As the School Year Draws to a Close, Focus Shifts to Safely Reopening in the Fall

Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, 48 states have closed public schools for the rest of the school year. Fall reopenings pose significant logistical challenges, as districts across the country strive for plans and strategies best positioned to protect students, teachers, and support staff.

With a likely resurgence of the virus in the fall and widespread availability of a safe and effective vaccine said to be at least a year away, districts must safely reopen schools with a heightened focus on health, hygiene and social distancing measures.

How can we safely reopen schools?

To safely reopen schools, there must be a strong emphasis on hygiene, including masks for all students, faculty and staff; consistent hand-washing that follows guidelines put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); daily temperature checks for all who enter the school building; and sufficient hand-sanitizing stations easily accessible to all throughout the day. Frequent and thorough cleaning and sanitizing of school buildings and high-touch surfaces must become the new norm.

School districts will need a system of consistent and comprehensive testing and contact tracing that can ensure any new cases of COVID-19 are quickly detected and contained. A new guide released by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) specifies that strategies to “test, trace and isolate” will be critical.

Social distancing strategies that keep students, faculty and staff six feet apart both inside and out of classrooms might be the most important factor — and the most logistically difficult to achieve. These strategies might include smaller class sizes and considering cohort models that keep a smaller group of students together with a limited number of faculty and staff throughout the day.

Schools can consider a reconfigured school-year calendar and potentially alternating schedules that utilize remote and tech-based learning strategies — including the remainder of a full-time remote option for students and teachers who are immunocompromised or otherwise at a higher risk of infection and complication.

 Cancelation of sports and other large events or extracurriculars during which social distancing is impossible will be unfortunately necessary; even arts programs like choirs will remain unsafe, according to the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

And continued trauma counseling and other social-emotional supports must remain in place to assist students through what will continue to be an unsettling and abnormal period of time.

Safety for students, teachers and support staff is critical

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to evolve, so must our strategies for protecting our students and teachers and safely reopening schools. As the AFT notes in its guiding report, any plans must be considered “living documents,” with adjustments made quickly and efficiently as we learn more about the virus and as numbers of infections rise and fall.

We must be prepared for decisions to fall largely within the jurisdiction of individual school systems and districts, as federal guidance will likely remain fractious and the reality of the virus continues to differ from state to state.

The effort to safely reopen schools will be an undoubtedly heavy lift and logistically challenging in ways we have not encountered before. Collaboration between school districts and the sharing of best practices, as well as a commitment to remain nimble and responsive to a changing environment will be crucial in the success of these efforts.