NEW YORK — New York State is easing reopening restrictions on schools that would allow students, under certain conditions, to sit closer together, as long as they continue to wear masks.
The change, which was released Friday, is expected to allow schools to bring more students back into buildings and reduce their reliance on distance learning.
Shortly after the guidance was released, 2 On Your Side talked with Niagara Falls Schools Superintendent Mark Laurrie about what the changes mean.
"It's curious that it came late on a Friday, but at least it came," he said. "We've been waiting for this guidance for 44 days. I'm glad it's here now. We have a plan."
Superintendents in New York have been frustrated by the state’s delay in acting on revised federal guidelines that indicate students wearing masks can safely sit just three feet apart in the classroom instead of six feet.
For middle and high school students, though, the distance could still be six feet, depending on how much spread is happening in the community, and whether the school can put students into smaller "cohorts."
That means that here in Western New York, many secondary students will have to wait longer before returning to fully in-person learning.
"The New York State Department of Health took up the CDC's recommendation that you wait until the rate of community transmission is less than .1% before you reduce the distance between secondary kids to three feet. So that is a very low threshold," said Michael Cornell, president of the Erie-Niagara School Superintendents Association.
He added, "I think districts are gonna need a little bit of help, frankly, from the New York State Department of Health to explain where that .1% of community transmission comes from as a threshold, to help us understand what the scientific basis is for that, so we can explain that to our secondary students and their parents."
Cornell, who is also the superintendent of the Hamburg Central School District, said the guidance also requires districts include stakeholders in the planning, which is something many schools across the region had been preparing for.
Laurrie told 2 on Your Side, "It's doable. It's going to take a little bit of communication and planning. Our plan has been in motion in terms of room size, etcetera."
Added Cornell: "Learning at its heart is a social endeavor, and needs to be done in person, in collaboration with their classmates, and in the company of our great teachers. We're excited to get our elementary students back and we'd like to get our secondary students back as soon as we can do that, too."
The Erie County Department of Health released a statement in response to the state's updated guidance.
“As we have said before, NYS sets school guidance, and schools establish policies that meet that guidance,” said Erie County Commissioner of Health Dr. Gale Burstein. “Our advice to Erie County’s school leaders is to review this update carefully, and implement all possible mitigation strategies, regardless of whether your school chooses to expand in-person learning.”
The release also included a list of factors the ECDOH asks administrators to keep in mind when building their plans, including:
- Erie County has experienced a strong and sustained increase in new daily cases, driven by high numbers of new cases within the 20-29 and 30-39 age groups. Many parents of school-age children and some school staff are in these age ranges.
- Positivity rates among age groups under age 18 ranged from 9.8% to 12.2% for the week ending April 3, much higher than older age groups.
- COVID-19-related hospitalizations in Erie County have more than doubled in the past month.
- Even as many school staff have completed a COVID-19 vaccination series, very few students ages 16 and 17 years have received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose and students ages 15 and under are completely unvaccinated because they are not yet eligible under current FDA emergency use authorizations.
You can read the full release from the ECDOH here.
New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta also issued a statement on the revised guidance.
His statement reads in part:
- “In adopting new physical distancing guidelines in line with CDC recommendations, the state is making it crystal clear that distancing is only one part of a layered mitigation strategy. These revised guidelines not only draw distinctions between when it’s appropriate to have three feet of distancing and when six feet of distancing is still necessary, they also mandate masks at all times and lay out specific ventilation recommendations while maintaining important provisions for cleaning, hygiene and contact tracing. What’s more, the guidelines are clear that community transmission — with a majority of New York counties currently at high levels of transmission, per CDC metrics — is a critical factor in how physical distancing changes are implemented. And before districts make changes, school communities, including parents and educators, must be given an opportunity to provide input on updates to reopening plans. That has always been and must continue to be essential to the reopening process."
You can read that full statement here.
The changes are not expected to come overnight, as districts still need to finalize plans and include stakeholders in the discussion.
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