Education Week - February 24, 2021 - 13

ance, Walensky said, and, on the day
the guidance was released, about
90 percent of counties were considered high-risk.
The new federal guidelines clash
with mandates in place in some
states. Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, and
Texas require schools to offer on-site
instruction to all students five days a
week, even as they see high rates of
the virus in many areas.
The recommendations rely on five
key mitigation strategies, versions
of which were included in previous
recommendations the CDC issued
under the Trump administration. Because the coronavirus is an airborne
illness, schools should prioritize the
first two, Walensky said: " universal
and correct use of masks " and social
distancing of at least six feet. The
other three strategies detailed in
the guidance are hand-washing and
" respiratory etiquette, " maintaining
clean facilities, and implementing
strategies for careful contact tracing
and isolation of potentially exposed
students, teachers, and staff.
The guidance lists vaccinations for
teachers and staff and broad surveillance testing of students and adults
as additional strategies, but places
less emphasis on them than the other
practices. Separately, Biden has ordered the creation of a national testing board that will draft recommendations for schools, and he's pushed
for funding for broader testing efforts.
As the country nears a full year since
most states issued broad closure orders
in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be difficult for school administrators to change their communities' perception of risk or comfort with
various mitigation strategies. Dated
heating and air conditioning systems
and crowded classrooms can make social distancing and proper ventilation
difficult, they've said.
Daniel Bittman, the superintendent of the Elk River School District
in Minnesota, which is currently
phasing its 13,000 students back in
to in-person instruction, welcomed
the new guidance as a unified source
of advice for school districts and their
communities.
" It's helpful to have very clear recommendations on things like testing,
hand-washing, face covering, and the
importance of layering various mitigation strategies, coming from what we
consider to be a trustworthy source, "
he said. " We are already doing 90 percent of those things. But this provides
some level of consistency and clarity
and a common language for everyone
to use. "
But Bittman is also concerned that
if his district can't implement every
single strategy outlined by the CDC,
some of his staff and community
members might worry that they won't
be safe in schools.
" To say that school districts must
keep six feet of space for social distancing, we can't do that effectively
and consistently, especially on buses
and in hallways and cafeterias, " he
said. " It could create some alarm, because it's not necessarily practical. "
Schools also face challenges with adequate staffing due to teacher quarantines and a drop in applications for substitute teaching. Some teachers have

expressed concerns about emerging,
more contagious variants of the virus.
And local teachers' unions in cities like
Chicago have raised concerns about
accommodations for employees with
medically vulnerable family members
and whether or not teachers should
be vaccinated before returning to the
classroom.
Political pushback over teacher
vaccinations

Walensky sparked some pushback
earlier this month when she said that
vaccinating teachers is not " a prerequisite " for school reopenings. The new
guidance backs up her statement, saying that teachers should be prioritized
for early vaccines but that they can
safely return to classrooms with appropriate precautions before they are
inoculated.
" The decision to go back to in-person instruction is not one that any of
us take lightly, " Walensky said. " Believe me, I know. "
As a presidential candidate, Biden
spoke frequently of " listening to the
science, " and he accused former
President Donald Trump of letting
politics drive his administration's
response.
Under the Trump administration,
the CDC issued guidance for schools
on a range of issues, including basic
precautions like hand-washing, virus
testing, and quarantines for infected
or exposed students and staff.
But some school leaders said the
recommendations were inconsistent
and lacked clear metrics to guide
their decisions. For example, a colorcoded chart detailed community risk
levels, but it did not tell schools how
to respond to that risk. The agency
also changed its position on universal
symptom screenings, and the nonpartisan Government Accountability
Office faulted the Trump administration for contradictory messaging to
schools.
In addition to more guidance for
schools, Biden has ordered additional
federal data on how they are operating during the pandemic. And he's
asked Congress to pass a COVID-19
relief bill that includes $130 billion in
additional K-12 relief aid.
Walensky said on a press call that
the White House had been briefed on
the new guidance, but did not review
or craft her remarks to reporters.
Alongside the guidance, the U.S.
Department of Education released
the first part of a " handbook " of
successful mitigation practices and
community feedback strategies for
schools. It promised further releases
would highlight best practices in areas
like equity and supporting students'
mental health.
Education groups that have long
pushed for clearer federal guidance
praised the CDC release. But some
district leaders told Education Week
the guidance didn't contain any new
or surprising recommendations.
Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of the Miami-Dade school
district, said he welcomed their affirmation of what his district, which reopened fully to all students in October,
is already doing. About 47 percent of
the district's 350,000 students are

now attending school in person fulltime, while 53 percent opted to remain
in remote mode.
" Rather than being an enlightening
document, I felt it to be validating of
the practices we've had in place, " Carvalho said.
But Gary Gonzales, the superintendent of the South Whittier schools,
a K-8 district near Los Angeles that
serves primarily low-income Latino
families, said some families in his district will have a hard time trusting that
it's safe to return, and the new guidance probably won't change that.
" The die was cast " when Trump
downplayed the seriousness of the
virus, he said, and parents then saw, in
their own community, how deadly it
was. " Now they don't trust leadership
in the form of a local superintendent,
or a state leader, or a federal leader.
Trust has been eroded that way. "

Research has suggested most students and staff with COVID-19 become infected outside of the school,
so community spread can drive both
campus outbreaks and staff absences
that can force a school to close.
" If our communities are decimated
by COVID-19, it's impractical to say
you're going to be able to run a school
properly. Teachers, students, caregivers, bus drivers all are part of a community, and the local health department
may be overwhelmed if the community rates are too high, " said Ibukun
Akinboyo, assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Duke School
of Medicine and a medical director of
pediatric infection prevention at Duke
University Medical Center.
But Akinboyo, speaking before the
release of the guidelines, warned
administrators that data on spread

rates often can be incomplete or out
of date in areas with limited testing
or slow reporting, and community
infection risk guidelines like those
offered by some states and the CDC
need to be considered in the context
of a community's larger health picture.
For example, a community infection rate of 15 in 100,000 may
be considered low risk on average,
but that risk calculation changes if
the school has a high percentage
of teachers in vulnerable groups or
very limited support from the local
health department.
Walensky stressed upon the guidance's release that " layered mitigation strategies " will help keep
schools safe.
" Most school outbreaks are the
result of breaches in mask wearing
and relaxed mitigation, " she said.

A Holistic Approach to
Social-Emotional Learning
This webinar will highlight the
research behind the four components
of holistic SEL and explore some of
the most important features of this
approach. Alicia Erwin will share
the Metropolitan School District of
Wayne Township's vision and the
realities of their implementation
as they moved to embrace a more
holistic approach to SEL. Attendees
will gain both theoretical and
practical knowledge to inform plans
for the coming school year and help
strengthen your school community.

GUESTS
ٚANDREA LOVANHILL,
!ǝǣƺǔ0ɴƺƬɖɎǣɮƺǔˡƬƺȸً
Committee for Children
ٚTIA KIM, VP of Education, Research
& Impact, Committee for Children
ٚALICIA ERWIN, Wayne@Home
Administrator, MSD of Wayne
Township, Indianapolis, IN
MODERATOR
ٚJENNIFER SANDERLIN, Education
Partnerships Regional Manager,
Committee for Children

Content provided by

Tuesday, March 2, 2021
1 PM ET
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Education Week - February 24, 2021

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