Challenge of reopening schools
County health officials issue detailed guidance
Establishing a pandemic coordinator or team, identifying high-risk students and staff and implementing health monitoring are just some of the general recommendations that Montgomery County health officials included in guidance prepared for school districts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus during the upcoming academic year.
The county Office of Public Health, in collaboration with school superintendents, released the guidance on Friday and said schools should use it to help develop their health and safety plans for reopening that are required by the Pennsylvania Department
of Education.
School district governing bodies must approve health and safety plans and submit the plans, tailored to their unique local needs, to the state before reopening. Having a plan approved is required to reopen schools for in-person instruction.
“Since the first coronavirus cases were reported in Montgomery County, we have been on nearly weekly calls with our
school superintendents providing critical information on the pandemic and working collaboratively on guidance for opening schools,” county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie A. Arkoosh, said on Friday. “Our primary goal is to support a school environment that is as safe as possible for the students, faculty, and staff while providing much needed in-person education.”
County health officials recommended districts identify a “pandemic coordinator” or “pandemic team” with defined roles and responsibilities for health and safety preparedness and response planning. Officials said schools will need to consider the appropriate staffing of school nurses or other certified health personnel to lead surveillance and quarantine protocol activities or coordinate with state or local public health departments to address workforce shortages. Health and safety plans should be posted on school district websites, officials said.
Health officials recommended students and staff with higher risk for severe illness “should be supported and encouraged options to telework” and school officials should explore “offering activities that will minimize higher risk individuals having contact with others.”
Other recommendations for monitoring students and staff for symptoms include:
• Require routine, daily self-monitoring, for example, temperature and symptom screening, and checks for history of exposure.
• Monitoring and health check to be completed at home by parents or caregivers and staff members before use of school transportation and arriving to school. It is recommended that the school take responsibility of monitoring when staff and students are in the building.
• Monitor absenteeism to identify any trends in student and staff absences due to illness.
• Encourage parents to keep sick children home and staff to stay home if they are sick.
• Flexible attendance policies should be considered for students, teachers and staff with signs of symptoms or confirmed illness, household members with a positive test or households with high-risk caregivers or siblings.
• Immediately separate staff and students with COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath.
• Identify an isolation room or area to separate anyone who exhibits COVID-19 like symptoms. Areas used by a sick person should be closed off and do not use before cleaning and disinfection.
• Individuals who are sick should go home or to a health care facility depending on severity of their symptoms.
• Plan for communication and removal of staff and students who are identified as household contact or close contact to a confirmed case.
The guidelines contain protocols for social distancing for classrooms and learning spaces. They include:
• Desks should face in the same direction, rather than facing each other, or have students sit on only one side of tables, encouraged to be configured to be spaced 6 feet apart, if feasible.
• Having the same group of students stay with the same staff based on age and developmental level of students.
• Provide students with assigned seating.
• Staggered schedules to limit the number of individuals in classrooms and other spaces, if feasible.
• An alternative class space and staggered/hybrid scheduling need to be considered. Hybrid model is currently being endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
• Hold classes in gyms, auditoriums or other large spaces.
• Consider alternate approaches to communal use spaces such as cafeterias and playgrounds; otherwise stagger use and disinfect in between use.
• Stagger classes to limit numbers of students in hallways at any time. Separate students within common areas.
• Consider classroombased meals eaten at student desks or increased staggering of meal times in multiple locations of the schools with enforcement of physical distancing. Sharing of food should be discouraged and encourage students to bring their personal water bottles.
• Serve individually plated meals/ box lunches and avoid buffet-style meals whenever possible.
• Regulate social contact and crowding in bathrooms.
• Staggering transitions and arrivals and dismissals and one-directional hallway designations.
• Limiting classroom rotations by students; instead have teacher rotate rooms while students remain in place, which is another strategy that might reduce hallway crowding.
• Minimize sharing of electronic devices such as tablets or calculators or disinfecting in between use; keeping children’s belongings separated in labeled cubbies, containers or desks.
The guidelines recommend restricting nonessential visitors, volunteers and activities that involve other groups. Officials recommend pursuing virtual group events, gatherings or meetings, if possible, and promote social distancing of at least 6 feet between people if events are held. Group sizes should be limited in accordance with Gov. Tom Wolf’s color-coded reopening plan.
