School desks 3 feet apart OK, CDC says
To hasten reopening schools, federal health officials on Friday relaxed one of the main pillars of COVID19 safety guidance and now say that students can safely sit 3 feet apart in the classroom as long as they wear masks.
The revised recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based on a recent study in Massachusetts that looked at infections of students and staff members in schools that set desks 3 feet apart and those that set them 6 feet apart, which was the previous guidance. It found no significant difference in infection rates.
The 6foot recommendation had been a major barrier toward bringing students back to classrooms in large numbers, and on Friday many public health and infectious disease experts in California who have been pushing to reopen schools cheered the shift in guidance.
But Bay Area school districts said they did not necessarily expect to immediately implement the changes. The Califor
nia Department of Public Health said updated state guidance would be available in the coming days. California currently recommends that desks be kept 6 feet apart “except where 6 feet of distance is not possible after a goodfaith effort has been made.”
“We are following the science,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, during a White House briefing on Friday. “We have seen the science to make sure this is safe for schools.”
The CDC said children should still keep 6 feet apart in common areas and at sporting events, assemblies, lunch or chorus practice. Teachers, staff and other adults should also stay 6 feet apart from each other and students. The updated guidance removes recommendations for plastic shields or other barriers between desks.
The agency said the 3feet rule applies to elementary school students but could also work in middle schools and high schools where community transmission is low and students can be kept in cohorts.
Reopening schools has become a national and state priority in recent weeks, especially in California, where most students have been out of classrooms for over a year. In his first month in office, President Biden set a goal of opening most K8 schools by the end of his first 100 days. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom has come under fire for the slow reopening of the state’s schools, particularly large urban districts.
Many school districts had complained that the earlier guidance was prohibitive to reopening classrooms. Some schools removed furniture, staggered scheduling and took other steps to keep children safely apart. But the rule still limited the number of students who could return, even in schools that were able to open for inperson instruction.
About 700 doctors and other health experts this week signed a letter urging Newsom to ease certain restrictions they say are too cautious and keep schools from reopening. Among their recommendations is reducing space between desks to 3 feet.
“Since the requirement of the 6foot distancing rule has been identified as a hindrance to fulltime, nonhybrid school openings in some situations, this change by the CDC is a welcome one and will hopefully facilitate more school openings here in California,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, a UCSF infectious disease expert who helped craft the letter to Newsom and has argued for schools to open.
But teachers unions across the country want the 6foot rule kept in place for the safety of educators and staff.
“We are concerned that the CDC has changed one of the basic rules for how to ensure school safety without demonstrating certainty that the change is justified by the science,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, in a statement on Friday in reaction to the new guidance.
Many California school districts and counties said they need time to evaluate the CDC’s updated guidance change and figure out how to apply it.
The San Francisco Unified School District said it would stick with its agreement with the teachers’ union that requires 4 feet of physical distancing in the classroom, but it will consider the updated guidance for the fall. “As we plan for the fall, this new guidance will help us serve more students,” said Laura Dudnick, a district spokesperson.
Dr. Susan Philip, San Francisco’s acting health officer, said in a statement that she supported the CDC’s revised recommendations and would work with the state “to best determine how to incorporate this guidance into our schools reopening process locally.”
“I am in full support of reopening all schools for TK12 grades as safely as possible,” Philip said. The CDC update “is great news and follows the scientific evidence. This will allow more students to return for inperson learning as safely as possible.”
Earlier this week, Walensky had been hesitant to change the guidance around desk separation, saying that the CDC needed more evidence to determine if it would be safe to change the recommended social distance without increasing the risk of disease transmission.
But on Friday, Greta Massetti, who leads the CDC’s community interventions task force, said younger children are less likely to get seriously ill from the coronavirus and don’t seem to spread it as much as adults do. “That allows us that confidence that that 3 feet of physical distance is safe,” Massetti said.