Several school districts in the US have been shuttered for more than a year and are struggling with how to open schools safely. The stakes are massive. With coronavirus rates still high and more variants of the virus emerging, schools, parents and children are equally concerned about school reopening safety.   In February, President Joe Biden issued the set of COVID-19 prevention guidelines as proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for safely reopening schools. The guideline deliberates important points of safe K-12 school operations for in-person learning. The President also emphasized that the price of protecting children, families, and educators is nothing when compared with the price of failure to act. He added that mental well-being and educational disproportions due to remote learning are growing concerns of the country and this is one of the reasons why schools need to reopen under stringent settings.     Safety measures should schools adopt on reopening The CDC has recommended school districts to ensure 5 key prevention strategy namely for school reopening viz.:   Universal and correct wearing of masks Physical distancing Handwashing and respiratory etiquette Cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities including ventilation improvements Contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine. The following guidelines were also issued to ensure safety while reopening: 1. Community data assessment To determine whether school districts should proceed with in-person learning, it is important to analyze the data of community-level transmission. The CDC K-12 operational strategy has recommendations about threshold of community transmissions, based on which schools should take associated actions to reopen school safely. CDC has pointed out 4 categories of COVID-19 community transmissions: 1. Low (blue) 2. Moderate (yellow) 3. Substantial (orange) 4. High (red) These categories are derived from metrics such as total new cases/100000 persons in one week and rate of positive diagnostic and screening viral tests that are NAATs and RT-PCR tests. On the basis of these thresholds, school districts can take the first step towards implementation strategy:   2. Require universal masking: Encourage universal and correct wearing of masks that provide necessary protection. Students and staffs preferring in-person learning should know how to correctly wear disposable/cloth masks. Schools should determine how to best support staff and students (including the narrow subset of students with disabilities) who cannot correctly wear masks. 3. Use of school space Ensure classroom layouts have sufficient safe space for physical distancing. School administration has to conduct school walk-throughs for identifying spaces where additional changes are to be made. Schools can identify and utilize safe spaces in their community like libraries and community recreational centers to follow the instruction regarding maintaining physical distancing. Extra planning time should be provided to schools for redesigning classrooms and familiarizing new routines among staff to support physical distancing. 4. Use healthcare tools that lets you stay compliant to DOH directives and privacy laws Using healthcare management software that are FERPA and HIPAA compliant, which also lets you collaborate with public health departments can help you meet diagnostic testing, communication and tracking needs – which are critical as school reopen. When school staff or students test positive, it is important to quickly coordinate with all important touchpoints like parents, healthcare providers, health departments and so on to ensure impact is low and school functions go undisrupted. In situations as such, a school nurse EHR software like EduHealth with contact tracing features can be beneficial for you. 5. Facility improvement: Ensuring proper ventilation, open windows, and doors, using fans where safe and feasible, consistent cleaning of the facility, auditing existing ventilation systems, and improving ventilation wherever necessary are all part of the facility improvement plan. There should be frequent checkpoints to ensure timely changing of ventilation filters and ensuring proper air circulation. Good ventilation is one key to control a virus known to be airborne 6. Sports, events, and extracurricular activities The format of additional school activities should strictly adhere to the CDC guidelines and events that require close contact between competitors pose a high risk than others – it is best not to conduct such events. Other events that involve the least physical contact can be played outdoors with strict adherence to physical distancing guidelines.     Transmission of COVID-19 among students: What we know The transmission of COVID-19 among students is substantially lower when compared with community-wide spread, according to CDC. Other studies also revealed that in controlled environments like schools, transmission rates are lower compared with community levels. The CDC also pointed out that one of the school districts in North Carolina held in-person learning and adhered to strict mitigation measures like wearing masks and social distancing. It was noted that the transmission rate in this school district was low, even when community transmissions were at high rates. On analyzing the school-based transmission rates, experts say that transmissions were more common in adults than in children. The COVID-19 infected children were asymptomatic and possessed high risks of spreading the disease to parents and grandparents. However, shreds of evidence suggest that children under the age of 10 transmit it less efficiently than children of 10+ age.     Should schools reopen? According to UNESCO, the lockdown led to partial or full closure of schools, affecting more than 90% of the student population across 186 countries around the world. In USA, the Biden administration is apprehensive about the negative consequences of remote learning like forfeited academics and mental struggles of children. During the onset of the pandemic, it was assumed that children are susceptible to get infected and were likely vectors of disease spread. However, there is very little evidence on transmission in schools, outside of indoor practices and competition events. Only 3.7% of Covid-19 cases in students resulted from the in-school transmission. This is backing the decisions of those in favor of in-person schooling. On top of this, parents are having a tough time managing kids at home while working. 20% of full-time employed parents have a child younger than 9 at home, of which 61%…

