American adults have failed in almost every way imaginable in this pandemic. None of it is kids’ fault.

I've been screaming this in my house for months, so might as well scream it to the world: Schools Should Be the Last Things We Close, Not the First https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/opinion/schools-closing-covid.html?smid=tw-share

Anecdote: Schools have been open in Indiana since August. After they opened, cases held steady all through September. At the end of that month, though, we moved to Stage 5 - restaurants and bars could operate at capacity, and gatherings of up to *500 people* could occur.

Within two weeks of that decision, cases began to increase. We were at 1103 cases the day my kids returned to hybrid in-person high school. We were at 1163 the day Indiana moved to stage 5.

This past Saturday, we posted more than 8500 cases.

Our response? Restaurants remain open. Bars remain open. No changes to businesses. Schools, however, are likely closing in much of the state soon.

And it's not enough to shout "open". The playbook for keeping schools as safe as possible has been understood for many months.

1) Classrooms need to be less dense, so that students are sitting at least six feet apart at all times. Need room? Think outside the box.

2) Class start and end times need to be staggered so students aren’t bunched together in the halls. Make sure students eat apart, and certainly are not confined to one lunchroom.

3) Students need to be universally masked.

Before anyone says that kids will refuse to wear masks, as a pediatrician and a father I can assure you that at some point in their lives, children also refuse to wear pants.

They’ll learn.

4) We need to recognize that some teachers are at higher risk than others, and be thoughtful in how we protect them.

We need to invest in rapid, repeated testing schemes to provide an added layer of protection.

Many colleges and universities have figured this out.

This will all cost billions. It's worth every penny.

Because schools are not the major cause of the problem, shutting them down won’t do enough on its own to slow the spread of the disease.

When — not if — businesses are forced to shutter temporarily in the near future, we can tide them over with money, and we *absolutely should*.

When schools are closed, however, handing students a check will not replace what they’ve lost.

*Deep breath*

Go read the column, please.

Schools Should Be the Last Things We Close, Not the First https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/opinion/schools-closing-covid.html?smid=tw-share