Not only can e-learning create a "digital divide" and disadvantage students from resource-constrained schools or households, but it may also not be a viable alternative to face-to-face instruction for younger children who are still acquiring hand-eye coordination for writing. 

Drawbacks of E-Learning as Compared to In-Person Education

In the first phase of re-opening schools, administrators may choose to couple in-person instruction with e-learning, or create differentiated shifts for students to attend school.

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- Create the conditions for a successful reopening

- Social distancing through reallocation of spaces

- Division of classes into smaller groups of children

- Promotion of frequent and proper hand washing

- Ventilation of rooms

- Maximization of time spent outdoors

- Avoidance of shared materials

- Sanitation of spaces, furniture and toys

- Prompt identification of cases in the school environment and their tracing

- Large-scale viral nucleic acid and serologic testing

- Maintenance of safe physical education classes, structured recess, and after-school activities (such as safe athletics) 

- Listening to the concerns of families and teachers 

- Adapted curricula and teaching strategies to accommodate hybrids of in-person and remote learning

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model, the School Health Index model, and The American Academy of Pediatrics' considerations for re-opening may provide additional insight.

Safety Measures for Re-opening Schools

Fantini, M. P., Reno, C., Biserni, G. B., Savoia, E., & Lanari, M. (2020). COVID-19 and the re-opening of schools: A policy maker’s dilemma. Italian Journal of Pediatrics, 46(1). doi:10.1186/s13052-020-00844-1
https://ijponline.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13052-020-00844-1#citeas

COVID-19 and the re-opening of schools: a policy maker’s dilemma

Hybrid of E-learning and In-Person Instruction for Reopening Schools 


- Gaining consent to deploy wearable or smartphone devices for collecting students' health information

- Child or caregiver refusal to comply with new surveillance programs

Barriers to Safety Measures for Re-opening Schools

Regardless of the measures used by schools, some teachers may be unwilling to return to the classroom, and some families may be unwilling to send their children to school due to personal or family circumstances (eg. being 65 or older or concerns of multisystem inflammatory syndrome). School systems should use the summer to identify and train teachers at high risk to serve as remote learning experts to increase the potential for including all students in learning.

Methods for families and teachers to voice their concerns

The best way to avoid a replay of the shutting the schools down is to control the pandemic more effectively in the future. Communities should drive down and contain the spread of COVID-19 over the summer while building a strong public health response for the fall. Every community should implement a rigorous program of testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine.

Create the conditions for a successful reopening

School systems should identify appropriate curricula that have both in-person and remote strategies, leveraging technology where age appropriate, and linked to specific learning objectives. Considerations should include not just academic planning, but also family support. School systems should hire additional counselors, social workers, and nurses to reach out to assist families on a regular basis. Thus Congress should quickly make sufficient funding available, especially public school districts that would be expected to face the greatest gaps in staffing and infrastructure (based on statistics for nutritional assistance and special education services)

Accommodations for in-person and remote learning

- Lifting of social distancing measures requires some assurance that herd-immunity has been reached (through immunization or natural infection) 
- The author believes cross-sectional seroprevalence surveys are the best way to determine the level of population immunity. 
- Or, reopen schools only when children have been immunized

Criteria for reopening schools

Social distancing protocols for reopening schools should involve creating more space for children in the classroom (e.g., spacing desks 6 feet apart), keeping groups of children together throughout the day to limit mixing, staggering schedules, closing common areas, adding transportation options to increase spacing (such as on buses), limiting nonessential visitors, and canceling extracurricular activities that require close contact.

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