(Reuters) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released a new guideline for U.S. schools to reopen, recommending the use of a universal mask and physical distance as COVID-19’s main mitigation strategies to place children back to the classroom quickly.
The guidelines here, which also emphasize the need for cleanliness, personal hygiene and contact tracking, aim to give school districts a roadmap to bring the country’s 55 million public school students back to classrooms without triggering outbreaks of COVID-19.
“We believe that, with the strategies we have presented, there will be no limited transmission in schools if followed,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky told reporters, noting that the CDC did not mandate schools to reopen.
The agency also said that reopening schools should not be conditioned on teachers’ access to COVID-19 vaccines, but strongly recommends that US states prioritize teachers and school staff for vaccination.
President Joe Biden has promised to reopen most K-8 schools within 100 days of taking office on January 20. He praised the CDC’s guidance on Friday and emphasized the problems arising from the continued closure of schools, including children’s mental health struggles and the exodus of parents from the workforce.
“We sacrificed a lot in the past year. But science tells us that if we support our children, educators and communities with the resources they need, we can safely get children back to school in more parts of the country sooner, ”said Biden in a statement.
Only 44% of U.S. school districts offered full face-to-face learning in December and 31% were operating remotely, according to the Center for Reinventing Public Education, which surveyed 477 of the country’s nearly 13,000 school districts. Other districts have employed a hybrid learning model, in which students attend some school days in person and others virtually.
The reopening of schools has sparked labor disputes between teachers’ unions, which fear for the safety of their members, and school districts in major cities across the United States. In Chicago this week, the teachers’ union and the district reached an agreement on a security plan after months of negotiations that included threats of strike.
On Friday, the American Federation of Teachers, which has about 1.7 million members, praised the CDC’s guidance for relying on “facts and evidence”.
“We urge the CDC to remain flexible as more data comes to light. The guidance is instructive for this moment, but this disease is not static, ”said AFT President Randi Weingarten in a statement.
FLEXIBLE APPROACH
The CDC’s phased mitigation strategy is adaptable depending on the level of transmission of COVID-19 in the school community.
In areas where the COVID-19 positive test rate is below 5% and there have been less than nine new cases per 100,000 in the last seven days, schools can fully reopen and safely relax social distance measures as long as the masks used, said Walensky. In areas of higher transmission, the agency is requiring 6 feet (1.83 m) of separation in classrooms and weekly tests from students, teachers and staff.
Elementary school students must learn in person at least part-time, even in high-transmission areas, says the guidance.
Recent studies have shown that face-to-face learning has not been associated with increased transmission in the community, especially in primary schools.
Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy criticized the reopening guidelines on Friday as not being bold enough to ensure that students return to classrooms promptly.
“Families and students deserve better. They need firm guarantees that their children will be able to return to the classroom environment that offers the best model of education, ”said McCarthy in a statement.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said on Friday that House committees were working to pass Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan legislation, which includes a US investment. $ 130 billion that could help schools follow CDC protocols to help schools comply with CDC guidelines.
“Without strong assistance from Congress, our schools cannot afford to enact the required science-based safety precautions,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Boca Raton, Florida, Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis