As schools across the country begin to reopen, they face a new challenge: convincing parents and students it is safe for them to go back. Many families are eager to send their children back to school buildings, where there is the promise of more academic support and socialization and access to services like special education that can be difficult to provide remotely.
Others, however, are still anxious about returning to school after a monthlong hiatus. They are worried about the more contagious delta variant, elevated infection rates and whether schools will be able to maintain proper hygiene practices, especially in larger facilities with more people than usual.
Fortunately, we now have far more information about this virus and are armed with multilayered mitigation strategies that can prevent in-school transmission. We also have a vaccine that significantly reduces the risk of illness from the virus and historic levels of state and federal funding to help support its rollout.
In addition, Governor Kathy Hochul today took a major step forward in her strategy to reopen schools by declaring that teachers, administrators and other school staff can return to work this week as long as they follow all CDC and NYS Department of Health guidelines. Specifically, the administration is allowing these workers to reenter schools in areas that have not been designated red or orange micro-clusters. However, the reopening of these schools will require that they comply with a new protocol requiring 20% of in-person staff and students to participate in weekly surveillance testing using a short nasal swab for molecular testing, which will be coordinated by the NYC Test & Trace Corps.
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