The Leader of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control on Friday said the agency’s new guidelines are meant to help schools reopen, not keep them closed.
“They’re all put out with the intent to help facilitate … the reopening of schools for face-to-face learning,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said on a call with reporters. “They’re not really put out there to be a rationale for somehow to keep schools closed, but again, we’re prepared to work with each jurisdiction as they try to adopt those guidelines.”
The CDC on Thursday night released the updated coronavirus guidelines for schools following criticism from President Donald Trump that the agency’s previous advice was too strict.
While the guidelines emphasize reopening schools with safety precautions like social distancing and mask use, they do recommend that local officials consider closing schools if there is substantial, uncontrolled spread of the virus in the area.
The guidance repeats a Trump talking point that kids do not suffer much from the virus and are less likely to spread it than adults are. It also said that keeping kids out of school can “lead to severe learning loss,” among other things.
Redfield also said that the decision to send children back to school in the fall is ultimately up to the parents.
“It’s going to be an individual parent decision,” Redfield said, adding that “we all worry” but he hopes “people will see the substantial benefit to their children” from in-person learning.
Trump on Thursday suggested that federal funding for schools that don’t reopen should go directly to families.
“If schools do not reopen, the funding should go to parents to send their child to public, private, charter, religious or homeschool of their choice,” Trump said at the White House. “The key word being ‘choice.’ If the school is closed, the money should follow the student so the parents and families are in control of their own decisions. So we’d like the money to go to the parents of the student. This way, they can make the decision that’s best for them.”
However, several large school districts have already announced that they will begin the year with remote learning. And an Associated Press/NORC poll this week found that 80% of Americans said they were concerned that reopening K-12 schools for in-person instruction would lead to additional people in the community getting the virus.
While Trump has encouraged schools and states to reopen and stay open so that parents can go back to work, more than 150 medical experts this week wrote to the administration and other politicians urging them to shut down the country again in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The U.S. reports more than 4 million cases of the virus and nearly 145,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
