New reopening guidelines for Missouri schools

While no statewide health mandates related to K-12 school reopening have been issued, there will likely be local mandates that school leaders and officials will release as the new school year draws nearer.

The state released a list of guidelines this week regarding screening, physical distancing and masks, listed below.

Screening:

Parents should monitor their children for the following symptoms: Fever or chills, cough, headache, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, new loss of taste or smell, new runny nose or congestion, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing or sore throat.

Students with symptoms should not come to school and parents should contact their healthcare provider. For students who test positive for COVID-19, they are allowed to return to school at least 10 days after they developed symptoms and have no fever and no new symptoms.

Children with a known close contact to the virus should stay home for 14 days and return to school when the health department approves so. Children should be visually inspected for signs and symptoms of illness as they enter the school and/or classroom.

School leaders may also elect to perform additional symptom or temperature screening at school but should ensure those procedures do not force bottlenecks at building entry points, creating unnecessary situations where students cannot maintain adequate physical distance from one another.

According to health data, adults are much more likely to spread coronavirus than children, unlike other viruses (e.g. influenza) where children are more likely to transmit the virus to others. Therefore, school staff members should self-screen at home, following the same protocol listed above for families screening students at home. Schools should also screen staff members upon entry to the building each day, and that screening may include a temperature check. 

Schools should limit visitors inside the building during the upcoming school year. Schools should identify options to conduct meetings with families remotely (conference call or video conference) so parents can continue to engage with teachers (e.g. parent-teacher conferences) and participate in necessary discussions.

Physical Distancing:

Schools should assign students to groups and limit their exposure to other groups within the building. This means that students should stay with the same group of students and adults throughout the day. If classes must rotate, schools should consider rotating teachers, rather than moving groups of students throughout the school building. Strict adherence to a specific size of student groups should be discouraged, as this may limit the ability to provide in-person education. Schools should also implement and enforce assigned seating and keep records of those seating charts to assist with identifying close contacts in the event a member of the school community is diagnosed with COVID-19.

Grouping may not be feasible for middle and high school students and thus, assigned seating can help to reduce contacts among older students. Other physical distancing measures to consider:

Children taking school buses may not be able to social distance, however, strategies to reduce contact on buses and risk of infection can include: screening of COVID-19 symptoms at home prior to getting on the bus, encouraging hand hygiene upon boarding the bus, assigning students to seats so contacts are stable, seating siblings together, encouraging the use of face masks during transport and more.

Physical activity during recess and physical education class is important for a child’s physical, mental and emotional health. Students should engage in these activities with their primary cohorts (to the extent possible) to reduce the number of contacts. Multiple cohorts could have recess at the same time, as long as they are playing in separate areas of the playground.

Masks/Face Coverings:

Face coverings are an important strategy to reduce transmission of coronavirus, primarily by reducing the spread of infection from the wearer to those around. Young children may have difficulty complying with the proper use of face coverings and may have increased face touching, mask chewing, mask trading, and other behavior that could increase risk of infection. For this reason, continuous usage of face coverings is not recommended for young children.

Older children, such as those in middle and high school, are likely to be able to follow guidance regarding proper mask usage. Additionally, these students are less easily cohorted. Thus, the use of face coverings can provide an additional layer of protection against the spread of infection. Face coverings should be considered for all age groups during periods when students are not grouped together or cannot physically distance.

It is recommended that school leaders require school staff members to wear face coverings, as the data indicates COVID-19 transmission is more likely from adult to student, than from student to adult. Face coverings should be worn by staff members at all times when they are in close proximity to students or other staff members.