Amid the coronavirus pandemic in America, getting students back to school continues to be at the forefront of many people’s minds.
There are options when it comes to reopening, and organizations such as the American Association of Pediatrics have put out guidance to help schools reopen in the safest way possible.
“However, as many school districts face budgetary constraints, schools must evaluate their options and identify measures that are particularly important and feasible for their communities,” said authors from the Division of General Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine in a commentary published Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics.
The authors offer a number of suggestions on how the AAP guidelines can be used in schools to make reopening as safe as possible.
They suggest that school districts create Covid-19 task forces that are made up of key stakeholders, including superintendents and parents, to develop procedures and policies for safety.
The authors address physical distancing, personal protective equipment and fixed cohorts of students and teachers – all things that are covered in the AAP guidelines.
“The AAP guidance states the importance of identifying symptoms and signs concerning for Covid-19 but does not discuss operational approaches in depth,” the authors said.
They recommend that schools implement multilevel screening for students and staff, which includes, among other things, reporting of symptoms by parents every morning and recording of temperature by staff when students arrive.
The AAP guidelines also don’t include an approach for testing, they said.
For this, the authors recommend a three-pronged testing approach, carried out in collaboration with local hospitals. It includes:
- All students with symptoms should be tested.
- Schools should conduct random staff and student testing to identify asymptomatic patients.
- Students from high-risk households should be offered testing more frequently.
The authors also discuss the need for schools to continually be flexible, with plans in place for virtual learning and the potential need for extra nurses, psychologists and social workers in schools.
“In summary, to maximize health and educational outcomes, school districts should adopt some or all of the measures on the AAP guidance and prioritize them after considering local Covid-19 incidence, key stakeholder input, and budgetary constraints,” the authors said.
Another option for reopening schools is virtual learning – something which comes with its own considerations, according to authors from the University of Florida College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and the Research Center for Educational Technology at Kent State University, who published a separate commentary in JAMA Pediatrics on Tuesday.
While Covid-19 led to many American students and educators being unexpectedly introduced to virtual learning, it has been around since the mid-1990s, according to the authors.
“While more than a billion children worldwide newly experienced this pandemic related abrupt transition to online education, at least 2% of US students and many more globally had already been participating in online instruction from K-12 online or virtual schools,” the authors said.
Like in person learning, virtual learning also comes with many options, including for-profit, charter and public options – something that parents need to consider and research as they look into virtual learning.
The authors also point out that it doesn’t work for all students or all families. Factors such as access to internet can cause “significant variation” in student success. However, one group that research suggests that virtual learning can be beneficial for is students with special health care needs.
The authors suggest that parents should assess the characteristics of their children and understand the virtual school options that are available to them.
“The pandemic has encouraged many parents to explore educational alternatives, particularly for students who may have health concerns such as those with respiratory disease or who are immunocompromised,” the authors said. “With social distancing creating obstacles for traditional education, K-12 online learning may become more mainstream.”
