CDC guidance favors schools reopening in fall
Teachers’ demands for remote learning growing stronger
As Chicago Public Schools collects feedback from families on its proposal to bring students back into the classroom part time this fall, federal officials continue to signal they favor schools reopening fully.
Vice President Mike Pence’s comments Friday that reopening schools “is the best thing for our kids” and “also the best thing for working families” followed the release of new resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which made a statement on “The Importance of Reopening America’s Schools this Fall.”
The CDC’s new guidance includes resources for elementary and secondary schools and decision-making tools for parents and caregivers. Many of the recommendations sound familiar, such as social distancing, cloth face coverings, proper cleaning and personal hygiene, and “cohorting,” in which a group of students sticks together throughout the day to minimize exposure. Schools are instructed to be prepared for COVID-19 cases and exposure, and have systems such as contact tracing in place for when that happens.
Though the guidance itself focuses on how to keep students and staff members safe and mitigate transmission risks, other language from the CDC and federal officials strongly encourages schools to reopen.
Deputy Education Secretary Mitchell Zais, a member of the coronavirus task force, called teachers essential workers and said schools will be “stronger and more student focused than ever before.” The Trump administration is working with Congress to make sure schools have what they need to safely open, he said Friday in a conference call with reporters.
“If schools still refuse to reopen, the president has said that parents should receive the money that would be used for their child’s education to find a school that is willing to educate their child full time whether that’s a public charter school, a private school or a faith-based school,” Zais said.
With statements like that and the latest CDC guidance stressing that extended school closure is “harmful to children” and can lead to severe learning loss, local districts such as CPS are caught in between federal pressure to reopen and teachers union calls to stay remote.
In recent days, CPS joined a federal lawsuit in which several cities and states are seeking to prevent private schools from getting a share of coronavirus relief bill funding they say would be harmful to public school districts. CPS estimates it would lose about $10 million of the $205 million it expects from the first federal pandemic relief package.
Though CPS did not directly address any concerns about parents withdrawing children, CEO Janice Jackson on Friday said the district is taking the new CDC guidance into consideration.
“The current plan that CPS has in place does follow the CDC guidelines and we are looking at the new guidelines and will update our plans accordingly,” Jackson said. “But I want parents and students to know that any plan that we put in place will be guided by the science and that we will not make a decision to have students return to school if we don’t believe it’s safe.”
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on Friday criticized the CDC statement and guidance, saying the agency could better help parents and educators by providing clear, easy-tonavigate protocols rather than “endless checklists that send people searching for answers.”
“The CDC may have changed its tone to accommodate President (Donald) Trump’s whims, but the details of its guidance remain the same: Schools cannot reopen safely and equitably until we have effectively contained the virus spread and have a robust testing system, a plan for a future surge, and appropriate safety protocols in place,” Weingarten said in a statement.
Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey had similar words, pointing out that while district-run schools start in September, some Chicago charter operators are planning to reopen in a matter of weeks.
“Our Black and Latinx neighborhoods contain a disproportionate number of front-line workers at greater risk of COVID-19, from bus drivers and nursing assistants to grocery store clerks and janitors,” Sharkey said. “Insisting that these families send their students into classrooms that intensify the risk of virus transmission as the pandemic spikes is not just risky. It’s morally reprehensible.”
Sharkey assessed that the president had “successfully bullied the CDC to revise its ‘guidelines’ and risk the lives of students, their families and their educators by forcing in-person learning this fall.”
Though schools have a role screening students and staff for COVID-19 symptoms or exposure, school staff are not expected to administer tests, according to the CDC.
Whether to have testing in schools is an important question, CPS Chief Health Officer Kenneth Fox said Wednesday. While CPS has a contact tracing plan, it does not have plans for coronavirus testing in its schools, though some school property has been used as testing sites, he said. But if reliable, simple-toadminister and rapid testing becomes more accessible, that could be a “game changer,” he said.
In the media call Friday, CDC chief Robert Redfield said he personally stands by
“I want parents and students to know that any plan that we put in place will be guided by the science and that we will not make a decision to have students return to school if we don’t believe it’s safe.” — Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson
the guidance and believes it’s in the best public health interest for children to get back in school.
“There were many negative public health consequences that happened to K-12 individuals as a consequence of school closure,” Redfield said.
Redfield also tweeted a thread about the muchanticipated guidance, promoting the role of schools in child development and the economic impact of enabling parents and caregivers to get back to work.
Zais said Friday: “In individual situations where teachers have underlying conditions or do not feel safe returning to the classroom, the secretary has said that those individual teachers should work with their local school districts to develop a solution. We recognize that school may look different this fall. That’s fine. But this is an opportunity to show our children that with some ingenuity and creative thinking, we can overcome most any challenge.”
Jackson on Friday said the district is in the process of finalizing its operating budget for the upcoming school year and will need support from the federal government to make it work.
“Those additional resources are going to be the difference between what kind of supports we can put in place to ensure students are safe when they return in the fall,” Jackson said.