor advised us that if we chose to let anyone hold our baby, that person should wear a mask,” adds Molly. “I thought that would settle the disagreement, but my husband felt we can make our own decisions however we want. He did not feel comfortable asking his family members to wear a mask. His family members feel that because they had Covid-19 already, they cannot get it again, and they cannot transmit it to anyone else.”

This is when families get into an emotional tug of war over the baby. No one can agree, doctors’ opinions are ignored, and relatives understandably feel unwelcome. At the root of all of this is the nervous mother.

In “Ordinary Insanity” author Sarah Menkedick explores the many layers of maternal anxiety today, citing studies about risk and probability. If a risk carries some emotional resonance, it is likely to stir up stronger feelings, causing people to become “probability blind.”

Psychology professor and renowned risk researcher Paul Slovic assesses risk with an 18-point ranking system. The points include how unfamiliar a risk is, how catastrophic it can be, even how much media attention it receives. The pandemic involves virtually every one of these factors triggering a new mother’s protective impulses, yet this response is not often experienced by immediate family.  Vishwa, a new mom observes, “It’s been very bizarre to see how many people make your kid about them. I’m suffering through very bad postpartum anxiety, and everyone is too uncomfortable to talk about that. Yet they want to see my baby on their terms.”

Therein lies the root of the problem. New mothers should get to set the parameters about visitation and touching during the pandemic because pressuring them to relinquish this control could be traumatic. Ideally their partners will support them. As Menkedick eloquently states: “Becoming a mother is an experience charged with uncertainty and a terrifying lack of control. In this emotionally saturated context, in a risk society that is safer than ever and tormented by the possibility of a rare catastrophe, mothers are bound to drown in risk.”

 

Names have been changed to protect parents’ privacy.

For more Mamarama articles in the Jersey City Times, click here.

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Landlords Fear Coronavirus Relief for Renters Will Hurt Them

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New Jersey lawmakers want to give renters up to 30 months to repay back rent

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Jon Hurdle

New Jersey’s landlords say they are already seeing sharply lower rental income because of an executive order that prevents evictions and foreclosures during the coronavirus pandemic, and they fear more financial damage if a bill to extend those protections becomes law.

Representatives of large and small landlords attacked a bill, A-4034/S-2340, as a one-sided attempt to give renters and mortgage borrowers an extended time to pay without the threat of eviction if they have lost their jobs because of the public health crisis. They said the measure gives too little weight to the concerns of landlords, who are bearing many of the financial costs.

The bill’s sponsors say the measure is essential to prevent a wave of homelessness at a time when the state’s unemployment has surged to some 16% of the workforce, or about five times what it was before the pandemic shut down many businesses.

But landlords say they should not be required to wait up to 30 months for rent arrears to be paid, as specified in the latest version of the bill. They predicted that both the executive order and the bill, if signed into law, will reduce the supply of affordable housing and cut property-tax receipts for local governments, placing another burden on an already strained state budget.

Repayment plan for tenants

The legislation, which supporters call the “People’s Bill,” requires landlords to offer tenants who have missed rent payments during the pandemic an opportunity to agree to a repayment plan that would give them six months to repay each month owed in back rent, with all arrears payable in 30 months. Tenants would have to be making not more than 100% of median income for the area and would not have more than six months cash reserves in the bank.

For homeowners, mortgage lenders would be required to offer borrowers who had been unable to pay because of the COVID-19 crisis a forbearance to repay within a minimum of 90 days and a maximum of 180 days. Qualifying borrowers’ income would be no more than 150% of area median income.

The terms are unfair to landlords who would be forced to live with unpaid rent for up to 2 1/2 years, said Nicholas Kikis, vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs for the New Jersey Apartment Association, which represents large, professional landlords.

‘Erosion in rent collections’

“Once you’ve signaled that rent is no longer a priority, and it can be deferred interest-free, we will start to see a further erosion in rent collections,” he said. “That will trigger all the consequences we fear: Landlords who can’t pay their mortgage, property taxes that don’t get paid; declining valuations of the property for property-tax purposes.”

Kikis estimated that landlords have seen a decline in rent payments of about 15% so far in the pandemic, a figure that he said would have been greater without a $600-a-week federal jobless benefit that expired on July 31.

He accused Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake (D-Essex), the bill’s lead sponsor in the Assembly, of taking a “combative” approach to drafting the bill.

