If you are one of the many parents and educators across the country who are suffering from the upcoming start of the school year, you may have already carefully considered the CDC’s recommendations.
Spoiler alert: There’s probably nothing there to surprise you, given the pandemic.
But there are many things that can disappoint those who hoped to return to a semblance of what used to be normal, including in-person excursions, sports, and spirit nights.
Social distancing, hand washing (teach, monitor, and enforce, CDC says), daily health checks, and disinfection and disinfection – that’s all, of course.
This is what the guidelines say
CDC has three different sets of recommendations in its guidelines for administrators: for communities where there is no virus spread, for those where there is minimal to moderate transmission, and for those where there is “substantial” spread.
No matter how much community transmission occurs in the area, schools must fire staff and students for two to five days if an infected person has been in a school building and, in collaboration with local health officials, decide whether to close for longer. weather.
While closed, education must continue, for example through distance learning, and meals must be provided to those in need.
Preparation phase
If there is no broadcast in the community, schools are in a preparatory phase, implementing a plan in case Covid-19 explodes.
This includes:
- Teaching hygiene practices, including hand washing.
- More disinfection efforts.
- Monitoring of absenteeism that could signal Covid-19 cases.
- Consider canceling meetings, such as sporting events.
- Require sick staff and students to stay home
- A communications plan to transmit information to the community.
What if there are cases of viruses in the community?
If there is minimal or moderate transmission of the virus in a community, it becomes much more complicated. Here are the recommendations, added to the previous ones.
School administrators must “think creatively” about how to keep students physically separate and “limit interactions in large group settings.”
Suggestions:
- Desks must not only be separate, but all face the same direction.
- Cancel meetings, such as sports events and practices, field trips, and assemblies.
- Cancel or modify classes such as choir or physical education, where students are in close contact.
- Try to limit students to mix with each other – have them eat in the classroom, not the dining room. Stagger the launch of classes.
- Stagger arrivals and layoffs.
- Limit non-essential visitors.
Considerations for schools
In its Considerations for Schools guide, the CDC has more ideas.
- Schools should have physical reminders, such as sidewalk and wall markings that mark six feet, and posters reminding students of protective measures.
- Both students and teachers should use facial coverage “as feasible” and especially when it is not possible to keep a distance.
- Sharing (equipment, games, supplies) should be avoided. If that is not possible, they should be cleaned after each use.
- Common areas should be closed, including cafeterias and dining rooms (CDC recommends that students eat in their classrooms) and on playgrounds.
- Students, especially younger ones, must stay in a class with the same group and teacher all day. For older students, that should be done “as much as possible.”
- Rooms should be well ventilated, bringing and circulating air from outside if possible.
- Physical barriers, such as sneeze guards or partitions, must exist when a distance of six feet is not possible.
- Schools should have flexible sick leave policies and practices so that staff members can “stay home when they are sick, have been exposed to or care for someone who is sick,” without being punished for staying home.
Guidance for areas where there is ‘substantial’ transmission
Where there is “substantial community transmission,” schools should consider closing for more than two weeks, the CDC said.
However, the CDC notes that schools, in collaboration with state and local health officials, must decide “whether to implement these considerations and how to implement them, while adjusting to meet the unique needs and circumstances of the local community.”
“Implementation must be guided by what is feasible, practical, acceptable, and tailored to the needs of each community,” the CDC wrote.
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