Rural study shows in-person learning can be safer if schools are careful, but in many cases they have not been

Kaiser Health News illustration by Hannah Brown

Rural school districts all over the country are trying to help students learn safely, even as poor broadband connectivity and local sentiment often makes distance learning difficult or unpopular. A new study shows that in-person learning might be okay under the right circumstances, but an analysis of complaints about schools violating pandemic rules raises questions about those circumstances.

Many parents worry that distance learning is causing their children to fall behind academically. "It's unclear how far the pandemic has set back learning in the past year, as many states have put temporary holds on regular assessment tests. And many children are not in classrooms for educators to keep tabs on. But some initial research has not been encouraging, with students falling behind, most notably in math," Peter Cameron reports for Wisconsin Watch. 

"The push in many parts of the United States now is to put children back in classrooms. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that among the 62 percent of K-12 school districts that had either full or partial in-person instruction, outbreaks of Covid-19 among children 'have been limited' — although the agency said it lacked data to gauge the risk among staff."

In-person learning might not be too risky as long as social-distancing measures are strictly observed, researchers for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded from a recent study of 17 rural schools in a Wisconsin county, which found that only seven of the 191 coronavirus cases in among students and staff "resulted from in-school transmission, and no infections among staff members were found to have been acquired at school," Melissa Patrick reports for Kentucky Health News. "It also found that there was no in-school transmission between separate classroom groups, and that case rates among students and staff were 37 percent lower than those in the county overall."

The researchers wrote in a "Viewpoint" column for the Journal of the American Medical Association, "These findings suggest that, with proper mitigation strategies, K-12 schools might be capable of opening for in-person learning with minimal in-school transmission."

But the study had gaps, Patrick notes: "Student masking compliance was reported as greater than 92%, but only 54% of the teachers filled out the weekly survey on this topic. Staff masking compliance was not measured."

Patrick notes a Kaiser Health News analysis of federal and state workplace-safety data, which found more than 780 Covid-related complaints covering more than 2,000 public and private K-12 schools.

The number of complaints is likely under-reported, Kaiser's Laura Ungar writes, because a federal loophole prevents public-school employees from lodging complaints in 24 states that lack their own Occupational Safety and Health Administration agencies or federally approved OSHA programs.  Even when complaints are made, the vast majority are closed without an inspection. 

"Still, the complaints filed provide a window into the safety lapses: Employees reported sick children coming to school, maskless students and teachers less than six feet apart, and administrators minimizing the dangers of the virus and punishing teachers who spoke out," Ungar reports. 

Pressure to reopen schools has backfired in some cases. In Wausau, Wis., pop. 38,000, the school year began with distance learning, but parents pressured the school board to reopen schools in November. Though there were no staff or student deaths, the return to in-person classes triggered a rash of cases and a few school employees had to be hospitalized, Julie Bosman reports for The New York Times.

"Similar conflicts played out across the country, as school-board members accustomed to hiring superintendents and approving annual budgets struggled with the demand that they become instant public health experts, balancing teacher concerns about safety with the educational needs of students and burdens on working parents," Bosman reports. "The discord could leave many school leaders and their communities with the formidable task of rebuilding and repairing relationships — amid rifts that were previously unimaginable — after the pandemic recedes."

A big worry is the shortage of learning. A rural school district just outside of Lubbock, Texas, was so alarmed at students' performance that leaders decided to reopen schools, reasoning that the risks of the pandemic were less threatening than widespread academic failure, J. David Goodman reports for the Times. Though dozens of teachers, staff and students have been infected or exposed, and the absences have disrupted class time, teachers and school district leaders maintain that it was the best choice.