School districts nationwide are facing major challenges when classes resume in the fall, as they have to account for significant new oversight and spending with a lot less funding, write Laura Meckler and Valerie Strauss for The Washington Post.

The needs are staggering. Many students who fell behind during spring will need extra help.

Schools will need counselors to help students who have suffered trauma or lost family members to coronavirus and nurses to ensure students and staff are healthy.

Additionally, authorities are recommending new procedures, some of which are not cheap, intended to stop the spread of the virus.

These include recommendations of requiring masks for staff members, as well as encouraging them for students, installing no-touch trash cans, cleaning school surfaces and buses daily, reducing the number of children allowed on buses, and daily checks on everyone’s temperature.

All this comes at a time when many school districts are facing significant cuts to their budgets as the economy continues to spiral due to the pandemic.

“There is substantial cost that goes along with COVID,” said Eileen F. Shafer, Superintendent of Paterson Public Schools in New Jersey.

Read more in The Washington Post by clicking here.

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