truthout--2020-12-13--Rundown Schools in Low-Income Communities Face Long-Term Closures Amid COVID

Yvette Alston-Johnson was seething when she got the news .
Children in Paterson , New Jersey would not be allowed to go to school in person this fall , while many of their peers in predominantly white and affluent suburbs would return .
Alston-Johnson attended Paterson public schools , as did her five children , and she has watched the buildings fall steadily into disrepair over the years .
She is now the primary caregiver for her grandson Rayahn , who is in eighth grade at the Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr. Educational Complex , where close to 90 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I feel like we get the short end of the stick , ” said Alston-Johnson , who is 54 .
“ We ’ re always last in line when it comes to our schools and money.
” “ It ’ s cold in those buildings in the winter and then the A.C. doesn ’ t work in the summer ; there ’ s mice running around , ” she added .
“ If they did more upkeep on the buildings , the teachers would have been able to teach them in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mostly low-income families , has struggled to find the money to repair its buildings .
In 2016 , New Jersey allowed historically underfunded districts to submit requests for health and safety improvements .
Paterson asked for ventilation repairs in 11 buildings , but all their requests were denied .
In fact , of the roughly 90 applications to fix unsafe heating or air conditioning and ventilation systems , just two were approved by the state .
Now , the rampant spread of the coronavirus has exposed a crisis of crumbling and dilapidated school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and neglect in New Jersey and across the country .
The consequences are especially dire for Black and Latino children and for low-income children of all races .
Schools serving these students were much more likely to remain closed this fall , in part because , during the pandemic , old buildings were deemed unsafe for both children and teachers .
The fallout has left families scrambling for child care and students struggling to keep up with remote learning .
Nationally , school closures forced 41 percent of districts with a high concentration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remote-only instruction this fall , while 24 percent of districts with a low concentration of students living in poverty kept their doors closed to in-person instruction , according to a report by the Center on Reinventing Public Education .
States have no reason to be surprised by the sharp divide in children ’ s access to their schools .
More than 40 percent of school districts need to update or replace their ventilation systems in at least half of their schools , according to a report by the Government Accounting Office .
Moreover @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billion more on school construction than high-poverty districts in 2016 , which comes to 41 percent more per student .
“ There was evidence about the inequalities in school facilities before Covid , ” said Diana Quintero , a senior research analyst with the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution .
Most money for improvements is raised locally , she said , “ so schools serving disadvantaged students get less funding to make improvements.
” “ Now we are just seeing more of those inequalities that we know existed before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. , funding for K-12 facilities remains “ inherently and persistently inequitable , ” according to a 2016 report .
The report , a collaboration between nonprofits the 21st Century School Fund , the U.S. Green Building Council and the National Council on School Facilities , found the federal government offers “ almost nothing ” to address the inequities in school construction .
A dozen states similarly provide no direct support to help local school districts maintain their facilities or build new ones .
This fall , New Jersey left the decision of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remote to individual districts , and the results fell sharply along racial lines .
As of early October , 6 out of 10 students in schools that began the year with remote-only classes were Black or Latino , while just 3 of 10 were white .
Spending levels also tracked with which children had to stay home .
The state ’ s school funding formula sets a dollar amount each district needs to provide “ an adequate education.
” The majority of districts that the state says are underfunded by more than $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ learning , according to analysis by Mark Weber at New Jersey Policy Perspective .
“ Even if you brought those districts up to adequate funding for one year , the facilities can ’ t be fixed in that year because of years , sometimes decades of neglect , ” Weber said .
Alston-Johnson , sitting in her home in Paterson , said it didn ’ t surprise her to learn that more of the wealthier districts are offering in-person learning .
“ There ’ s who ’ s got money and there ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need to have at least one or two days in the buildings , ” she said .
“ The biggest loss is that people in upper-income neighborhoods are ahead , more ahead now .
It ’ s just going to widen the gap.
” In South Carolina , maintenance workers in Dillon School District Four try to mask water-damage by gluing plywood to classroom walls .
Five generations of children have passed through the doors of the district ’ s oldest campus , East Elementary , constructed in 1926 .
If taxes aren @ @ @ @ @ @ @ school , it ’ s possible a sixth generation of learners will attend the school too .
In communities like Dillon County , raising sales or property taxes might be too much to ask .
Nearly 34 percent of residents live in poverty .
The county was once known for booming textile and tobacco industries that have long since declined .
Now , some of the more promising manufacturing work is more than 100 miles away , and median household income is just under $ 30,000 .
Superintendent Ray Rogers is reluctant to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meet to pay more taxes on clothes and other goods to fix ailing school facilities .
But short of receiving a windfall of state or federal aid , he may not have a choice .
Rogers said he is especially frustrated when he sees public schools in the affluent enclaves of the state that rival college facilities .
“ We don ’ t have revenue for something like that , ” he said .
He doesn ’ t begrudge districts with state-of-the-art buildings , he said , “ I just wish we could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , funding for education is largely a local endeavor .
Many districts with bustling main streets and abundant resources can erect gleaming modern facilities , while districts with boarded-up storefronts and with little property wealth have little to nothing set aside to patch up crumbling infrastructure .
From classrooms without air conditioning in Baltimore to deteriorating-facilities in the Mississippi Delta , school infrastructure often follows the pattern of the nation ’ s most entrenched inequalities , intertwining closely with race and wealth .
In South Carolina , Dillon Four might be one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where almost three-fourths of students are of color and 90 percent live below the poverty level , is projected to receive less local funding per student than any other non-charter district in the state this year .
The figure excludes the amount the district spends on maintenance , but it ’ s an indicator of how the district struggles to cover the basics .
And when it comes to a 94-year-old elementary school , ingenuity and dedication can only go so far .
The last time a bond referendum passed was in 2007 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2000 , 29 school bonds have failed in South Carolina .
Even when voters agree to tax hikes , disparities among local economies mean their efforts may not be enough to cover the cost of upgrading school buildings .
“ As long as you have districts with low property values that don ’ t have much industry located in that area , clearly , they ’ re always going to be playing catch up , ” said South Carolina state Rep. Russell Ott , a Democrat .
For decades , families across the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of color have sent their children into buildings where bathrooms are in disrepair and ventilation is poor .
For these children , going to school was a precarious endeavor , even before the pandemic .
They were more likely to be in poorly ventilated classrooms , swelter in extreme heat and shiver in the cold .
Toxin exposure in aging structures put their health at risk .
Now , families wonder how they can trust that their children will be kept safe in these same conditions as a deadly virus rages unchecked .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ hybrid teaching model : Students are split into groups and alternate the days they come to campus with days they stay home to complete lessons on their own .
Despite this alternative , 60 percent of the district ’ s families opted to keep their children fully online .
Short of an infusion of funding and time for building upgrades , Rogers , the superintendent , said allowing uncomfortable parents to keep their children to stay at home was the best the district could offer .
“ We didn ’ t try to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
In classrooms where windows work , teachers try to follow CDC guidance to open windows and circulate fresh air .
But years of wear has made doing so a challenge .
“ You push them up — you might not get them down , ” Rogers said .
In early March , just a week before most states shuttered their schools to slow the spread of coronavirus , Rebecca Garcia boarded a plane to Washington , D.C. Garcia , the president of the Nevada PTA , spent two days on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for more spending on K-12 infrastructure , as proposed in the federal Rebuild America ’ s Schools Act .
The legislation , which has remained on the House floor since last year , would prioritize $ 100 billion for high-poverty schools to improve the health and safety of their facilities .
Garcia said the pandemic has only hastened the need for that money .
“ People don ’ t realize how many of the issues related to reopening schools go back to decades of financial management choices made in public education , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s school maintenance and repairing A.C. filters , but also class sizes and portables … Even if we could space everyone out , where are they going to safely teach ?
We have not invested in the infrastructure.
” Back in Las Vegas , where Garcia ’ s children go to school , leaders have faced different problems than their peers in smaller , more rural places , but they ’ re no less daunting .
Since the 1980s , Clark County , which encompasses Las Vegas , swelled from the nation ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by last year .