  The number of COVID 19 cases and deaths in the US have dropped to their lowest levels in nearly a year, and the number of people vaccinated continues to grow, CDC says. As of May 27, 2021, nearly 133 million people in the US are fully vaccinated, and the national percentage of COVID-19 tests that came back positive over the last 7 days was less than 3%. This is one of the lowest rates the United States has seen since widespread testing began. The CDC now recommends everyone 12 years and older should get a COVID-19 vaccination to help protect against COVID-19. And widespread vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic. However, a recent study tracking return to school states that only 3 in 10 parents are comfortable with their children returning to in-person learning.   The study implies parents are prioritizing the safety of their children over in-person learning. Most parents say that schools need to be cautious about opening for in-person learning before it’s safe, even if it gets in the way of children’s education It’s clear why parents have this fear. When many schools and campuses opened in September 2020, there was a spurt in outbreaks in school, infecting thousands of students and employees, with the virus spreading to the wider community. It necessitated the need for social distancing, hygiene management and COVID 19 tracking in the school environment to keep the spread of the virus from going out of control. Tracking of COVID 19 has a very critical role to play in reopening schools. A system to track COVID 19 can help school nurses and administrators manage safety of the school environment and ensure children and staff are in a healthy learning environment. Teachers’ unions and other educator groups agree. They say controlling the virus is necessary to reopen schools safely, even for partial in-person classes. And they say that having more comprehensive data on the virus in schools could provide stronger clues about how to do so.     What is a COVID 19 tracker? COVID 19 tracker is a software solution that enables an organization to track and manage the spread of COVID 19 in their community. A COVID 19 tracking system for schools is a critical tool that can help in reopening schools safely and making learning stress-free for students and parents.     How can schools benefit from COVID-19 Tracker? The EduHealth COVID 19 tracker is a single system for COVID 19 tracking in schools with two important modules – a COVID 19 tracker and contact tracer. The COVID 19 school health tracking system on EduHealth is built to assist school re-opening plans by tracking and monitoring cases of COVID 19 in the school environment. The system enables school health authorities to track cases systematically and take necessary next steps to stop a spread in the school and associated community. To help schools achieve this goal, school nurses can use the COVID 19 tracker system for schools to collect staff and students’ symptom-related data, as well as monitor the health and status COVID 19 positive cases. Once a student starts showing symptoms of COVID 19, school nurses will suggest that they undergo a COVID 19 test. This starts the tracking process. The system will inform school nurses when 48 hours have passed since the student started showing symptoms and school nurses can contact the student concerned to know the status of the test. If the student tests negative, the school nurse marks the case as a false alarm, and if tested positive, they are moved to the COVID 19 positive stage. In this stage, school nurses must ensure that the student moves from in-person learning to a remote learning environment. Even in a remote learning environment, parents can update students’ symptom-related information on the system, keeping school health authorities updated on their students’ health information. Two weeks after testing positive, the student moves to the Returns Expected stage, where once again the school nurse can check on the status of the person. Once the student tests negative and are well, they can return to in-person learning, and school nurses can change the status of the student to Returned. At any given time, the tracker shows the real-time status of the number of potential positive cases and COVID 19 positive students and staff. The COVID 19 tracker: · Tracks suspected cases · Monitors symptoms of those found positive and quarantine monitoring · Checks symptoms of students and staff daily with a comprehensive symptom checklist · Manages confirmed cases workflow, suspected cases, and contact information · Tracks false positives · Automates status updates, workflows, and status change reminders · Patient outcome monitoring · Has integrated reporting The contact tracer on EduHealth assists school nurses in identifying the close contact groups of an affected student and staff. With the EduHealth contact tracer, school nurses can collect important contact data and are have the right information for fast decision-making that’s critical to keep the school safe. The EduHealth contact tracer decreases the chances of a disease spread within the school environment with: · Contact tracing · Cohort management · Risk and exposure assessments and status reporting · Reporting and analysis of the case · Emergency contact data information and notification provision     COVID 19 tracking helping keep schools open COVID 19 tracking system for schools like EduHealth COVID 19 tracker are going to play a critical role in helping keep schools open. It provides school health authorities with the right data that enables them to take faster decisions that helps to keep the school environment safe. Schools using the COVID 19 tracker on EduHealth have found the system helpful in keeping children learning in a safe environment. To learn more about managing COVID 19 in your schools with a comprehensive tracking system, talk to us today.    

