Idaho ‘expects’ students to return to school this fall. Here’s how it plans to do it.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little and state education leaders made one thing clear Thursday: They expect students to return to in-person classes this fall.
Little and the State Board of Education unveiled what they called a “framework” for public schools to reopen amid a coronavirus pandemic that has spiked to new highs in recent weeks. But they stopped short of telling schools how they will reopen or requiring any steps.
Those key details fall to local school districts and charters to implement. The state framework provides guidance, best practices and recommendations. But local schools will choose how much — or how little — of the state’s guidance they follow.
“I expect Idaho schools to safely reopen for in-person education,” Little said during Thursday’s press conference. “Despite the incredible advances in digital learning, you can never replace the value and impact of in-person interaction with a professional, dedicated teacher.”
The state’s two largest school districts, West Ada and Boise, previously released their plans to reopen in the fall. Their plans largely mirror the state’s.
OPENING SCHOOLS COMES WITH RISKS
Little acknowledged reopening schools comes with some risks. But he said Idahoans will have to live with coronavirus risks as part of their daily lives.
He declined to say if he would open the Boise and West Ada school districts if school started Monday given Ada County’s spike in new confirmed cases. It took Ada County 99 days to reach 1,000 confirmed cases. It needed 11 more days to reach 2,000 cases, and then eight more days to reach 3,000.
“There’s risk in everything we do. At this time, with the coronavirus, that risk level is higher for almost everything,” he said.
“… We don’t want to have a big asterisk on the year 2020-21 and say, ‘These kids were lost in the coronavirus gap.’ That’s not acceptable to me, and I don’t think it’s acceptable to the people of Idaho.”
He added it’s up to Idaho residents to follow public health advice so cases decline and schools can safely reopen. That includes wearing masks in public, practicing social distancing and washing their hands.
The state school reopening plan recommends face coverings for students and staff in all categories, but it does not require them. Little again declined to issue a statewide mask mandate Thursday like neighboring Oregon and Washington, and even staunchly conservative Texas, have.
“I want to reiterate that we cannot succeed in rebounding our economy and safely send children back to school if we do not individually and collectively take steps now to slow the spread of the coronavirus,” Little said.
COVID-19 SPREAD DETERMINES ADVICE TO REOPEN SCHOOLS
The state provides guidance in three categories. Each category is based on the coronavirus’ level of community spread in an area, as determined by local health districts. And each step up the scale comes with more strict recommendations.
Category 1 (green) includes no or limited community transmission. Schools in that category should open buildings for face-to-face classes with physical distancing and sanitation procedures, the state plan recommends.
Category 2 (yellow) includes minimal to moderate community transmission. Schools in that category should consider a range of options from full opening to limited or staggered use of school buildings.
And Category 3 (red) includes large-scale community transmission that impacts health care staffing or sees multiple cases in schools, mass gatherings or health care facilities. Those schools should consider short- or long-term closures.
Ada County remains in Category 2. Central District Health is telling schools in its region to start and prepare to stay in Category 2, Central District Health school liaison Gina Pannell told the Idaho Statesman in an email.
“For simplicity, if you have a few cases without community spread, that’s Category 1,” she wrote. “If you have more than a few cases and community spread, you are in Category 2. Category 3 would be widespread closures like we were in during the stay-home order.”
Central District Health’s region includes Ada, Elmore, Boise and Valley counties.
A Southwest District Health spokeswoman could not provide Canyon County’s status by press time.
WHAT DOES CATEGORY 2 MEAN
Idaho has detected community spread in 35 of its 44 counties, so Category 2 remains the focus for most of its schools.
It’s also the broadest category. The state recommendations for Category 2 include keeping schools open for traditional face-to-face classes, moving fully to online learning or a mix of the two, like alternating schedules
For example, a school could send half of its students to school one day and the other half the next to create space for social distancing. Or it could send elementary students to school while allowing older students to take online classes.
Other highlights of Category 2’s recommendations include:
Daily health screenings for students and employees, including temperature checks.
Provide online learning options for vulnerable students.
Recommend face coverings for students, staff and visitors “when practical.” Provide a face covering for those who don’t have one.
Provide and require face coverings for bus drivers and encourage them for students.
Spread students out on buses “to the extent possible.”
Encourage sick students, teachers and staff to stay home.
Consider staggered meal times and alternatives like serving meals in classrooms.
Eliminate field trips.
Communicate with families in their preferred language.
Remote working policies for vulnerable staff.
PREPARE FOR ONLINE CLASSES
The State Board of Education warned local schools online classes won’t disappear anytime soon and to prepare for a future with them.
Idaho ordered all of its schools closed March 23, and the school year ended online for all but a couple of schools. The monumental change in education caught many districts off guard as they struggled to ensure equal access to online classes for students, leading to optional assignments and a disappointing semester for parents.