The district had to pour most of its capital budget into building schools to house the surge of students .
Older schools , meanwhile , languished in the desert heat .
Now , the district estimates it needs to spend at least $ 5.4 billion to fix the roofs , replace HVAC systems and keep its aging campuses up and running .
The school board in 2015 approved a 10-year plan to issue about $ 4 billion in new debt for all facility needs — but only about $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ renovating or updating schools .
( The other $ 3 billion will pay for building new schools , adding space on overcrowded campuses and entirely replacing older facilities . )
About 3 in 4 students in Clark County qualify for subsidized meals at school , and a similar share identify as children of color .
With the exception of students at a few rural schools , none will return to physical classes until January , at the earliest .
Jeff Wagner , the district ’ s chief of facilities , acknowledged that deferred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quality — played a part in the district ’ s decision to delay its reopening .
“ It certainly was a consideration .
It wasn ’ t the mitigating factor , ” Wagner said .
Still , he added , “ the thing that keeps me up most at night are those older facilities.
” Since March , the district has changed the air filters in every building and increased the intake of outdoor air into classrooms .
But at the top of Wagner ’ s wish list is to have the money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sinks at every school to encourage hand-washing during the pandemic .
Plumbing regularly fails at Von Tobel Middle School , a high-poverty campus that the district found needs nearly $ 30 million in renovations .
The school relies on an “ excessive ” number of portable classrooms to absorb over-enrollment , and HVAC issues are a recurring problem .
Still , parent Daisy Larez hoped her two sons can return to the school in person soon .
“ They ’ re so tired of staying home and looking at computers , ” Larez @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her , “ This is stupid .
This isn ’ t teaching us anything .
This is just giving us busy work.
” Larez attended Von Tobel herself and recalled its shoddy conditions 20 years ago .
But she worried her children ’ s academics were slipping with each day spent away from campus .
“ They ’ re not actually paying attention to what the teachers are saying ” online , Larez said .
“ My boys are straight-A students .
I don ’ t feel like they ’ re learning anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. House of Representatives reintroduced and passed a version of the Rebuild America ’ s Schools Act as part of a larger $ 1.5 trillion package , which has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate .
The money , Garcia said , would be critical in Nevada — one of the dozen states that currently provide no money for school facilities .
“ Every dollar makes such a huge difference , ” she said .
Without federal leadership , it ’ s unclear how and even whether individual states can make safer schools @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under the ongoing recession and ever-growing costs of a public health emergency .
In Colorado , the state has a matching program for costly construction and renovation projects .
The Colorado Springs School District 11 received about $ 1 million to replace the water lines at one high school , but still has a backlog of about $ 700 million in maintenance needs .
Nine out of 52 schools there have no central air system — a critical component for increasing the turnover of fresh air so necessary during an airborne pandemic — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ equipment to meet federally recommended levels for air filtration , said Glenn Gustafson , deputy superintendent and chief financial officer in Colorado Springs .
“ We had challenges with our HVAC systems long before the pandemic , and so ( the coronavirus ) just put the spotlight on it , ” said Gustafson .
The district only sets aside $ 1 million each year to keep up its aging facilities , Gustafson said .
Between July and September , to keep students safe from Covid-19 , the district spent about $ 400,000 of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In Colorado Springs , about half of students identify as children of color , and a similar share come from low-income households .
High schoolers didn ’ t return to campus until October — more than a month after their peers in neighboring Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 , where 69 percent of students are white and the median household income is nearly twice that of Colorado Springs .
“ Generally speaking , school districts are on their own , ” Gustafson said .
In Alabama , lawmakers approved a one-time infusion for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Montgomery Schools , a 29,500-student district that averages anywhere from 300 to 500 maintenance requests per week , will receive $ 32 million in funding for facility projects .
It ’ s a help .
But the district has more $ 200 million in deferred maintenance , including replacing floors , installing new roofs , and addressing other capital needs in buildings constructed before the Great Depression .
Director of Operations Chad Anderson said the task is overwhelming .
For years , Montgomery residents paid the minimum property tax rate — about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100,000 home .
“ A $ 3 million budget doesn ’ t help us very much , when you have 60-plus buildings , ” Anderson said .
In November , voters agreed to double the district ’ s property rate .
The increase will bring the district closer to the average property rate in the state , but the tax hike won ’ t start until 2023 .
Families in districts that can ’ t raise enough money on their own for school buildings often have two options : lobby their legislators to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in an attempt to force them to do so .
In South Carolina , 40 districts including Dillon Two , now part of the consolidated Dillon Four , sued .
In 2014 , the state Supreme Court agreed with the plaintiffs that South Carolina had failed to provide “ minimally adequate schools ” for all students .
But the victory was short-lived ; justices dismissed the suit three years later .
Though short of their hopes , the plaintiffs received some aid .
In the months leading up to the court ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ direct $ 56 million toward ailing facilities .
Dillon Four received about $ 1.2 million from the state for needed repairs .
California is perhaps the only state investing a large pot of money to help struggling districts address air quality in schools .
Roughly 85 percent of classrooms in the Golden State lack proper ventilation , researchers at University of California Davis found late last year .
Assembly Bill 841 , which passed in September , will provide upwards of $ 600 million specifically to upgrade HVAC systems in public schools , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I have yet to see another state that has been doing this , ” said Jeff Vincent , a director and cofounder of the Center for Cities and Schools at the University of California Berkeley .
“ The condition in too many schools was bad and doing harm prior to the pandemic , ” he added .
“ The pandemic has shined a spotlight on that … These problems don ’ t go away when a vaccine comes.
” This story was produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit , independent news @ @ @ @ @ @ @ education .

Yvette Alston-Johnson was seething when she got the news. Children in Paterson, New Jersey would not be allowed to go to school in person this fall, while many of their peers in predominantly white and affluent suburbs would return.
Alston-Johnson attended Paterson public schools, as did her five children, and she has watched the buildings fall steadily into disrepair over the years. She is now the primary caregiver for her grandson Rayahn, who is in eighth grade at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Complex, where close to 90 percent of students are Black or Latino.
“I feel like we get the short end of the stick,” said Alston-Johnson, who is 54. “We’re always last in line when it comes to our schools and money.”
“It’s cold in those buildings in the winter and then the A.C. doesn’t work in the summer; there’s mice running around,” she added. “If they did more upkeep on the buildings, the teachers would have been able to teach them in the buildings.”
Paterson, which serves mostly low-income families, has struggled to find the money to repair its buildings. In 2016, New Jersey allowed historically underfunded districts to submit requests for health and safety improvements. Paterson asked for ventilation repairs in 11 buildings, but all their requests were denied. In fact, of the roughly 90 applications to fix unsafe heating or air conditioning and ventilation systems, just two were approved by the state.
Now, the rampant spread of the coronavirus has exposed a crisis of crumbling and dilapidated school buildings brought on by decades of underfunding and neglect in New Jersey and across the country. The consequences are especially dire for Black and Latino children and for low-income children of all races. Schools serving these students were much more likely to remain closed this fall, in part because, during the pandemic, old buildings were deemed unsafe for both children and teachers. The fallout has left families scrambling for child care and students struggling to keep up with remote learning.
Nationally, school closures forced 41 percent of districts with a high concentration of students living in poverty into offering remote-only instruction this fall, while 24 percent of districts with a low concentration of students living in poverty kept their doors closed to in-person instruction, according to a report by the Center on Reinventing Public Education.
States have no reason to be surprised by the sharp divide in children’s access to their schools. More than 40 percent of school districts need to update or replace their ventilation systems in at least half of their schools, according to a report by the Government Accounting Office. Moreover, low-poverty districts spent about $1 billion more on school construction than high-poverty districts in 2016, which comes to 41 percent more per student.
“There was evidence about the inequalities in school facilities before Covid,” said Diana Quintero, a senior research analyst with the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. Most money for improvements is raised locally, she said, “so schools serving disadvantaged students get less funding to make improvements.”
“Now we are just seeing more of those inequalities that we know existed before,” Quintero said.
