Anya Kamenetz of NPR reports that the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that young children should return to school in the fall.
She writes:
The guidance says “schools are fundamental to child and adolescent development and well-being.”
The AAP cites “mounting evidence” that transmission of the coronavirus by young children is uncommon, partly because they are less likely to contract it in the first place.
On the other hand, the AAP argues that based on the nation’s experience this spring, remote learning is likely to result in severe learning loss and increased social isolation. Social isolation, in turn, can breed serious social, emotional and health issues: “child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation.” Furthermore, these impacts will be visited more severely on Black and brown children, as well as low-income children and those with learning disabilities.
The guidance for returning to in-person schooling includes recommendations about physical distancing, cleaning and disinfection, hand-washing, and using outdoor spaces whenever possible.
The AAP argues that offering elementary school children the opportunity to go to school every day should be given due consideration over spacing guidelines if capacity is an issue: “Schools should weigh the benefits of strict adherence to a 6-feet spacing rule between students with the potential downside if remote learning is the only alternative.”
And, it also argues that masks are probably not practical for children younger than middle school unless they can wear a mask without increased face touching.
The guidelines do note that adult school staff are more at risk compared to young children and need to be able to distance from other adults as much as possible — no in-person faculty meetings, no class visits by parents. And they emphasize the need to make accommodations for students who are medically fragile or have special health care needs or disabilities.
However, these guidelines don’t necessarily address the health concerns of America’s teachers or their willingness to return to in-person teaching. Federal data show nearly a third of teachers are over 50, putting them in a higher risk category when it comes to the disease.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This parallels my own thinking in a way. We cannot deny the failure of distance learning in general except where specific technique is delivered for specific purposes (a friend of mine makes distance instruction to prepare EMTs to pass certification tests. This is a highly motivated group whose goal is very immediate). We cannot deny the list of 22 reasons we should not go back to school this late summer Nancy Bailey provided us in her usual straightforward manner. So what are we to do?
My solution includes extensive blanket testing of students and staff and contact tracing along with socially distanced classes (some of the group work that is so much the rage these days is going to have to be put aside for a time, which is not a good thing)
Funding being local, however, none of this is going to happen. Budgets are balanced on the backs of the homeowners, many of whom are experiencing depressed incomes due to business downturn. What we need is a Marshall Plan for schools that will provide temporary funding on a national level to meet these goals, hiring thousands of people to do all the things that can make this a reality.
Think this is going to happen? For some reason I doubt that we will get beyond a business rescue. What makes me think that?
And cobblers think that violin-making is easy.
Amen, brother. They should stick to worrying about the physical health of children and let education professionals get on with what we need to do.
Some of the information in that release (watched the doctor reading it as a student might read orally as if they weren’t sure what they were reading) is contradictory to what a doctor at the renowned Rainbow Children’s Hospital in Cleveland is reporting. Pediatricians are certainly experts in children’s physical and emotional health, but I would imagine very few of them have actually had the experience of teaching in an elementary or secondary classroom. Here is a link to the Rainbow doctor’s observations: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/uh-rainbow-babies-and-children-s-hospital-sees-an-increase-in-covid-19-cases/ar-BB15pR5E
This information doesn’t seem to make sense. We know that children are less likely to become seriously ill, but how can it be that kids simply get it “less often.”? Also, every recommendation about physical distancing makes absolutely no sense. No school can meet these needs; do people think that we will suddenly have twice or three times as many buildings and teachers than we have now, deep spending cuts notwithstanding?
I believe that this argument is a financial one. If schools remain closed, people can’t work.
asking real questions in times when outside ‘experts’ rely heavily upon assumption: on top of everything else, no two schools, no two cities, no two districts are so much alike that one size will somehow fit all
This is a very complex issue, particularly since there are so many things about it we do not understand. Baylor University has discovered that the Houston virus strain has mutated, and it is now hyper contagious. Everyone is going to have to weigh the risk versus the reward. There are no easy answers. Those of us in public education understand the challenges of opening schools in the fall.
The 22 countries that opened did so carefully and in a phased way. Many used hybrid. Some concentrated on elementary students only for in-person. The only course we should not follow and throw up our hands and say “this is too hard.” it is likely this virus will be with us for years. For the sake of children, we must figure this out.
Not to worry! Trump says we’ll have a vaccine well before the end of the year! (/s).
“The only course we should not follow and throw up our hands and say “this is too hard.” it is likely this virus will be with us for years. For the sake of children, we must figure this out.”
I’ve not seen anyone just suggest we “throw up our hands and say ‘this is too hard'”.
