RE-OPENING GUIDANCE

This guidance pools considerations from the recently updated CDC guidance on opening
schools, guidance from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, multiple news articles, and
various available state reopening plans from other states.

The complicating factor is that we do not have a distinct timeframe for when schools will re-
open. Whether remote instruction, in-person instruction, or some version of a hybrid, Districts
do not know whether schools will re-open for in-person extended school year services or when
school will re-open in the fall for in-person instruction. The bulk of this guidance is suggested
on the presumption that in-person instruction will not resume until the Fall, at the earliest,
August.
Here is a list of things that Districts should begin to stockpile.
o Masks
 Districts may need to purchase and distribute masks and other personal protective
equipment to teachers, janitorial staff, students and others, such as essential visitors
who arrive without one. While masks, at this point, do not seem to be required for
students, some may want the mask and having some on reserve for specific situations
is advised.
o Hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol
o Antibacterial soap
o Cleaning/sanitizing solution/rags, etc.
o Soap
o Alcohol sanitizing wipes
o Tissues
o Paper towels
o No-touch trash cans
o Signage, signage, and more signage
o Plexiglas
o Plastic coating:
 To cover pens/sign-in devices
 To cover use of calculators and other shared tools/utensils
o Thermometers
o Duct tape or materials used to designate 6’-7’ distances
o A lot of extra “frequent touch” items that students should not share such as writing and
art utensils, notebooks
o Toilet paper…

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The newly released CDC guidance on the reopening of schools remains a basic framework;
details are to be filled in based on state requirements and local District needs, and the qualities
and characteristics of each school.

After ordering the various materials and supplies, begin creating task forces now. There are
five main areas to consider, and within each District should consider creating sub-task forces:
one for elementary schools and the other for secondary schools. The intent behind the task
forces is not only to break down the colossal task of re-opening schools into more manageable
chunks, but to promote stakeholder buy-in. Task forces should have a representative from:

o Central administration,
o Building administration,
o Special education administration,
o Teachers,
o Parents,
o Janitorial staff,
o A health representative, s
o Students,
o Community members, and
o Any other specifically designated person based on the topic (i.e. legal counsel for certain
considerations, bus drivers when talking about transportation, and cafeteria workers
when talking about food services).

Be sure that those task forces with foci that overlap – i.e. school spaces and learning –
communicate with each other, and even hold joint meetings for specific purposes.

The five general task force areas, and of course create additional ones as necessary:

1. Transportation

2. School spaces which includes a focus on

o Classrooms
o Hallways
o Recess space / playgrounds
o Office / Administrative spaces
o Gathering spaces such as cafeteria, gymnasium, auditoriums

3. Learning: both Academic and Social Emotional with a particular focus on:
o Students with disabilities
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 o English Learners
o Those most adversely affected by remote instruction
o New Students and
o Kindergarten Transition

4. Food services

5. Athletics/Extracurricular

Within each task force focus on:

o Social distancing
o Health and Hygiene
o Scheduling (particularly within the school day)
o Facilities/logistics
o Staffing

Set up meetings for the task forces to meet throughout June and July and report out on a
frequent basis.
o Keep the task forces in-tact throughout the 2020-2021 school year to respond to the
hiccups that are sure to occur along the way.
o The task forces should also plan for the event that schools need to close again mid-
school year to address the possible “second wave.”
o Keep the task forces active throughout the school year as an important feedback loop
for planning throughout summer 2021 and the school year that follows.

Begin to have conversations with your contractors now:

1. For transportation companies, aside from whatever scheduling and routing changes
might occur, ensure that they are going to install both:
o Plexiglas and social distancing spacing and signage on all buses; and
o Hand sanitizer upon entrance onto buses

2. For contracted education providers companies:

o Discuss what services they plan to provide; and
o Request their reopening plans around social distancing, CDC sanitization standards,
etc.

3. For service deliveries, ensure contractors know what doors to go into, what safety
precautions to take, and the District’s expectations about the use of Personal Protective
Equipment.

