Georgia releases guidance for schools reopening
ATLANTA — School leaders in Georgia have new guidance from the state about how to open in the fall and react to changing health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 10-page document, “Georgia’s Path to Recovery for K-12 Schools,” was written by the state education and public health departments and covers the entire 2020-21 school year.
The report, released Monday, is the first official statewide guidance for school reopening for Georgia’s nearly 2 million K-12 public school students.
The state’s 180 school districts operate independently under the Georgia Constitution and, absent an emergency mandate from Gov. Brian Kemp, will decide whether and how to open their buildings this fall and when to close them should conditions warrant.
Rather than rules, the guidance comprises recommendations that school superintendents can consider with advice from local and state health
officials about the local danger level.
The premise, said Matt Jones, chief of staff for state schools Superintendent Richard Woods, is that the coronavirus will spread in differing intensities in different regions.
“What could work in one county might not work in another,” Jones said.
The core of the document is a decision tree based on local conditions, ranging from slightly modified traditional schooling in the best case to closed buildings, like this past spring semester, in the worst.
In between, in areas with minimal to moderate spread of the coronavirus, are a variety of options.
These so-called “hybrid” schooling models minimize physical attendance to maximize social distancing in a variety of ways. They may be among the trickiest to implement.
In the “A/B” model, schools would divide their enrollment in half. They might send one group into the buildings on Mondays and Wednesdays, the other on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They could all remain home on Fridays, when they would do “distance” learning, using either online assignments or paper packets. Alternatively, schools could host one group in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
Another model has high school and maybe middle school students staying home full time while younger students occupy the buildings. It was younger students, generally, who had a tougher time with remote learning in the spring. Also, if they are home, their parents can’t go to work without finding child care, which can be costly.
Careful planning could go awry if anyone tests positive for the disease: The guidance recommends closing any areas where an infected person has been, and keeping them closed for 24 hours before cleaning and disinfection. This would reduce capacity, potentially forcing some to stay home when it’s their turn to be in the building.
Given the logistical challenges and costs, both for the schools and parents who need child care, the guidance recommends using the hybrid option only “if absolutely necessary.”
It also recommends a variety of by-now familiar safety precautions, such as masks and hand sanitizer, calling for more extreme measures as conditions worsen.
In even the best scenario, school would not look normal: Hallways would be divided into travel lanes to minimize mixing, schools would help health officials with contact tracing and “specimen collection,” and there would be signs everywhere advising about hygiene and safety protocols, such as staying home if sick.
The protocols become more intense in areas with more disease spread.
In communities with moderate spread, water fountains should be turned off and replaced with bottled water, bus drivers should be given masks, students should sit farther apart on buses and in classrooms, everyone should get screened for illness before entering buses and buildings, floors should be marked to emphasize safe distancing in cafeterias and other high-volume areas, classes could be staggered to reduce hallway congestion or they could be held outdoors if the weather permits and students would, as much as possible, be kept within insulated groups with the same teachers.
Both teachers and families should be given the option to work or study at home, and lawyers and human resources personnel would be consulted to give teachers alternative assignments.
The document is 10 pages long because Superintendent Woods wanted something that was both comprehensive and concise, Jones said, but more advice is likely coming. A 72-member panel appointed by Kemp and Woods will elaborate on topics when local leaders and the public request more detail, Jones said.
Schools will have to consider all these safety measures at the same time the state could be imposing $1.3 billion in cuts to the local education funding formula. Acquiring masks, disinfectant, fuel for extra bus runs, new technology for work-athome days and additional staffing — the guidance recommends employing more nurses in areas with substantial disease spread — add to the normal costs.