Are schools safe amid pandemic?
Teachers, officials balance in-person learning with risks
Gov. Ned Lamont has urged school districts to remain open for in-person learning as long as they can, even as the coronavirus pandemic continues and cases continue to rise.
But numerous school districts across the state have closed temporarily — some until at least January — while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now considers in-person learning as highrisk and a coalition of education labor unions in Connecticut are demanding in-person learning end until requests are met. Those requests include statewide protocols for reporting and responding to positive cases and regular COVID testing of students and staff.
While state health and education experts argue measures like masks and social distancing have prevented transmission of the coronavirus within school buildings, some are wondering whether it is safe to learn in the classroom.
“The value of in-person education is tremendous and needs to be part of the equation,” said Dr. Thomas Murray, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. “But it also must be done safely. And by safely, I don’t mean just for the students, but also for family members and household members that live with those students.”
The CDC recently changed its guidance, with full, in-person learning considered higher or highest risk, depending on mitigation strategies. Hybrid models are considered to be between some to medium risk, based on how many students are in the classroom.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who served on Lamont’s reopen Connecticut advisory board, said recently that schools should be the last to close.
“We should be trying to curtail whatever activities we know are sources of community spread long before we close schools,” Gottlieb told CNBC. “So, some of these jurisdictions, including New York City, have it backwards where they close the schools and leave other things open where the spread is occurring.”
In Connecticut, however, many schools and and districts have temporarily closed in recent weeks because too many employees are quarantined, not because the buildings are deemed unsafe.
“We agree that children are safer and healthier in school,” said John Barile, superintendent in Brookfield, which is closed until Dec. 7 due to staff shortages. “Unfortunately, due to the exposures and subsequent requirements of the 14-day quarantine protocols, many educators are on quarantine. Therefore, there is not enough staff to adequately instruct, or to safely operate the schools in person.”
Schools safer for elementary students
The safest place for anyone — children included — is the home, with people only leaving for essentials, said Karl Minges, assistant professor and chairman of the health administration and policy department at University of New Haven.
“But that is not feasible for most families,” he said. “School definitely does provide some level of safety, particularly for the elementary population.”
But middle and high school students face greater risks because of extracurricular activities, such as sports, where cases have spread, he said. Elementary-age students have also been better at wearing masks than expected, he said.
“There is a certain amount of vigilance that you can provide elementary-school age population that cannot occur the same way as the older population,” Minges said. “They are more likely to follow the rules and to comply, and also they don’t have afterschool activities in elementary school.”
It is also easier to contact trace at the elementary level because those children stay in their same cohorts more than older students, Murray said.
“You know where everyone is at all times (at elementary schools),” he said. “Often times, high schools are not set up like that.”
The state is right to allow local school districts to decide whether to close because health conditions differ from community to community, Minges said.
“All politics is local,” he said. “So is COVID.”
These local health metrics should be a major factor in decision making, Murray, the Yale doctor, said.
“The second thing that a district might consider is how well their risk mitigation strategies are working,” he said.
Spread minimal inside schools
It is “inevitable” that students and staff would test positive as cases rise in the community, Murray said.
“We’re going to have widespread community transmission for the next couple months,” he said. “So any school that remains open during the next couple months is going to have to do so with a clear strategy on how to mitigate risk and contact trace in a setting with high community transmission.”
But it appears rare for cases to spread within schools, which can enforce public health precautions, Minges said.
“Cases are not being transmitted in the school setting, but rather the transmission is occurring in the after-school activities,” he said.
Experts agreed measures like masks and social distancing have been the most effective to prevent school spread.
“Our mitigation strategies of wearing masks, remaining socially distant, and encouraging frequent hand washing, on top of thorough contact tracing and appropriate quarantining, have proven to be successful so far,” said Jonathan Supranowitz, spokesman for the Greenwich school board.
Greenwich, which has had 97 students or staff test positive, has found only one case where a person was exposed at school, he said.
Brookfield measures in-school transmission based on the number of children or staff who are in quarantine and then test positive.
“Brookfield’s numbers are minimal to none,” Barile said. “We give contact tracing priority to these contacts.”
In Bethel, students and staff have gotten sick from parents or family members, said Kristen Brooks, the school district’s assistant superintendent. Youth sports have also been a problem, she said.
Without this spread in the buildings, schools are generally safe for most children, Brooks said.
“That doesn’t mean it’s the right decision for every family,” said Brooks, adding it might be better for youth who live with an older person or someone who is immunocompromised to stay home.
Benefits of in-person learning
Many educators have said they aim to keep students in school, but not at the cost of their health.
“My No. 1 goal for this year is health and safety,” said Megan Bennett, superintendent in Region 12, which is open to full inperson learning and includes Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington. “Education was not the top priority. Even though I do believe the best education is in-person, it does not mean that you blindly keep students in school.”
Bethel, too, looks at staffing and local health conditions when determining whether students can be in school, said Brooks. The district is on distance learning at least until Dec. 7 due to staff shortages.
“We want to be in school,” she said. “It was a really difficult decision to move this way, but we had to at this point.”
On distance learning, students cannot collaborate or use materials in the same way as they could in the classroom, Brooks said. It is also harder for teachers to give feedback, especially when they cannot read students’ body language, she said.
“It is very difficult to replicate what you can do in a classroom digitally,” she said.
Students’ isolation from their peers has also sparked concern about their mental health.
“If students aren’t socially and emotionally available, then it’s very hard for any type of academic learning to happen,” Brooks said.
Contact tracing, testing
Contact tracing is critical to ensure students and staff quarantine when needed, officials agreed. “That can be time consuming and involve a lot of resources and may be beyond what a school can handle,” Murray said.
Brookfield has found it challenging to contact trace for staff members. The local health department does not have access to cases among staff members who live out of town.
“We must rely on mutual cooperation,” Barile said. “Apparently, at present, there are just too many cases for the local health departments to follow up on every case. The system is quite simply, overburdened.”
Officials must speak to many people potentially connected to the case.
“The contact tracing takes a long time,” Brooks said. “The story ends up getting bigger and bigger at times. And you have to contact more and more people.”
Students and staff should be tested so that districts know the actual transmission rate among these groups, Minges said.
“The real detriment here is that we don’t have testing in the schools,” he said. “That would be enormously beneficial.”
In Danbury, which has been on distance learning the entire academic year, students and staff with symptoms will soon have access to rapid tests.
But since many people with the virus do not have symptoms, schools should test a random sampling of students and staff, Minges said.
“Targeting just those people who have symptoms is not a best practice,” he said.
Rather than fully closing schools, officials should implement measures, such as canceling after-school activities, Minges said.
“There is always the potential to have a workaround and to mitigate risk, while not closing everything,” he said.
For example, in Region 12, students are no longer allowed to throw Frisbees to each other or sing outside from 12 feet apart, Bennett said.
“We have the ability to control an environment, so I do think we are providing a safe learning opportunity,” she said. “When we are no longer able to do that, that’s when we would shift to remote learning.”