Not all schools will be able to restart. For those that can, the focus should be on more than just the classroom.
As we wrestle in the next few weeks over which of the nation’s schools to reopen — and let’s be clear, not all of them will be safe to restart — we need to understand this: Kindergarten through the 12th grade involves more than just the classroom.
To create safe schools is much more complex than just having students wear face masks and sit physically distanced from one another in class. We must ensure that all five of the core school-based activities — transportation, time in the classroom, mealtimes, gym and extracurricular activities — are safe.
To do this, we created a school risk index to assess the dangers and offer recommendations to reduce the chance of spreading the virus, not only among students but also among teachers and other employees.
Four principles stand out.
First, schools cannot reopen safely when community transmission is high and climbing. In our view, schools should open only in places that have fewer than 75 confirmed cases per 100,000 people over the previous seven days with a test positivity rate below 5 percent. By our count, 12 states and the District of Columbia meet both metrics. In many larger states, some counties or cities meet those criteria. Even with those numbers, about one in 1,300 people will return to school with confirmed cases of the coronavirus, meaning a school of 350 students, faculty and staff will have roughly a one-in-four chance of someone coming in with Covid-19. (Many countries, such as Japan, Austria and Italy, have suppressed the virus to the extent that they have fewer than one in 10,000 people with confirmed cases.)
Second, schools should avoid high-risk activities. This means no contact sports either in the gym or competitive athletics for high school students. It also means no band, choir or drama performances. We know that this will be both disappointing and difficult. But close contact for prolonged periods of time with forced exhalations is what increases the risk of transmission.
