How many COVID-19 cases will it take to close a school? NC officials answer question.
With North Carolina public schools reopening next week, state health officials say it will likely take multiple COVID-19 cases before a school is ordered to be closed.
While most public schools are starting with only online courses, hundreds of thousands of students will report for face-to-face classes next week for the first time in five months.
State health officials said Wednesday that school leaders will work with county health departments to determine what level of closure and cleaning is needed if there’s a positive COVID-19 result.
“Is it a hallway? Is it a classroom?” said Rebecca Planchard, senior early childhood policy advisor for the state Department of Health and Human Services. “Likely it would be rare that it would need to be an entire school to be closed if there was one reported exposure, for example. But it would depend on the specifics of that case.”
Planchard spoke at a virtual town hall Wednesday hosted by The News & Observer and EducationNC. The panel also included Geoff Coltrane, the senior education advisor to Gov. Roy Cooper; State Board of Education chairman Eric Davis; DHHS chief deputy secretary Susan Perry and Vance County Schools Superintendent Anthony Jackson.
DHHS defines a COVID-19 cluster with at least five lab-confirmed positive cases associated with a school. The state reports clusters in child care facilities and schools twice a week.
“While children will be in school and adults will be in school, they’ll also be at home and in their communities,” Perry said. “So just because someone screens positive doesn’t mean that the source was at the school or that the school needs to necessarily close.”
Private schools reopening with in-person classes
Some private schools that have opened for in-person instruction have reported individual COVID-19 cases that have prompted them to suspend face-to-face classes and/or quarantine some students and teachers.
Some private schools say they’ve seen a spike in interest from public school families who want an in-person option. But Jackson said it’s important to maintain relationships with parents so they want to stay in the public schools.
Davis said he doesn’t believe that schools reopening with only online classes will have a lower quality of education. He said school district and charter school leaders who decided to delay face-to-face classes made the right decisions for their communities.
“I’m also aware of the pressure that private schools are under,” Davis added. “If someone’s going to write a significant check to a private institution, they expect their child to be in school.”
Vance County is among the majority of school districts that have opted to start the school year with only remote learning, or what the state calls Plan C. Jackson said the district is doing everything possible to keep people safe while also trying avoid hurting educational opportunities for students.
“I want to make a list of deposits, so that when our kids make the withdrawals down the road, that they recognize that if we didn’t do the right things, we did it for the right reason, and they will excuse us and forgive us for trying to do the right things for them,” said Jackson, the state Superintendent of the Year.
“Because right now, we’re in unprecedented, uncharted waters,” Jackson said.
Allowing public schools to reopen
Gov. Roy Cooper ordered all North Carolina public schools to close for in-person instruction in mid-March to try the slow of spread of COVID-19. Last month, he allowed schools to reopen under rules that include social distancing requirements, mandatory wearing of face coverings and daily temperature checks.
At least eight states and Puerto Rico still have school closure orders in place for the new school year, according to Education Week. North Carolina is above the COVID-19 positive test rate recommended by the World Health Organization for resuming in-person school instruction.
Perry said the state considered many things before allowing public schools to reopen, not just the percentage of positive cases. She said the state sought a middle ground to allow for limited face-to-face classes.
“We have to think about the well-being and the needs of children and the harm that’s done to them when they’re not in school,” Perry said.
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 6:15 AM with the headline "How many COVID-19 cases will it take to close a school? NC officials answer question.."
