How Safe are Children in Schools?
One of the toughest decisions’ parents were faced with this year was whether to send their kids to school or not. Given the worrying global rise of infection rates of COVID-19, choosing to have your kids spend more than half of their day outside the safety of your home is not an easy choice. However, like many people, you probably don’t have much of a choice if you must return to work and don’t have anyone to look after your children. Or even if you did, some stay at home parents choose to send their kids back to school hoping to restore some form of normalcy in their household. If you are currently facing this dilemma of whether to send your kids to school or stick to virtual learning this year, you need to consider some facts. Continue reading below to understand how safe children are in schools?
Schools are Adopting Social Distancing Measures
As per the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), schools were only allowed to open after strictly following the mandated protocol. One of the first measures that the schools had to apply is social distancing. Since gathering was found to be the number one cause of the Coronavirus’s vigorous transmission, schools had to find a way to look after the safety of their students. Most schools divided the students in each class into groups attending on a rotational basis. Furthermore, activities that don't allow for social-distancing have been canceled to eliminate the risk of transmission. As a parent, you must feel confident enough that the schools are applying this important measure and are supposedly doing their best to ensure that everyone is following the rules.
Cleaning and Disinfecting the School Facilities
Since the earlier stages of COVID-19 breakout, medical institutions and healthcare professionals have stressed the importance of proper hygiene to avoid contagion. You’d be right to doubt if schools maintain the recommended level of hygiene, especially in high-traffic areas like classrooms and hallways. However, many schools have risen to the occasion and applied a thorough sanitation system that proved efficient. But disinfecting an entire building and sanitizing a school bus multiple times a day is definitely a challenge in itself. So, before you can answer the question of how safe your children are in school, ask for complete transparency from the school management. You can also make random visits to see for yourself the level of hygiene in the school and decide how comfortable you are sending your kids there every day.
Following the Podding Approach
The idea of podding is to assign one teacher to each group of students to keep the need for interaction between different groups to a minimum. This way, when/if anyone gets infected, it’ll be much easier for the school to contain the spread by isolating the other students in the pod and asking them to stay home until it's safe for their return. For your peace of mind, you should know who your kid’s pod peers are and be in contact with their parents to report any concerning symptoms. While this might not be a foolproof method to avoid infection, it’s still a good response tactic to allow the students to go back to school and resume their studies.
Monitoring the Situation
Schools were encouraged to reopen after the rates of global infections slowed down compared to the pandemic’s first few months. However, the situation is still uncertain as many countries have been going under lockdown again since recording a recurring spike in infection rates. To judge the schools as safe for your kids, you must ensure that the school management is closely monitoring the situation and has a solid plan in place. The school should prove that they are making continuous efforts to enhance their health and safety policies. Furthermore, the school management must keep all the parents in the loop and report any suspected cases so that you can decide what’s best for your kids.
At the moment, it’s hard to conclude how safe your children are in schools. Because other than the physical aspect of this pandemic, you can’t overlook how staying at home affects your kids mentally and emotionally. Never before in modern-day history were young kids prohibited from playing outside in the fresh air, going to school, or even seeing their friends. These are unprecedented times that we live in so there’s no knowing what’s right or wrong. You must think about what’s best for your family and make your decision based on the above facts. Ultimately, your children’s safety is what matters regardless of how or where they spend this school year.
