Many parents are rightfully concerned that their kids are not receiving the quality of educational services that schools are required, by law, to provide when school districts implement a 100% virtual learning or hybrid classroom model [that ask students to come to school on alternating days] options.

The American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) contends that based on experience and research, remote learning is likely to result in severe learning loss and increased social isolation. Social isolation, in turn, can breed serious social, emotional and health issues: “child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation. Furthermore, these impacts will be visited more severely on Black and brown children, as well as low-income children and those with learning disabilities.”

Children are safer in their schools. And, there are lots of kids in this country who are, for example, food insecure, who may be experiencing abuse at home — not to mention the obvious academic benefits of simply being in school. We know that remote learning is just not that good.

Nation’s Pediatricians support in-person schooling

The AAP guidance “strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.” Their guidance says “schools are fundamental to child and adolescent development and well-being.”

The AAP cites “mounting evidence that transmission of the coronavirus by young children is uncommon, partly because they are less likely to contract it in the first place. Tests showed lower coronavirus rates in schools than in their surrounding communities.”

Dr. Fauci: "The default position should be to try as best as possible within reason to keep the children in school or to get them back to school […] if you look at the data the spread among children and from children is not really big at all"pic.twitter.com/G0MqlA0NDQ

— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) November 29, 2020

The guidance for in-person schooling includes recommendations to maintain physical distancing, cleaning and disinfection of classrooms, frequent hand-washing, and using outdoor spaces whenever possible.

Largest school system

New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to reopen the city’s public elementary schools and return to partial in-person learning. The plan is to reopen schools at the pre-k and K5 levels because “we have so much proof now of how safe schools can be” amid the contagion”, de Blasio remarked.

Yet, concern remains at what is the critical amount of community transmission that is at a safe enough level to open schools.

Parents and schools responsibilities

Schools are requiring parents to attest to the fact that their children are not showing symptoms and that they took their temperature in the morning prior to the student arriving at school.

Additionally, many schools are segregating kids into what they’re calling cohort groups, so that the same small group of 10 or 12 kids will stay together all day. That way, if there is a reported infection from one of those kids, then ideally you’re only contact tracing and quarantining that group instead of every child in the building.

Furthermore, students will be socially distanced and will be wearing masks. The challenge of footprint and the ability to space out desks remains a challenge for most schools. Some schools have put those kids in the gymnasium or had to start holding class outside, but that often requires more teachers.

“There seems to be less transmission from kids to adults than there is adults to adults. Kids don’t seem to be super-spreaders”, said Pediatrician Aaron Carroll of Indiana University. “We don’t have reports of sort of, you know, a kid going somewhere and spreading it to a bunch of other kids or even a bunch of other adults.”

Public health experts and infectious disease experts agree that we all have to do the right thing if we plan to send our kids back to school.

References:

1. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/15/891598558/is-school-safe-will-districts-test-for-covid-19-answering-back-to-school-questio
2. https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/146/3/e20201440
3. https://nypost.com/2020/11/29/nyc-elementary-schools-to-reopen-for-in-person-learning-dec-7/
4. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/american-academy-of-pediatrics-says-benefits-of-in-person-learning-outweigh-coronavirus-risks/ar-BB16b9W9