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Throughout July, plan out sources and agencies to hire temporary / substitute staffing.
School nurses will be in high demand, and teachers and other school staff may either be out
due to positive tests or generalized anxiety related to C-19. For those of you who run your own
transportation companies, start looking for back up bus drivers due to the possibility of
increased number of routes and any affect the pandemic has on current drivers’ ability to work.

For any of this reopening work, strongly consider consortium group work,
among counties and among districts within counties, to trade ideas, and support
more equitable resource distribution.

No later than the end of July, which is even a little late, Districts should have sifted through
the various task force plans to create a generalized reopening plan that is communicated to the
board, parents, students and the community. A strong school communication strategy.
Communication about protocols and schedules is critical. Pay attention to the languages and
modes of communication utilized.

School Spaces:
Operating under the assumption that schools reopen for in-person instruction at the end of
August/beginning of September, all installation of Plexiglas, barriers, and other signage must
be done throughout the month of August.

- Ensure that buildings have undergone a deep clean throughout the summer.

- Minimize the items in classrooms that should be shared.

- For those classrooms in which students do not normally store items, ensure there are
storage spaces to keep items (for teachers and students), rather than bring them back
and forth.

Entering/Exiting the building:

- Students need to be able to safely enter and exit buildings without bumping into each
other. Students should enter one at a time and wait six feet apart outside the entrance.

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 - Stagger arrival and dismissal times to decrease the number of students who are entering
the building (based on bus arrival, walkers, and dropped off students).

- One set of doors for entering, another designated set of double doors for exiting.

o Designate separate sets of entrance & exit doors for employees, students,
parents/visitors.

o Where appropriate, encourage parents to remain outside during drop-off and

pick-up.

- Restrict nonessential visitors and volunteers.

Classrooms:

- Use visual cues like floor markings to help students and staff stay six or seven feet apart.

- Turn desks to face in the same direction (rather than facing each other), or have
students sit on only one side of tables, spaced apart.

- Where possible, dividers should be placed on desks if they can serve the purpose of
shielding students, teachers, and staff from respiratory droplets with which they might
otherwise come into contact. This could be particularly helpful in settings where
individuals must work together/in the same room, but 6’-7’ feet of separation cannot be
maintained.

- If more than one group is using a shared space that is large enough to allow for students
in all groups and their respective desks to be six feet apart, then multiple groups of
individuals can be in the space together. However, each group must be separated from
the other by an empty space of at least 30 feet.

o Groups should not combine for activities at any time.

- Whenever possible and developmentally appropriate, there should be no group or pair

work that would require students to regularly interact within six feet, recognizing that
this is not possible for early childhood students and some students with disabilities.

- Students must not be brought together in assemblies, field trips, or other group
gatherings outside of their class group, unless the distancing of 30 feet between groups
can be maintained.

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 - When feasible and appropriate, it is preferable for students to gather outside rather than
inside, because of likely reduced risk of virus spread outdoors.

- Whenever possible, students, teachers, and staff should maintain consistent groupings
of people, to minimize virus spread in the school. Specifically:

o Elementary school students should be taught in self-contained classes as

possible.

o Secondary school students should be taught in self-contained classes if possible

and, if that is not possible, should be exposed to as few different individual
teachers as possible.

 When students must be taught by multiple teachers, it is better for

students not to be brought together with those in other classes for shared
instruction or mixed with other classes during elective or other periods or
between classes.

 Rather than having students change from classroom to classroom,

teachers should rotate between classes while students stay in one class to
minimize students encountering others in the hallway. Rotate teachers
between classrooms instead of students.

 Alternatively, schools could stagger class start and end times to minimize
the number of students in the hallway during passing periods.

Hallways:

- Students will need to have the room needed to pass one another in hallways, so use visual
cues like floor markings to help students and staff stay six or seven feet apart.

- Regulate use of bathrooms: Provide hand sanitizer before entering and leaving the
bathroom to minimize fomite transmission of the virus to high-touch surfaces.

