CDC Makes Case For School Reopening

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Pre-kindergarten students listen as their teacher reads a story at Dawes Elementary School in Chicago on Jan. 11.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP

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Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP

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Among the school systems cited in the review were 11 North Carolina districts serving more than 90,000 students and staff. During a 9-week period this fall, researchers found just 32 infections acquired in school — compared to 773 cases of students and staff infected outside of school. None of those 32 in-school transmissions involved students infecting teachers or staff.

In another study, of 17 schools in rural Wisconsin, mask-wearing helped keep the COVID-19 incidence lower in schools than in the larger community.

While the researchers call the findings «reassuring,» they make clear that much of the success schools have had in preventing transmission is the result of schools’ embrace of safety precautions.

«All recommended mitigation measures in schools must continue: requiring universal face mask use, increasing physical distance … increasing room air ventilation, and expanding screening testing to rapidly identify and isolate asymptomatic infected individuals,» the report says.

The CDC authors do single out a few school-based functions that can drive infections, namely indoor sports practices and events. They cite a pair of high school wrestling tournaments in Florida where 38 of the 54 participants who were tested, tested positive, some of whom brought the virus back to their families and friend circles. The report also serves as a reminder that schools do not operate in a vacuum. To keep COVID-19 out of classrooms, communities should be prepared to fight it elsewhere, including by restricting indoor dining.

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The report comes at an inflection point for the U.S., where more than 420,000 people have died from the disease and communities have been bracing for the arrival of more contagious coronavirus variants. At the same time, the federal government has begun a massive, if plodding, vaccination rollout. Some states have prioritized inoculating educators and school staff as teachers unions in some communities have resisted a return to school for safety reasons.

President Biden has pledged to help the majority of schools reopen within his first 100 days. His administration has proposed sending $130 billion in relief to K-12 schools to help pay for the kinds of costly mitigation efforts the CDC recommends, including socially distanced classrooms and ventilation updates for aging buildings.