We’ve spent the better part of the past year grappling with what is and what isn’t safe. It’s almost as if the word has no meaning anymore, because nothing short of “no one in your family ever goes anywhere or sees anyone” is completely safe during a pandemic. But while we may have accepted that missing extended family and skipping indoor dining is necessary right now, parents continue to struggle with the question of whether schools are safe.
Yesterday, at the tail end of the deadliest month of the pandemic in the U.S. so far, and in the midst of a sluggish vaccine roll-out, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped a report saying, essentially, that in-person schools can be carried out “safely”—with some pretty big caveats.
The CDC’s report, published in the journal JAMA, says, in part:
The preponderance of available evidence from the fall school semester has been reassuring insofar as the type of rapid spread that was frequently observed in congregate living facilities or high-density worksites has not been reported in education settings in schools.
This report comes as many schools grapple with when—or how—to return to in-person learning, and on the heels of an executive order signed by President Biden “to support the safe reopening and continued operation of schools.” As supporting evidence, the CDC’s report noted a study of 17 K-12 schools in rural Wisconsin, finding that: “COVID-19 incidence was lower in schools than in the community. During 13 weeks in the fall of 2020, there were 191 COVID-19 cases in staff and students, with only 7 of these cases determined to result from in-school transmission.”
It’s important to note, however, that the schools being studied knew they were being studied, students were all provided multiple masks as part of a grant, students in “cohorts” of 11-20 kids avoided mixing with other students, social distancing was prioritized, and if a student was excluded from in-person school due to COVID-19 symptoms, the student’s siblings were also excluded. In other words, they did things the right way.
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The CDC’s recommend mitigation measures include:
Universal face mask useIncreased physical distancing by de-densifying classrooms and common areasHybrid attendance models when needed to limit the total number of contacts and prevent crowdingIncreased room air ventilationExpanded screening testing to rapidly identify and isolate asymptomatic infected individualsIn addition, the CDC’s report advises, “staff and students should continue to have options for online education, particularly those at increased risk of severe illness or death if infected with SARS-CoV-2.”
It can be assumed that not all schools opened for in-person learning are following all of those mitigation measures, particularly the expanded testing. If we’re not regularly testing staff and students, we can’t get a clear picture of how much the coronavirus is spreading within schools, even with contact tracing. The report also emphasizes that certain school-related activities, such as indoor sports practices or games, as well as social gatherings associated with team sports, can increase transmission risk and should be limited.
So, if your school is open for in-person learning—or is preparing to reopen—how do you know whether it’s “safe” (or as safe as a school can be right now)? By asking specific questions. My suggestion is to send a check-in email both to an administrator (such as the principal or assistant principal—whoever has been sending out COVID-related updates to parents), and to your child’s teacher. Questions for the administrator should be building and policy-related, while questions for the teacher should be related to how policies are working within the classroom.
Possible questions for administrators:
What do you do if a student or staff member comes to school with no mask?What do you do if a student or staff member refuses to wear a mask?How much are classes or cohorts of students “mixing” with other groups during the school day?If a student reports symptoms of COVID-19, do you require siblings to stay home, as well?If students eat lunch in the cafeteria, how to you keep them distanced from each other?Have you been able to increase air ventilation in the school? How?Are indoor sports practices, competitions, or other extracurricular activities still being allowed to take place at the school?How do you think mitigation measures are working overall within the school?Possible questions for teachers:
What do you do if a student doesn’t bring a mask to school?What do you do if a student takes a mask off and refuses to put it back on?Given the number of students in your class, do you think you’ve been able to mostly keep them six feet apart?Is your classroom well-ventilated?What do you do if you see a student displaying possible symptoms of COVID?What can parents do to better support you? What do you need that you’re not getting?For teachers especially, I think that last question is key; We should not lose sight of the fact that teachers are handling a lot right now, at a risk to their own health, and if they need more supplies or another type of support, we should do what we can to provide it.
And finally, if your kids are old enough to relay at least semi-reliable information, ask them how it’s going. Does everyone really keep their masks on most of the time? Does their class mix in with other classes for lunch or art or gym class? Do their teachers remind them to keep their distance? Short of getting a look inside the school yourself (which is unlikely for obvious reasons), your kids may be your clearest window into how “safe” their school is right now.