Cafeteria:

- For students who need to get food out of the cafeteria, stagger scheduling patterns to
limit the number of students flowing in and out of rooms.

- Use visual cues like floor markings to help students and staff stay six or seven feet apart.

- Students should eat lunch in classrooms.

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 - If you need to use the cafeteria, assign students spaces 6’-7’ apart at cafeteria tables
stagger use and disinfect in between use.

- Serve individually plated meals and hold activities in separate classrooms and ensure
the safety of children with food allergies.

- As much as possible, serve pre-packaged boxes or bags of food. Avoid sharing of foods
and utensils.

Students:

- More practical for older students than younger ones: Keep students from hugging,
moving around or touching things and each other.

- Especially for younger students, reinforce through circle time, social stories, and other
methods the importance of maintaining distances and proper hygiene.

- Older elementary students who can follow social distancing protocols should be asked
to keep six feet apart while using play spaces.

o Consider the use of cones and natural barriers to prevent students from
interacting across class groups and increasing virus spread.

- For the youngest students, including early childhood and early elementary students, as
well as some students with disabilities, social distancing on play spaces will not be
possible or developmentally appropriate. These students are also unlikely to attend to a
natural barrier or cones. In these cases, it is recommended that, as much as possible,
only one class group uses a play space at a time.

- Students in age groups who do not need to use play equipment for recreation should not
spend their recreation time in play spaces, if possible, and should maintain socially
distanced at all times when outside, just as they do inside.

Transportation

- Students should be seated at least six feet from other students on the bus (in most cases,
this will mean one student per row, on opposite sides of the bus). Students should stay
in their seats. Siblings/children living in the same household can sit on the same bus
bench as long as the appropriate distance from other students remains appropriate.

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 o Impact: Increase the number of buses, drivers, and routes.

o Problems:

 $$$$$$$$$

 Nationwide bus driver shortage

 Drivers in many cases have pre-existing conditions or are in an age range

more susceptible to coronavirus.

- Consider grouping bus routes to align to class groupings to minimize cross-group

exposure.

- Students, teachers, and staff should use hand sanitizer upon boarding the bus.

- Encourage families to drop students off, carpool, or walk with their student to school to
reduce possible virus exposure on buses.

- Buses should be thoroughly cleaned after each bus trip, particularly high-touch surfaces
such as bus seats, steering wheels, knobs, and door handles. During cleaning, open
windows to allow for additional ventilation and air flow, which is helpful in mitigating
COVID-19 spread.

- Ensure safe and correct application of disinfectants and keep products away from
children.

- Ensure ventilation systems operate properly and increase circulation of outdoor air as
much as possible such as by opening windows and doors. Do not open windows and
doors if they pose a safety or health risk (e.g., allowing pollens in or exacerbating asthma
symptoms) risk to children using the facility.

Health and Hygiene

Plan now; Implement in August and upon student-return.

Students:

- Prohibit students from bringing to school items from home, unless receiving prior
approval.

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 o Keep textbooks at school; homework materials transmitted via email; using
Learning Platforms; or an extra textbook is provided to student to remain at
home.

- Keep each child’s belongings separated from others’ and in individually labeled
containers, cubbies, or areas and taken home each day and cleaned, if possible.

- Ensure adequate supplies to minimize sharing of high touch materials to the extent
possible (art supplies, equipment etc. assigned to a single student) or limit use of
supplies and equipment by one group of children at a time and clean and disinfect
between use.

- Avoid sharing electronic devices, toys, books, and other games or learning aids. If
absolutely necessary, keep the sharing of calculators and technology to a minimum and
make a frequent habit of wiping down all devices.

- Wash their hands more often and for longer periods of time.

- Should be instructed in good handwashing techniques and given frequent opportunities

to wash their hands. Students will have to assist in the cleaning and sanitizing of tools
and utensils, surfaces, technology devices, and other frequently touched services
(unclear how often these surfaces would need to be cleaned).

o Students should engage in supervised handwashing for at least 20 seconds at

least two times each day, in addition to washing hands after using the restroom
and before eating.

