American Scientist

For in-person instruction to proceed in the United States, we have to get control of the outbreak in communities first, and do infection control and planning within schools second.

The fact is, if we can reopen schools safely, everyone wants in-person instruction. Teachers want it. Kids want it. The U.S. President wants it. Epidemiologists want it. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA), The School Superintendents Association, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have all recently issued statements supporting in-person instruction. And you better believe that as working parents, we want it too.

The educational, social, and economic harms of closing or reducing in-person schooling include lost educational opportunities and effects on social and emotional development. Kids with special needs are at particular risk from such disruptions. Schools also perform an important societal function to keep younger children supervised and safe so that their parents can go to work.

Moreover, these harms do not fall equitably across groups. Some children who are already socially vulnerable will experience irrecoverable harm due to more school disruptions. Some parents are being put in the impossible position of deciding whether to pay the rent, leave their young children home alone, or send them to unsafe places.

It is true that children who get COVID-19 very rarely require hospitalization and even more rarely die of the infection, particularly young children. We knew that much early on in the pandemic.

“Basing the argument to reopen schools on the rarity of poor short-term outcomes among children is risky.”

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But basing the argument to reopen schools on the rarity of poor short-term outcomes among children is risky. We still know very little about transmission dynamics among kids, and practically nothing about possible lifetime effects of COVID-19 infection. Newly emerging evidence suggests that older children may be just as likely to spread the disease as adults.

In addition, the threat of COVID-19 spreading within schools is not limited to the students. The staff of schools are composed entirely of adults—and we have a pretty good idea of what the acute risks of infection in adults are. Kids also take home the germs they pick up at school. Ignoring the potential for children to pass COVID-19 along to the adults they love and depend on—both in school and at home—would be a serious misstep.

If we want school to reopen safely in this school year, here’s what it will take: community outbreak control, extensive changes to school operations to limit infection risk, and the money to support such changes, flexibility, and transparency—in that order.

“A significant local outbreak means returning to a shutdown—as unpopular as this position is.”

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First of all, areas with lots of circulating disease cannot open schools without risking an outbreak, so we need to get a grip on the outbreak outside of school. Few (or better yet, no) cases in the community ensures very little chance of a case coming into schools in the first place. To achieve this, we (still) need tons of testing, contact tracing, data collection, and continued restrictions on high-risk, low-priority activities and businesses. We’re looking right at you, bars and gyms. A significant local outbreak means returning to a shutdown—as unpopular as this position is.

We need a coordinated outbreak control strategy and leadership at the national, state, and local levels in order to protect the common good provided by in-person instruction. And frankly, so far we’re disappointed. Many parts of the United States are failing on this front.

Second, we need infection control strategies inside schools. Yes, rearranging the desks is on the menu. But infection control also means broadly rethinking the structure of the school day, with small groups of the same kids with the same teacher day after day, different approaches for different age groups or abilities, and much more recess time. It means routine testing strategies, wearing masks, and washing hands. It means engaging teachers in the process of planning infection control. Harvard University put together a comprehensive resource for thinking through these infection control strategies in schools.

“If the U.S. government can bail out businesses that were forced to close as the pandemic broke, it can bail out our school system too.”

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Transforming the school experience to accommodate infection control measures is going to cost schools a fortune, and it’s a fortune they do not have. If the U.S. government can bail out businesses that were forced to close as the pandemic broke, it can bail out our school system too.

Third, we need to make plans that are flexible. Uncertainty is 2020’s touchstone. Schools and communities should be making contingency plans for what happens in the face of a new local outbreak and setting benchmarks for when those plans are triggered. Accommodations for particularly vulnerable staff and students will be necessary, because not everyone’s needs or risks are the same. Expect change as community levels of disease and resources ebb and flow. What's likely to work in one community at one point in time is not necessarily the best path for a different community, or even the same community down the road, or even all the people within one community.

Finally, community and school leaders should provide transparency, and parents, teachers, and students should demand it. We need to know what the plan is, even if the plan right now is “figure out the plan.” We need to know about new routines, expectations for remote learning, and how contingency plans will be triggered. We need to know how exposures and cases in the school community will be tracked and reported, how contact tracing will be handled, what will happen when exposures or cases happen, and how communication will take place. The best way to navigate uncertainty is with transparency, empathy, and open communication.

It will take coordinated effort from national, state, and local leadership, individual behavior change, and funding to bring the outbreak under control and to return to in-person schooling safely. Measuring exactly 6 feet in between desks will not be enough to achieve these aims; we need to think about the big picture and consider how each reopening plan stacks up against these goals.

It’s going to be a bumpy ride, so buckle up.