Oregon’s COVID-19 cases have never been higher: Here’s what your school should do to make in-person learning safer
OregonianSep 01, 2021
A mixture of excitement and worry is descending upon
New known infections among children ages 0 to 17 are up 10-fold compared to a year ago, when most
But within the next two weeks, most
Many parents are hungry for answers about the procedures their school will use to try to tamp down on spread. But with just days until the start of the school year, many
In their defense, many districts say they’ve been left to sort through a mountain of information from local, state and federal entities – and need more guidance.
“But I’m also concerned about the way that we come back,” Huizar said. “Because I want to stay back and not have to shut down and not have a lot of disruptions for kids.”
Huizar wants the district to create smaller class sizes, test all students who spent time in a classroom with a student who turned out to have COVID-19 and use federal coronavirus money to buy covered outdoor eating areas so hundreds at a time don’t crowd into lunchrooms indoors unmasked when it rains.
Already, at least four small, rural school districts have pushed back the start of fall classes because of surging numbers of COVID-19 cases in their communities or large numbers of employees who are quarantining. The 875-student
“I really empathize with all these parents and teachers, ... you shouldn’t be in this situation where it feels like you’re having to choose between your children’s education and their health,” said
No one knows for sure how delta will impact American schools this fall, since the variant was still rare in the
“I say safer, not safe,” Prather told The
Prather has become a prominent voice in the fight against COVID-19. She has advised the
Chief among Prather’s and other experts’ advice: Ramped up ventilation systems that quickly replace exhaled air in classrooms, strict mask policies that not only focus on wearing masks but the quality and the fit, frequent rapid tests of all students and staff, and eliminating what might just be the most dangerous period of the day — indoor lunch. Experts say getting everyone vaccinated is also a top priority, but roughly half the K-12 population — everyone under 12 — isn’t eligible yet.
The
Most districts’ reopening plans lacked key details. The news organization followed up with all six to get more specifics. But even then, some districts couldn’t provide answers.
Prather told the “Speak Up America” panel that in this time of uncertainty, districts need to get the details to the public.
“One of the most important things for those of you dealing with this in schools is that you have to be transparent,” Prather said. “You have to tell the public what you’re doing to clean the air. Don’t just say ‘Oh, we’ve got this. Yes, we’re following
VENTILATION
Prather said one of the most important steps districts can take is to address the way the virus is spreading: through the air.
One of the reasons delta is so much more contagious than previous strains is that people infected with it have 1,000 times more virus in their noses and throats, according to one groundbreaking study. Delta went from causing about 6% of
Prather said delta has dramatically increased the amount of virus that infected people are exhaling. It now might take just seconds to infect an unvaccinated person, Prather noted.
“The good news is we can clean the air,” Prather said. That, she said, will help prevent entire classrooms from being saturated with coronavirus in the hours that students spend together each day.
Experts say school building ventilation systems should be upgraded with air filters rated MERV 13 or higher, a standard that approaches the efficacy of a HEPA filter. Unlike air filters that have commonly been used in schools, MERV 13 filters can sift out the virus.
Airborne transmission experts also say classrooms with five or six air changes per an hour — meaning that the air in the room is replaced every 10 to 12 minutes — can significantly reduce the chance of viral spread. Many of today’s schools and ventilation systems might have been built to only conduct two air changes per hour.
“As a generalization, schools were pretty unhealthy before” in terms of air quality, said
Using portable HEPA air purifiers in classrooms can significantly reduce aerosol particles, accomplishing the equivalent of several air changes per hour. In practical terms, Corsi said, adding a HEPA air purifier to a classroom is like upping a classroom’s air changes from two to almost six per hour.
He’s penciled out the cost of acquisition and maintenance to about
What’s happening locally:
In
MASKS
There’s widespread agreement among experts that masks, when of high quality and worn properly, cut back on viral spread.
In a recent study published in the journal Physics of Fluids, researchers found that cloth and surgical masks only filter out about 10% to 12% of the aerosols exhaled from their wearers — mostly due to poor fit that allowed air to flow through the gaps. The study’s researchers found that KN95 masks in practice filter out nearly 50% of aerosols, but that percentage would be much higher if the masks were worn properly.
Experts advise parents to work with their children to wear the highest quality mask possible and to wear it right because the delta variant is far less forgiving than previous coronavirus strains. N95s aren’t made in children’s sizes, but the next best thing is a KN95 or KF94. Some cloth masks with insertable, replaceable filters also perform far better than cloth masks alone.
The
Experts widely agree masks are a necessity.
“If you get it at the source, you’re not going to have to deal with all of this air cleansing,” Taras told the reopening schools forum.
Taras said school districts should be careful not to automatically approve medical exemptions to mask mandates that parents submit.
“We have a huge number of children who are getting doctors’ notes saying they can’t wear a mask because of medical reasons,” Taras said. “We’ve found that probably 80% of those are bogus notes. The doctors have never tried a mask on them.”
One other important piece of mask advice from experts: People should remove masks outside and while distanced from others. Don’t remove your mask when you’re the only person in the room if others recently have been in the space because the virus can linger for hours. The same goes for bathrooms: Just because no one else is there doesn’t mean it’s OK to remove your mask.
What’s happening locally: Several of the
Monitoring for quality masks and good fit falls on individual school staff. But that could be a tall order, given that teachers and principals have a lot to do after more than a year of truncated schooling and are not mask experts.
TESTING
Even with universal masking, experts say stopping the spread of the delta variant isn’t a realistic goal. But trying to squash big outbreaks might be an attainable one.
Many experts believe that identifying outbreaks before they spiral out of control will require frequent COVID-19 testing of asymptomatic students and staff, with rapid results that arrive within minutes.
Prather, the aerosol scientist, said ideally schools would test everyone every day — including the fully vaccinated as well as the unvaccinated because it’s become clear that vaccinated people can be infected and spread the virus.
The
The
What’s happening locally: The
LUNCH
Last spring, as most students across
But with full-time, in-person school returning this fall, lunch is back on. Some experts say it could pose the greatest risk of the school day — because filling a room with scores or hundreds of unmasked, chattering students could quickly saturate the air with virus.
“We need to treat indoor eating really seriously at school,” Huffman said. That means “small numbers, be quick, don’t talk, ventilate (with HEPA purifiers), but also give some time to flush out the air before another group comes in.”
Staggering lunch groups with 15 minutes between them — or better yet an hour — can ensure that large amounts of virus laden aerosols from the last group don’t linger for the next group to breathe in. But separating lunchtimes by an hour is unrealistic in most schools. Spacing students at least several feet apart lessens the risk, but experts are still concerned.
Huffman said the best solution is moving lunch entirely outdoors. Then as long as students are spaced away from each other, longer lunches, talking and a much-needed break from their masks all become much safer.
What’s happening locally:
Werstein, the district spokesperson, said the district can’t specify the numbers of students who will occupy a cafeteria at one time, until school meal plans are turned in Tuesday, the day before school starts.
OTHER ‘HIGH RISK’ ACTIVITIES
Other especially risky times, experts say, are music, theater or band classes where students sing or play wind instruments. The
The
Although Gov.
What’s happening locally: None of the six large metro area districts has canceled high risk sports, choir or band classes.
“Student participation in sports has occurred for several months now, and we have not seen any transmission of the virus through our sports and activities,” Gresham-Barlow’s spokesperson, Vadnais, said in an email.
And, she said, like with so much related to the pandemic and the return to school, “if the relative risk increases, we will reevaluate this decision.”
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