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The Biden administration is pushing to reopen schools, an issue some see as linked to reopening the economy and returning America to normal life.
An administration official told CNN that the CDC’s five key strategies for reopening schools include hand washing, masking, social distancing, cleaning and ventilating, as well as contact tracing, isolation and quarantine.
The guidelines will not suggest requiring staff members to be vaccinated, instead describing vaccination as another ‘layering’ strategy, as many schools were able to safely reopen before vaccines were available, the government noted. responsible.
The guidelines will also note that screening – testing people for asymptomatic cases or people who are infected but have not yet become ill – can improve case detection.
But some teachers and unions are opposing plans to reopen, many with demands for vaccinations and more supplies.
The National Association for Education (NEA) surveyed 3,305 of its members and said on Tuesday 82% had not yet received a Covid-19 vaccine. On Monday, at least 26 states and Washington DC said they would allow some or all teachers and school staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Some also raised concerns about fairness, noting that current access to finance and supplies needed to meet safe reopening standards is often skewed towards richer jurisdictions.
“Most schools, especially those attended by white, black, brown, native and poor students, have very outdated ventilation systems and no testing or tracing program per se,” said the NEA president, Becky Pringle.
Pringle noted that messages from the CDC and other leaders carry weight and hopes the new directions will be supported by funding from federal and local entities.
“We need to make sure that we have the extra funds to help our most marginalized students and schools, because we’re digging a hole here,” Pringle said. “We are here with outdated ventilation systems – sick buildings – that we want to send children back to with the still raging coronavirus.”
President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 relief proposal would include $ 170 billion for K-12 schools, colleges and universities that could be spent on mitigation measures.
What does science say?
Experts say that with the right precautions, a return to in-person learning can be safe – even before all teachers and staff are vaccinated.
“School should be the last places closed and the first places open,” CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing last week. “Our goal is to make sure, in bringing children back to school, that we do so with both the safety of children and the safety of teachers.”
Walensky has previously said that vaccinating teachers “is not a prerequisite for the safe reopening of schools.”
In a CDC study, mitigation measures including social distancing, contact tracing, and wearing masks – provided to students through a grant from a private foundation – helped 17 rural Wisconsin schools achieve 37% lower transmission rates than in the community. at large. Out of 191 cases of Covid-19, only 3.7% were contracted at school.
These mitigation measures can make a big difference. Another CDC study detailed how two high school wrestling matches in Florida – a top sport that does not allow for masking or social distancing – became mass-market events that resulted in the loss of approximately 1,700 days. of school in person.
Previous CDC Advice to Schools
After Covid-19 began to take hold in the United States, the CDC offered some considerations for closing schools in March of last year, noting that the suspension of in-person learning for eight weeks or more would likely have more impact on mitigating the spread of the community than shorter. closures in response to positive cases. Some schools have switched to virtual learning for the remainder of the school year.
Ahead of the new school year in August, the CDC advised communities to weigh the benefits of in-person learning against the risks of reopening schools in the midst of a pandemic. The agency has advised jurisdictions to make decisions about in-person learning based on their level of community outreach.
For schools that allow in-person learning, the CDC stressed the importance of maintaining a clean environment, wearing masks, and social distancing. Schools have been told that they should try to keep students and teachers in separate groups throughout the day and have lunch outside, if possible.
Experts have warned that learning during a pandemic can be difficult for students. The agency advised schools to maintain mental health services and offer remote counseling.
Over the next several months, schools adopted a variety of approaches that included in-person learning, online learning, and a hybrid of the two.
Staying on top of transmission rates – and possibly the presence of viral variants – will help people manage anxiety and make informed plans to reopen schools, said Dr Stuart Ray, professor of medicine in the United States. infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University. Dashboards and other data collection support tools can help jurisdictions stay informed.
Testing will also be a valuable tool, noted Ray. “It makes a big difference to do testing and not just symptom-based screening, especially when children are less likely to be symptomatic than adults,” he said.
When it comes to teachers and school staff, Ray said there is no doubt that there is some level of risk associated with returning to learning in person before everyone else has had it. been vaccinated, but tools like personal protective equipment can help make everyone safer.
“We need some guidance on how to consider effective PPE, so that people who are not vaccinated can still be safe – as we demonstrated to healthcare workers in 2020, before a vaccine is not available, ”he said.
One of the most effective ways for people to help make teachers, staff and students safer inside schools is to help control the spread of the virus outside of schools, Ray said.
“If people are really careful with masking and distancing outside of schools, then schools become safer,” he said.
CNN’s Ben Tinker, Jen Christensen, Jacqueline Howard and Meridith Edwards contributed to this report.
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