Across the U.S., funding for K-12 facilities remains “inherently and persistently inequitable,” according to a 2016 report. The report, a collaboration between nonprofits the 21st Century School Fund, the U.S. Green Building Council and the National Council on School Facilities, found the federal government offers “almost nothing” to address the inequities in school construction. A dozen states similarly provide no direct support to help local school districts maintain their facilities or build new ones.
This fall, New Jersey left the decision of whether to offer in-person classes or remain remote to individual districts, and the results fell sharply along racial lines. As of early October, 6 out of 10 students in schools that began the year with remote-only classes were Black or Latino, while just 3 of 10 were white.
Spending levels also tracked with which children had to stay home. The state’s school funding formula sets a dollar amount each district needs to provide “an adequate education.” The majority of districts that the state says are underfunded by more than $5,000 per student were offering no in-person learning, according to analysis by Mark Weber at New Jersey Policy Perspective.
“Even if you brought those districts up to adequate funding for one year, the facilities can’t be fixed in that year because of years, sometimes decades of neglect,” Weber said.
Alston-Johnson, sitting in her home in Paterson, said it didn’t surprise her to learn that more of the wealthier districts are offering in-person learning.
“There’s who’s got money and there’s segregation. All of the kids need to have at least one or two days in the buildings,” she said. “The biggest loss is that people in upper-income neighborhoods are ahead, more ahead now. It’s just going to widen the gap.”
In South Carolina, maintenance workers in Dillon School District Four try to mask water-damage by gluing plywood to classroom walls. Five generations of children have passed through the doors of the district’s oldest campus, East Elementary, constructed in 1926. If taxes aren’t raised for a new grade school, it’s possible a sixth generation of learners will attend the school too.
In communities like Dillon County, raising sales or property taxes might be too much to ask. Nearly 34 percent of residents live in poverty. The county was once known for booming textile and tobacco industries that have long since declined. Now, some of the more promising manufacturing work is more than 100 miles away, and median household income is just under $30,000.
Superintendent Ray Rogers is reluctant to ask families who struggle to make ends meet to pay more taxes on clothes and other goods to fix ailing school facilities. But short of receiving a windfall of state or federal aid, he may not have a choice.
Rogers said he is especially frustrated when he sees public schools in the affluent enclaves of the state that rival college facilities.
“We don’t have revenue for something like that,” he said. He doesn’t begrudge districts with state-of-the-art buildings, he said, “I just wish we could do better.”
Across the United States, funding for education is largely a local endeavor. Many districts with bustling main streets and abundant resources can erect gleaming modern facilities, while districts with boarded-up storefronts and with little property wealth have little to nothing set aside to patch up crumbling infrastructure. From classrooms without air conditioning in Baltimore to deteriorating-facilities in the Mississippi Delta, school infrastructure often follows the pattern of the nation’s most entrenched inequalities, intertwining closely with race and wealth.
In South Carolina, Dillon Four might be one of the furthest behind. The district, where almost three-fourths of students are of color and 90 percent live below the poverty level, is projected to receive less local funding per student than any other non-charter district in the state this year. The figure excludes the amount the district spends on maintenance, but it’s an indicator of how the district struggles to cover the basics. And when it comes to a 94-year-old elementary school, ingenuity and dedication can only go so far.
The last time a bond referendum passed was in 2007. It was an exception: Since 2000, 29 school bonds have failed in South Carolina. Even when voters agree to tax hikes, disparities among local economies mean their efforts may not be enough to cover the cost of upgrading school buildings.
“As long as you have districts with low property values that don’t have much industry located in that area, clearly, they’re always going to be playing catch up,” said South Carolina state Rep. Russell Ott, a Democrat.
For decades, families across the country with the lowest incomes and families of color have sent their children into buildings where bathrooms are in disrepair and ventilation is poor. For these children, going to school was a precarious endeavor, even before the pandemic. They were more likely to be in poorly ventilated classrooms, swelter in extreme heat and shiver in the cold. Toxin exposure in aging structures put their health at risk.
Now, families wonder how they can trust that their children will be kept safe in these same conditions as a deadly virus rages unchecked.
This fall Dillon Four reopened with a hybrid teaching model: Students are split into groups and alternate the days they come to campus with days they stay home to complete lessons on their own. Despite this alternative, 60 percent of the district’s families opted to keep their children fully online.
Short of an infusion of funding and time for building upgrades, Rogers, the superintendent, said allowing uncomfortable parents to keep their children to stay at home was the best the district could offer. “We didn’t try to force anyone to come in,” he said.
In classrooms where windows work, teachers try to follow CDC guidance to open windows and circulate fresh air. But years of wear has made doing so a challenge.
“You push them up — you might not get them down,” Rogers said.
In early March, just a week before most states shuttered their schools to slow the spread of coronavirus, Rebecca Garcia boarded a plane to Washington, D.C.
Garcia, the president of the Nevada PTA, spent two days on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers to lobby for more spending on K-12 infrastructure, as proposed in the federal Rebuild America’s Schools Act. The legislation, which has remained on the House floor since last year, would prioritize $100 billion for high-poverty schools to improve the health and safety of their facilities.
Garcia said the pandemic has only hastened the need for that money.
“People don’t realize how many of the issues related to reopening schools go back to decades of financial management choices made in public education,” Garcia said. “Whether it’s school maintenance and repairing A.C. filters, but also class sizes and portables … Even if we could space everyone out, where are they going to safely teach? We have not invested in the infrastructure.”
Back in Las Vegas, where Garcia’s children go to school, leaders have faced different problems than their peers in smaller, more rural places, but they’re no less daunting.
Since the 1980s, Clark County, which encompasses Las Vegas, swelled from the nation’s 18th-largest school district to the fifth-largest by last year. The district had to pour most of its capital budget into building schools to house the surge of students. Older schools, meanwhile, languished in the desert heat.
Now, the district estimates it needs to spend at least $5.4 billion to fix the roofs, replace HVAC systems and keep its aging campuses up and running. The school board in 2015 approved a 10-year plan to issue about $4 billion in new debt for all facility needs — but only about $1 billion of that will go toward renovating or updating schools. (The other $3 billion will pay for building new schools, adding space on overcrowded campuses and entirely replacing older facilities.)
About 3 in 4 students in Clark County qualify for subsidized meals at school, and a similar share identify as children of color. With the exception of students at a few rural schools, none will return to physical classes until January, at the earliest.
Jeff Wagner, the district’s chief of facilities, acknowledged that deferred maintenance — specifically, concerns about air quality — played a part in the district’s decision to delay its reopening. “It certainly was a consideration. It wasn’t the mitigating factor,” Wagner said. Still, he added, “the thing that keeps me up most at night are those older facilities.”
Since March, the district has changed the air filters in every building and increased the intake of outdoor air into classrooms. But at the top of Wagner’s wish list is to have the money — and time — to install working sinks at every school to encourage hand-washing during the pandemic.
Plumbing regularly fails at Von Tobel Middle School, a high-poverty campus that the district found needs nearly $30 million in renovations. The school relies on an “excessive” number of portable classrooms to absorb over-enrollment, and HVAC issues are a recurring problem.
Still, parent Daisy Larez hoped her two sons can return to the school in person soon.
“They’re so tired of staying home and looking at computers,” Larez said. One of her sons told her, “This is stupid. This isn’t teaching us anything. This is just giving us busy work.”
Larez attended Von Tobel herself and recalled its shoddy conditions 20 years ago. But she worried her children’s academics were slipping with each day spent away from campus.
“They’re not actually paying attention to what the teachers are saying” online, Larez said. “My boys are straight-A students. I don’t feel like they’re learning anything new.”
In June, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives reintroduced and passed a version of the Rebuild America’s Schools Act as part of a larger $1.5 trillion package, which has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. The money, Garcia said, would be critical in Nevada — one of the dozen states that currently provide no money for school facilities.
“Every dollar makes such a huge difference,” she said.
Without federal leadership, it’s unclear how and even whether individual states can make safer schools a priority as many state budgets buckle under the ongoing recession and ever-growing costs of a public health emergency.
