COVID-19
As a community rooted in care, advocacy for young people, and the struggle for mutual flourishing & our collective liberation, we continue to move with the reality of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in mind.
Current as of spring 2026
Wear masks when indoors - an N95 or KN95 or equivalent - and we happily provide these as a community resource.
Exceptions here include very young children as well as folks who have medical, sensory, or other needs that preclude mask-wearing. This is all the more reason for the rest of us to mask.
We also hold the awareness that in cases where folks are unable to mask due to the above needs, we seek alignment with them and their families in a shared and explicit dedication to COVID-cautiousness, community care, and disability justice.
Stay home when symptomatic, positive for COVID, or navigating a known exposure to COVID.
AT TCC, WE:
Clean and circulate the air indoors through the use of HEPA filters, ceiling fans, and cross-ventilation with outside air when weather permits.
Attend to the number of folks gathered in our indoor space at a time and encourage outdoor time as much as possible, weather and other needs permitting.
Provide ample spaces for outdoor eating as well as supporting safety norms for eating indoors to reduce the likelihood of transmission.
Provide masks and tests to any households who need them.
WE ALso:
Include heaters on our patio and other outdoor locations so eating outside year-round is more accessible.
Create additional, larger outdoor spaces - e.g., pavilions, covered patios - that allow for outdoor gathering, shelter, and cross-ventilation.
Employ UV-light and Co2 monitors as additional mitigation layers.
Create a comfortable, secluded space for folks who are at TCC but may begin feeling unwell or are symptomatic.
Offer robust community support to ease the burden of supporting sick or quarantining children at home when competing constraints (e.g., full-time work without time off) are present.
Offer COVID-19 education clinics and mitigation skillshares to curious and interested members of the community.
IN THE FUTURE, WE will:
βCOVID safety is a youth liberation issueβ¦solidarity with children means protecting them from COVID" - Clean Air Club Chicago.
COVID safety is a consent issue.
COVID safety is a class issue.
COVID safety is a disability justice issue.
Disability justice and youth liberation intersect with every other marginalized identity. COVID-19 is an ongoing mass-disabling and mass-death event. Mitigation is a justice issue for all, a survival issue for many, and a community responsibility.
We can create a culture of care for community, for others, for ourselves.
We guide our approach to COVID-19 mitigations, first and foremost, by listening to the folks most impacted by the ongoing pandemic. When they share their needs and their asks: creating truly accessible communities and spaces, breaking chains of transmission, cleaning the air and masking up, fighting for paid sick leave and meaningful treatment for both acute and Long COVID, among other actions - we meet them at their asks.
We show up.
WE MOVE WITH CARE.
We listen to voices in the disability justice community, The People's CDC, and wastewater data through the local Sewershed Surveillance Project into account in our approach to mitigating COVID-19. We also recognize the limitations of those organizations to make recommendations for our community's needs, and to center community and radical care for societyβs most vulnerable and impacted. 400 million people worldwide have been disabled by Long Covid, including children, and for which there is no cure.
WE KEEP US SAFE.
We have the power to protect each other from covid-19. So let's!
Every time we interrupt a chain of transmission, we save lives.
FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
COVID-19 is a powerful teacher - how does it reveal the role ableism plays in ourselves and our lives?
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We fundamentally reject any version of moving forward or building futures with this in mind that excludes, endangers, or leaves the most impacted behind. We refuse to normalize mass death.
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We know that Black, Brown, Indigenous people, trans people, the unhoused, as well as disabled and chronically ill folk, have been and continue to be the most impacted by COVID-19, and that these populations are currently more vulnerable than ever as public mitigation efforts have waned, ceased, and been actively legislated against. This includes the specter of mask bans popping up in many places and spaces. These communities call on us at minimum to continue masking in indoor public spaces and crowded outdoor spaces, and to stay home when sick in order to reduce transmission and community spread.
Masking in this context refers to wearing well-fitting and high-quality respirators. An N95 or KN95 mask offers significant two-way protection - surgical and cloth masks do not. Masking is often regarded as an "individual choice" or preference. When we share air, our individual choices extend beyond impact to only ourselves - our individual choices inevitably and significantly impact community. COVID-19 is a health justice issue; we highlight this Urgency of Equity toolkit from the People's CDC that offers guidance for conventional schools - but any community can learn new ways of taking action.
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Acknowledging the reality of COVID-19 often seems a radical position. Some may say that moving with this reality in mind amounts to "living in fear."
We'd like to offer a reframe.
Accepting the state of things, listening to those most impacted, reflecting and changing our behavior given the information we have - all of these are tools of empowerment and care. We CAN keep one another safe and alive. What small comforts are we willing to give up so that others may live? COVID-19 is a powerful teacher. What can we learn from this moment about practicing futures in which all of us can be safe, together, and thriving?
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No one is disposable. We can absolutely live fully joyful and rich lives that are also rooted in care. Every one of us is connected, and when one of us is suffering, we all suffer. In fact, we are all better for it when we fight for one another. None of us are free until all of us are free!
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Data on COVID-19 is ever-changing and also limited, affected by politics and policy. Our community approach to mitigation is dynamic and flexible, and will be responsive to the best information we have available to us AND our steadfast commitment to radical care for one another and the broader community.
We provide quality masks for young people to wear while at TCC as well as rapid antigen tests for households who need them.
We are a pro-mitigation community and strongly encourage households to make use of all the mitigation strategies available to them. We also ask folks to stay home when sick, even if symptoms are not the result of COVID, and even if symptoms are mild. When we are ill, not only do we all deserve rest and time to recover, we have a duty of care not to spread illness to others for whom the illness may not be mild, or may carry various other layers of impact. We know this ask is atypical. The over-culture demands that we work through illness (this includes the expectation that young people attend school, even while sick!).
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We're grateful to fellow COVID-cautious community Firestorm Co-op for openly sharing their mitigation strategies and approaches to community care, and to enthusiastically consenting to our using their language in our own policy statement here.
We also deeply appreciate our friends at Abrome, another Self-Directed Education community rooted in radical care, for all their work to mitigate and stop the spread of COVID-19. They have been exceedingly generous with their time, knowledge, insight, and resources over the past several years. We've learned and grown so much from their example.