5 takeaways for returning to highschool – . Well being Weblog

School districts in the United States are experiencing a period of profound uncertainty that is likely to continue throughout the 2020-2021 school year. Many agree that distance learning in spring 2020 was piecemeal and not optimal. Despite a stated universal commitment to high-quality, full-time personal education, many states are showing rising COVID-19 rates, and teachers and parents share deep health concerns. We have already seen a rapid and seismic transition from early this summer – in June, many schools were planning to open full-time for personal learning – to the near universal adoption of hybrid or distance learning models. In fact, beginning August 26, 24 of the top 25 school districts in the US will begin their school year with distance learning.

I am looking for a perspective for a safe return to school

I started the summer thinking that I could do a little bit of helping bring basic public health and education principles together for a safe return to school. I teach a course at . T.H. Chan School of Public Health on major public health campaigns. My daughter, an urban education scholar, lectures in my class on the value of parent-teacher collaboration. As the grandparent of three young boys aged 7, 4 and 3 years and as the parent and father-in-law of two children and their spouses who are faced with extremely difficult decisions about school and daycare, I am personally invested.

A colleague of a large agency for social services told about parents who work in the hotel industry. You need to leave children aged 6 and 8 at home alone during the day to study remotely. My own story, which I worked as a day care worker and unionized steel worker years ago, gives me a sense of kinship with teachers. And while I've been writing guidelines for school principals in Massachusetts and nationally for the past three months, I've spoken to parents of school-age children, school nurses, and superintendents to lead the heated debate over safe return to school. The view differs depending on where you are, but I've distilled a few lessons.

Five Food Stands: Steps and Missteps on Returning to School

Sleepless nights, fear and cooperation. In all of my conversations, be it with a school principal, parent, grandparent, or school nurse, people told the same stories of a succession of sleepless nights coupled with the most difficult decision they have made personally and in professional life. Parents in particular speak of fear, panic, exhaustion, powerlessness and a lack of support in trying to develop a sensible strategy for their children. At the same time, there is great potential for collaboration. Parents and teachers are natural allies. They can work together on federal and state resources to ensure that our nation's children can ultimately return to safe schools.

Missing metrics. School principals, whom I have great respect for, have received little guidance on the metrics to use as they decide to open schools now or close later. They need data on the number of cases in their community, trends over time, and positive test rates for their areas and the areas closest to their districts. Parents also seek complete transparency when districts review community metrics to make decisions about closing or reopening. There will be successful and challenging school openings. All interested parties need a forum to share their stories with one another.

Tutors, mentors and collective space. The provision of computers and hotspots is important for the children and families who need them. However, we must also take into account that some families clearly do not have internet access. Many families need tutors, mentors, facilitators and a collective space to be competently trained in a remote setting. Low-income communities should be funded to promote and create community learning centers necessary for the millions of children who are not taught in classrooms.

Masks and fabric covers. The wearing of masks, known as the 'intermediate vaccine', must be the cornerstone of a national plan to reduce transmission in school and collective areas. How can we increase the use of masks? For parents, teachers and day-care workers, the clock starts now as we carefully practice wearing masks before and after school starts and then continue this practice throughout the school year. School principals, parents and teachers can work together to create signs that strengthen the social norm of wearing masks in schools and school buses and encourage children to do so.

Openness to the development of science and wisdom beyond our borders. Above all, we should all be humble about the limits of knowledge in the early stages of a pandemic and expect change as scientific understanding evolves. At first, many experts believed that children did not get the virus and did not transmit it. There was little basis to say as nearly every school in the US was closed by March 17th at the latest. We can look for models elsewhere, but schools in Europe started out in the open and never had more than 15 children per class. If it hadn't been for the boom that hit much of the country in late June, we might have tragically focused on a full personal reopening with 25 kids in one class and 66 kids on a school bus. When schools recently opened in the US and abroad, we were inundated with reports of cases diagnosed in students and teachers. However, basic public health principles such as social distancing, wearing masks and hand washing can prevail if applied consistently.

Schools cannot open safely when community transmission rates are high. The reopening of the school must take precedence over the opening of bars, restaurants and large social gatherings. We all have a collective responsibility and a social pact with one another to seek the healthy and full return of our country's students and teachers to school.

For more information on return to school issues, check out our "Live Better, Live Longer" podcast with Alan Geller: "Back to School: It's Never Been So Complicated."