In Colorado, the state has a matching program for costly construction and renovation projects. The Colorado Springs School District 11 received about $1 million to replace the water lines at one high school, but still has a backlog of about $700 million in maintenance needs. Nine out of 52 schools there have no central air system — a critical component for increasing the turnover of fresh air so necessary during an airborne pandemic — and virtually no schools have new enough equipment to meet federally recommended levels for air filtration, said Glenn Gustafson, deputy superintendent and chief financial officer in Colorado Springs.
“We had challenges with our HVAC systems long before the pandemic, and so (the coronavirus) just put the spotlight on it,” said Gustafson.
The district only sets aside $1 million each year to keep up its aging facilities, Gustafson said. Between July and September, to keep students safe from Covid-19, the district spent about $400,000 of that reserve on ventilation issues alone.
In Colorado Springs, about half of students identify as children of color, and a similar share come from low-income households. High schoolers didn’t return to campus until October — more than a month after their peers in neighboring Cheyenne Mountain School District 12, where 69 percent of students are white and the median household income is nearly twice that of Colorado Springs.
“Generally speaking, school districts are on their own,” Gustafson said.
In Alabama, lawmakers approved a one-time infusion for school construction projects and repairs this summer. Montgomery Schools, a 29,500-student district that averages anywhere from 300 to 500 maintenance requests per week, will receive $32 million in funding for facility projects.
It’s a help. But the district has more $200 million in deferred maintenance, including replacing floors, installing new roofs, and addressing other capital needs in buildings constructed before the Great Depression.
Director of Operations Chad Anderson said the task is overwhelming. For years, Montgomery residents paid the minimum property tax rate — about $100 per year on a $100,000 home. “A $3 million budget doesn’t help us very much, when you have 60-plus buildings,” Anderson said.
In November, voters agreed to double the district’s property rate. The increase will bring the district closer to the average property rate in the state, but the tax hike won’t start until 2023.
Families in districts that can’t raise enough money on their own for school buildings often have two options: lobby their legislators to spend more, or sue elected officials in an attempt to force them to do so. In South Carolina, 40 districts including Dillon Two, now part of the consolidated Dillon Four, sued.
In 2014, the state Supreme Court agreed with the plaintiffs that South Carolina had failed to provide “minimally adequate schools” for all students. But the victory was short-lived; justices dismissed the suit three years later. Though short of their hopes, the plaintiffs received some aid. In the months leading up to the court’s final ruling, state legislators agreed to direct $56 million toward ailing facilities. Dillon Four received about $1.2 million from the state for needed repairs.
California is perhaps the only state investing a large pot of money to help struggling districts address air quality in schools. Roughly 85 percent of classrooms in the Golden State lack proper ventilation, researchers at University of California Davis found late last year. Assembly Bill 841, which passed in September, will provide upwards of $600 million specifically to upgrade HVAC systems in public schools, prioritizing those in underserved communities.
“I have yet to see another state that has been doing this,” said Jeff Vincent, a director and cofounder of the Center for Cities and Schools at the University of California Berkeley.
“The condition in too many schools was bad and doing harm prior to the pandemic,” he added. “The pandemic has shined a spotlight on that … These problems don’t go away when a vaccine comes.”
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
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truthout--2020-12-13--Four People Stabbed After Pro-Trump Rally Attended by Far Right Groups in DC

At least four people were stabbed Saturday as supporters of President Donald Trump , including maskless Proud Boys in helmets and bulletproof vests , descended on the nation ’ s capital and clashed with counterprotesters — violence that some critics tied to the president ’ s pre-election directive to the self-described “ western chauvinists.
” During a debate ahead of his loss in November , Trump had told the Proud Boys to “ stand back and stand by , ” which swiftly elicited criticism that he was inciting violence .
Designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their white nationalist , anti-Muslim , and misogynistic rhetoric as well as their presence at the infamous 2017 “ Unite the Right ” rally in Charlottesville .
The Washington Post reported late Saturday that “ in smaller numbers than their gathering last month , they roamed from the Capitol to the Mall and back again , seeking inspiration from speakers who railed against the Supreme Court , Fox News , and President-elect Joe Biden .
The crowds cheered for recently pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn , marched with conspiracy theorist Alex @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a flyover from what appeared to be Marine One.
” Singing “ Jingle Bells ” and chanting vulgar slogans , “ a group of about 50 men in the Proud Boys ’ black and yellow circled the perimeter of Black Lives Matter Plaza , where about 200 anti-Trump demonstrators were rallying , ” according to the Associated Press .
Following the daytime rallying , “ downtown Washington quickly devolved into crowds of hundreds of Proud Boys and combined forces of antifa and local Black activists—both sides seeking a confrontation in an area flooded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least four people were stabbed near Harry ’ s Bar , a Proud Boys “ gathering point , ” the Post reported .
While the affiliations of those wounded were not clear , D.C. fire spokesperson Doug Buchanan said the victims were hospitalized and suffered possibly life-threatening injuries .
The Metropolitan Police Department said 23 people were arrested .
Trump tweeted Saturday : “ Wow !
Thousands of people forming in Washington ( D.C. ) for Stop the Steal .
Didn ’ t know about this , but I ’ ll be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and critics of the president , meanwhile , cited his comment from the debate .
As former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson put it : “ The message seems to have shifted from ‘ stand back and stand by ’ to ‘ the fight is on . '
” “ Trump told the Proud Boys to ‘ stand back and stand by ’ and they listened to their Chosen One , ” said New York Times contributing opinion writer Wajahat Ali .
“ This is all on you , Republicans .
You have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came just two days before the Electoral College vote and followed the U.S. Supreme Court ’ s Friday night denial of a lawsuit filed by GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that aimed to block the battleground states of Georgia , Michigan , Pennsylvania , and Wisconsin from casting their electoral votes for Biden .
After more than 100 Republican lawmakers declared their support for the suit , Rep. Bill Pascrell ( D-N.J. ) and others accused them of trying to “ demolish democracy ” and argued they should not be seated for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 14th Amendment , Pascrell said that “ men and women who would act to tear the United States government apart can not serve as members of the Congress .
”

Michael Flynn, Alex Jones and the Proud Boys were among the participants in Saturday’s rally in Washington, D.C.
At least four people were stabbed Saturday as supporters of President Donald Trump, including maskless Proud Boys in helmets and bulletproof vests, descended on the nation’s capital and clashed with counterprotesters — violence that some critics tied to the president’s pre-election directive to the self-described “western chauvinists.”
During a debate ahead of his loss in November, Trump had told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” which swiftly elicited criticism that he was inciting violence. Designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Proud Boys are known for their white nationalist, anti-Muslim, and misogynistic rhetoric as well as their presence at the infamous 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.
The Washington Post reported late Saturday that “in smaller numbers than their gathering last month, they roamed from the Capitol to the Mall and back again, seeking inspiration from speakers who railed against the Supreme Court, Fox News, and President-elect Joe Biden. The crowds cheered for recently pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn, marched with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and stood in awe of a flyover from what appeared to be Marine One.”
Singing “Jingle Bells” and chanting vulgar slogans, “a group of about 50 men in the Proud Boys’ black and yellow circled the perimeter of Black Lives Matter Plaza, where about 200 anti-Trump demonstrators were rallying,” according to the Associated Press. Following the daytime rallying, “downtown Washington quickly devolved into crowds of hundreds of Proud Boys and combined forces of antifa and local Black activists—both sides seeking a confrontation in an area flooded with police officers.”
After nightfall, at least four people were stabbed near Harry’s Bar, a Proud Boys “gathering point,” the Post reported. While the affiliations of those wounded were not clear, D.C. fire spokesperson Doug Buchanan said the victims were hospitalized and suffered possibly life-threatening injuries. The Metropolitan Police Department said 23 people were arrested.
Trump tweeted Saturday: “Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA.”
Reporters and critics of the president, meanwhile, cited his comment from the debate. As former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson put it: “The message seems to have shifted from ‘stand back and stand by’ to ‘the fight is on.'”