  Children have been learning online for over a year now! Remodeling students’ habits to adapt to online learning has proven to be a complex process for educators, students, and parents.   Students are starting to return to the brick-and-mortar school setting.  But not all parents are rushing to send their kids back to school. This is because schools and parents are equally concerned about the following factors:    Whether the number of cases in the area low enough for the schools to reopen.  The school’s support of mask use, regular fumigation, and physical distancing.  Setting up hand washing stations and hand sanitizer availability throughout the school  The availability of a proper Electronic Health Record for school to ensure efficient COVID 19 tracking.  A proper school nurse health system to support school nurses to contact trace, test, and quarantine students/teachers who have been exposed to the virus.  A recent online survey conducted on 1000 respondents in the United States yielded the following result:    So should your ward go to school and risk infection or should they stay home?   Which brings to the important question of factors to think about while deciding to send children to school.       Questions to answer before sending children to school  There is no such thing as zero risks in the things we do, especially during an epidemic. There is no ‘one size fits all’ answers for questions to be considered before sending children back to school. However, the following set of selected questions can guide parents and schools as to whether or not their ward should be sent to school:   Would sending your child to school affect their mental health?  Surprisingly despite the apprehensions, sending kids back to school is predicted to have a positive impact on students’ mental health. Students are longing to socially interact with their friends and this is essential for their mental wellness. Perhaps children feel they’re stuck in the home environment with no one else to interact with. Therefore, if your kids’ mental health is bothering you, then consider sending them back to school.  Will your children fall behind if you choose to keep them at home?  Don’t worry about it! The whole world is going through similar chaotic situations. Before the classes resume, the authorities will change the class programs to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This is a surety that your kids will be ready to leap ahead no matter what.  Is a classroom setting going to improve your child’s learning?  On reopening, schools will impose a dozen protocols. This might not make returning to school pleasant for students. Some educators are even skeptical about whether classroom settings would be the best option for your child’s learning, while some others remarked that in-person learning is good for students even during these days.  The opinion of having in-person learning by certain educators has been proven right by a recent survey. The survey showed that the majority of the students were feeling ‘bored’ and ‘unmotivated’ by online classes. However, on asking about returning to the class setting, students had mixed but mostly positive reactions. So, whether classroom setting can improve child’s learning is purely parents’ call.      How to prepare your kids mentally after school recommences?   Parents are trying to prepare their kids for school reopening and speculate the challenges they would face. For those who are concerned about how to prepare their kids mentally after school recommences, here are some recommendations:    Plan in advance  Instill confidence in your kids through planning as a family. Educate your kids regarding what to expect at school, and the precautionary measures they should take. If there are higher-risk family members, tell your child the extra caution they should exercise.   Incidents of slip-ups like a mask falling off/falling on the ground, forgetting to wash/sanitize hands are expected. Such mistakes can trigger anxiety in kids. Prep them in advance- give extra masks, sanitizers, and wipes- so that worries won’t take over their coherent thought processes.  Discuss anxieties  Talk to your children about their emotions like: What are their fears? What are they most excited about? Boost confidence in your kids, give them space to synthesize their rational thoughts, and most importantly ask them not to hold anything in, but share what is on their mind with family. Make sure that there’s a dedicated space in your family to freely communicate your kids’ feelings.  Anticipate stresses  Kids are going back to school after a big transition and kids might be anxious about getting sick. Make them practice positive thoughts and talk to themselves with confidence. Make your kids practice breathing exercises if they encounter panic attacks at school. When parents are not around, such stress-busting practices are going to instill a lot of confidence in kids.  Ensure mental health  Kids and teens have high rates of anxiety caused by the pandemic. These periods of isolation have affected their mental health. Parents should proactively check their children’s mental well-being. Watch out for signs like sleeping difficulties, mood swings, self-isolation, lack of motivation, and safety concerns. Reassure that what your child is feeling is a normal reaction to what has been going around. When you feel that your kids need therapy or counseling, do not hesitate to consult a therapist or counselor.  Don’t expect overnight changes  Did your kids’ grades drop during the pandemic or have a non-existent social life? Expect such things not to change overnight. It takes time to fit in back to the school and societal settings. Set realistic outlooks and it will surely take some time for parents and kids to get into the new groove.  Stay flexible and consistent  Parents and students should be ready to face any adverse events that might lead the schools to closure again. Schools might continually change their protocols, so be ready to roll with the punches. Stay positive to change and mentally flexible because it will take time for everything to fall back in place.   Parents should stay on top of what is happening at school and communicate with school nurses to see their kids getting the best medical support. As for school nurses, their schedules are going to be hectic once the kids are back to school. This difficulty in managing their activities can be managed by Electronic Health Records for schools like EduHealth.     What schools can do on resuming?  Schools have lots of medical data to process especially when kids are returning to school amidst a global pandemic. School nurses have lots of student tracking to do to ensure that the children are kept safe from getting infected. A school nurse health system with a COVID 19 tracking dashboard can reduce the burden on school nurses during this phase.   While parents and students take all the precautions before school reopens, school authorities also have equal responsibilities in…