Back to School? A COVID-19 decision tree for parents to help decide

Making any decision about your child is always a highly emotional issue. And in these pandemic days accompanied by the economic recession – these decisions have become much more complex. 

To help parents consider this issue first from a logical perspective, here are some objective observations and facts:

Few nations or regions in the world are ready today to go back to pre-COVID 19 days. This may well be the case for much of the academic year ahead of us. In this article, I am primarily addressing P-12 or K-12 students – in fact, more about primary school students. Many of the observations in this article are not applicable to college students.

What are the factors we need to consider in order to decide about sending our kids back to school?

Some observations could be made from the recent CDC report “The Importance of Reopening America’s Schools this Fall”, July 23, 2020  (referred in the rest of the article as CDC report). https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/reopening-schools.html

and from the recent “COVID-19 Planning Considerations: Guidance for School Re-entry” – American Academy of Pediatrics. (referred in the rest of the article as the AAP report). https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/clinical-guidance/covid-19-planning-considerations-return-to-in-person-education-in-schools/

Health concerns: Thankfully, COVID-19 transmission among children in schools is low. “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.” notes the AAP report. CDC report notes that among nearly 150,000 cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. between Feb. 12 and April 2, only 1.7% were in children. This is similar to what has been reported in other countries, such as China and Italy, that have had large outbreaks. Hospitalization rates for children have been much lower than for adults. 

All stakeholders must appreciate that COVID-19 policies are intended to mitigate, not eliminate, risk. For example, children with certain underlying conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, congenital heart disease, genetic conditions, or conditions affecting the nervous system or metabolism are at higher risk of serious illness with COVID-19. 

The rate of transmission in schools is low when community transmission is low. 

Learning concerns: For many students, long breaks from in-person education are harmful to student learning. Learning losses are large more severe for students in higher grades.

Economic implications: Disparities in educational outcomes caused by school closures are a particular concern for low-income and minority students and students with disabilities.  Many low-income families do not have the capacity to facilitate online learning. Persistent achievement gaps that already existed before COVID-19 for these students can worsen and cause serious damage to children’s education outcomes. Many such families have both parents having to work and hence may not have an adult staying back to help or supervise children in their remote learning. 

Emotional concerns: Extended school closures are harmful to children’s development of social and emotional skills. Extended closures can be harmful to children’s mental health leading to unhealthy behaviors. Extended school closures deprive children who live in unsafe homes and neighborhoods of an important layer of protection from neglect or abuse.

Physical concerns: Extended school closures can be harmful to the nutritional health of children. For children from low-income families, school meals are a critical source of healthy foods. Children also lose access to opportunities for physical activity. Many children may not be sufficiently physically active outside of school-based physical education (PE) and other activities. The safety net provided by schools to children vulnerable to abuses at home is another unfortunate reality. 

During the next difficult months, we all need to pay a price – parents, children, governments, schools, teachers. So, we are trying to balance love for our children, concern for the health and safety of adults and costs. By now, we all understand that one size does not fit all. 

As educators, administrators, and government officials – we need to learn from limited experiences of re-opening schools in various countries, we need to think locally (county by county, district by district, etc.) and we must think out of the box.

There is a need to think locally – design customized solutions for different situations and students. 

• How is our current and projected COVID 19 transmission situation? 
• What % of our student cohort have challenges in accessing online classes? Do we have any other distance learning solutions (TV programs for example) than online learning? 
• Can our school infrastructure and staff situation allow us to operate in shifts, create necessary social distancing in classrooms? 
• What is the risk profile of our staff? 
• What is the student profile? (at-risk parents and other adults at home, adult supervision at home, income profile, access to physical activities near home, nutrition aspects).

A simple decision chart is given above. This could be further developed in detail for each local district or education zone.