BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN/AP) — New York state on Friday eased reopening restrictions on schools to allow most students to sit closer together as long as they continue to wear masks.
But before they can make any changes, school districts will have to allow parents, school staff and local health officials to weigh in, under guidance released by the state Department of Health.
"Ultimately, the school/district's decision to move to shorter physical distances will come down to a local community's risk tolerance based on its unique circumstances," the 24-page document released late Friday said.
The distancing change, which follows federal guidance, is expected to allow schools to bring more students back to buildings and reduce their reliance on distance learning that has most students participating from home for at least part of the week.
"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 in response to the revised guidance.
"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."
A complete release of detailed Erie County Department of Health guidance on the new distancing is at the bottom of this article.
President Joe Biden has made it a priority to fully reopen K-8 schools by the end of April, but superintendents in New York have been frustrated by the state's delay in acting on federal guidance issued last month that says students wearing masks can safely sit just 3 feet (1 meter), rather than 6 feet (2 meters), apart in the classroom.
The revised state guidelines allow for at least 3 feet of distance between students in elementary, middle and high school classrooms in counties with a low or moderate risk of transmission.
In counties where infection rates are high, middle and high schools should still aim for 6 feet of distancing unless they can maintain "cohorting," where groups of students remain together through the day.
Parents in four western New York districts have sued in recent weeks to resume full-time live instruction. Districts say distancing requirements have sharply limited how many students they can accommodate and forced them to remove desks and stagger schedules.
In the Williamsville Central School District, one of the districts being sued, Acting Superintendent John McKenna said in a recorded April 1 community update that all of the district's schools were prepared to bring students in full-time if the state revised its guidelines.
"We will be reviewing this guidance throughout the weekend and will provide an update to our school community on Monday," McKenna wrote on the district's website late Friday.
About 18% of New York public school fourth-graders had access to full-time, in-person instruction in February, while 80% were offered a hybrid mix of in-person and remote learning, according to a Biden administration survey.
Nationwide, nearly 46% of public schools offered five days a week of in-person learning to all students, according to the survey, but just 34% of students were learning full time in the classroom. The gap was most pronounced among older K-12 students, with just 29% of eighth graders getting five days a week of learning at school.
Even before the CDC revised distancing guidance for schools, some states and communities had disregarded the 6-foot recommendations, citing more relaxed guidelines from the World Health Organization, which urges 1 meter in schools and American Academy of Pediatrics, which says to space desks "3 feet apart and ideally 6 feet apart."
Onondaga County officials changed social distancing rules for central New York schools in early March. The new rules gave districts the option of seating students 3 feet apart in classrooms, but with barriers or shields separating desks and students and staff continuing to wear masks.
ERIE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PROVIDES STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO UPDATES TO NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL GUIDANCE
ERIE COUNTY, NY – The Erie County Department of Health (ECDOH) is providing this statement in response to the Revised Interim Guidance for In-Person Instruction at Pre-K to Grade 12 Schools issued by New York State on April 9, 2021.
The guidance aligns NYS schools with recommendations set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in March 2021 to prioritize safe in-person learning within schools.
Using CDC thresholds for schools from its guidance document, the CDC considers 100 or more new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past seven days to be "high transmission" – the highest category.
Erie County's rate was well above 100 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents throughout March, increasing to over 300 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 2 weeks. Under CDC measures, Erie County is experiencing very high levels of COVID-19 transmission. The most recent rate from April 8 was 348 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past seven days.
As schools decide whether to expand in-person learning, ECDOH asks that administrators keep the following in mind when building their plans:
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.
SARS-Co-V2 samples from Erie County residents show evidence that more transmissible variants of concern are circulating in Erie County.
Families and school staff who travelled out of the area during Spring Break should strongly consider getting a diagnostic COVID-19 test between 5-7 days after the last date of travel.
These tests are free through Erie County and NYS. ECDOH has a team within its Office of Epidemiology that solely focuses on COVID-19 cases among students, staff and youth sports teams.
This team is managing a surge of COVID-19 cases, overwhelmingly involving students. For the week ending April 10, even though most schools are closed for the spring break holiday, the ECDOH epidemiology office school team expects to manage at least 400 COVID-19 cases.
During the week ending April 3, this team received 504 COVID-19 case reports, an increase from 306 the previous week. These cases primarily involve students age 18 years and under.
Managing COVID-19 cases involves placing individuals with a positive COVID-19 test in isolation, and their close contacts in quarantine. Schools that change to three-foot spacing will be putting classmates firmly in the "close contact" category, and subject to quarantine if a case is identified in their classroom during an infectious period.
Through case investigations, ECDOH has documented that many students and school staff fail to mask or to mask properly, breach the six-foot distance, spend extended time in small, poorly ventilated spaces (e.g., breakrooms, car pools), and come to school when ill.
"As we have said before, NYS sets school guidance, and schools establish policies that meet that guidance," said 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."
