CDC defends school guidelines as advocates say they make it too hard to reopen - The Washington Post

CDC defends school guidelines as advocates say they make it too hard to reopen - The Washington Post

CDC defends school guidelines as advocates say they make it too hard to reopen

For months, President Biden has been urging schools to reopen, and promised that guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would help them do so safely.

At the same time, public health experts including some at the CDC said available evidence suggested schools could safely open as long as precautions were in place. That raised expectations that the nation’s K-12 education system might accelerate its return to in-person learning.

But the much-anticipated guidelines released Friday were, in fact, more measured than some expected, with full in-person schooling recommended only when levels of community transmission are quite low, a standard that almost no place in the U.S. meets today.

Under the rubric laid out, the CDC recommends either fully remote or hybrid plans, where students spend some time in school and some at home, for areas with substantial community spread. Even though case counts are falling, the definition of substantial spread today includes the vast majority of the country. CONTINUE READING: CDC defends school guidelines as advocates say they make it too hard to reopen - The Washington Post