In case there was any doubt regarding “stand by”: Thousands of maskless Trump supporters refusing the results of the election turned downtown DC into a threatening, falsehood-filled spectacle yesterday. Multiple people stabbed, arrested. https://t.co/unxxo9rAJ1 — Soraya "You Sound Angry" Chemaly (@schemaly) December 13, 2020
Trump told the Proud Boys, "Stand back & stand by, but I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something." Tonight, hundreds of them are roaming DC, clashing with anti-Trump protesters – punching, kicking, wrestling. When one fight ends, another begins.https://t.co/VB9cPW10qh — Jessica Contrera (@mjcontrera) December 13, 2020
“Trump told the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by’ and they listened to their Chosen One,” said New York Times contributing opinion writer Wajahat Ali. “This is all on you, Republicans. You have enabled all of this.”
The violence came just two days before the Electoral College vote and followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday night denial of a lawsuit filed by GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that aimed to block the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin from casting their electoral votes for Biden.
After more than 100 Republican lawmakers declared their support for the suit, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) and others accused them of trying to “demolish democracy” and argued they should not be seated for the next congressional session. Citing the 14th Amendment, Pascrell said that “men and women who would act to tear the United States government apart cannot serve as members of the Congress.”


truthout--2020-12-13--OSHA Is Helping Employers Get Away With Underreporting Health Care Worker Deaths

As Walter Veal cared for residents at the Ludeman Developmental Center in suburban Chicago , he saw the potential future of his grandson , who has autism .
So he took it on himself not just to bathe and feed the residents , which was part of the job , but also to cut their hair , run to the store to buy their favorite body wash and barbecue for them on holidays .
“ They were his second family , ” said his wife , Carlene Veal .
Even after COVID-19 struck in mid-March and cases began spreading through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 350 adults with developmental disabilities , Walter was determined to go to work , Carlene said .
Staff members were struggling to acquire masks and other personal protective equipment at the time , many asking family members for donations and wearing rain ponchos sent by professional baseball teams .
All Walter had was a pair of gloves , Carlene said .
By mid-May , rumors of some sick residents and staffers had turned into 274 confirmed positive COVID tests , according to the Illinois Department of Human Services COVID tracking site .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ died of the virus .
Three of his colleagues had already passed , according to interviews with Ludeman workers , the deceased employees ’ families and union officials .
State and federal laws say facilities like Ludeman are required to alert Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials about work-related employee deaths within eight hours .
But facility officials did not deem the first staff death on April 13 work-related , so they did not report it .
They made the same decision about the second and third deaths .
And Walter ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s emerged across the nation , according to a KHN review of hundreds of worker deaths detailed by family members , colleagues and local , state and federal records .
Workplace safety regulators have taken a lenient stance toward employers during the pandemic , giving them broad discretion to decide internally whether to report worker deaths .
As a result , scores of deaths were not reported to occupational safety officials from the earliest days of the pandemic through late October .
KHN examined more than 240 deaths of health care workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ project and found that employers did not report more than one-third of them to a state or federal OSHA office , many based on internal decisions that the deaths were not work-related — conclusions that were not independently reviewed .
Work-safety advocates say OSHA investigations into staff deaths can help officials pinpoint problems before they endanger other employees as well as patients or residents .
Yet , throughout the pandemic , health care staff deaths have steadily climbed .
Thorough reviews could have also prompted the Department of Labor , which oversees OSHA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ address chronic protective gear shortages or sharpen guidance to help keep workers safe .
Since no public agency releases the names of health care workers who die of COVID-19 , a team of reporters building the Lost on the Frontline database has scoured local news stories , GoFundMe campaigns , and obituary and social media sites to identify nearly 1,400 possible cases .
More than 260 fatalities have been vetted with families , employers and public records .
For this investigation , journalists examined worker deaths at more than 100 health care facilities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was underway .
At Ludeman , the circumstances surrounding the April 13 worker death might have shed light on the hazards facing Veal .
But no state work safety officials showed up to inspect — because the Department of Human Services , which operates Ludeman and employs the staff , said it did not report any of the four deaths there to Illinois OSHA .
The department said “ it could not determine the employees contracted COVID-19 at the workplace ” — despite its being the site of one of the largest U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in May , dozens more workers have tested positive for COVID-19 , according to DHS ’ COVID tracking site .
OSHA inspectors monitor local news media and sometimes will open investigations even without an employer ’ s fatality report .
Through Nov. 5 , federal OSHA offices issued 63 citations to facilities for failing to report a death .
And when inspectors do show up , they often force improvements — requiring more protective equipment for workers and better training on how to use it , files reviewed by KHN show .
Still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scrutiny from work-safety authorities .
In California , public health officials have documented about 200 health care worker deaths .
Yet the state ’ s OSHA office received only 75 fatality reports at health care facilities through Oct. 26 , Cal/OSHA records show .
Nursing homes , which are under strict Medicare requirements , reported more than 1,000 staff deaths through mid-October , but only about 350 deaths of long-term care facility workers appear to have been reported to OSHA , agency records show .
Workers whose deaths went unreported include some who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and passing the virus to family members : One California lab technician stayed in a hotel during the workweek .
An Arizona nursing home worker wore a mask for family movie nights .
A Nevada nurse told his brother he didn ’ t have adequate PPE .
Nevada OSHA confirmed to KHN that his death was not reported to the agency and that officials would investigate .
KHN asked health care employers why they chose not to report fatalities .
Some cited the lack of proof that a worker was exposed on-site , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outbreak .
Others cited privacy concerns and gave no explanation .
Still others ignored requests for comment or simply said they had followed government policies .
“ It is so disrespectful of the agencies and the employers to shunt these cases aside and not do everything possible to investigate the exposures , ” said Peg Seminario , a retired union health and safety director who co-authored a study on OSHA oversight with scholars from Harvard ’ s T.H .
Chan School of Public Health .
A Department of Labor spokesperson said in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fatality within eight hours of knowing the employee died and after determining the cause of death was a work-related case of COVID-19 .
The department said employers also are bound to report a COVID death if it comes within 30 days of a workplace incident — meaning exposure to COVID-19 .
Yet pinpointing exposure to an invisible virus can be difficult , with high rates of pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission and spread of the virus just as prevalent inside a hospital COVID unit as out .
Those challenges , plus May guidance from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind closed doors whether to report a case .
So it ’ s no surprise that cases are going unreported , said Eric Frumin , who has testified to Congress on worker safety and is health and safety director for Change to Win , a partnership of seven unions .
“ Why would an employer report unless they feel for some reason they ’ re socially responsible ?
” Frumin said .
“ Nobody ’ s holding them to account.
” OSHA ’ s guidance to employers offered pointers on how to decide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It would be if a cluster of infections arose at one site where employees work closely together “ and there is no alternative explanation.
” If a worker had close contact with someone outside of work infected with the virus , it might not have been work-related , the guidance says .
Ultimately , the memo says , if an employer can ’ t determine that a worker “ more likely than not ” got sick on the job , “ the employer does not need to record that.
” In mid-March , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a food service worker at Oregon Health & Science University , raised concerns with university management about the virus possibly spreading through the Food and Nutrition Services Department .
Workers there — those taking meal orders , preparing food , picking up trays for patient rooms and washing dishes — were unable to keep their distance from one another , said Michael Stewart , vice president of the American Federation of State , County and Municipal Employees Local 328 , which represents about 7,000 workers at OHSU .
Stewart said the union warned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lives .
Soon the virus tore through the department , Stewart said .
At least 11 workers in food service got the virus , the union said .
Odighizuwa , 61 , a pillar of the local Nigerian community , died on May 12 .
OHSU did not report the death to the state ’ s OSHA and defended the decision , saying it “ was determined not to be work-related , ” according to a statement from Tamara Hargens-Bradley , OHSU ’ s interim senior director of strategic communications .
She said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] ased on the information gathered by OHSU ’ s Occupational Health team , ” but she declined to provide details , citing privacy issues .
Stewart blasted OHSU ’ s response .
When there ’ s an outbreak in a department , he said , it should be presumed that ’ s where a worker caught the virus .
