The Chester County Health Department has issued new guidelines for school districts in both Chester and Delaware counties that would lessen the recommended distance students should maintain from one another.
The recommendation comes on the heels of the effort by those districts to mitigate the transmission of the coronavirus, which had improved conditions across the two counties.
“Because of the layered mitigation measures you have successfully implemented, we support schools increasing more in-person learning through reduced physical distancing,” said Health Department Director Jeanne Franklin in a Feb. 19 letter to the school superintendents as the pandemic’s first anniversary passed last month.
Districts whose seven-day incidence rates of positive tests per 100,000 residents and seven-day percentage positive rates falls below certain numbers can, if they wish, begin spacing students at a three-feet distance rather than the current six-feet guideline, according to the letter, sent to all 29 districts in the two counties.
The guidelines, however, stress that the space between adults and students in the schools, as well as between adult teachers and administrators, should remain at the current six-feet distance. And, Franklin said at a recent press conference that the department is not granting license for all districts to relax their spacing mandates as soon as possible.
“It is important to understand in no way is the Health Department saying that schools can immediately shift to three-feet physical distancing,” she told assembled reporters on Thursday outside her department’s offices, flanked by the three county commissioners.
“The guidance states that if schools are seeking to get more students in person for learning, that it is recommended they maximize space in every room such that they get as close to six feet of physical distancing as possible and in no way go less than three feet,” she said at the press conference. “This guidance is for students. It is important to stress that adult-to-adult interactions and adult-to-student interactions are required to remain at 6 feet regardless of the county transmission level.”
The new guidelines are strictly voluntary for the districts, but have been followed fairly uniformly by the public schools who consult with Franklin and her staff on a weekly basis. The Chester County Health Department tis acting on behalf of Delaware County on COVID-19 matters because that county has no independent health department of its own.
“The Health Department guidance should be used to help guide school districts in how to safely return students and teachers to in-person learning,” she said in the letter. “The Health Department will not determine how schools should be providing education. Instead, the Health Department will provide suggestions on what mitigation measures will keep schools open.
“Schools are encouraged to continue to engage families to ensure changes in instructional models do not negatively impact families,” Franklin wrote. “Schools are also strongly encouraged to be as creative as possible in ensuring the individual educational needs of students are being met leading to the best possible educational outcomes.”
According to reports, the new guidelines drew negative reaction from the state’s largest teachers union, whose leader said it would “inevitably lead to overcrowded classrooms” and increase the risk to students, staff, and communities. The guidelines make clear that the Health Department is not seeking to have vaccinations for teachers and administrators completed before recommending the new spacing among students.
The matter of how best to re-open schools is a hot-button issue across the region, state, and nation, sometimes pitting parent group against parent group – some wishing to return to full-time in-person learning, some arguing against that decision. Those who want full-time in-person learning to return for public school districts in the two counties note that private and parochial schools have already done so in many cases.
Teachers, on the other hand, have their own safety concerns, and have fought against re-opening schools to in-person instruction because of fear of blooming COVID-19 cases should that occur.
“Six feet of social distancing is the norm in retail establishments, restaurants, and other businesses,” said Chris Lilienthal, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. “It’s completely unacceptable that these rules won’t apply to Chester and Delaware (County) schools, where students can now sit at desks within three feet of each other for up to an hour at a time.”
But Franklin said that the work done by districts across the two counties in the months since the 2020-21 school years began last summer had allowed for relaxation of some measures.
“Because of the layered mitigation measures you have successfully implemented, we support schools increasing more in-person learning through reduced physical distancing,” she said. “Specifically, when certain Community Transmission Levels are met and layered mitigation strategies are continued, schools are encouraged to reduce physical distancing as out lined below.”
The levels for low, moderate and high county Community Transmission Levels allow a move to the three-feet distance, while those in the very high category should stay at six-feet. The low moderate and high levels include seven-day positive COVID-19 test results below 99 per 100,000 population and below 9.9 percent seven-day positivity.
According to the most recent figures on the Health Department’s COVID-19 information site, all but four of the 14 districts in Chester County – West Chester Area School District, Avon Grove School District, Great Valley School District and Spring Ford School District – meet the relaxed measurements. Conversely, in Delaware County only five districts among the county’s 15 districts – Chester-Upland, Haverford, Radnor, Rose Tree-Media, and Southeast Delco – do.
“No one layer (of mitigation) by itself makes a school safer, and when one mitigation is adjusted, all the others are adjusted and/or new ones are introduced,” Franklin said at the press conference. “Distance plus masking plus screenings plus hygiene all remain equally critical in our schools and in our communities at large.”
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.