The Boise and West Ada school districts have pledged to purchase a laptop or iPad for every student in their districts. They believe that will leave them prepared to offer more challenging and mandatory classes if they need to close schools again.
The State Board isn’t requiring other schools to follow their lead, but it cautioned schools to prepare for more closures until a vaccine or treatments become widely available.
“… It is anticipated schools will need to use a blended learning approach to education as schools move up or down through the categories of community transmission or confirmed cases are identified within a school building,” staff for the State Board wrote in an introduction to the plan.
POSITIVE CORONAVIRUS TESTS IN SCHOOLS
The state’s guidance urges schools to be ready for a student, teacher or staff member to test positive for COVID-19. Details of the case should determine the response, and the state recommends coordinating with local health districts.
The state’s guidance says schools should identify anyone in close contact with a confirmed or suspected case. It defines close contact as within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes.
Next steps could include sending all positive, suspected and close contacts home into isolation, as well as closing the school for one to two days or an extended period, if needed.
Schools should communicate closures and potential exposures with parents, students and staff, the state guidance says.
TEACHERS’ UNION ASKS FOR INPUT
The state teachers’ union is calling on school districts to work with their local teachers’ unions on implementing the safety guidelines.
Layne McInelly, the president of the Idaho Education Association, said schools should create their own health committees to pour over the state’s recommendations. Teachers sat on the state reopening committee. But details on how to make the guidelines work will vary from district to district and even school to school.
“This is a unique situation we are in,” McInelly said. “We want to be back in our classrooms in the fall, as long as it’s safe and we are able to follow the guidelines.”
McInelly also called on school districts to find roles for at-risk teachers, including those with medical issues, those taking care of elderly parents or those who have children with compromised immune systems.
“We need to make sure there are opportunities for those educators as well,” McInelly said.
HEALTH DEPARTMENTS OFFER MORE ADVICE
The state health department and local health districts provided additional guidance for schools. They go a step beyond Idaho’s recommendations in suggesting staggered dismissal and arrival times to reduce crowds, developing relaxed absentee and sick policies, and how to handle sports.
Idaho’s school reopening plan defers to the Idaho High School Activities Association for sporting events. The IHSAA has not yet released its guidance for fall high school sports. Ty Jones, the executive director of the IHSAA, said it plans to present those plans to its board late next week or early the following week for a vote.
Health officials suggest reviewing all planned events, including assemblies, for physical distancing regardless of what category a school is in. In Category 2, it prescribes finding ways to minimize the transmission risk for players, families, coaches and communities.
That could include limiting fans in attendance, encouraging face coverings and streaming games online. It could also suggest schools “discourage activities that promote heavy breathing (e.g. singing, cheering, shouting) and create alternative ways to show support (e.g. clapping or waving).”
Health officials recommend canceling any extracurricular activities or large events when schools close after a positive COVID-19 test.
LOCAL CONTROL IS KEY FOR FALL OPENING
The state designed the reopening framework to provide schools guidance and resources. But the ultimate decision to open schools remains with local school boards and superintendents.
That’s a departure from the spring, when the State Board of Education ordered all school buildings in the state closed for the rest of the academic year. Any school wanting to reopen had to submit a plan and receive approval from their local health district.
Nampa Christian received that approval, but others tried and were rejected.
“What we’re putting out today, and what the governor has detailed, is completely the opposite of that,” State Board President Debbie Critchfield said during Thursday’s press conference. “This document is intended to support the decisions of being in school. That is the expectation and the priority.”
The state encourages schools to work with their local health districts, but their approval is no longer necessary. Critchfield said while school board members may not be public health experts, they are elected officials with power entrusted in them.
“There is never going to be a time in history where our local leaders, our school trustees and our superintendents, have more of an important role than what we’re going to be dealing with here this fall,” State Board member Kurt Liebich said during Thursday morning’s board meeting.
CORONAVIRUS LIABILITY NOT ADDRESSED
The state’s reopening plan does not address what legal protection, if any, schools will have from someone who contracts the coronavirus in their buildings.
Homedale Superintendent Rob Sauer warned a single lawsuit could bankrupt a school district, Idaho Ed News previously reported.
The state plan warns it does not provide legal advice.
“It’s not a legal analysis,” Critchfield said during Thursday morning’s State Board meeting. “… It’s not a legal document to help them maneuver that. And it also doesn’t answer every single question.”
Little cautioned the state’s plan is meant for current guidance. Like everything else during the pandemic, that guidance could change as new information becomes available.
“It’s not perfect,” Little told the State Board on Thursday morning. “But you can’t create a perfect document in this time. Every day the science around the COVID virus is changing. What the best practices are is changing. What we do to protect students, teachers and staff and parents is changing.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 9:37 AM.
