TOPEKA – To protect Kansas students, teachers, and staff from the threat of the contagious Delta variant of COVID-19, Governor Laura Kelly's Safer Classrooms Workgroup will meet for the first time at 1p.m. Monday. Governor Laura Kelly will address the group.
View the meeting's agenda here.
The workgroup, composed of highly skilled health professionals from across Kansas, will highlight the urgency of protecting kids from COVID-19 and use the best available science and information to support Governor Kelly’s administration, local governments, and school districts to promote health and safety in our schools.
“Children are catching the virus, being hospitalized, and dying from COVID at increasingly higher rates. There’s nothing more important than keeping our students healthy and in the classroom,” Governor Kelly said. “The Safer Classrooms Workgroup will provide information and guidance to give parents, teachers, school boards, and others the tools they need to make informed decisions to protect our students and our communities.”
The Safer Classrooms Workgroup is composed of pediatricians, family physicians, school nurses, pharmacists, school psychologists, and other health professionals. They will meet weekly to highlight the urgency of protecting our kids from the delta variant, speaking with educators, parents, and advocates about their experiences as schools work to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Every week, the workgroup will release a “School Safety Report” to serve as a resource for media, parents, schools, communities, and policymakers.
Information in this weekly report will include:
- Timely and relevant policies on testing and masking in schools, and best practices that can be shared across school districts.
- Updates on school districts with clearly communicated quarantine, testing, and masking policies, to ensure parents and families have what they need to know to keep their children safe.
- Information on school district vaccination and testing events – with resources to help schools plan, publicize, and implement.
- County-level data on youth vaccinations, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
- Schools with active outbreaks.
“We got our kids back in school by listening to health professionals, wearing masks, implementing stringent public health protocol, and getting vaccinated,” Governor Kelly said. “We’ll keep them there by continuing to follow the best health practices. I encourage all Kansans to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
The full membership of the Safer Classrooms Workgroup is as follows:
- G.A. Buie, Executive Director, United School Administrators of Kansas
- Jennifer Bacani McKenney, MD, Health Officer, Wilson County
- Jen Brull, MD, Family Physician, Post Rock Family Medicine
- Lindsay Byrnes, MD, MPH, Medical Director, KUSM-Wichita, Wesley Children’s Hospital
- Kristie Clark, MD, Pediatrician, Rural Health Clinic
- Allen Greiner, MD, Family Physician, Wyandotte County Health
- Dena Hubbard, MD, Kansas American Academy of Pediatrics
- Rhonda Hutchinson, BSN, RN, President, Kansas School Nurse Organization
- Kimber Kasitz, BSN, RN, Director of Health, Homebound, and Section 504 Services, USD 259
- Stephanie Kuhlmann, DO, Pediatric Hospitalist Division Director and Pediatric Medical Director, KUSM-W, Wesley Children’s Hospital
- Vernon Mills, MD, Pediatrician, retired
- Kelli Netson, PhD, Neuropsychologist, KUSM-W Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
- Kevin Riemann, Executive Director, Kansas National Education Association
- Manuel Solano, MD, Physician and program director, Community Health Center of Wyandotte County
- Margaret Thompson, RN, ARNP, Nurse Anesthetist, Kansas Black Nurses Association
- Randy Watson, Ed.D, Commissioner, Kansas State Department of Education