CDC relaxes 6-foot rule for schools
Change may pave way for more to open for in-person learning
Just over a year after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 6-feet social-distancing guideline became the standard bearer around which school districts made their reopening and instructional decisions, the agency has officially relaxed that recommendation, significantly altering the calculus behind how many students schools can and should allow in a classroom.
With masks on, the CDC now says students can safely sit 3 feet apart, although it still recommends 6 feet for common areas or activities where masks cannot be worn, such as lunch. If followed, the new metric potentially paves the way for far more schools to open for in-person learning.
In the past few months, though, Lehigh Valley schools had already been heading in this direction.
For most of the academic year, local school districts have tailored their reopening plans around this 6-foot figure, spending the summer measuring classrooms, marking hallways, creating new learning spaces and carefully limiting the number of students in the build
ing in an effort to adhere to the recommendation.
For a time, there was confusion about whether it was a requirement. But even as its status as a mere recommendation became clear, during the fall, districts dared not sway from it. Accordingly, most Lehigh Valley public school districts, apart from Allentown and Salisbury learning virtually, opened in a hybrid model. Most private and parochial schools opened full time, but they were still accommodating 6 feet in all areas.
As the school year went on and state guidance continually evolved, district administrations, as they warned everyone they would, constantly amended their plans. In the beginning of the year, they planned to completely shut down if their counties were in “red phase” or “substantial spread;” when Lehigh and Northampton counties entered those conditions in November, none of them closed.
Administrators learned that their schools weren’t sources of spread of the coronavirus, and research was confirming this elsewhere. Some, such as Northampton and Southern Lehigh, started to survey parents in late fall about increasing in-person learning days, even if it meant sacrificing the 6 feet. But for many, 6 feet remained a hardline.
After the winter holidays, some schools started to relent. Parent organizers picked up momentum and urged school boards to reconsider the strict adherence to 6 feet. The threat of the holiday period, during which some schools closed out of precaution, subsided.
Whitehall-Coplay School Board voted in January to move to a four-day model, despite some classrooms achieving 3 to 5 feet of distancing. In early February, Northampton Area and Southern Lehigh made similar announcements. At that time, superintendents in other school districts, like Parkland, Bethlehem and Easton, said they did not foresee changing their instructional models unless outside circumstances change, such as the level of community spread and the 6-feet guideline.
But in late February, Bethlehem started considering allowing 3 to 6 feet for elementary students, based on recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. That guidance encouraged school leaders to consider the balance between safety, and the mental and academic health concerns facing students and parents. That, combined with a decline in cases in the surrounding community, parent feedback and the onset of vaccinations, fed into Bethlehem leaders’ consideration of returning more students in April.
“Things are moving in the right direction,” Superintendent Joseph Roy said in a Feb. 22 video message to families.
The state’s announcement early this month that school staff would be prioritized for the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine and able to get it this month only added to the momentum.
A March 12 letter to Parkland families cited the fact that all elementary staff had the opportunity to get vaccinated that week as a key factor in deciding to bring elementary students back for four-day instruction April 12, with a new target range of 3 to 6 feet of social distancing.
This decision has the support of the district’s medical advisers at St. Luke’s University Health Network, according to the letter.
This week, Easton Area produced a plan that would allow certain grades to phase in for four days of instruction a week, with 4 feet of social distancing, contingent on staff getting vaccinated.
Despite the new guidelines, the Allentown School District, the region’s largest district, still plans to follow the original 6-feet guidance when students are expected to return next month. Allentown has been entirely virtual since the pandemic started last March. Earlier this month, district administrators publicly shared a plan to reopen which includes purchasing masks, disposable gloves, hand soap and other supplies for classrooms. District buildings, many of which are aging, will also be cleaned and disinfected.
“We are processing the new guidance but have built our plans based on 6 feet,” Superintendent Thomas Parker said. “We are not making any pivots yet.”
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the revised recommendations are an “evidencebased roadmap to help schools reopen safely, and remain open, for in-person instruction.”
“Safe in-person instruction gives our kids access to critical social and mental health services that prepare them for the future, in addition to the education they need to succeed,” she said in a statement.