“ We have to do better going forward , ” Stewart said .
“ We have to learn from this.
” Without an investigation from an outside regulator like OSHA , he doubts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Oasis Pavilion Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Casa Grande , Arizona , was taking strict precautions as COVID-19 surged in the facility and in Pinal County , almost halfway between Phoenix and Tucson .
Her father , a certified nursing assistant there , was also extra cautious : He believed that if he got the virus , “ he wouldn ’ t make it , ” Daugherty said .
Mark Daugherty , a father of five , confided in his youngest son when he fell ill in May that he believed he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ daughter said in a message to KHN .
Early in June , the facility filed its first public report on COVID cases to Medicare authorities : Twenty-three residents and eight staff members had fallen ill .
It was one of the largest outbreaks in the state .
( Medicare requires nursing homes to report staff deaths each week in a process unrelated to OSHA . )
By then , Daugherty , 60 , was fighting for his life , his absence felt by the residents who enjoyed his banjo , accordion and piano @ @ @ @ @ @ @ occupational safety watchdog wasn ’ t called in to figure out whether Daugherty , who died June 19 , was exposed to the virus at work .
His employer did not report his death to OSHA .
“ We don ’ t know where Mark might have contracted COVID 19 from , since the virus was widespread throughout the community at that time .
Therefore there was no need to report to OSHA or any other regulatory agencies , ” Oasis Pavilion ’ s administrator , Kenneth Opara , wrote in an email @ @ @ @ @ @ @ additional staffers have tested positive and the facility suspects a dozen more have had the virus , according to Medicare records .
If Oasis Pavilion needed another reason not to report Daugherty ’ s death , it might have had one .
OSHA requires notice of a death only within 30 days of a work-related incident .
Daugherty , like many others , clung to life for weeks before he died .
That is one loophole — among others — in work-safety laws that experts say could use a second look in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal OSHA rules don ’ t apply to about 8 million public employees .
Only government workers in states with their own state OSHA agency are covered .
In other words , in about half the country if a government employee dies on the job — such as a nurse at a public hospital in Florida , or a paramedic at a fire department in Texas — there ’ s no requirement to report it and no one to look into it .
So there was little chance anyone from OSHA would investigate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this year at Central State Hospital in Georgia — a state-run psychiatric facility in a state without its own worker-safety agency .
On March 24 , a manager at the facility had warned staff they “ must not wear articles of clothing , including Personal Protective Equipment ” that violate the dress code , according to an email KHN obtained through a public records request .
Three days later , what had started as a low-grade illness for Mark DeLong , a licensed practical nurse at the facility , got serious .
His @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 27 that he called 911 — and handed the phone to his wife , Jan , because he could barely speak , she said .
She went to visit him in the hospital the next day , fully expecting a pleasant visit with her karaoke partner .
“ By the time I got there it was too late , ” she said .
DeLong , 53 “ had passed.
” She learned after his death that he ’ d had COVID-19 .
Back at the hospital , workers had been frustrated with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their own PPE .
Bruce Davis had asked his supervisors if he could wear his own mask but was told no because it wasn ’ t part of the approved uniform , according to his wife , Gwendolyn Davis .
“ He told me ‘ They don ’ t care , ’ ” she said .
Two days after DeLong ’ s death , the directive was walked back and employees and contractors were informed they could “ continue and are authorized to wear Personal Protective Gear , ” according to a March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a Pentecostal pastor and nursing assistant supervisor , was already sick .
Davis worked at the hospital for 27 years and saw little distinction between the love he preached at the altar and his service to the patients he bathed , fed and cared for , his wife said .
At the time , 24 of Central State ’ s staffers had tested positive , according to the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities , which runs the facility .
To date , nearly 100 staffers and 33 patients at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to figures from the state agency .
“ I don ’ t think they knew what was going on either , ” Jan DeLong said .
“ Somebody needs to check into it.
” In response to questions from KHN , a spokesperson for the department provided a prepared statement : “ There was never a ban on commercially available personal protective equipment , even if the situation did not call for its use according to guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Department of Public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than a dozen other health worker deaths at state or local government workplaces in states like Texas , Florida and Missouri that went unreported to OSHA for the same reason — the facilities were run by government agencies in a state without its own worker safety agency .
In mid-March , staff members at the Ludeman Developmental Center were desperate for PPE .
The facility was running low on everything from gloves and gowns to hand sanitizer , according to interviews with current and former workers , families of deceased workers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national shortage at the time , surgical masks went only to staffers working with known positive cases , said Anne Irving , regional director for AFSCME Council 31 , the union that represents Ludeman employees .
Residents in the Village of Park Forest , Illinois , where the facility is located , tried to help by sewing masks or pivoting their businesses to produce face shields and hand sanitizer , said Mayor Jonathan Vanderbilt .
But providing enough supplies for more than 900 Ludeman employees proved difficult .
Michelle Abernathy , 52 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her own gloves at Costco .
In late March , a resident on Abernathy ’ s unit showed symptoms , said Torrence Jones , her fiancé who also works at the facility .
Then Abernathy developed a fever .
When she died on April 13 — the first known Ludeman staff member lost to the pandemic — the Illinois Department of Human Services , which runs Ludeman , made no report to safety regulators .
After seeing media reports , Illinois OSHA sent the agency questions about Abernathy ’ s daily duties and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ responses and subsequent phone calls , state OSHA officials determined Abernathy ’ s death was “ not work-related.
” Barbara Abernathy , Michelle ’ s mom , doesn ’ t buy it .
“ Michelle was basically a hermit , ” she said , going only from work to home .
She couldn ’ t have gotten the virus anywhere else , she said .
In response to OSHA ’ s inquiry for evidence that the exposure was not related to her workplace , her employer wrote “ N/A , ” according to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after Abernathy ’ s passing , two more employees died : Cephus Lee , 59 , and Jose Veloz III , 52 .
Both worked in support services , boxing food and delivering it to the 40 buildings on campus .
Their deaths were not reported to Illinois OSHA .
Veloz was meticulous at home , having groceries delivered and wiping down each item before bringing it inside , said his son , Joseph Ricketts .
But work was another story .
Maintaining social distance in the food prep area was difficult , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been infected or exposed to the virus , according to his son .
“ No matter what my dad did , he was screwed , ” Ricketts said .
Adding , he thought Ludeman did not do what it should have done to protect his dad on the job .
A March 27 complaint to Illinois OSHA said it took a week for staff to be notified about multiple employees who tested positive , according to documents obtained by the Documenting COVID-19 project at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation and shared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was more frank : “ Lives are endangered , ” it said .
That ’ s how Rose Banks felt when managers insisted she go to work , even though she was sick and awaiting a test result , she said .
Her husband , also a Ludeman employee , had already tested positive a week earlier .
Banks said she was angry about coming in sick , worried she might infect co-workers and residents .
After spending a full day at the facility , she said , she came home to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She ’ s currently on medical leave .
With some Ludeman staff assigned to different homes each shift , the virus quickly traveled across campus .
By mid-May , 76 staff and 198 residents had tested positive , according to DHS ’ COVID tracking site .
Carlene Veal said her husband , Walter , was tested at the facility in late April .
But by the time he got the results weeks later , she said , he was already dying .
Carlene can still picture the last time she saw Walter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ man she called her “ superhero ” for 35 years of marriage and raising four kids together .
He was lying on a gurney in their driveway with an oxygen mask on his face , she said .
He pulled the mask down to say “ I love you ” one last time before the ambulance pulled away .
The Illinois Department of Human Services said that , since the beginning of the pandemic , it has implemented many new protocols to mitigate the outbreak at Ludeman , working as quickly as possible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus at the time .
It has created an emergency staffing plan , identified negative-airflow spaces to isolate sick individuals and made “ extensive efforts ” to procure more PPE , and it is testing all staffers and residents regularly .
“ We were deeply saddened to lose four colleagues who worked at Ludeman Developmental Center and succumbed to the virus , ” the agency said in a statement .
“ We are committed to complying with and following all health and safety guidelines for COVID-19.