It’s quite simple actually. Until the contagion is contained, and we are nowhere near that point schools SHOULD NOT OPEN. Are you Carole, going to be the one who accepts responsibility for the many unnecessary and preventable deaths, but not only that, but the various morbidities that will occur when the INNOCENT children contract the disease?
The “sake of the children” number one priority is too prevent not only children but all from contracting the disease. Anything less is an abomination, unethical and immoral. And opening the schools when the epidemic is still raging, and it will still be come school opening time, will guarantee that many students will succumb to the virus.
This ain’t rocket science.
How anyone can insist on opening amidst the epidemic is beyond my comprehension as a human being. Sad, so effin Sad!!
For the sake of the children we must refuse to reopen until all national and international guidelines are set up and being followed. Anything less is the murder of many innocents!
Teachers, all teachers must refuse to participate in this killing of innocents.
Is all of the above a strong, strident declaration? Yes!
Is it true? Yes! I wish it weren’t but I know that it is 100% true.
Do I wish I were wrong? Yes!
But I’m not and come October we will see the results of the arrogance and hubris of those who think they can control this epidemic by not following the epidemiological guidelines we should be following, the death and destruction of innocent lives sadly come to fruition.
Covid-19 infections are going up in Day Care centers in Texas:
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/01/texas-day-care-coronavirus-cases-rising/
This will happen in other settings.
Does Putin have a different bounties for Americans depending on who they are?
Thanks for this article, Yvonne! Its 4 links provide a summary of the scientific evidence I looked for in vain in connection with the AAP guidance paper.
All of the studies say, although data is encouraging, it’s unknown why there are few documented cases of child transmission. The listed unknowns include one that could undermine conclusions: school closures occurred in most of these locations along with widespread social distancing – that could have limited most close contacts to households, reducing oppty for children to present as index cases.
Meanwhile the news in the TexTrib article is disturbing indeed. Flies right in the face of the studies – all of which are derived from two+-mo old data. Stay tuned I guess…
“The AAP cites “mounting evidence” that transmission of the coronavirus by young children is uncommon, partly because they are less likely to contract it in the first place.”
Here’s what the AAP report actually says: “Although many questions remain, the preponderance of evidence indicates that children and adolescents are less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to have severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection.” What preponderance of evidence? There are no footnotes/ links to any “evidence” whatsoever.
Meanwhile, the NPR’s link at “evidence” is to a previous NPR article referencing 2 sources:
–Y self-reporting
–a unscientific survey” of childcare centers by Brown U (in other words, self-reporting)
No details from either source on how they came up w/# infected. (Did they test everyone? If yes how often? I’m doubting any testing was reqd – this is probably a # reflecting those who got symptoms & went for a test. If I’m right, that means no info on asymptomatic community spread. The Y’s statement “no reports of clusters or outbreaks” is meaningless without local public-health data context, as are the low-infection stats in the Brown survey. Many of the centers surveyed are in states currently experiencing rampant community spread. They have no clue to what degree these centers contributed to that.
Searching for AAP’s “evidence,” I followed the covid info links at the end of their report. They were about where pediatricians could get CARES/ PPP assistance, plus reports on how kids aren’t getting to ped for shots & checkups due to covid.
The AAP guidance is merely a re-hash of CDC guidance on school procedures during covid, plus another “Come on in, the water’s fine” pitch.
Not science.
The AAP’s ideas show just how little most people know about how schools operate and what would be required to reopen. As others have noted, what they’re really doing is reiterating the CDC guidelines, which were never possible (much less practical) in the first place. That hard 6′ social distance requirement means stripping down a classroom to a very small number of students (I could only get about 16 into my very large science lab room.) The logistics of passing between classes are a nightmare, with real distancing being virtually impossible. Simply feeding them lunch is an exercise fraught with potential transmission routes. And none of this includes the problems of keeping teenagers (much less pre-teens) wearing masks for seven hours a day without doing something wrong.
Then there’s the idea of screening students, which I saw mentioned above. I actually did the calculations on this the other day, when our district floated their potential plans for reopening. Even in a blended model where we only have half the student body in at a time, it was simply impossible. We’re a fairly typical large high school (1700 students), with a building with about seven viable entrances through which we could screen them in the morning. If we were to follow the guidelines and administer a symptom questionnaire and a temperature check every day to 850 students, it would require a minimum of 14 person/hours to complete (and that’s at only one minute per check, which is probably…optimistic.) That translates to over two hours to check in students every morning (assuming seven check-in lines) at a dead minimum. This simply isn’t possible to do, and our situation (being a suburban school with a lot of entrances to screen through) is pretty much the best any school is likely to have. But this is the kind of logistical consideration that people like the AAP have no concept of, because, again, they have no idea how schools function.