- Should be instructed on appropriate coughing/sneezing protocol and the use of masks

and other PPE.

Generally:

- Increase the frequency and intensity of cleaning and sanitizing of floors, walls, tables,
playground equipment, door handles, sink handles, and other surfaces.

- Shut down drinking fountains.

- Surfaces or areas not touched or occupied for seven days do not need to be disinfected.

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 - Schools should have hand sanitizer at each entrance and require students, teachers, and
staff to use it whenever they enter the building.

o Hand sanitizer should also be available in every classroom, and students and
teachers should be encouraged to use it frequently.

o Students, teachers, and staff should also wash hands or use hand sanitizer after
they have touched something another person recently touched.

- Arrange for cleaning of classrooms between different class groups if the same room will
be used by multiple class groups. This would include objects such as door handles,
common tables/desks, and high touch devices such as shared laptops or tablets.

- Post signs on how to stop the spread of COVID-19, properly wash hands, promote
everyday protective measures, and properly wear a face covering.

- Intensify ventilation

- Train teachers and staff on sanitation and hygiene

o Teachers and staff will need rigorous and routine refresher training on proper
hygiene, distancing and personal protective equipment protocols.

Ventilation:

- Increase ventilation in learning spaces and hallways.

- Consider holding classroom activities in outdoor spaces or larger school spaces (e.g.,
auditoriums, gymnasiums) instead of small classrooms.

- Consider use of windows and open classroom doors for cross-ventilation.

Plexiglas:

- Ensure your contractor is installing them on the buses prior to the start of school.

- Install in office areas.

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 - Install in other confined areas that must be used but do not allow for six feet of
separation.

Masks:

- New CDC guidelines only specify this precaution for school employees, if feasible.

- Permit students who want to wear masks to wear them.

- Some parents may want their child to wear masks – agree to allow those students to
wear them, but depending on the child’s age, the attempts may not be successful.

- Information should be provided to staff and students on proper use, removal, and
washing of cloth face coverings.

o Cloth face coverings are meant to protect other people in case the wearer is
unknowingly infected (many people carry COVID-19 but do not have symptoms).

o Cloth face coverings are not surgical masks, respirators, or personal protective
equipment.

- There remains no evidence to guide a recommendation for child masking.

Learning: STUDENTS: Who comes back, when, and how often? Start these
conversations now! (Realizing that it may depend on state guidance/direction, having a
clear understanding of what stakeholders think (knowing they will not all agree) will help when
you do have more clarity from the state and need to make the important decisions).
Re-opening with equity

- An “equality approach” allows all students to return to school and teachers address
varying sized gaps in learning and learning loss during remote instruction.

- An “equity approach” invests resources where they are most needed. Such resources
include in-person instruction in limited seats in socially distanced classrooms.

- Open school buildings first to the students who need them most — those who rely on
the school building for:

o Safety;
o Food security;

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 o Families who do not have resources for remote learning;
o Elementary school students who cannot be left at home alone when parents
return to work;
o Those students who need in-person instruction the most;
o Students with significant academic gaps;
o Students with disabilities whose needs pose additional challenges to learning in
a virtual environment but who are otherwise not medically at risk;
o Those students who need social and emotional interventions;
o Student learning experiences that cannot be done remotely, such as certain
Career and Technical Education Learning experiences for middle and high school
students;
o Students experiencing homelessness; and
o English learners.

 How do we know who needs in-person academic instruction? Classroom

Diagnostic Testing: voluntary tests for parents and teachers to assess
learning loss and guide their decisions.

 Keep those on-track and able to do remote: doing remote. BUT remote
needs to be focused on ensuring not a mere 30-60 minutes per day of
checking in with students, but mastery of content.

o Weekly or daily rotations of students IN schools; Reconfigure for staggered

school schedules:

 In person instruction for longer days on an alternating schedule (Group A

= M/Th; Group B = Tu/F), with hybrid instruction for those days when
students are not physically attending school.

