With the rapid switch to distance learning during the coronavirus crisis, some schools have struggled to serve students who are at the margins from disabilities to homelessness to poverty. It’s one of the reasons our Educational Visioning process is so important: inclusive design principles offer a valuable way to reimagine educational spaces, not just during COVID-19, but well into the future.

That’s why we were so inspired by Kara Newhouse’s recent article, How Students Benefit from a School Reopening Plan Designed for Those at the Margins, via Mind/Shift. In it, she explores several school reopening strategies that take into consideration diverse needs, experiences and opportunities facing schools as they set to reopen this fall. We’ll certainly be surfacing some of these suggestions with our own clients as we continue to grapple with a very uncertain “new normal.”