As school leaders struggle with the difficulties of ensuring social distancing-limiting group sizes, keeping students six feet apart, restricting non-essential visitors, and closing communal spaces with the purpose to  “drive as much of the risk down as you can”, Education Week reported on strategies from across the country and beyond. The six areas they explore in this article “The Socially Distanced School Day” are:

  • Safety — How to Protect Students and Staff — the basics: hand washing, social distancing, masks, cleaning all surfaces, monitoring health, designating a COVID-19 contact for concerns
  • Schedules — Limiting Exposure and Transmission — students stay in the same “bubble” (aka “homeroom concept)
  • Students — Arranging Instructional Spaces — set up desks in 9 foot grids
  • Building Layouts — Minimizing Congestion — establish traffic patterns to reduce contact
  • Transportation — How Many Students Can Ride a Bus? — one student per row?
  • Lessons from Oversea — What Can We Learn from Countries that have Reopened Schools
    • New South Wales — students return for 1 day a week, to serve different students different days
    • Taiwan — masks all the time
    • Denmark — students in “enclaves” all the time (homerooms)