Revised guidance lowers bar for schools to reopen in Washington state, Inslee announces
The state has revised its guidance for schools, lowering the recommended COVID-19 case threshold to open for in-person learning, Washington Gov. Inslee announced Wednesday.
“This we know: We know that because of the new science we have and because of the successful experience we’ve had in various schools, it is time to begin the process of getting more of our students back into the classroom,” Inslee said at a virtual press conference.
Only about 15% of Washington’s K-12 students are receiving any form of in-person learning right now, according to the governor. The state’s recommendations are for local school boards to consider and aren’t legally binding requirements.
The state Department of Health is now recommending schools with fewer than 50 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents over two weeks make in-person learning available to all students, as long as safety measures are in place. In counties where there are 50-350 cases per 100,000, the guidelines encourage districts to phase in in-person learning beginning with the youngest students and those with the highest needs.
Priority groups, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal said, include English language learners and students with disabilities. The oldest students should be among the last to return, Inslee said, because they catch and transmit the coronavirus more similarly to adults — and data has shown it’s easier to get younger children to follow public health protocols.
“All of us who’ve raised teenagers have some experience with that phenomena,” Inslee said.
In counties with cases at more than 350 per 100,000, the state now encourages districts to bring back elementary students with the highest needs in groups of 15 or fewer.
“When schools can demonstrate the ability to limit transmission and disease rates are flat or decreasing, we recommend that you keep going forward to bring in more and more students. When disease rates are increasing, we recommend you take a pause on expanding to additional students,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, Assistant Secretary of Prevention and Community Health at the state Department of Health (DOH).
Local leaders should also consider test positivity rates and trends in cases and hospitalizations to inform their decisions, according to DOH, and administrators should “engage staff and families of students at risk for severe COVID-19, families of students with disabilities, English language learners, students living in poverty, students of color, and families of young students to determine how to best meet the health and education needs of these students and the community.”
The latest available DOH data shows, in the time period Nov. 21-Dec. 4, San Juan County was the only county in Washington with fewer than 50 cases per 100,000 residents.
The state as a whole has a rate of 493.3 cases per 100,000, similar to Pierce County’s rate of 492.7, according to Department of Health data. On the high end are the Tri Cities, where Franklin County has a rate of 1,151.2 cases per 100,000 and Benton County is at 777.5. One the lower end is Whatcom County with 221 cases per 100,000, and Thurston County at 242.5 cases.
Guidelines previously recommended schools in counties that have 75 or more COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period stay in remote learning, and that they phase into in-person when rates fell below 75.
The state made these changes based on data showing schools are successful at limiting transmission of the coronavirus when health and safety measures are in place, the governor said, such as wearing masks and maintaining 6 feet of distance from one another.
“Now that we have a better understanding of how the disease spreads and have developed health and safety protocols specific to schools, we are in a much better position and we have much more confidence when it comes to phased-in, in-person learning,” Inslee said.
Inslee also announced a proclamation “reinforcing the fact that our state health and safety protocols are required by law in schools.” It prohibits districts from conducting in-person instruction unless they meet certain standards, such as creating and implementing an “Accident Prevention Plan,” including a COVID-19 prevention plan.
The state department of Labor & Industries also will designate a point of contact for school workplace questions and concerns. The result could be increased inspections, Inslee said, if there are complaints that schools aren’t following the measures.
State Superintendent Reykdal said Wednesday that Washington has “some of the most stringent health and safety protocols for school opening in the country.”
The state also aims to support the expansion of COVID-19 testing in schools. Pilot programs have been underway in some districts, and officials voiced hope for expansion.
Front-and-center at Wednesday’s press conference were the motivating factors for schools to resume in-person instruction.
While educators have been innovative in remote schooling and many students are doing well, Inslee said, inequities already present in education have been “even more pronounced.” To reduce those inequities, he said, it’s important to get kids back in schools safely.
Both Inslee and Reykdal pointed out that schools are more than academic institutions.
“Many people’s lives revolve around a regular school schedule,” Inslee said. “And apart from the academics, we know that schools provide social supports that advance healthy childhood development.”
Dr. Danielle Zerr, medical director of infection prevention and chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Seattle Children’s Hospital, spoke to the important role schools play.
They are “critically important to the development and the social-emotional well-being of our children,” she said, and they’ve suffered in isolation. Young children need to spend time in social settings; children with behavioral difficulties, academic gaps, and students in special education program need in-person time to reach their “full potential.”
In September, over half of children aged 11-17 reported having thoughts of suicide or self-harm nearly every day of the previous two weeks, she said.
“So, while nothing is without risk, kids can be brought back to school in person safely, through careful preparation and thoughtful sequencing appropriate to disease burden in the community, age of the students, and other considerations,” she said.
She also emphasized the need for community members to follow public health protocols outside of schools to allow for in-person learning.
In response to a reporter’s question about whether teachers are supportive of the updated guidance and if they’ll show up, Inslee said there’s a “diversity of thought” among educators.
“It’s not shocking that there is concern,” the governor said. “We’re asking them to do something they’ve never done before, frankly, and so many of them do have understandable concerns about that. But I can tell you I would not have made this recommendation to any teacher unless I was willing to make it to my brother” and other teachers in his family.
Washington Education Association President Larry Delaney issued a prepared statement expressing concern with the way the changes were rolled out Wednesday.
“The trust and confidence that we can safely return to school is something that must be earned,” the statement reads. “It would have been easier to build that trust with educators with more communications in advance from the Governor about these pending changes.”
The association, which represents public school employees, agrees that the L&I safety guidelines should be the focus, because of their role in building trust.
“We need to know that there is adequate PPE, distancing, ventilation, an active and trained safety committee in each building, effective plans for contact tracing, testing and clear communications regarding protocols for what happens when a case is detected in school,” Delaney’s statement continues.
Following the guidelines where schools are still all-remote will “take time,” it reads, and WEA is concerned that the rollout implies school can resume before there’s time to put the appropriate precautions in place.
The governor also announced that $3 million in federal coronavirus relief funding will be allocated by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to schools for safety planning.
The state needs to distribute that money by the end of the year, Inslee said, and it doesn’t meet all of districts’ anticipated needs. He said he will meet with legislators in the next week for funding discussions, and that he hopes to know by then what Congress has done — or not done — to help schools, which are facing a myriad of funding challenges.
The governor ordered all schools closed to most in-person instruction last March and ultimately extended that closure through the rest of the 2019-20 school year.
On Aug. 5, the state issued guidance for reopening schools that allowed for local decision-making based on local levels of coronavirus transmission.
When Inslee announced schools would close in March, there were 568 cases of COVID-19 across 15 counties and 37 deaths. Across the U.S., 1,700 cases had been confirmed. As of Wednesday, Washington had tallied more than 205,000 confirmed cases and about 3,000 deaths.
The U.S. has confirmed more than 17 million cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Revised guidance lowers bar for schools to reopen in Washington state, Inslee announces."
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