After almost a year of virtual learning due to the coronavirus pandemic, Philadelphia’s youngest students see the inside of a classroom in February. “We relied on science and data to help inform every step we took to develop and implement a plan,” Superintendent William Hite said.
The reopening comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that there is little evidence of coronavirus transmission in schools if precautions are followed. In addition to face masks, physical distance, and increased room ventilation, schools must also limit risky activities such as indoor sports and indoor meals.
Dr. Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program at the Harvard School of Public Health, called the closure of the school “a national emergency.”
“We see the devastating costs just piling on each other,” he said. “The reports we see of suicides and declines in literacy, less access to food, food insecurity issues. “
The new data “supports that schools are not the source or do not contribute in meaningful ways to the spread of the community,” Allen said.
But across the country, the divisive debate rage between districts and teachers’ unions refusing to return. Chicago, the country’s third largest school district, is on the brink of a teacher strike.
“My message to the teachers’ unions is that we need you,” said Tameika Hinton, a single mother of ten-year-old Destin.
Hinton had to move in with her grandfather after shortening her working hours to be able to stay home to supervise her child’s learning.
One reason why unions return is because there are only 23 states that give teachers preference to the Covid-19 vaccine.
The Biden Administration seeks to get younger students back into the classroom as soon as possible. The White House confirmed to CBS News that President Biden’s goal is to reopen a majority of schools in its first 100 days does not apply to high schools and there is no word of a timeline for the reopening of secondary schools.
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