 Staggering attendance during the same school day. Some students would
attend in the morning and some in the afternoon. In essence: Half-day
schedule (Group A: mornings; Group B: afternoons).

Drawbacks: there will be twice as many:

 Cleaning between student groups;

 Screening procedures;
 Bus routes per day.

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 - Splitting students in different classes or grades across multiple locations lowers the
building density. This can be done by moving half of a school’s students and teachers to
another location. Students who attend at each location could be more spread out than if
they were all in just one place.

o Share space with community organizations such as churches and community

centers that accommodate programs running before or after official school hours,
YMCAs, public libraries or recreational/community centers to expand the space
they have available.

o Use modular or trailer classrooms.

- Depending on the parameters around school openings, it may be that school attendance
in person is optional for students (PDE may direct otherwise), but those students would
still need to satisfy district academic and/or participation requirements virtually if they
do not attend in person.

With a hybrid in-person/remote approach, ensure rigor of remote instruction

- Cannot be a “continuity of education” expectation.

o Coordinate remote learning via remote learning / meeting platforms to be

simultaneous with the teacher’s in-person instruction to the students in the
classroom;

o High quality, rigorous instruction must be delivered through remote instruction

if that is the only instruction some student receive while others, for equity
purposes, receive in-person instruction.

o Must be more than a half an hour check in with a teacher per day.

o Flexible online learning options will be necessary on a longer-term basis, remote

options are needed for families with older or chronically ill caregivers who decide
to prioritize home instruction during periods of community transmission to lower
exposure risk.

Schedule List. The scheduling required to create a successful reopening will be a massive
undertaking. Scheduling is an overarching task that, of course, needs to be coordinated among
all areas of the reopening. Below is a summary of the main scheduling tasks reviewed earlier

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in the guidance. There are certainly additional scheduling considerations that will need to be
addressed.

- Increase the number of buses, drivers, and routes.

- Stagger arrival and dismissal times to decrease the number of students who are entering
the building (based on bus arrival, walkers, and dropped off students).

- Designate separate sets of entrance & exit doors for employees, students,
parents/visitors.
- If more than one group is using a shared space that is large enough to allow for students
in all groups and their respective desks to be six feet apart, then multiple groups of
individuals can be in the space together. However, each group must be separated from
the other by an empty space of at least 30 feet.

- Rather than having students change from classroom to classroom, teachers should
rotate between classes while students stay in one class to minimize students
encountering others in the hallway. Rotate teachers between classrooms instead of
students OR schools could stagger class start and end times to minimize the number of
students in the hallway during passing periods.

- For students who need to get food out of the cafeteria, stagger scheduling patterns to
limit the number of students flowing in and out of rooms.

- Use visual cues like floor markings to help students and staff stay six or seven feet apart.

- Students should eat lunch in classrooms (supervision schedule).

- If you need to use the cafeteria, assign students spaces 6’-7’ apart at cafeteria tables
stagger use and disinfect in between use.

- For the youngest students, including early childhood and early elementary students, as
well as some students with disabilities, social distancing on play spaces will not be
possible or developmentally appropriate. These students are also unlikely to attend to a
natural barrier or cones. In these cases, it is recommended that, as much as possible,
only one class group uses a play space at a time.

- Schedule time for student handwashing upon arrival to school, mid-way through the
morning, after lunch, after specials, and midway through the afternoon.

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 - Students will have to assist in the cleaning and sanitizing of tools and utensils, surfaces,
technology devices, and other frequently touched services (unclear how often these
surfaces would need to be cleaned).

- Weekly or daily rotations of students IN schools; Reconfigure for staggered school

schedules:

o In person instruction for longer days on an alternating schedule (Group A =

M/Th; Group B = Tu/F), with hybrid instruction for those days when students
are not physically attending school;

o Staggering attendance during the same school day. Some students would attend
in the morning and some in the afternoon. In essence: Half-day schedule (Group
A: mornings; Group B: afternoons).

- Coordinate remote learning via remote learning / meeting platforms to be simultaneous

with the teacher’s in-person instruction to the students in the classroom.

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