“Instead of having a discussion on what goals do we collectively have and how can we get there without the impact, it was, ‘We’re going to make landlords give tenants free rent,’” he said. “It does really start to affect the viability of the industry.”

Timberlake rejected the group’s assertion that the bill hurts landlords more than other groups, and said it creates an opportunity for them to come to an agreement with tenants on unpaid rent.

“The Apartment Association has taken extreme measures to try to convince my colleagues to oppose this bill and to create division amongst landlords, renters and homeowners with false narratives about tax increases and harm to small landlords, all reminiscent of scapegoating,” she said in a statement. “I came to Trenton to represent the greater interest of the people and to be fair. If that makes me combative, then so be it.”

The bill moved closer to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk on July 30 when it passed the full Assembly. It returns to the Senate, which approved an earlier version in April but must now take another look because of amendments in the lower house.

David Smith, policy coordinator for Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Burlington), the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate, said changes to the bill were “significant” because the latest version allows loan forbearance by statute rather than by the governor’s executive order — which bans evictions and foreclosures until two months after the end of the public health emergency.

Senate likely to get onboard

But Smith predicted the Senate will concur with the Assembly version of the bill, as amended. Smith and other backers are hoping for a Senate vote before the end of August.

During its passage through the Assembly, the bill was amended to ensure that loan forbearance was only offered to people who could prove their finances had been hurt by the pandemic rather than to all tenants, Kikis said.

That eased some of the landlords’ concerns but didn’t go far enough to provide them with financial assistance like deferring property-tax payments or offering relief from utility bills, he said.

For small landlords like Jerry Cheslow, the governor’s executive order has already cut rent revenue at his 10 apartments in Middlesex and Monmouth counties by more than half, and he doesn’t know how much longer he will be able to survive the current situation.

Because of the order, he says he is unable to evict one tenant for nonpayment of rent, and the same applies to another for antisocial behavior that is aggravating other tenants. That has prevented him from renting one unit and led him to reduce the rent for another tenant to persuade that person to stay in the building despite the neighbor’s behavior.

The net result for that building is that costs are five times higher than the revenue he has been bringing in since the pandemic started. In his other five buildings, some tenants have stopped paying rent, but he is powerless to evict them. Overall, Cheslow estimated his rent revenue is down 55% to 60%.

In addition, some tenants, currently assured that they won’t be evicted, have stopped paying their utility bills, leading the municipality to impose a lien on Cheslow’s property until the bills are paid.

Retirement income from rental units

Cheslow, 71, acquired the units over the past 28 years to provide retirement income for himself and his wife, and he fears a long-term reduction in that income because of the current order and the bill that may replace it.

“Already, I am very hard-pressed by the moratorium that exists today,” Cheslow said, referring to the executive order. “It’s making my financial future unravel.”

He dismissed the idea of taking a forbearance of mortgage payments with his own lender because that would only last three months, and he is not confident that nonpaying tenants would resume payments during that time.

If the current rules persist, either under executive order or statute, Cheslow predicted severe damage to the affordable-housing sector because landlords won’t be able to afford to maintain their buildings. “You’re lucky if somehow you can scrape together what it takes to pay your mortgage and pay the utilities for those people who aren’t paying,” he said, in an interview with NJ Spotlight.

Derek Reed, an attorney who represents the Property Owners Association of New Jersey, a trade group for smaller landlords, said Cheslow’s case is representative of the current travails of small landlords. He predicted that would worsen if the Timberlake/Singleton bill becomes law.

“What essentially that bill is doing is asking all landlords, in particular small landlords, to give nonpaying tenants an interest-free loan,” he said. “They are asking landlords to shoulder the burden of carrying this debt for up to 30 months.”

Meanwhile, Singleton said he understands landlords’ concerns but predicted a crisis of homelessness unless the measures are adopted.

“Unprecedented jobless rates combined with expiring federal unemployment assistance mean that people simply will not be able to afford to keep their roof over their head for much longer,” he said in a statement.

“We have listened to the concerns shared with us by the New Jersey Apartment Association and have made some modifications to the proposal based on those concerns,” Singleton said. “However, ultimately it is our responsibility to do everything we can to prevent these families — our neighbors, our friends — from losing their homes to foreclosure and evictions.”

A spokeswoman for Murphy, asked whether he would sign the bill in its current form, declined to comment.

 

Header: Photo by Morning Brew on Unsplash

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