Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Connecticut voters approved early voting. Here’s how their new secretary of state wants to make it happen.

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 13
      • Women lawmakers in Minnesota are in the vanguard of the democracy movement

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 3
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Election 2024
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Military
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

A teacher cleans her classroom.
A teacher cleans her classroom in preparation of schools reopening. (Photo by GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty Images)

Coronavirus

CDC issues new guidance on how to reopen schools

High COVID-19 case counts mean most schools likely aren't ready to be fully in person. 

Shefali Luthra

Health Reporter

Shefali Luthra portrait

Published

2021-02-12 14:38
2:38
February 12, 2021
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance Friday for schools to reopen for in-person learning — a major step in President Joe Biden’s goal to get kids in classrooms by the end of his first 100 days in office.

The guidance adopts a tiered approach. It recommends that all schools adopt universal masking, maximize physical distancing of at least 6 feet whenever possible, institute regular and thorough handwashing, have regular cleaning and maintenance of school facilities, and use diagnostic COVID testing with rapid contact tracing — following up on someone’s close contacts if that person tests positive for the virus — and ensuring that those close contacts quarantine in keeping with CDC guidelines.

For schools in communities with low to moderate transmission — less than 5 percent of all counties —  the agency recommends schools return to full in-person learning, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on a media phone call. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

But for the vast majority of counties, which are in the “red zone” of particularly high community transmission — more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, or test positivity rate higher than 10 percent — the CDC still recommends some kind of hybrid learning model: Students and school staff would physically distance by teaching smaller groups of students in-person at a time using “cohorts” or “pods.” They also recommend improving ventilation, including with open windows and doors.

High schools in high-transmission areas, where smaller group modules may be harder to implement, may have to rely more on virtual learning, Walensky said.

The agency also recommends limiting extracurricular activities such as after-school sports.

“CDC is not mandating that schools reopen,” Walensky said. “These recommendations simply provide schools a long-needed roadmap for how to do so safely under differential levels of disease in the community.”

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

The guidance may not be final. The emergence of new, faster-spreading variants of the virus threaten to upend the progress being made. If that happens, Walensky said, the CDC may revise its assessment of what is safe.

“If we have increases of community spread linked to these variants as they might emerge, we would have to follow increased amounts of mitigation strategies,” she said.  “If we get to a point where we are beyond the red zone — really high levels of community spread related to these variants or related to more transmission — we may need to visit this again.”

Per an October study, about three-fourths of the nation’s largest school districts have opted for completely remote learning. A little over a quarter of all districts adopted a hybrid approach at the start of the year, though many reverted to fully remote models as coronavirus cases climbed last fall. The federal government does not have robust data on how many schools are using hybrid models right now. 

School closures have disproportionately affected women, both as parents and as educators. In September, about 1.6 million working mothers with school-age children left the workforce. Mothers are far more likely to have shouldered the burden of supervising remote school, polling shows. Meanwhile, many teachers, three-fourths of whom are women, have said the stress of pandemic education has imposed mental health strains unlike anything they have experienced before.

But the body of evidence suggests that in-person schooling likely doesn’t contribute to spread of COVID-19. In an article published January 26, CDC scientists wrote that “there has been little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission,” especially compared to the rapid viral spread in nursing homes or meatpacking centers.

Experts still stress that safely reopening schools will require intense mitigation efforts — including reducing community spread elsewhere, improving ventilation, and and following the strategies outlined in the CDC guidance. They also note that activities such as student athletics are more likely to facilitate the virus’ spread.

Though the rate of new infections is declining, and more than 10 percent of the population has gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the United States is still averaging more than 100,000 new cases per day. The seven-day rolling average of deaths per day is just under 2,800. 

Many disease mitigation efforts, such as upgrading schools’ old ventilation systems, will require federal funding. Some educators have also pointed out that schools serving larger shares of Black and Latinx families — who are more often exposed to the coronavirus due to systemic inequalities in areas like housing, income and occupation — are also less likely to have advanced ventilation. About a third of public schools don’t have updated heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. Meanwhile, access to diagnostic testing could also be a challenge for schools with fewer resources. 

Recent polling from Axios/Ipsos suggests that 55 percent of Black parents and 40 percent of Latinx parents worry about schools reopening too quickly, compared to only 25 percent of White parents. Concerns didn’t appear to vary substantially based on gender.

Biden’s recovery plan, which is still working its way through Congress, would put $130 billion toward safely reopening schools, including money that could go toward testing and ventilation. 

Notably, the CDC does not say teachers must have received a COVID-19 vaccine in order to return to in-person learning, so long as other efforts are taken to prevent the virus’ spread.  But Walensky said the agency does encourage states to include school employees — along with other frontline workers — in its priority vaccination groups.

At least 28 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have made at least some teachers eligible for an early vaccine, according to EdWeek. But eligibility alone doesn’t translate into getting people vaccinated: There are still far more people who qualify for a vaccine than there are doses available. 

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases doctor, said earlier this week that he anticipates April will be “open season” for the general public to start getting vaccines, though it will take several months for all those injections to be administered. 

It’s not clear if that timeline factors in any potential new vaccines that would come from the emergency authorization of a vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson. The Food & Drug Administration will review data on that immunization later this month, with doses potentially being available in April. 

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

Up Next

Vice President Kamala Harris hosts a listening session in February 2021.

Politics

Vice President Kamala Harris emphasizes speed and equity in response to COVID-19 crisis

In Harris’ first national sit-down interview since becoming vice president, she discusses her focus on an equitable response to the COVID-19 crisis with 19th editor-at-large Errin Haines.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram