First Lady Jill Biden visiting Oakland County Friday to discuss school reopening

First Lady Jill Biden will travel to Oakland County on Friday, to discuss school reopenings alongside U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Congressman Andy Levin (D-Bloomfield Township).

Biden, Levin, and Cardona will visit Oakland Community College’s Royal Oak campus to close out Cardona’s nationwide “Return to School Road Trip,” a five state bus tour to highlight students and communities safely returning to in-person learning.

The First Lady will deliver remarks about the need to pass President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda, aimed at transforming our nation’s education system, according to a White House release.

The “Return to School Road Trip” began Monday to showcase students and communities safely returning to in-person learning. Throughout the tour, Secretary Cardona, Deputy Secretary Cindy Marten, and local school leaders are joining with students, parents, educators, and school communities for events that highlight schools and communities that have safely welcomed students back to in-person learning.

In addition to Royal Oak, Cardona is making the following stops in Michigan as part of the tour:

• Thursday, Sept. 23, in Mount Pleasant with focus on support for tribal colleges and universities
• Thursday, Sept. 23, in Lansing with focus on early childhood education
• Thursday, Sept. 23, in Detroit with focus on family literacy
• Friday, Sept. 24, in Canton with focus on return to school

The American Rescue Plan provided more than $130 billion in K-12 emergency relief funds that can be used to support the safe return to in-person learning, including by improving ventilation systems, encouraging vaccinations, performing testing and contact tracing, and using CDC-recommended strategies like universal indoor masking; as well as address the academic, social, emotional and mental health needs of students.

Additionally, the American Rescue Plan provided $40 billion in relief funds to institutions of higher education to provide direct relief to students and support the safe reopening of colleges and universities across the country.

The Road Trip will highlight how those resources have enabled communities to bring students back into classrooms where they can reengage with their classmates and teachers, participate in extracurriculars, and access the critical social, emotional, and mental health supports that schools provide.