How Congress Can Get Kids Back to Class

The U.K., France and other European countries are closing businesses in another wave of lock downs, as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations rise. But unlike in the spring, schools are open. Infections are also surging across the U.S., where in many places in-person classrooms are closed and distance learning has become the norm. But there’s growing evidence schools can open safely, with reasonable precautions and, perhaps soon, regular testing.

The ABC Science Collaboratives, supported by Duke University researchers, are working with school boards, superintendents, principals, teachers, health departments and the state of North Carolina to share data and best practices among more than 50 districts. The findings so far suggest that spread is limited when cases occur in North Carolina districts that are open for some in-person instruction.

Six districts that completed their first nine weeks of instruction have seen a total of fewer than 20 secondary infections, where infected children or adults pass on the virus to someone else at school. One large district of nearly 35,000 students and staff had fewer than 100 cases over a nine-week period, only eight secondary infections—and no cases of child-to-adult transmission.

These districts used “hybrid” models, in which children were in class only two days a week to reduce classroom density and allow distancing. Masks were required at all times except meals and water breaks. Even in counties where the prevalence of infection was high, this experience suggests schoolhouse outbreaks can be contained.

Policy makers should take three steps to support opening schools more widely. First, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Education Department should expand research like the North Carolina project. Questions and concerns remain about how easily children can transmit the virus, and whether outbreaks in schools spread into the broader community. Because many children are asymptomatic, outbreaks can go undetected.