” The number of new cases at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now , according to DHS ’ COVID tracking site .
But that does little to console the families of those who have died .
When a Ludeman supervisor called Barbara Abernathy in June to express condolences and ask if there was anything they could do , Abernathy didn ’ t know how to respond .
“ There was nothing they could do for me now , ” she said .
“ They hadn ’ t done what they needed to do before.
” Shoshana Dubnow , Anna Sirianni , Melissa Bailey and Hannah @ @ @ @ @ @

As Walter Veal cared for residents at the Ludeman Developmental Center in suburban Chicago, he saw the potential future of his grandson, who has autism.
So he took it on himself not just to bathe and feed the residents, which was part of the job, but also to cut their hair, run to the store to buy their favorite body wash and barbecue for them on holidays.
“They were his second family,” said his wife, Carlene Veal.
Even after COVID-19 struck in mid-March and cases began spreading through the government-run facility, which serves nearly 350 adults with developmental disabilities, Walter was determined to go to work, Carlene said.
Staff members were struggling to acquire masks and other personal protective equipment at the time, many asking family members for donations and wearing rain ponchos sent by professional baseball teams.
All Walter had was a pair of gloves, Carlene said.
By mid-May, rumors of some sick residents and staffers had turned into 274 confirmed positive COVID tests, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services COVID tracking site. On May 16, Walter, 53, died of the virus. Three of his colleagues had already passed, according to interviews with Ludeman workers, the deceased employees’ families and union officials.
State and federal laws say facilities like Ludeman are required to alert Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials about work-related employee deaths within eight hours. But facility officials did not deem the first staff death on April 13 work-related, so they did not report it. They made the same decision about the second and third deaths. And Walter’s.
It’s a pattern that’s emerged across the nation, according to a KHN review of hundreds of worker deaths detailed by family members, colleagues and local, state and federal records.
Workplace safety regulators have taken a lenient stance toward employers during the pandemic, giving them broad discretion to decide internally whether to report worker deaths. As a result, scores of deaths were not reported to occupational safety officials from the earliest days of the pandemic through late October.
KHN examined more than 240 deaths of health care workers profiled for the Lost on the Frontline project and found that employers did not report more than one-third of them to a state or federal OSHA office, many based on internal decisions that the deaths were not work-related — conclusions that were not independently reviewed.
Work-safety advocates say OSHA investigations into staff deaths can help officials pinpoint problems before they endanger other employees as well as patients or residents. Yet, throughout the pandemic, health care staff deaths have steadily climbed. Thorough reviews could have also prompted the Department of Labor, which oversees OSHA, to urge the White House to address chronic protective gear shortages or sharpen guidance to help keep workers safe.
Since no public agency releases the names of health care workers who die of COVID-19, a team of reporters building the Lost on the Frontline database has scoured local news stories, GoFundMe campaigns, and obituary and social media sites to identify nearly 1,400 possible cases. More than 260 fatalities have been vetted with families, employers and public records.
For this investigation, journalists examined worker deaths at more than 100 health care facilities where OSHA records showed no fatality investigation was underway.
At Ludeman, the circumstances surrounding the April 13 worker death might have shed light on the hazards facing Veal. But no state work safety officials showed up to inspect — because the Department of Human Services, which operates Ludeman and employs the staff, said it did not report any of the four deaths there to Illinois OSHA.
The department said “it could not determine the employees contracted COVID-19 at the workplace” — despite its being the site of one of the largest U.S. outbreaks. Since Veal’s death in May, dozens more workers have tested positive for COVID-19, according to DHS’ COVID tracking site.
OSHA inspectors monitor local news media and sometimes will open investigations even without an employer’s fatality report. Through Nov. 5, federal OSHA offices issued 63 citations to facilities for failing to report a death. And when inspectors do show up, they often force improvements — requiring more protective equipment for workers and better training on how to use it, files reviewed by KHN show.
Still, many deaths receive little or no scrutiny from work-safety authorities. In California, public health officials have documented about 200 health care worker deaths. Yet the state’s OSHA office received only 75 fatality reports at health care facilities through Oct. 26, Cal/OSHA records show.
Nursing homes, which are under strict Medicare requirements, reported more than 1,000 staff deaths through mid-October, but only about 350 deaths of long-term care facility workers appear to have been reported to OSHA, agency records show.
Workers whose deaths went unreported include some who took painstaking precautions to avoid getting sick and passing the virus to family members: One California lab technician stayed in a hotel during the workweek. An Arizona nursing home worker wore a mask for family movie nights. A Nevada nurse told his brother he didn’t have adequate PPE. Nevada OSHA confirmed to KHN that his death was not reported to the agency and that officials would investigate.
KHN asked health care employers why they chose not to report fatalities. Some cited the lack of proof that a worker was exposed on-site, even in workplaces that reported a COVID outbreak. Others cited privacy concerns and gave no explanation. Still others ignored requests for comment or simply said they had followed government policies.
“It is so disrespectful of the agencies and the employers to shunt these cases aside and not do everything possible to investigate the exposures,” said Peg Seminario, a retired union health and safety director who co-authored a study on OSHA oversight with scholars from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
A Department of Labor spokesperson said in a statement that an employer must report a fatality within eight hours of knowing the employee died and after determining the cause of death was a work-related case of COVID-19.
The department said employers also are bound to report a COVID death if it comes within 30 days of a workplace incident — meaning exposure to COVID-19.
Yet pinpointing exposure to an invisible virus can be difficult, with high rates of pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission and spread of the virus just as prevalent inside a hospital COVID unit as out.
Those challenges, plus May guidance from OSHA, gave employers latitude to decide behind closed doors whether to report a case. So it’s no surprise that cases are going unreported, said Eric Frumin, who has testified to Congress on worker safety and is health and safety director for Change to Win, a partnership of seven unions.
“Why would an employer report unless they feel for some reason they’re socially responsible?” Frumin said. “Nobody’s holding them to account.”
Downside of Discretion
OSHA’s guidance to employers offered pointers on how to decide whether a COVID death is work-related. It would be if a cluster of infections arose at one site where employees work closely together “and there is no alternative explanation.” If a worker had close contact with someone outside of work infected with the virus, it might not have been work-related, the guidance says.
Ultimately, the memo says, if an employer can’t determine that a worker “more likely than not” got sick on the job, “the employer does not need to record that.”
In mid-March, the union that represented Paul Odighizuwa, a food service worker at Oregon Health & Science University, raised concerns with university management about the virus possibly spreading through the Food and Nutrition Services Department.
Workers there — those taking meal orders, preparing food, picking up trays for patient rooms and washing dishes — were unable to keep their distance from one another, said Michael Stewart, vice president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 328, which represents about 7,000 workers at OHSU. Stewart said the union warned administrators they were endangering people’s lives.
Soon the virus tore through the department, Stewart said. At least 11 workers in food service got the virus, the union said. Odighizuwa, 61, a pillar of the local Nigerian community, died on May 12.
OHSU did not report the death to the state’s OSHA and defended the decision, saying it “was determined not to be work-related,” according to a statement from Tamara Hargens-Bradley, OHSU’s interim senior director of strategic communications.
She said the determination was made “[b]ased on the information gathered by OHSU’s Occupational Health team,” but she declined to provide details, citing privacy issues.
Stewart blasted OHSU’s response. When there’s an outbreak in a department, he said, it should be presumed that’s where a worker caught the virus.
“We have to do better going forward,” Stewart said. “We have to learn from this.” Without an investigation from an outside regulator like OSHA, he doubts that will happen.
Stacy Daugherty heard that Oasis Pavilion Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Casa Grande, Arizona, was taking strict precautions as COVID-19 surged in the facility and in Pinal County, almost halfway between Phoenix and Tucson.
Her father, a certified nursing assistant there, was also extra cautious: He believed that if he got the virus, “he wouldn’t make it,” Daugherty said.
Mark Daugherty, a father of five, confided in his youngest son when he fell ill in May that he believed he contracted the coronavirus at work, his daughter said in a message to KHN.
