How to Know If Your Child’s School Is Safe
For most of the past year, we have struggled with what is safe and what is not . It’s almost as if the word doesn’t matter anymore, because nothing more than “no one in your family ever goes anywhere or sees anyone,” is completely safe during a pandemic. But while we may have agreed that the absence of a large family and skipping meals on the premises are necessary right now, parents continue to grapple with the question of whether schools are safe.
Yesterday, at the end of the deadliest month of the US pandemic , and in the midst of a slow rollout of the vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report saying that, in fact, face-to-face schools can be done “safely” – with some pretty serious caveats. …
The CDC report, published in JAMA magazine , states in part:
The prevalence of available data from the fall school semester is encouraging, as the type of rapid spread that was often seen in crowded areas or high-density workplaces was not recorded in educational settings in schools.
The report is the result of many schools struggling to decide when – or how – to return to full-time education, and following President Biden’s signed executive order “to support the safe opening and operation of schools.” As supporting evidence, the CDC report cites a study of 17 K-12 schools in rural Wisconsin, which found that : “The incidence of COVID-19 in schools was lower than in the community. During 13 weeks in fall 2020, 191 cases of COVID-19 were reported among staff and students, with only 7 of these cases identified as a result of school transmission. ”
However, it is important to note that the schools studied knew that they were being studied, all students were provided with several masks as part of the grant, students in “cohorts” of 11-20 children avoided mixing with other students, and social distancing was a priority. and if a student was excluded from full-time education due to symptoms of COVID-19, the student’s siblings were also excluded. In other words, they did everything right.
Mitigation measures recommended by CDC include:
- Universal use of the face mask
- Increased physical distancing by reducing the density of classrooms and common areas
- Hybrid attendance models as needed to limit total contacts and prevent crowding
- Increased room ventilation
- Advanced screening test to quickly identify and isolate asymptomatic infected individuals
In addition, the CDC report says that “employees and students should continue to have online learning opportunities, especially for those at increased risk of serious illness or death if infected with SARS-CoV-2.”
It can be assumed that not all schools open to face-to-face instruction comply with all of these mitigating measures, especially extended testing. If we don’t regularly test staff and students, we won’t be able to get a clear picture of how the coronavirus is spreading in schools, even with contact tracing. The report also emphasizes that certain school activities, such as indoor sports or games, as well as community activities related to team sports, can increase the risk of transmission and should be limited.
So, if your school is open to full-time education – or is about to open – how do you know if it is “safe” (or as safe as the school can be right now)? By asking specific questions. I suggest that you send an email about check-in to both the administrator (for example, the principal or deputy principal – anyone who sends COVID-related updates to parents) and your child’s teacher. Questions for the administrator should be related to structure and policy, while questions for the teacher should be related to how politicians work in the classroom.
Potential questions for administrators:
- What if a student or employee comes to school without a mask?
- What will you do if a student or staff member refuses to wear a mask?
- How often do classes or groups of students “mix” with other groups during the school day?
- If a student reports symptoms of COVID-19, do you require siblings to stay at home as well?
- If students are dining in the cafeteria, how do you keep them apart?
- Did you manage to increase ventilation in the school? How?
- Are indoor sports, competitions, or other extracurricular activities allowed at the school?
- How do you think mitigation works for the school as a whole?
Possible questions for teachers:
- What if a student does not bring a mask to school?
- What if the student removes the mask and refuses to put it back on?
- Given the number of students in your class, do you think you were able to keep them six feet apart in most cases?
- Is your class well ventilated?
- What if you see a student showing possible COVID symptoms?
- What can parents do to support you better? What do you need that you don’t get?
Especially for teachers, I think the last question is key; We must not lose sight of the fact that teachers now work very hard , risking their health, and if they need more materials or another type of support, we must do our best to provide them.
Finally, if your children are old enough to convey at least partially reliable information, ask them how they are doing. Does everyone really hold their masks most of the time? Does their class mix with other lunchtime, painting, or exercise classes? Do teachers remind them to keep their distance? Except for the fact that you dropped by the school yourself (which is unlikely for obvious reasons), your children may be your clearest window on how “safe” their school is right now.