Back to School? How to Reopen Schools......

7/13/2020 (Permalink)

The pressure to bring students back to classrooms is intense, but the calculus is tricky with infections still out of control in many communities.

• As school districts across the United States consider whether and how to restart in-person classes, their challenge is complicated by a pair of fundamental uncertainties: No nation has tried to send children back to school with the virus raging at levels like America’s, and the scientific research about transmission in classrooms is limited.
• The World Health Organization has now concluded that the Coronavirus is airborne in crowded, indoor spaces with poor ventilation, a description that fits many American schools.
• But there is enormous pressure to bring students back — from parents, from pediatricians and child development specialists.
• Some research suggests younger children are less likely to infect other people than teenagers are, which would make opening elementary schools less risky than high schools, but the evidence is not conclusive.

The risk of reopening will depend on how well schools contain transmission, with masks and limited occupancy. Only the time will tell.....