Overview of the Public Health Principles
We have identified nine core public health principles to guide school’s plans and strategies for safer school reopenings. These form the parameters within which in-person learning will occur.
The principles are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. They need to be considered together in planning for school reopening. You may not be able to follow all of these principles perfectly all of the time, but their effectiveness depends on implementing as many as possible at the same time. The more you adhere to these principles, the lower the risk of viral transmission and repeated school closures. Until a fully effective vaccine is developed and widely delivered, there will remain some risk of spread even with maximum adherence, especially when communities are experiencing increases in infection rates.
The principles are illustrated and described below. They are organized into three categories: ongoing leadership processes generally at the district level, enabling structures and supports generally at the school building level, and essential supports at the student and classroom level. In schools, principles at the student and classroom level are typically directly implemented by educators and students, while those at the district level depend on ongoing leadership processes.
Public Health Principles
A detailed version of these principles can be found here.
District/Network Level
These principles are essential for driving alignment, improvement, and coherence across a district. They are ideally centralized at the system-level and implemented by district administrators and teams.
Promote a leadership approach and culture around health that build trust between leaders and the school community, make agile data-driven decisions, take a balanced view of health/education risks, and emphasize resilience.
Perform regular individual and family COVID-19 risk assessments for students and staff to determine who can participate in in-person learning, facilitate access to key childhood and flu vaccines, and promote immune system strengthening practices. Of note, children under five appear to be at lower risk of severe COVID-19 disease than adults and older children but may be asymptomatic and transmit it to others.
Coordinate with local public health systems for school closures, testing, and quarantine of individuals with COVID-19 and for establishing protocols for public health system contact tracing for school community members who test positive for COVID-19.
School Building Level
Driven by consistent and coherent system policy and supported by various actors across a district, decisions about how to best implement these principles must take into account existing facility layout, student populations, staffing, and timelines. Decisions are then likely implemented on a day-to-day basis by school leadership teams.
Screen for symptoms of COVID-19 daily, instruct staff and students to stay home if any symptoms are present, and create space within the school for children and staff to isolate before going home if they develop symptoms during the school day.
Assess design and configuration of the school building and other spaces for adequate airflow, ventilation, and safer movement of people within and between spaces.
Group students and staff together in limited numbers, keep the same individuals together in each group, and limit inter-group contact to reduce the number of individuals exposed to each other.
Classroom Supports
These principles are critical to day-by-day learning and safety, providing front-line educators with processes, tools, and practices for working with students and other faculty. While they must reflect consistent and coherent system decisions and policies, their implementation is highly local and reflects classroom-level context, such as individual student and teacher needs, grade levels, and room layouts.
Require all children and staff to wear a cloth or medical mask covering both mouth and nose at all times and provide appropriate PPE to nurses and individuals assessing or treating a suspected case.
Require all children and staff to clean hands (via hand-washing, sanitizing), clean and wipe down surfaces, especially high touch surfaces, and conduct deep cleaning of building spaces to reduce exposure to COVID-19 droplets.
Limit the number of people in enclosed spaces and allow distance between people to reduce exposure to COVID-19 droplets.