Early in June, the facility filed its first public report on COVID cases to Medicare authorities: Twenty-three residents and eight staff members had fallen ill. It was one of the largest outbreaks in the state. (Medicare requires nursing homes to report staff deaths each week in a process unrelated to OSHA.)
By then, Daugherty, 60, was fighting for his life, his absence felt by the residents who enjoyed his banjo, accordion and piano performances. But the country’s occupational safety watchdog wasn’t called in to figure out whether Daugherty, who died June 19, was exposed to the virus at work. His employer did not report his death to OSHA.
“We don’t know where Mark might have contracted COVID 19 from, since the virus was widespread throughout the community at that time. Therefore there was no need to report to OSHA or any other regulatory agencies,” Oasis Pavilion’s administrator, Kenneth Opara, wrote in an email to KHN.
Since then, 15 additional staffers have tested positive and the facility suspects a dozen more have had the virus, according to Medicare records.
Gaps in the Law
If Oasis Pavilion needed another reason not to report Daugherty’s death, it might have had one. OSHA requires notice of a death only within 30 days of a work-related incident. Daugherty, like many others, clung to life for weeks before he died.
That is one loophole — among others — in work-safety laws that experts say could use a second look in the time of COVID-19.
In addition, federal OSHA rules don’t apply to about 8 million public employees. Only government workers in states with their own state OSHA agency are covered. In other words, in about half the country if a government employee dies on the job — such as a nurse at a public hospital in Florida, or a paramedic at a fire department in Texas — there’s no requirement to report it and no one to look into it.
So there was little chance anyone from OSHA would investigate the deaths of two health workers early this year at Central State Hospital in Georgia — a state-run psychiatric facility in a state without its own worker-safety agency.
On March 24, a manager at the facility had warned staff they “must not wear articles of clothing, including Personal Protective Equipment” that violate the dress code, according to an email KHN obtained through a public records request.
Three days later, what had started as a low-grade illness for Mark DeLong, a licensed practical nurse at the facility, got serious. His cough was so severe late on March 27 that he called 911 — and handed the phone to his wife, Jan, because he could barely speak, she said.
She went to visit him in the hospital the next day, fully expecting a pleasant visit with her karaoke partner. “By the time I got there it was too late,” she said. DeLong, 53 “had passed.”
She learned after his death that he’d had COVID-19.
Back at the hospital, workers had been frustrated with the early directive that employees should not wear their own PPE.
Bruce Davis had asked his supervisors if he could wear his own mask but was told no because it wasn’t part of the approved uniform, according to his wife, Gwendolyn Davis. “He told me ‘They don’t care,’” she said.
Two days after DeLong’s death, the directive was walked back and employees and contractors were informed they could “continue and are authorized to wear Personal Protective Gear,” according to a March 30 email from administrators. But Davis, a Pentecostal pastor and nursing assistant supervisor, was already sick. Davis worked at the hospital for 27 years and saw little distinction between the love he preached at the altar and his service to the patients he bathed, fed and cared for, his wife said.
Sick with the virus, Davis died April 11.
At the time, 24 of Central State’s staffers had tested positive, according to the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, which runs the facility. To date, nearly 100 staffers and 33 patients at Central State have gotten the virus, according to figures from the state agency.
“I don’t think they knew what was going on either,” Jan DeLong said. “Somebody needs to check into it.”
In response to questions from KHN, a spokesperson for the department provided a prepared statement: “There was never a ban on commercially available personal protective equipment, even if the situation did not call for its use according to guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Department of Public Health at the time.”
KHN reviewed more than a dozen other health worker deaths at state or local government workplaces in states like Texas, Florida and Missouri that went unreported to OSHA for the same reason — the facilities were run by government agencies in a state without its own worker safety agency.
Inside Ludeman
In mid-March, staff members at the Ludeman Developmental Center were desperate for PPE. The facility was running low on everything from gloves and gowns to hand sanitizer, according to interviews with current and former workers, families of deceased workers, and union officials.
Due to a national shortage at the time, surgical masks went only to staffers working with known positive cases, said Anne Irving, regional director for AFSCME Council 31, the union that represents Ludeman employees.
Residents in the Village of Park Forest, Illinois, where the facility is located, tried to help by sewing masks or pivoting their businesses to produce face shields and hand sanitizer, said Mayor Jonathan Vanderbilt. But providing enough supplies for more than 900 Ludeman employees proved difficult.
Michelle Abernathy, 52, a newly appointed unit director, bought her own gloves at Costco. In late March, a resident on Abernathy’s unit showed symptoms, said Torrence Jones, her fiancé who also works at the facility. Then Abernathy developed a fever.
When she died on April 13 — the first known Ludeman staff member lost to the pandemic — the Illinois Department of Human Services, which runs Ludeman, made no report to safety regulators. After seeing media reports, Illinois OSHA sent the agency questions about Abernathy’s daily duties and working conditions. Based on DHS’ responses and subsequent phone calls, state OSHA officials determined Abernathy’s death was “not work-related.”
Barbara Abernathy, Michelle’s mom, doesn’t buy it. “Michelle was basically a hermit,” she said, going only from work to home. She couldn’t have gotten the virus anywhere else, she said. In response to OSHA’s inquiry for evidence that the exposure was not related to her workplace, her employer wrote “N/A,” according to documents reviewed by KHN.
Two weeks after Abernathy’s passing, two more employees died: Cephus Lee, 59, and Jose Veloz III, 52. Both worked in support services, boxing food and delivering it to the 40 buildings on campus. Their deaths were not reported to Illinois OSHA.
Veloz was meticulous at home, having groceries delivered and wiping down each item before bringing it inside, said his son, Joseph Ricketts.
But work was another story. Maintaining social distance in the food prep area was difficult, and there was little information on who had been infected or exposed to the virus, according to his son.
“No matter what my dad did, he was screwed,” Ricketts said. Adding, he thought Ludeman did not do what it should have done to protect his dad on the job.
A March 27 complaint to Illinois OSHA said it took a week for staff to be notified about multiple employees who tested positive, according to documents obtained by the Documenting COVID-19 project at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation and shared with KHN. An early April complaint was more frank: “Lives are endangered,” it said.
That’s how Rose Banks felt when managers insisted she go to work, even though she was sick and awaiting a test result, she said. Her husband, also a Ludeman employee, had already tested positive a week earlier.
Banks said she was angry about coming in sick, worried she might infect co-workers and residents. After spending a full day at the facility, she said, she came home to a phone call saying her test was positive. She’s currently on medical leave.
With some Ludeman staff assigned to different homes each shift, the virus quickly traveled across campus. By mid-May, 76 staff and 198 residents had tested positive, according to DHS’ COVID tracking site.
Carlene Veal said her husband, Walter, was tested at the facility in late April. But by the time he got the results weeks later, she said, he was already dying.
Carlene can still picture the last time she saw Walter, her high school sweetheart and a man she called her “superhero” for 35 years of marriage and raising four kids together. He was lying on a gurney in their driveway with an oxygen mask on his face, she said. He pulled the mask down to say “I love you” one last time before the ambulance pulled away.
The Illinois Department of Human Services said that, since the beginning of the pandemic, it has implemented many new protocols to mitigate the outbreak at Ludeman, working as quickly as possible based on what was known about the virus at the time. It has created an emergency staffing plan, identified negative-airflow spaces to isolate sick individuals and made “extensive efforts” to procure more PPE, and it is testing all staffers and residents regularly.
“We were deeply saddened to lose four colleagues who worked at Ludeman Developmental Center and succumbed to the virus,” the agency said in a statement. “We are committed to complying with and following all health and safety guidelines for COVID-19.”
The number of new cases at Ludeman has remained low for several months now, according to DHS’ COVID tracking site.
But that does little to console the families of those who have died.
When a Ludeman supervisor called Barbara Abernathy in June to express condolences and ask if there was anything they could do, Abernathy didn’t know how to respond.
“There was nothing they could do for me now,” she said. “They hadn’t done what they needed to do before.”
Shoshana Dubnow, Anna Sirianni, Melissa Bailey and Hannah Foote contributed to this report.
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