Should U.s Schools Reopen in the Fall of 2020?

By Porscha Maurer-Cordova 

August 9th, 2020 

As summer is beginning to come to an end some states have only one month left to prepare for the reopening of schools in the fall. With only 1-2 months left for schools in the united states, there is a debate on whether it is wise to send children back to schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

With the United States reaching over double the amount of cases in any other country, tracked by John Hopkins University, many citizens are worried that sending children back to school will create hot-spots for the spread of COVID-19.  

A better solution to this problem is that only elementary schools within the United States should physically reopen in the fall of 2020.  

Why do People Want to Reopen Schools? 

In an article written by Project Syndicate, author Daron Acemoglu discusses how many U.S citizens are filing for unemployment and need help supplying food for their family as the COVID-19 Pandemic goes on. Since March, Project Syndicate reports over 40 million workers applied for unemployment and the rate of unemployment increases each day.  

What does this have to do with reopening? 

With the closing of schools in March 2020 many parents were forced to stay home because younger children need supervision and help with schoolwork. Some jobs could be done from home, making it easier to multi-task employment and parenting. However essential businesses require in-person jobs that cannot allow working from home.  Reopening schools could give parents reliable and affordable child-care and more parents could return to jobs.  

The American Academy of Pediatrics also argues that there is a need for students to go to school. Not just for an education but the benefits of gaining emotional and social skills along with addressing many issues in our society right now. Some of those include breaking down and stopping the ideas of classism and racism.   

Therefore, there is an economic need for children to return to school so that parents can return to in-person jobs as well as a social need for students to gain beneficial people skills. 

Why do people Want to Keep Schools Closed?  

In a study done by the Rand Organization, they investigated estimated effects of relaxing restrictions in Texas and Wisconsin. The study showed that as restrictions of businesses and schools relax, the amount of COVID-19 deaths increase. However, the economic loss is significantly decreased. 

The main point of this study was that the is a spike in estimated deaths when restrictions are relaxed, including opening schools.  

People do not want to reopen schools because of the possibility that COVID-19 will spread, and schools could become potential hotspots for spreading the virus. If children caught COVID-19 at schools, then it could spread to the families, and more cases would emerge.  

Why Only Open Elementary Schools? 

The main reason to only open elementary schools is because it can be managed easier, elementary schools gain the most benefits essential skills from in-person learning, and children have a lower chance of severe COVID-19 symptoms.  

Like previously discussed, The American Academy of Pediatrics provides evidence for elementary schools reopening. Children need to learn essential emotional and social skills. Going to school allows classism and racism walls to be broken down while children learn academics skills. Most of these skills are initially learned in elementary schools, therefore in-person classes are essential for younger students.  

BMJ Journals discusses a report about the number of children affected by COVID-19. Children ages 10 and under are significantly less affected by COVID-19. This data is also supported in a New York Times podcast, The Daily, which talks about how children do not suffer as many symptoms as adults.  

However, data is evolving over time. This week, and article by the CDC acknowledges a study done about COVID-19 transmission at an overnight camp in Georgia. The results of this study showed that all age groups transmit the virus at similar rates. Yet the CDC has still discussed that children ages 2-17 had the lowest rates of severe symptoms of all age groups. 

Therefore, elementary school are safer to go to school than those in middle school or high school. They spread the have less chance of severe symptoms and gain the most benefit from in-person learning. Children above 10 have a higher chance of infection and therefore it is not safe to go to school. This is seen in the CDC response to reopening schools. They discuss how children above the age of 10 have a higher risk of being infected.  

Therefore, the safest option is to send elementary schools physically, but middle and high school should be held online. This gives young students the chance to build emotional and social skills early, but also keep more students at less risk of infection.  

Will This Plan Work?  

In a Policy Brief by the Nord County School, Norway used the same technique of only sending grades 1-4 to school starting in April 27, 2020. Children were temperature checked on arrival, ate at their desks during lunch and the amount of people allowed in the school was restricted. Till the end of the school year, Norway used this system to keep Elementary schools physically running.  

Looking back at the John Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker, Norway is near the bottom of COVID-19 cases having less that 10,000 confirmed cases.  

Only sending Elementary schools back to in-person teaching allows for social benefits to reach the younger generation while giving parents the option to go back to work.  Parents will be able to resume working essential jobs without having to worry about younger children, and the older students will be safer from being infected by COVID-19.