As infection rates drop and more teachers receive vaccines, one of the biggest remaining obstacles to the reopening of schools is the difficulty of spacing students by nearly two meters, as recommended by federal and state health authorities.
This orientation means that fewer children can be in the classroom at the same time, so schools need to switch students in shorter shifts, while others continue to study online at home. But new research suggests that a three-foot gap between students is sufficient to prevent COVID-19 from spreading to schools.
Now, health experts and many parents are calling on the California Department of Public Health to revise their six-foot guidance, as Illinois and Massachusetts did, as well as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Our evidence shows that schools are operating similarly safely with a meter and not a meter,” said Emily Oster, a professor of economics and public policy at Brown University who was among the authors of a study published this week.
He found no significant difference in infection rates for elementary and high school students and teachers in Massachusetts public schools, regardless of whether they implemented three or six foot student spacing when other measures, such as universal masking, were implemented.
And Oster, who monitored the reopening of schools nationwide through the website covidexplained.org, said that, given the restrictions that the two-meter distance rules impose on school attendance, “it may make sense to relax them.”
This week’s study is not the only survey that supports narrower spacing between students in schools. A January study of face-to-face learning in 17 rural Wisconsin schools found no teachers and only seven of the 4,876 students were infected at school, and most of the elementary students studied were between three and six feet apart.
“More than a meter is fine,” said Dr. Monica Ghandi, an epidemiologist at the University of California-San Francisco, who this week joined a coauthor of the Wisconsin study and two other health experts in a column calling the Centers for Disease Control. USA for Disease Control and Prevention relax their school reopening guidelines.
Although the CDC and the California Department of Public Health do not insist on 6 foot spacing in schools, they maintained that distance as ideal. The CDC says that “physical distance (at least 6 feet) should be maximized as much as possible.”
The most recent California guidance issued on January 14 is for “tables of teachers and other staff at least 6 feet … except where 6 feet away is not possible after a good faith effort has been made” and “under no circumstances should distance students from chairs that are less than 4 feet. ”The World Health Organization, however, recommends“ at least 1 meter for both students (all age groups) and staff, when feasible ”, which is some centimeters about a meter.
Troy Flint, a spokesman for the California School Boards Association, said that clearer guidance, allowing for closer spacing, would greatly facilitate reopening, and particularly to bring children back to school full time, as opposed to the “hybrid” format “part-time that most schools in California used to resume. face-to-face learning.
During a webinar this week on reopening legislation recently adopted by the state, several trustees raised questions about conflicting distancing guidelines, he said. Classrooms typically have 20 to 30 students and places are limited.
“Determining which standard you use and communicating the reasons for that and getting families and employees in the districts to join has been a challenge,” said Flint.
To add to the confusion, as is often the case with the pandemic, not all experts agree. In the fall, studies cast doubt whether up to 1.80 meters is safe enough, with some reporting that airborne viruses can travel 6 meters or more in poorly ventilated environments. These experts noted that the three to six foot recommendations are rooted in late 19th century research on pathogens found in visible respiratory droplets.
Lydia Bourouiba, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who co-authored a research paper in August on distance guidance and an opinion article this week, said she would not trust a meter distance.
“Three feet is not recommended, unless it has been carefully evaluated for a particular room, activity and a high-grade mask is available at all times,” said Bourouiba, director of the Disease Transmission Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. “The risk of exposure to other people’s dense, cool breathing zone is very high at one meter.”
Teachers’ unions, whose safety concerns have delayed the reopening of schools, are already reacting in Chicago after Illinois reduced its requirement for minimum spacing this week. Claudia Briggs, a spokeswoman for the California Teachers’ Association, noted that ventilation, mask quality and exposure time are risk factors.
“We know that the quality of ventilation and filtration in school buildings has been neglected for years,” said Briggs.
But parents anxious about the effect of prolonged online learning on their children’s education and emotional health are frustrated because state officials are not paying attention to the latest science and clinging to guidance that will keep students out of the classroom for the longest time. part of the week, if not entirely.
Jolanka Nickerman, mother of two first and third graders in Albany Unified, said her district is already planning one of the region’s most limited hybrid schedules and that the six-foot orientation is diminishing the prospects for a full reopening.
“If we don’t move to four feet,” said Nickerman, “we won’t be able to accommodate all students in a classroom.”