Schools Reopening – Take 2. Can we do better this time?
Our communities face a challenge today – an urgent need to continue reopening schools. Children have been distant from physical, in-person learning for over a year now, and the consequences are profound. Such consequences include interrupted learning, and an increase in dropout and social isolation rates. With the Delta variant continuing to surge, the virus is still circulating at alarming levels across our communities. In the first half of September 2021, children in America represented approximately a quarter of weekly COVID-19 cases. This increase in cases, concurrent with the inability to vaccinate children under the age of 12 yet, alarms health officials scrambling for answers as schools reopen across the country.
The ongoing pandemic has had a significant impact on mental health outcomes among the youth of all ages. In particular, adolescents missed out on more than a year of socializing at a time of pivotal developmental importance, which has negative mental health consequences that can linger on for years. The American Academy of Pediatrics stated that “During the pandemic, pediatric suicidal thinking and behavior increased by 25% or more”. It’s clear that we need to invest resources into ensuring youth have access to the tools they need to address their mental health, while also making sure both students and teachers are in a safe and healthy environment.
After 18 long months coping with the pandemic, vaccination is the leading public health prevention strategy to combat the spread of the COVID-19. However, as of now, children under the age of 12 have been unable to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Although the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11 is expected to be approved for Emergency Use Authorization as early as the end of October of 2021, it will take many months for this age group to become fully vaccinated. Although the vaccination for teens ages 12-15 has been available since the middle of May 2021, vaccination rates in this age group have been well below that for adults. Until the COVID-19 vaccines gain full FDA approval, it is expected that vaccination rates for children will vary based on geography and individual school district mandates. Consequently, and in the meantime, this requires authorities and policymakers to focus on efforts to protect children as they begin returning to schools across the country this fall. Our communities urgently need a solution that allows schools to open safely so children can benefit from the emotional, psychological, and educational benefits of in-person learning.
There is substantial evidence that there are lower rates of in-school transmission when schools take proper prevention measures. In fact, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believes there should not be a big uptick due to schools reopening “if we do it right.” Dr. Fauci has stressed the importance of masking the school staff and surrounding children with vaccinated people. Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released an updated and detailed guideline iterating the importance of taking a variety of measures to protect children. Those measures include contact tracing, quarantine measurements, and diagnostic testing accessibility, as well as promoting and tracking the vaccination status of eligible students, staff, and educators.
Nevertheless, parents and educators continue to worry and wonder: how do we translate the written guidelines into adequate actions that competently protect children within our communities? The prescribed guidelines, although comprehensive and evidence-based, require a high level of collaboration and organization by school administrators on local, county, and state levels. With the right tools, schools can reopen and remain opened and avoid the challenges that come with the rapidly changing epidemiological conditions.
Aztute’s public health solution is designed to allow schools to make data-driven decisions and implement recommended guidelines with one objective in mind: protect children and allow them to safely resume in-person educational activities. Using automation and comprehensive data collection to monitor epidemiological status, Aztute allows schools to distribute and help comply with all recommended guidelines for reopening. It combines school-specific data collection with local epidemiological data to enable predictive analytics. Educators and policy makers can then use the data to craft policies that protect children while minimizing their detrimental impact on students’ social and learning objectives. For instance, the Aztute solution enables effective contact tracing, securely shares health data with public health authorities, and compares protocol effectiveness across schools in a district, across districts, at the state level, and among states to continuously improve policies and procedures in schools.
Based on Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Aztute helps establish secured epidemiological records for individual students as well as school staff. On one hand, this allows for deriving a holistic picture of vaccination and testing rates across schools which provides opportunities to generate a precise understanding of population-level immunity. On the other hand, it allows policymakers to get a clearer picture of who is surrounding students and interacting with them daily. Together, we can provide our children with the right tools to enable them to resume their educational journey.
Resources
Doyle, Timothy, et al. "COVID-19 in primary and secondary school settings during the first semester of school reopening—Florida, August–December 2020." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 70.12 (2021): 437. "Adverse Consequences Of School Closures". UNESCO, 2021, https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/consequences.
Madeline Holcombe, CNN. "Schools Superintendent Talks About The 'Big Tragedy' Happening Across America". CNN, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/08/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html.
“Biden Administration Announces $85 Million in Funding for Children’s Mental Health” https://www.verywellmind.com/biden-administration-announces-usd85-million-in-funding-for-children-s-mental-health-5201007
“When could Covid-19 vaccines be available for younger kids? An expert weighs in” https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/health/covid-19-vaccine-approval-younger-kids-wen-wellness/index.html