Protocols for adjusting transportation schedules and practices include:
• Social distancing is to be maintained, when feasible, while on school transportation.
• All individuals on school transportation are required to wear face coverings.
• Individuals using school transportation should have assigned seating.
• Household members should be seated together on school transportation.
• School buses will need protocols for increased cleaning and disinfection.
• Staggering transitions and arrivals and dismissals.
Officials provided guidelines for hygiene practices for students and staff. They include:
• Ensure handwashing strategies include washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, after using the bathroom, before eating, after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing and after touching your face.
• If soap and water are not available and hands are not visibly dirty, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
• Teachers and staff will need rigorous and routine refresher training on proper hygiene, distancing and personal protective equipment protocols.
• Procurement of sanitation supplies such as hand sanitizer, soaps, disinfectant and masks should begin in advance of school reopening.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces such as playground equipment, door handles, sink handles and drinking fountains within the school at least daily or in between use as much as possible.
• Close off areas used by individuals with COVID-19 and wait as long as practical before beginning cleaning and disinfection to minimize potential exposure to respiratory droplets.
• Cleaning staff should clean and disinfect all areas such as offices, bathrooms and common areas used by an ill person, focusing especially on frequently touched surfaces.
Guidelines on the use of face coverings (masks or face shields) by staff and students include:
• All individuals are mandated to wear face coverings when indoors and outdoors when social distancing, at least 6 feet, cannot be continuously maintained. This includes during carpool drop off or pick up or when standing in line at school.
• Consider using plexiglass or clear “sneeze guards’ that sit atop the desk to contain respiratory droplets. Schools should prioritize plexiglass barriers for classrooms that have the most students or for classrooms without space for desks to be at least 6 feet apart.
• Students are permitted to remove their face covering if they are outdoors and able to maintain a distance of 6 feet from individuals who are not members of their household; when eating or drinking when spaced at least 6 feet apart; or seated at desks or assigned work spaces at least 6 feet apart.
• Staff members are to wear facial protection while in the building.
• Students and staff should be frequently reminded not to touch the face covering and to wash their hands frequently. Information should be provided to all staff on proper use, removal and washing of cloth face coverings.
• If students and staff do not have access to face coverings, the school district should make all attempts to provide adequate face coverings and other personal protective equipment. Inventory of face coverings should be carefully monitored.
The recommended protocols for sporting and other group activities include:
• Coaches, athletes and spectators must wear face coverings, unless they are outdoors and can consistently maintain social distance of at least 6 feet.
• Athletes are not required to wear face coverings while actively engaged in workouts and competition that prevent wearing of face coverings, but must wear face coverings when on the sidelines, in the dugout, etc. and any time 6 feet of social distancing is not possible.
• Refrain from scheduling large group activities such as field trips, inter-group events and extracurricular activities.
In the guidelines, health officials recommended districts post signs in highly visible locations with instructions about how to stop the spread of COVID-19. School officials should broadcast regular announcements that include messages about behaviors that prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The guidelines outline procedures for ventilation in learning spaces and areas used by students. They include:
• Ensure that ventilation systems operate properly and increase circulation of outdoor air as much as possible by opening windows and doors. Do not open windows or doors if doing so poses a safety or health risk, for example, allowing pollens in or exacerbating asthma symptoms, to staff and students.
• Holding classroom activities in outdoor spaces or larger school spaces, such as auditoriums and gymnasiums, instead of small classrooms and using windows and open classroom doors for cross-ventilation.
• If alternative ventilation options cannot be deployed, an enhanced focus on other means of onsite distancing, class size reduction and/or flexible scheduling may be weighed as alternative strategies to minimize transmission risk.
During a news briefing earlier this week, Arkoosh warned parents there’s no guarantee schools will be free of COVID-19 cases.
“I want families to start to really understand that there is no way possible to guarantee that any school will be free of the coronavirus. In fact, I think everybody needs to start to sort of let it sink in that there will be coronavirus cases in our schools throughout this school year,” Arkoosh said on Wednesday. “We know how contagious this virus is and so there’s no way that anybody can say that there will be no cases.
“The goal is to make that situation as limited as possible and keep those schools as safe as possible while getting the benefit of in-person education and we know, particularly for younger students, how critically important that is,” Arkoosh added. “This is going to be a balancing act for every one of our families and each family will have to decide what is best for their own family.”