What You Need To Know About The CDC Guidelines For Reopening Schools

According to Patch, the federal health officials have released recommendations for reopening schools amid the coronavirus outbreak, including keeping desks 6 feet apart, canceling field trips, shuttering cafeterias, and intensifying disinfection of everything from door handles to drinking fountains.

Here are their proposed guidelines, but we’ll let you be the judge of whether or not they will be effective.

Step 1

• Schools that are currently closed, remain closed.
• Remote and online learning opportunities should be provided for all students. Support student services — such as meal programs — as much as possible.
• Restrict camps to children of essential workers and for local children only.

Step 2

• Open with enhanced social distancing measures and for local children only.

Step 3

• Open with distancing measures and limit attendance to those from limited transmission areas only.
• Consider keeping classes together to include the same group of children each day, and consider keeping the same child care providers with the same group each day.
• Minimize mixing between groups.
• Limit gatherings, events, and extracurricular activities to those that can maintain social distancing, support proper hand hygiene, and restrict attendance of those from higher transmission areas.
• Space out seating and bedding to 6 feet apart.
• Consider keeping communal-use spaces closed, such as game rooms and dining halls. If this is not possible, stagger use and disinfect in between uses.
• Consider continuing to plate each child's meal to limit use of shared serving utensils and ensure children with food allergies are safe.
• Consider limiting nonessential visitors, volunteers, and activities involving other groups. Limit attendance of those from higher transmission areas.
• Consider staggering arrival and drop-off times or locations, or put in place other protocols to limit close contact with parents or caregivers as much as possible.

All Steps

• Maintain communication with authorities to determine mitigation level.
• Protect and support staff and students with higher risk for severe illness. This includes teleworking and virtual learning.
• Follow CDC's guidance for schools and child care programs.
• Allow teachers and staff from high-transmission areas to telework or use some other option so they don't have to travel to schools in lower transmission areas, and vice versa.
• Encourage all external community groups that use school facilities to follow guidelines.
• Post signs on how to stop the virus from spreading, properly wash hands, promote protective measures, and properly wear a face covering.

• Provide information to staff and students on proper use, removal, and washing of cloth face coverings.
• Have adequate supplies to support healthy hygiene behaviors, including soap, hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol, paper towels,tissues, and touch-free trash cans.
• Inform those who come in close contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19 to stay home and self-monitor for symptoms and follow CDC guidance if symptoms develop. If a person does not have symptoms follow appropriate CDC guidance for home isolation.
• Advise sick staff members and children not to return until they have met CDC criteria to stop isolating at home.
• Notify local health officials, staff, and families immediately of a possible case while maintaining confidentiality consistent with the privacy laws.
• Establish procedures for safely transporting sick people home or to a health care facility.
• Work with school administrators, nurses, and other healthcare providers to identify an isolation room or area to separate anyone who exhibits coronavirus symptoms. School nurses and other health care providers should use standard and transmission-based precautions when caring for sick people.
• Encourage staff to stay home if they are sick and urge parents to keep sick children home. Plan for when a staff member, child, or visitor becomes sick.
• School and camp administrators can use examples of screening methods in CDC's supplemental guidance for child care programs that remain open as a guide.
• If feasible, conduct daily health checks, such as temperature screening or checking for symptoms of staff and students. Maintain confidentiality.
• Train all teachers and staff in the above safety actions. Consider conducting the training virtually, or, if in-person, ensure that social distancing is maintained. Check for signs and symptoms.
• Avoid sharing electronic devices, toys, books, and other games or learning aids.
• Ensure food offered at an event is pre-packaged in boxes or bags for each person. Avoid sharing food and utensils.
• Ensure adequate supplies to minimize sharing of high-touch materials such as art supplies and equipment assigned to a single student or limit using supplies and equipment to one group at a time and clean and disinfect between use.
• Keep child belongings separated and in individually labeled containers, cubbies, or areas. Clean them when taken home each day.
• Promote social distancing.
• Ensure all water systems and features such as drinking fountains are safe to use after a lengthy shutdown to reduce the risk of water-associated diseases.
• Ensure ventilation systems work properly and circulate outdoor air as much as possible, such as by opening windows and doors. Avoid opening windows and doors if they pose a safety or health risk, such as allowing pollen in or exacerbating asthma symptoms.
• Ensure safe application of disinfectants.
• Intensify cleaning, disinfection, and ventilation. This includes daily cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces in schools and on buses at least daily, as well as shared objects such as toys, games and art supplies.
• Teach proper use of face coverings among staff. Face coverings should be worn by staff and encouraged in students — particularly older students — and are most essential when physical distancing is difficult.
• Teach and reinforce washing hands, covering coughs and sneezes
• Close areas used by a sick person and do not use before cleaning and disinfecting. Wait 24 hours before cleaning and disinfecting.
• Implement flexible sick leave policies and practices.
• Monitor staff absenteeism and have a roster of trained back-up staff.
• Monitor health clinic traffic.
• Designate someone to be responsible for responding to COVID-19 concerns. Employees should know who this person is and how to contact them.
• Create a system so staff and families can self-report symptoms and be notified of exposures and closures.
• Support coping and resilience among employees and children.
• Check state and local health department notices daily about transmission in the area and adjust operations accordingly.
• If someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, was in the building and poses a risk to the community, programs can consider temporarily closing (1-2 days) for cleaning and disinfection.

Steps 1 and 2 Only

• Ensure student and staff groups limit movement. Have the same group of children stay with the same staff as much as possible.
• Limit mixing between groups.
• Cancel all field trips, inter-group events, and extracurricular activities.
• Limit gatherings, events, and extracurricular activities to those that can social distance, support proper hand hygiene, and limit attendance of those from higher transmission areas
• Limit nonessential visitors, volunteers, and activities involving other groups at the same time.
• Space seating/desks to at least 6 feet apart.
• Turn desks to face in the same direction (rather than facing each other), or have students sit on only one side of tables, spaced apart.
• Shutter communal-use spaces such as dining halls and playgrounds if possible. If not possible, stagger use and disinfect in between use.
• Serve meals in classrooms rather than in a cafeteria or group dining room.
• Serve individually plated meals and hold activities in separate classrooms and ensure the safety of children with food allergies.
• Stagger arrival and drop-off times or locations, or put in place other protocols to limit close contact with parents or caregivers.
• Social distance on school buses, such as by seating one child per seat in every other row.