Cardona says schools must work harder to convince families to return

Schools across the United States will need to “work twice as hard” to convince some families to return their children to school in the fall, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told The 74 in an interview.

Cardona said that level of effort will be necessary to rebuild trust with those families after a school year of mostly distance learning and delays to reopening in-person classrooms, The 74 reported.

He said he’s confident “everyone wants to return back to school and that schools are doing their best to get students back in,” but added that “in some places it wasn’t quick enough for some families.”

“What we have to ensure is that we’re following the guidelines to make sure that our schools are safe and that we’re engaging our students and families in ways that we haven’t in the past,” Cardona said.