As we have seen, a lot can happen in a year. When it comes to COVID-19 and schools, we’ve embarked on a national distance learning campaign with growing pressure to have schools reopen sooner than later. Embarking on this pandemic anniversary helps keep things in perspective and set realistic goals moving forward. Here's what you can expect regarding your child's school after COVID.
Where we were one year ago: School guidelines by state
Going forward: School reopening
As schools and parents prepare for school reopening, the guidelines attempt to balance safety and successful learning. According to the CDC, essential elements to going back to school include:
- Consistent implementation of mitigation strategies to reduce COVID spread
- Reduced community risk indicators
- Phased learning modes based on community transmission levels
What this means is that when your child returns to school, they will need to wear a mask in school, have appropriate social distancing space, wash hands often, and the community as a whole has to have what is deemed manageable cases of transmission. Schools will have to implement more stringent, regular cleaning and disinfecting of property and have a system in place for contact tracing in the event that someone contracts the virus.
Schools have a lot of work to do as well. This includes improving air filtration and redesigning classroom space. The reality is that most schools don’t feel that they will be ready until the new school year begins in the fall.
No matter which way you look at it, there is still a lot of uncertainty for many students when it comes to in-person learning. We hope that as the vaccine continues to be distributed, and more is understood about transmission, we can get the kids back to a normal learning environment sooner than later.
