CT School Reopening Causing Concern Among Some Educators

CONNECTICUT — The state Department of Education and local districts continue to work on reopening plans with local plans being due at the end of the week, but there is growing concern among many teachers that full classrooms make social distancing nearly impossible.

The state Department of Education and local school districts continue to work on several plans, including a hybrid reopening plan, said Commissioner Miguel Cardona. He said he realizes that there are some teachers who are at greater risk for complications than others and there will be some opportunities to teach remotely, but that may not be the case for everyone.

“We are all trying to do what’s right for our students, but also our educators who are the backbone of our profession,” he said, adding that there are no easy answers.

Gov. Ned Lamont last week said that local districts are coordinating with the Office of Policy and Management to come up with reopening costs. The state will help local districts in that mission, Lamont said.

A Vernon teacher recently wrote an open letter to Lamont and noted that even outdoor businesses have strict reduced capacity limits, but those won’t apply to classrooms where only a handful of students would be allowed with proper social distancing.

The Connecticut Education Association is organizing a statewide local car rally for July 30 to call for safety guarantees and state funding for reopening.

The school reopening decision will be made in August, Lamont said last week. The plan calls for a full reopening if the coronavirus situation stays in its current low infection rate in Connecticut.

The reopening plan calls for hybrid in-person and remotely learning if the virus begins to spread more widely throughout the state. It calls for full remote learning if there is widespread community transmission of the virus.

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Study offers some potential hope, with a big caveat

A recent South Korean study found that children under 10-years-old transmit the virus less often than adults do, according to the New York Times. Those 10 and up transmit the virus as much as adults do. The large study looked at more than 5,700 people who were the first to report COVID-19 symptoms in their household. Researchers did more than 59,000 contact traces and tested all immediate household members whether they had symptoms or not; researchers tested people who came into contact with infected persons if they themselves were symptomatic.

The study found that children under 10 were about half as likely to transmit the virus to adults, but authors cautioned school reopening could still be a significant cause of viral community spread.

The study offers some good news, but there still needs to be a high bar for mask use and social distancing until more evidence is gathered, said Dr. Albert Ko, department chair at the Yale School of Public Health and a member of the state’s reopening advisory board.

Precautions will need to be taken when children go back to school, especially in multigenerational homes that include elderly members, Ko said.