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Like many parents experiencing the realities of remote learning, I'm looking to when & how can schools reopen. We know the answer to this Q depends on our ability to get a handle on this pandemic. But it also hinges on the ability of our leaders to act upon evidence. 1/
So I did what any mother turned edu-wonk would do: I (along with a few colleagues) dug into state public health guidance. The results shocked me and raise dire concerns about whether we are prepared to do what it takes to reopen schools. https://www.crpe.org/thelens/urgent-action-states-fed-needed-clarify-school-reopening-decisions 2/
There’s no real good news to report here. So lets start with the bad before turning to the ugly. 23 states & DC lack clear public health criteria to reopen schools. The majority of these cases simply defer to local districts. 3/
4 states - Arkansas, Florida, New Jersey and Texas - even require schools to offer in-person instruction regardless of public health conditions. Only one of these - NJ - shows very low levels of community-wide transmission. 4/
Now the ugly: Even when states are providing guidance, it’s based on wildly different yardsticks and employs different thresholds for safe reopening. Let’s look at some examples. 5/
The Harvard Global Health Institute recommends fully in-person instruction when daily cases fall under 10 per 100k people. The @WHO has cited a 5% positivity rate. https://globalepidemics.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pandemic_resilient_schools_briefing_72020.pdf 6/
Washington recommends that schools offer some in-person instruction when counties have fewer than 5 daily cases per 100k. This is a standard TWICE as stringent as Harvard’s and basically means my children will never return to school. @waOSPI 7/
In contrast, CT recommends some in-person instruction when daily new cases fall below 25 cases/100k people, a standard FIVE times looser than Washington’s! (Did I mention that fewer than 1/3 of CT's schools plan to open for in-person instruction?!) 8/ https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-connecticut-school-reopen-plans-20200818-ye3mg6mg35bh7ekxi33ctsruda-story.html
Then there’s Iowa, which uses test positivity rates as its sole metric, requiring schools to reopen for in-person instruction unless the county’s COVID-19 positivity rate exceeds 15 percent. This standard is three times more lenient than the @WHO. 9/ https://governor.iowa.gov/press-release/gov-reynolds-signs-new-public-health-proclamation-advancing-iowa%E2%80%99s-return-to-learn
Vague and varying guidelines leave reopening vulnerable to shifting politics and are already contributing to a crisis of confidence among teachers and parents about going back to school. 10/
Since federal leadership is unlikely to arrive anytime soon, a consortium of states could work with the public health community to arrive at consensus recommendations around school reopening. 11/
