Congress is on recess this week for the President’s Day work period. The Senate will return on February 28^th and the House will return on March 1^st. Although they did not finalize a budget before the recess, they did pass a temporary continuing resolution until March 11, 2022.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released Providing Students with Disabilities Free Appropriate Public Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Addressing the Need for Compensatory Services Under Section 504, a fact sheet reminding schools of their obligations under Section 504 to ensure free appropriate public education (FAPE) for students with disabilities during the pandemic, including schools’ responsibilities to provide compensatory services. 

Last week, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx®) Tech program announced a new effort to seek both short- and long-term solutions to improve at-home test accessibility. RADx® will consult and work with experts from NIH, national organizations who represent communities in need of accessible tests, and test manufacturers to inform the modification or development of more accessible at-home tests, including device design, packaging, modes of instruction, and other challenges. Though at-home COVID-19 tests were only invented last year, the Administration’s investment in this technology has rapidly scaled up manufacturing to the millions per day. This effort strives to ensure that all individuals have an option for at-home testing that can be used and interpreted without assistance. NIH’s press release is available here.

Last Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a formal request for information (RFI) to ensure the preservation and expansion of current domestic manufacturing capacities for over-the-counter rapid antigen and point-of-care COVID-19 tests. The RFI specifically asks manufacturers to include an assessment of the accessibility of their tests—including self-administration and result interpretation—for people who are blind or visually-impaired; individuals with physical, cognitive, or other disabilities; and individuals who need non-English language or literacy support. The RFI states, “If your company’s product is largely inaccessible for these individuals, please provide a clear and definitive description of how you can improve accessibility.” The Administration will use the RFI submissions to inform near-term investments. 

In an effort to raise awareness around the importance of protecting people at high-risk for COVID-19, including people with disabilities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reviewed the latest science and published an updated list of certain medical conditions that put people at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 to include people with disabilities. Yesterday, CDC also released the agency’s “How to Interpret Positive Self-Test Results” guidance in American Sign Language (ASL), a first step towards ensuring that individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing can access key information about how to protect themselves and their communities by using rapid self-tests.

A new report by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families estimates that 6.7 million children are at high risk of becoming uninsured when the Medicaid continuous coverage public health emergency requirement is lifted. The continuous coverage provision was established by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to ensure that children, parents and other individuals enrolled in Medicaid had stable health care coverage during the pandemic. It is very likely that the continuous coverage requirement will be lifted by the summer. At that time, states will need to restart annual renewals for everyone in their Medicaid programs, including children, if they have not been able to verify their eligibility using data already available to the state.

A new Child Trends brief argues that reframing Black families’ cultural assets—i.e., the core protective elements that many U.S. Black families share, such as cultural values, traditions, and practices—is crucial to developing policies and practices that enhance their well-being. To achieve this, elected officials, researchers, and philanthropies must use their resources to address structural racism and support Black families. The brief provides a conceptual model that illustrates the relationship between Black families with children and the systems with which they engage, and then examines the perspectives that have historically dominated research on Black families.

Since the onset of the pandemic, 38 states have enacted nearly 100 laws focused on supporting schools in their role as one of the primary access points for pediatric behavioral health care. These laws provide funding for school-based mental health services, strategic planning to improve school mental health systems, training and resources for school staff and students, and guidance for school policies. As children navigate the lasting impacts of the pandemic and policymakers prioritize youth mental health, states are certain to continue investing in and strengthening school-based mental health systems. Find the NASHP report link here.

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Family Voices is a national organization and grassroots network of families and friends of children and youth with special health care needs and disabilities that promotes partnership with families--including those of cultural, linguistic and geographic diversity--in order to improve healthcare services and policies for children.