Most students only need to have a 3 foot spacing between classrooms, according to the new school guidance published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – only half of the 6 feet initially recommended by the agency for contain the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
The upgrade may pave the way for more classes to return to face-to-face learning, such as the Biden administration urgent schools rent. For weeks, federal authorities acknowledged that some school districts would be unable to comply with the guidelines set by the CDC in February, despite a infusion of funds of the recently approved American Rescue Plan.
“This is an urgent issue. I understand the mental health challenges. I understand the educational challenge, food insecurity. This is urgent,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, in a Senate hearing on Thursday about the necessity of reopen schools.
Combined with the use of a mask and other mitigation measures, the revised CDC guidelines allow most students to be just 3 feet away in classrooms. However, in elementary and high schools, students “must stay 1.8 m away” in “high” transmission communities, when students cannot be grouped into “groups”. A cohort or “pod” is defined by the CDC as “a distinct group that stays together throughout the school day during personal learning”.
About 40% of counties remain “high”, according to CDC figures. The updated guidance describes transmission in the community as an “alert system” for the risk of spreading COVID-19 in schools. If levels rise, administrators are encouraged to impose “restrictions on sports and extracurricular activities to protect personal learning”.
Adults, who tend to get sicker and spread the virus faster than children, are still encouraged to keep a distance of 2 meters from students and others teachers and staff at school.
It is still advisable at least 6 feet away for students of all ages, whenever masks cannot be used, such as when eating and during any activity such as singing, exercise or band practice that involves “increased exhalation”. These types of activities “should be moved outdoors or into large, well-ventilated spaces whenever possible,” say the guidelines.
“These updated recommendations provide an evidence-based roadmap to help schools reopen safely and remain open for personal instruction,” said Dr. Walensky in a statement.
Getty Images
In disclosing its new guidance, the CDC cited new research from schools that had been safely reopened. In a study of elementary schools in Utah that were unable to space desks more than a meter apart “due to limited space”, the researchers found little transmission “despite the high incidence in the community”.
The most recent studies “offer very convincing evidence that, if a school has its students positioned 1 meter away, compared to those schools that have its students positioned 2 meters away, there does not seem to be a big difference in the rate of new [COVID-19] “Dr. Sophia Jan, head of the general pediatric division at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center, told CBSN. She noted that other measures, such as wearing a mask, keeping students in groups when possible, and vaccinations for teachers are also important. .
The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, told CBS News that the union is “reserving judgment” on the new recommendations and needs to review the most recent studies.
“I heard throughout the week of educators a real uncertainty and unhappiness about this change at this time,” said Weingarten. “We know that students need to be in school. But I’ve heard a lot of people say, how many more changes can we make in a year? How many times more can we change in a penny?”
The agency’s updated guidance also incorporates new recommendations for implementing screening tests, both “for schools that use less than six feet of physical distance” and to support extracurricular activities, such as sports.
Several school systems have implemented such test campaigns, checking students and staff for COVID-19 daily with quick response tests. On Wednesday, the Biden government announced it would pour billions of dollars into increasing screening tests for more classrooms.
“We know that there are schools that tried to do this and struggled to have the resources to do it. And so we want the resources available and we want to attract the reopening of schools,” Carole Johnson, COVID-19 from the Biden government testing czar, told reporters on Wednesday.
The changes come after weeks of growing frustration with the original Biden government guidelines, which critics claim to create unfounded obstacles for local school officials trying to plot a return to the face-to-face learning.
A growing number of studies examining schools that reopened last year revealed scarce COVID-19 transmission over distances of less than 1.80 meters, when other measures – such as wearing a universal mask – were applied. Research published earlier this month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases comparing school districts in Massachusetts found similar rates of COVID-19 in 1 and 2 meter requirements.
The CDC also released a survey this week suggesting that school closures can cause “negative mental, emotional or physical health outcomes” and disproportionately affected black, Hispanic and multiracial families.
“Keeping schools closed or even partially closed, based on what we now know is unjustified, is harming children and has become a human rights issue,” wrote the authors of the research underlying the previous CDC guidelines in a published opinion article by USA Today this month, arguing that the agency had misinterpreted its findings.
The CDC reviews bring their recommendations for distance education for schools in line with others, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization.
Some communities in the United States have previously cited these guidelines to dismiss the CDC’s 6-foot recommendation and define their own rules of social distance between student desks, from Palm Beach County in Florida to schools in Massachusetts.
“The question, I think, for the administration and schools in the country is not whether they can be opened, but how,” said senior White House aide Andy Slavitt on Wednesday.
Natalie Brand contributed reports.