Return to in-person class won’t be soon

Despite signs of virus decline, students will stay home for awhile

As South Florida sees encouraging signs that COVID-19 cases may be starting to decline, many parents wonder when schools will finally open for in-person classes. The answer: Not for awhile. School districts say the first step is to see at least two weeks when cases and hospitalizations trend downward. Other factors may include a daily rate of positive cases below 10% and possibly closer to 5%.

The seven-day average of new daily cases has been declining since July 17. Hospitalizations have also been falling in the past two weeks.

However, the rate of positive cases has remained high. On Tuesday, the rate was 10.6% for Broward, 13.7% for Miami-Dade and 9.8% for Palm Beach County. District officials say those numbers need to be lower.

“We are ready to reopen smart and return safe, but conditions in our community are not yet ready,” Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said

Miami-Dade schools worked with the county and health experts to develop eight “gating criteria” for reopening. These include a 14-day “sustained positivity rate” of less than 10% and trending toward 5%, a steady reduction in hospitalizations, an increase in testing availability and a test result wait time of no more than 48 hours.

“We may not necessarily wait for all eight criteria to be met simultaneously,” Carvalho said. “It’s possible we’ll get to a point when a critical number of criteria have been met and there’s a downward trend and conditions have been created to safely return to schools.”

Palm Beach Schools spokeswoman Claudia Shea said her district’s plan is to begin in-person learning once the county enters Phase 2 of its coronavirus recovery plan. That status, which much be approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis, generally requires two weeks of favorable trends in a county.

Most counties outside of South Florida are already in Phase 2. Palm Beach County commissioners made a request to DeSantis in June to enter Phase 2, but the plan got put on hold after a surge in new cases started in late June.

The Broward School District plans to stay in distance learning mode at least while Broward County is in Phase 1, according to a statement from the office of Chief Communications Officer Kathy Koch. The district will also look at positivity rate trends, the county’s ability to manage the spread, health system capacity and availability of personal protective gear, the statement said.

A plan submitted to the state last week listed no specific bench

marks for reopening, which troubled board member Nora Rupert. She called the district’s criteria “loosey-goosey.” Runcie resisted adding specifics to the state plan.

“I would refrain from having a specific target

number,” Runcie said. “We have guidance for what we need to look for. We learn more and more about the virus on a weekly basis. We need a policy flexible enough to incorporate new information.”

Miami-Dade and Palm Beach both delayed the start of their school year until Aug. 31, even for virtual

classes. That’s a oneweek delay for MiamiDade and a three-week delay for Palm Beach.

Broward County schools had announced plans to bring a few students attending schools for special needs students back when school resumes Aug. 19. But Runcie has decided to postpone that until at least Aug. 31, after he held a videoconference meeting with teachers last week who voiced fear about their health.

“Given the feedback and continued high rate of infection in our community, I do not recommend opening up our schools for on-site instruction on the first day of school for any of our students,” Runcie

said at Tuesday’s School Board meeting.

He said he has asked his staff to work on developing a pilot program for in-person instruction at a limited number of schools “If we can find staff and families of students with disabilities who are willing to participate.”

The earliest that would start is Aug. 31.