As more NC students return to daily in-person classes, CDC eases its guidelines
Dozens of North Carolina school districts have rushed to take advantage of a new state law allowing them to return all schools to daily in-person instruction.
Until the school reopening bill was signed into law on March 11, only elementary schools were allowed to operate on Plan A with daily, in-person instruction. Over the past week, at least 40 of the state’s 115 school districts have voted to switch middle schools and high schools to Plan A, according to a N.C. School Boards Association database.
Secondary school students will begin receiving daily in-person instruction for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020. School districts across the state have reported higher student failure rates during the period of mostly remote learning.
“The kids have suffered,” Union County school board member Gary Sides said at Monday’s emergency meeting, where they voted to move all students to five days a week of in-person classes.
“At some point we have to say we’re going to push through and we’re going to, for the kids’ sake, for their social being, their mental health, as well as their educational progress. We’re going to move on in trying to get back to some resemblance of normal.”
The 40 school districts moving all grades to Plan A represent a third of all the state’s public school students. The number will likely rise as more school boards meet in the next few weeks.
Both the Wake County and Johnston County school boards will hold special meetings on Monday to vote on moving middle schools and high schools to Plan A.
Charter schools weren’t included in the new law, so legislation has been filed to give charters the same option to use Plan A in all grades.
Social distancing guidelines eased
The changes are happening as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines on Friday saying K-12 students can safely sit in classrooms 3 feet apart, the Associated Press reported. Schools that operate on Plan A would typically be at around 3 feet of social distancing.
“For the sake of public trust and clarity, we urge the CDC to provide far more detail about the rationale for the change from 6 feet to 3 feet for students in schools, clearly and publicly account for differences in types of school environments, new virus variants, differences in mitigation compliance, and how study participants were tested for the virus,” Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, said in a statement Friday.
“We are concerned that the CDC has changed one of the basic rules for how to ensure school safety without demonstrating certainty that the change is justified by the science and can be implemented in a manner that does not detract from the larger long-term needs of students.”
But the CDC is still recommending keeping space at least 6 feet apart in middle and high schools if there’s high level of COVID-19 spread in the community. Walker Kelly said community spread remains high in many North Carolina counties.
Before the state law was passed, school districts could only use Plan B, which requires 6 feet of social distancing, in middle schools and high schools. The space requirement led schools to offer a hybrid of in-person and online classes instead of full-time in-person classes.
But the ABC Science Collaborative, a group formed by Duke University to advise on school reopening, says schools can safely operate with 3 feet of social distancing as long as they follow proper safety protocols such as requiring face masks.
School districts that switch middle and high schools to Plan A must submit their plans to the state Department of Health and Human Services and collaborate with the ABC Science Collaborative.
Districts are required to operate elementary schools on Plan A by April 1. They can operate middle and high schools on Plan A or Plan B.
Districtwide remote learning is no longer allowed. But remote learning still has to be offered this school year to students who don’t want in-person classes
Plans vary for secondary schools
Some districts are transitioning to Plan A for middle and high schools as early as Monday. But many districts are waiting until April, after spring break ends or the start of the final quarter of classes.
Some districts will offer five days a week of in-person instruction. Some districts will offer four days a week of in-person classes with that fifth day being used for remote learning and to clean campuses.
But some districts have decided to go with Plan B for the rest of the school year.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro middle school and high school students will have two days a week of in-person classes when they return on Monday from a year of all-remote instruction.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Superintendent Nyah Hamlett told the school board Thursday that roughly 50% to 75% of students at several middle and high schools could see schedule changes for the last quarter of the year if they went to Plan A. Teachers also could see their assignments change, she said.
Districts that stay in Plan B for middle and high schools are required to offer Plan A to special-education students.
Staff writer Tammy Grubb contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 4:50 PM with the headline "As more NC students return to daily in-person classes, CDC eases its guidelines."
