Most students only need to be spaced 3 feet apart in classrooms, according to the new guidance for schools released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (only half of the 6 feet first recommended by the agency to curb the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
The update could pave the way for more classes return to face-to-face learning, such as the Biden administration urges schools reopen. For weeks, federal officials have acknowledged that some school districts would be unable to meet the guidelines set by the CDC in February despite background infusion of the recently approved American Rescue Plan.
“This is an urgent issue. I understand the challenges of mental health. I understand the educational challenge, food insecurity. This is urgent,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said in a Senate hearing Thursday about the need for reopen schools.
Combined with the use of masks and other mitigation measures, the revised CDC guidelines allow most students to be separated just 3 feet away from classrooms. However, in middle and high schools, students “should be 6 feet apart” in “high” transmission communities when students cannot be grouped into “cohorts”. The CDC defines a cohort or “pod” as “a different group that stays together throughout the school day during face-to-face learning.”
About 40% of counties remain on “high” transmissions, according to CDC data. The updated guide describes community transmission as an “alert system” for the risk of COVID-19 spreading to schools. If levels increase, administrators are advised to impose “restrictions on sports and extracurricular activities to protect face-to-face learning.”
Adults, who tend to get sick and spread the virus faster than children, are urged to keep a 6-foot distance from students and others. teachers and staff to school.
It is still advisable to be at least 6 feet apart for students of all ages as long as masks cannot be worn, such as for eating, and during activities such as singing, exercising, or practicing bands that involve “increased exhalation.” . These types of activities “should be moved outdoors or in large, well-ventilated spaces whenever possible,” the guidelines say.
“These updated recommendations provide the evidence-based roadmap to help schools reopen safely and remain open for in-person instruction,” said Drs. Walensky in a statement.
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In publishing its new guidance, the CDC cited new research from schools that had safely reopened. In a study of Utah elementary schools that were unable to space desks more than 3 feet away “due to limited space,” the researchers found little transmission “despite the high incidence of the community.”
Recent studies “offer quite compelling evidence that if a school has its students parked 3 feet away, compared to schools that have students parked 6 feet away, there doesn’t seem to be much difference in rate. of us [COVID-19] “Dr. Sophia Jan, head of the general pediatrics division at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, told CBSN. Other measures such as wearing masks, keeping students in cohorts when possible and vaccinating patients are also important. teachers.
The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, told CBS News that the union “reserves judgment” on the new recommendations and needs to review the latest studies.
“I’ve heard throughout the week from educators a real uncertainty and unhappiness about this change right now,” Weingarten said. “We know students have to be in school. But I’ve heard a lot of people say, how many more changes can we make in a year? How many times can we change in ten?”
The agency’s updated guidance also incorporates new recommendations for implementing screening tests, both “for schools that use less than six feet of physical distance” and to support extracurricular activities, such as sports.
Several school systems have implemented these testing campaigns, checking COVID-19 students and staff daily with rapid response testing. On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced it would invest billions of dollars in increasing screening tests in more classrooms.
“We know there are schools that have tried to do that and have struggled to have the resources to do that. That’s why we want resources and we want to attract school reopening,” said Carole Johnson, COVID-19 of the l Biden administration. proving the tsar, he told reporters on Wednesday.
The changes come after weeks of growing frustration with the Biden administration’s original guidelines, which critics said were unfounded obstacles for local school officials trying to chart a return to Biden. face-to-face learning.
A growing number of studies examining schools that reopened over the past year have revealed poor transmission of COVID-19 at distances less than 6 feet when other measures were applied, such as the universal use of masks. A study published earlier this month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases comparing Massachusetts school districts found similar rates of COVID-19 in both 3-foot and 6-foot requirements.
This week, the CDC also released a survey suggesting that school closures risked having “negative mental, emotional, or physical health outcomes” and that they had disproportionately affected black, Hispanic, and multiracial families.
“Keeping schools closed or even partially closed, based on what we know is now unjustified, harms children and has become a human rights issue,” wrote the authors of the research underlying the previous CDC guidelines in a publication published by USA Today. but, arguing that the agency had misinterpreted its findings.
CDC reviews match their distance recommendations for schools with others such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization.
Some U.S. communities had already cited these guidelines to rule out the 6-foot CDC recommendation and establish their own rules for social distancing between student desks, from Palm Beach County in Florida to schools throughout Massachusetts.
“I think the question for the administration and for the country’s schools is not whether they can be open, but how,” White House senior adviser Andy Slavitt said Wednesday.
Natalie Brand provided reports.