Last Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines on how

to safely reopen schools across the United States for in-person learning.

This is a topic everyone has been talking about.

The guidelines are going to sound familiar.

They focused on five key mitigation strategies, universal and correct mask wearing, physical

distancing, washing hands, cleaning facilities and improving ventilation, and finally doing

contact tracing, isolating and quarantining.

Equally important is what was not included as part of the key mitigation strategies.

The CDC did say vaccinating teachers and staff provides additional layers of prevention

but isn't a key strategy.

They also said the same thing about widespread testing.

What this all comes down to is how safe our classrooms and also what is your level of

risk tolerance.

Right now for example, about 89% of kids live in a county considered to be in a red zone,

meaning there is lots of viral transmission and or their high positivity rates.

But we also know there have been certain studies such as one out of Wisconsin showing 17

schools able to reopen safely, having lower rates of transmission in the schools as compared

to the communities despite the fact that those communities at the time were also in the

red zone.

And right now, education week data shows that just four states have no restrictions on school

openings while many already offer face-to-face instruction.

Some of them have been doing this since the fall.

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