COVID-19 and School Buildings (Report from Harvard)

Many school districts have developed detailed school reentry plans and many others are just getting started.  Regardless of the stage of the process, the Schools for Health: Risk Reduction Strategies for Reopening Schools report from the T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard) will prove invaluable. The report begins by acknowledging that the goal is “risk-reduction” because “there is no such thing as ‘zero risk’, in anything we do, and certainly not during a pandemic. However, scientific evidence indicates that risks to students and staff can be kept low if schools adhere to strict control measures and dynamically respond to potential outbreaks (6).” Using exposure and risk science, the report focuses a range of control strategies that should be considered for the reopening of schools. 

The report makes strategy recommendations in five broad areas:

  • HEALTHY CLASSROOMS: Following safe practices in classrooms

  • HEALTHY BUILDINGS: Breathing clean air in the school building

  • HEALTHY POLICIES: Building a culture of health, safety, and shared responsibility

  • HEALTHY SCHEDULES: Moving between rooms and locations safely

  • HEALTHY ACTIVITIES: Enjoying modified activities

healthy schools info graphic.png

In each of the broad areas, the report recommends specific strategies. For example, in Healthy Classrooms, they recommend have all students and staff wear masks and building mask breaks into the schedule.  With respect to buildings, the report recommends increasing air filtration. In the body of the report are specific recommendations (e.g. purchasing room-level air purification systems if the HVAC system is inadequate).  The report was released in June specifically so that school districts would have time to prepare for the fall. It is now the end of July and districts that are welcoming students back in-person (full time or hybrid) have four to five weeks to prepare their buildings.  This report is a fantastic place to develop or check your building-specific plan. 

Joseph Allen (one of the authors), was on the NPR program On Point this past Monday to discuss the report and practical steps schools can take now to get ready. 

Also, if your school district is still trying to come to a conclusion about how to reopen, the Schools For Health team has put together a list of 20 questions that everyone should be asking before sending kids back to school.   

Of course, all of this is going to require money. A proposal has been floated by Republicans to spend about $70B on school reopening with about 2/3 in-person learning. I have seen estimates that it will cost in the hundreds of billions, so this is probably just a start. According to the CNBC article, schools that submit plans to their states that include at least 50% in-person learning per week will be automatically approved for their requests. School districts should be prioritizing the recommendations outlined in this report, starting the purchasing process (I suspect there is not a national stockpile of air purifiers to draw from), and developing a plan that will be submitted their individual states (assuming Congress approves the money - I realize that is a huge barrier).

Joseph Millercovid-19, school, reopenComment