CDC releases suggested guidelines on reopening schools

The Center For Disease Control has issued a set of guidelines and suggestions for reopening schools and it has some parents concerned and looking in to the posibility of distance learning options.

From the CDC:

As communities consider a gradual scale up of activities towards pre-COVID-19 operating practices in centers
for learning, such as K-12 schools and summer day camps, CDC offers the following recommendations to keep
communities safe while resuming peer-to-peer learning and providing crucial support for parents and guardians
returning to work. These recommendations depend on community monitoring to prevent COVID-19 from
spreading. Communities with low levels of COVID-19 spread and those with confidence that the incidence of
infection is genuinely low (e.g., communities that remain in low transmission or that have entered Step 2 or 3)
may put in place the practices described below as part of a gradual scale up of operations. All decisions about
following these recommendations should be made in collaboration with local health officials and other State
and local authorities who can help assess the current level of mitigation needed based on levels of COVID-19
community transmission and the capacities of the local public health and healthcare systems, among other
relevant factors. CDC is releasing this interim guidance, laid out in a series of three steps, to inform a gradual
scale up of operations. The scope and nature of community mitigation suggested decreases from Step 1 to
Step 3. Some amount of community mitigation is necessary across all steps until a vaccine or therapeutic drug
becomes widely available.

Some of the guidleines that the CDC has put out:

Keep each child’s belongings separated from others’ and in individually labeled containers, cubbies, or
areas and taken home each day and cleaned, if possible.
• Ensure adequate supplies to minimize sharing of high touch materials to the extent possible (art
supplies, equipment etc. assigned to a single student/camper) or limit use of supplies and equipment
by one group of children at a time and clean and disinfect between use.
• If food is offered at any event, have pre-packaged boxes or bags for each attendee instead of a buffet
or family-style meal. Avoid sharing of foods and utensils.
• Avoid sharing electronic devices, toys, books, and other games or learning aids.

Ensure that student and staff groupings are as static as possible by having the same group of
children stay with the same staff (all day for young children, and as much as possible for older
children).
o Restrict mixing between groups.
o Cancel all field trips, inter-group events, and extracurricular activities (Step 1).
o Limit gatherings, events, and extracurricular activities to those that can maintain social
distancing, support proper hand hygiene, and restrict attendance of those from higher
transmission areas (Step 2; Note: restricting attendance from those in Step 1 areas).
o Restrict nonessential visitors, volunteers, and activities involving other groups at the same
time.
o Space seating/desks to at least six feet apart.
o Turn desks to face in the same direction (rather than facing each other), or have students sit on
only one side of tables, spaced apart.
o Close communal use spaces such as dining halls and playgrounds if possible; otherwise stagger
use and disinfect in between use.
47
o If a cafeteria or group dining room is typically used, serve meals in classrooms instead. Serve
individually plated meals and hold activities in separate classrooms and ensure the safety of
children with food allergies.
o Stagger arrival and drop-off times or locations, or put in place other protocols to limit close
contact with parents or caregivers as much as possible.
o Create social distance between children on school buses (for example, seating children one
child per seat, every other row) where possible.

See the complete list here.