Experts say teachers should teach from the front of the classroom to maintain as much distance as possible from students. They also recommend that students and teachers wear masks, and stay at least 3 feet apart.
Photo: frederic j. brown/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Dorian Solot is grappling with the decision of whether to send her daughters back to public school come fall, or to do something new: home-school them.
“I predict that the road ahead is going to be pretty bumpy,” says Ms. Solot, a 47-year-old Albany, N.Y., business owner and resident who has daughters entering third and seventh grade.
School officials nationwide are scrambling to figure out how to reopen schools as Covid-19 infection rates rise across the country. Two of the nation’s largest school districts—New York City and Fairfax, Va.—have said they will offer a mix of in-person and virtual learning in the fall, while the Los Angeles school district announced Monday it will have no in-person learning when school resumes next month.
Many parents and teachers are concerned about the risks and restrictions associated with a return to in-school learning.
Health experts advise parents to look for certain safety measures, based on the most current understanding of how the virus spreads—primarily person-to-person, with higher risks in crowds and indoors. Among the most important: Children should wear masks, be grouped into small “pods” that don’t mix with others, and maintain physical distance. Schools should also beef up hygiene practices and cleaning.
Other recommendations include outdoor instruction when possible, lunch in the classroom, and improving air ventilation and filtration in schools. Choir singing and wind instruments are more risky, they say. Recess and outdoor gym less so.
“It’s absolutely critical that we get kids back to school,” says Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who adds that there are costs to children’s physical and social well-being with ongoing remote learning from home.
Dr. Allen and his colleagues recently issued a 60-page report on risk-reduction strategies for schools.
Particularly important, he says, is minimizing the potential for airborne transmission of the virus by improved air filtration and ventilation in schools.
This can be done by increasing the amount of outdoor air coming into classrooms through something as simple as opening the windows and using fans. Schools with mechanical ventilation systems should use higher efficiency filters and ensure the system is using the maximum amount of outdoor air rather than just recirculating indoor air. Portable air purifiers in classrooms also help.
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued recommendations last month for school reopening. Their guidelines say physical distancing between students can be 3 feet—rather than the standard 6-feet recommendation—particularly when face coverings are worn.
Nathaniel Beers, a pediatrician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., and a member of the committee that developed the guidelines, says the new distance recommendation was based largely on a June 1 Lancet study that suggests 3 feet between people is adequate.
Schools should beef up hygiene practices and cleaning as they prepare to reopen, experts say.
Photo: frederic j. brown/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images“If you’re saying 6 feet, there’s no way most school districts can meet that criteria and have more than 50% of their kids in a classroom,” says Dr. Beers.
The group recommends middle- and high-school students wear face coverings as much as possible. Dr. Beers said with younger children who touch their faces, and likely masks, more frequently, the value of wearing one may be diminished.
But other experts say universal mask-wearing is key to any school reopenings.
Dr. Allen says building in mask breaks may be helpful. “Mask fatigue is real,” he says. Good times for mask breaks could be during “quiet time” or reading time, when people aren’t talking—which can emit virus aerosols into the air.
Face shields are also a good alternative for children who won’t wear masks, experts say.
Increasing the amount of outdoor air is a way to lower the risk of coronavirus spread in the classroom, experts say. So is creating groups of distinct classes of children who don’t mix with the rest of the school’s population.
Photo: Charlie Neibergall/Associated PressCreating pods or distinct classes of children that stick together and don’t mix with the rest of the school population is another effective strategy, experts say, particularly in elementary schools. When a student tests positive for Covid-19, for example, only those in their classroom would need to get tested or quarantine.
“It makes control a lot easier,” says Ashleigh Tuite, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. “If you do have a case in a pod you can isolate students. You know who has been exposed.”
Protecting teachers and staff is also critical.
Staff should socially distance from one another, says Alyssa Bilinski, a doctoral student in health policy at Harvard’s graduate school of arts and sciences, who is working on a study modeling Covid-19 outbreaks in schools. Meetings should be held remotely and lunch eaten separately to lower risk of any virus spread.
From the Archives
Experts say teachers should return to teaching in front of the classroom to create a buffer between them and students—as large as 15 to 20 feet. They should always wear masks or face shields when they need students to see their facial expressions.
Most experts acknowledge the infrastructure isn’t there for regular, widespread testing of students. That likely won’t happen until there are affordable, rapid, saliva tests. But once available, regular testing of students and teachers is a good strategy, experts say.
Countries in Asia and Europe have opened largely with avoiding large outbreaks, but experts note in most other countries community transmission rates of Covid-19 were low when schools reopened, in contrast to many U.S. states now.
The consensus is younger children are less likely to get Covid-19, and while there is also some evidence that they may pose a lower risk of transmission to adults, it isn’t conclusive. Some experts say, however, that plans for school reopening should account for growing evidence that older students—largely teenagers—appear to have a greater risk of both developing Covid-19 and transmitting the virus.
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“By the time you reach high school the risk of infection is pretty indistinguishable from young adults,” says Ms. Bilinski.
Some parents aren’t willing to wait to see what happens come fall. Samantha Esposito has already decided to home-school her children.
“I am way more comfortable planning out a curriculum at home and giving them a consistent and safe year of learning, than the unknown of what school will be like next year,” says Ms. Esposito, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mother in Rocky Hill, Conn., with sons entering third-grade, kindergarten, and pre-K for 3-year-olds. She also has an infant girl born in March.
“I know my kids well, and masks and barriers would be scary and stressful for them,” she says. “Additionally, if school got canceled midyear again, it would be disruptive and confusing.”
She’s also worried about her sons bringing the virus home to her husband, who has Type-1 diabetes, and to her infant daughter. As a former third-grade teacher she says there’s no way to social distance children that age.
“There’s no way to keep them apart,” she says. “If you are trying to keep them apart they are going to be miserable and so is the teacher.”
Write to Sumathi Reddy at sumathi.reddy@wsj.com
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