Vaccinations of teachers can also serve as an ‘extra layer of protection’ in addition to masking, removal, hand washing, cleaning facilities and quick contact detection, plus quarantines for the infected, Walensky said. She urged states to prioritize educators for vaccinations. But the CDC’s leadership reiterates that access to vaccines “should not be considered a condition for the reopening of schools for personal education.”
The education department has released the first volume of a textbook intended to guide educators on masking and physical distance, which officials say is intended to complement the CDC operational strategy.
The guidelines raise questions about how Washington’s influence will shape the decisions to keep people during the coming weeks. Federal officials stressed that the government’s guidelines were not orders. State and local governments still have the final say on how and when to learn personally. But unions for teachers, Democrats and Republicans began to express opposing positions in the hours immediately following the announcement by the CDC and the Department of Education.
Home Education and Labor President Bobby Scott (D-Va.) Said in a statement that the leadership is making a clear case for Congress to pass the next Covid-19 incentive bill. The committee on Wednesday approved its part of the bill that contains $ 130 billion to help reopen schools.
“Decisions about reopening schools should not be based on politics; they should be based on whether schools can meet the CDC’s scientific guidelines,” Scott said.
Some House Republics, including leaders Kevin McCarthy (R-California) and Virginia Foxx (RN.C.), have said the leadership is stepping up their calls to get students back in the classroom. Foxx, the highest-ranking Republican on the Education Committee, also criticized the Biden government for targeting “political allies”.
“The White House claims it is approaching this issue ambitiously, but the lights are still off in schools in America and students are staying at home,” Foxx said in a statement.
The CDC has suggested that elementary schools should stick to hybrid learning or reduced personal education when the incidence in the surrounding community is highest, and it recognizes that personal education should take precedence over sports, other outdoor activities and indoor dining.
In light of what are currently unequal safety risks between young and older children, the CDC also suggests that middle and high schools only remain in virtual learning if a community records 100 or more new cases per 100,000 people during the preceding week. and when the rate of positive Covid-19 tests reaches or exceeds 10 percent during the same period. This is unless schools ‘can strictly implement all mitigation strategies’ and pick up few infections, or implement extensive virus testing according to the guidance.
The guidance also places less emphasis on virus testing, vaccinations and ventilation – although officials stress that these tools are still valuable ways to keep schools safe, and the guidance contains lengthy suggestions on how schools can implement testing programs. The CDC said schools, even after teachers and staff have been vaccinated, should adhere to a mask, social distance and other safety practices “in the foreseeable future.”
“I want to emphasize that the safest way to open schools is to ensure that there are as few diseases as possible in the community,” Walensky said Friday. “We know that the introduction of the subsequent dispatch of Covid-19 in schools is directly linked to and facilitated by the transfer of Covid-19 outside the schools and in the community.”
Walensky also outlined important parts of her agency’s perspective earlier this month. She said the opening of schools for personal classes is necessary to get the virus under control, and teachers do not must be vaccinated so that personal classes can resume safely. She also stressed that campuses can reopen with the right combination of precautions.
“The data from schools indicates that there is very little transfer within the schools, especially if there is masking and distance,” Walensky told reporters earlier this week.
“If there are broadcasts in the schools, it is because it has been brought from the community, and because there are transgressions in the masking and distancing,” she said Monday. “So if we want to open our schools – and open our schools safely and well, the best way is to spread it.”
The White House nevertheless offered shifting explanations for what “open” means, and how Biden will achieve his goal of resuming the classes of the K-8 schools face-to-face at the end of his first 100 days in office.
‘Open’, as White House press secretary Jen Psaki put it to reporters, means educators teach students at least one day a week. Then Psaki said on Wednesday that it was “not the ceiling” but “the bar we want to jump over and cross.”
“The president will not rest until each school is open five days a week,” Psaki said on Thursday. “That’s our goal.”
The country’s two largest teachers’ unions endorsed the new leadership, which they praised as a much-needed ‘reset’ and a partnership because it included input from education groups.
“This set of guarantees should have been done ten months ago,” the American Federation of Teachers, President Randi Weingarten, said in a statement. “Instead, the previous government interfered with the facts and incited mass chaos and confusion. Now we have the chance for a quick recovery. ‘
The National Education Association warned that the standards had not been met in some reopened schools and called on Congress to take swift legislative steps to get more resources for schools.
“We must also realize that CDC standards are still not met in many schools, especially not by black, brown, indigenous and poor white students, with severely outdated ventilation systems and no testing or detection programs,” NEA said. president said. Becky Pringle in a statement.