This is simply another example of the tendency of non-education people thinking that they can run things better than the professionals. But this version won’t just harm kids’ educations, it will infect too many of them (and their families, teachers, etc.) with a deadly virus, all in the name of protecting their “adolescent development and well-being”. Yet it misses the most important part of that well-being, and the very one that you would think would be foremost in a pediatrician’s thoughts: their physical health.
We also have no way of knowing if the recommendations are the result of science or a large corporate donation to the AAP. Money buys influence, and many doctors have been corrupted by its influence as well. I am not saying this is true. I am saying it is a possibility. We know corporations want schools open in the fall.
Absolutely corporations want schools open in the fall. Who else is going to provide childcare so that they can force their workers back to work? The health of the workers or their children doesn’t even enter into this, it’s all a matter of ensuring that corporate profits rise again.
The district in which I teach just released “reopening.” Fully. It says that six feet spacing is “ideal,” but that “large classes may not be able to do this.” But nothing else about what will happen with classes if 40 high school students (which is very common).
TOW,
Your district is disregarding the health and safety of students and staff.
The entity with the most power to control the spread of the novel Corona Virus is the federal government. That won’t happen while Trump is in power. Maybe i’m missing something, but couldn’t state- and county-enforced mask wearing, social distancing, mass testing, contact tracing, and isolation for the next two months (as opposed to relaxation) bring the infection rate down dramatically to near zero? Isn’t that what is required to safely open schools?
What you describe is a logical way to start. Our biggest hindrance to flattening the curve is the federal government in its current state.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration has decided that the pandemic is over. It has silenced Dr. Anthony Fauci, who continues to speak as a scientist not a lackey. He has. It been allowed to appear on any major network.
Arthur, of course you are right, but many counties and states have Trumpers in charge. Trump has turned mask-wearing into a partisan issue. #Realmenwearmasks
You’re right, of course, Arthur, but there is a two-fold barrier to this actually being done. First, many states are wholly or partially in the hands of the party that has committed itself to not doing these things in the name of “freedom”. That means that things like mandatory mask orders, enforced social distancing, and quarantine procedures (with legal penalties to back them up) haven’t been and won’t be put into place. The second barrier relates to the first, in that it also comes from Republican intransigence, this time financial. Mass testing and proper contact tracing will require both government coordination and a lot of money, neither of which can be adequately done at the state level (even if they’re willing, as some blue states are) without coordination and funding from the federal government, which is never going to happen while Trump is in charge. So it’s not so much that we don’t know what to do, but that too many of those in charge has decided that we’re not doing it for…reasons.
Republicans and Democrats are alike in loving their children. Loving your children is not a partisan issue. No one wants to send their children to school when it is not safe for them or for the adults who are caring for them. Everyone should be willing to pay whatever is necessary to reopen schools safely.
Always follow the money. I stopped watching PBS Newshour years ago because its reporting had come to be so obviously manipulated by the Gates Foundation and other foundations looking for privatization loot. Now, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative sits alongside Gates in the opening credits for big donors. Public television is no longer public, and it’s doubtful public radio is much different. When and how schools reopen cannot be influenced by blended learning product peddlers. We need real leadership, not opportunism.
I stopped watching it a few years back also for much the same reasons you state but I do feel it has changed, at least enough so that I do follow it now as one of the better sources of information. More and more they are stating anti Trump real news. Even David Brooks has come onto the band wagon.
My observation is that even in places not caught in the fog of Trumpism are reluctant to take more decisive action, accepting the inevitability of a tradeoff between public wellbeing and operation of the free market. They are rushing reopening to “get the economy moving. States, for example, would impose increased taxes on the uber-wealthy. They are still in the thrall of “don’t tell people what to do,” (unless they are poor, people of color, or women wanting an abortion).
I value doctors’ advice about instruction about as much as I value teachers’ medical advice. In either case the value isn’t zero, but it’s pretty low compared to the advice of the other group, which actually know what they’re talking about.
The blood and deaths of many innocents will be on the AAP’s hands. . .
And not a damn one of them will be held responsible.
Sad, so effin sad!
Agree 100%, Duane.
What makes people think that schools can be safe when too many Americans can’t even follow a simple rule now, like wearing a mask, social distancing & frequent hand washing?
Sad to say, I know many, many people who do not wash their hands, even infrequently, because they never washed their hands before this.
& they aren’t even fans of WHit–they just have their own idea that this will “magically disappear.”
I guess they believe in the Lucky Charms Leprechaun, too.
Social isolation versus dead parents? Depression versus dead grandma? Learning loss versus mass death in hospitals filled beyond capacity? School versus death?
Not debatable. The AAP’s recommendations are bunk.