Should you send your kids to school this fall?

As the summer progresses and coronavirus cases continue to rise in North Texas, parents will soon have to make the difficult decision to send their children to school or to continue learning online.

Governor Greg Abbott announced in June that students could return to campus in the fall, and the Texas Education Agency released guidelines on how to safely conduct in-person courses next year. Recommendations include requiring a COVID-19 exam for all students, teachers, and visitors, providing hand sanitizer at each entrance, and cleaning classrooms more frequently.

The TEA allows parents to choose online or in-person learning at any time during the school year.

But online learning has put pressure on families, and for many of them, it may not be possible. Still, as coronavirus cases continue to rise, parents wonder if it’s worth the risk of going back to school.

We spoke to three Texas health experts about whether they would send their children back to the classroom. This is what you need to know.

Would you send your children to school this fall?

Dr. Catherine Troisi is an infectious disease epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston. Although she does not have children who are young enough to send them to school, she does have a granddaughter who lives in Virginia.

Troisi said the decision to return to the classroom depends on how the outbreak has affected a community, what precautions its schools are taking, and how the illness would affect other family members who may have health problems.

“In my case with my granddaughter, who is in Virginia, who has no medical condition and neither does her family, yes, she would probably send her to school,” he said.

But Dr. Rajesh Nandy, a statistician at the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth, said that if he had to decide based on today’s data, he wouldn’t send his third-grade son to school. .

What Nandy is looking at is the basic reproduction rate, or how many new infections will be created from an infected person. If the number is above one, that means the infection rate is growing. If it is below one, it is decreasing. The current basic reproduction rate is 1.4 and it is increasing.

“I am not comfortable sending my son to school right now because the rate is still above one, maybe not too much above one, but it is still level one, which means it is still growing,” said.

What would schools need to do to make you comfortable sending children back?

Dr. Philip Huang, director of public health for Dallas County, said the precautions that would make him most comfortable would include evaluating children and faculty members before they enter school, strictly enforcing physical distancing, avoid mixing classes and minimize class size.

“This has been such a changeable thing; everything changes from one day to the next, ”he said. “The longer some decisions take until I really have all the information in place, the better.

Troisi said that if he were to send a child to school, he would want to see the students separated at their desks and at recess. She also recommended that schools have regular disinfection hours and that they install shields to prevent the spread of disease through coughing or sneezing.

Troisi said he also wants the number of cases to decrease to feel better about getting children back to school.

“I want to see that they are decreasing, they are not going the wrong way,” he said. “I would like to see that we had enough tests and that the test positivity rate was less than 10%.”

Should my child wear a mask to go to school?

“The mask problem is difficult,” Troisi said, not because it is not safe to wear a mask but because it can be difficult to get children to wear them safely.

Troisi suggests having classes with fewer children to limit contact between students.

Nandy said that if people are going to be together, masks are necessary.

“There is clear evidence that a mask is the simplest, least expensive, and arguably the most effective way to control transmission of that disease, other than essentially just staying home,” he said.

What about older children? Is there a risk difference according to age?

With illnesses like the flu, children generally play an important role in the spread of disease, health experts have said. But because schools closed so quickly, it’s unclear what role children play in the spread of COVID-19.

Troisi noted that unless they have an underlying medical problem, children are much less likely to become seriously ill or die from the infection.

“What about your 65-year-old teacher who has cancer? What about the grandmother who lives at home with this child? she said. “That is the risk we are seeing here. I mean, it’s a much higher risk than a risk to the real child. “

The main fear is that children will contract mild forms of the disease, or be asymptomatic and pass the disease on to older family members at risk. Of particular concern to some is that children may not follow social distancing and mask mandates as closely as older people.

“I can see older children where perhaps part of compliance with universal masking, physical distancing, may potentially be more under control,” Huang said, adding that he believes parents should be cautious with all children because of the high level of community spread in the community. Dallas County

Nandy agreed that community outreach would be a major concern and urged families to follow the guidelines of the Texas Education Agency, such as keeping students home if there is an older adult living in the home.

What do you recommend parents do?

Huang suggested that parents take a cautious approach and enroll their children in online learning if possible, at least during the first part of the school year.

“I think distance learning is the safest thing,” he said. “[Until] We see what the answer is now with some of the things that are now being put into practice, with universal facial coverage and masking, and we see if we can stop the spread of the community that we have been seeing since Memorial Day. ”

Nandy and Troisi said parents should track the data and use it to assess risk for their families.

“There is no zero risk scenario until we really have a vaccine,” said Nandy. “The risk is never zero, but the question is whether the risk is worth taking, or whether you are considering taking the risk. We need to see clear evidence that the virus has declined, even if it is a really slow decline. “