When COVID-19 first started spreading in the United States in early 2020, millions of students went into lockdown. Parents and school staff struggled to see how they could limit classroom spread of the coronavirus. So kids were stuck at home, with access to school only through their computers. Many continued learning remotely through the 2020-2021 school year.
But in many places, students returned to in-person learning during that same school year. And they managed to do that safely. I wanted to know how they did it. I’ve been reporting on COVID-19 throughout the pandemic for publications like Science News and my own site, the COVID-19 Data Dispatch. As part of a big project, “Opening,” I investigated five places around the country where school reopening did not cause COVID-19 outbreaks during the last school year. These were school districts in Indiana, Maryland, Oregon and Texas, and an elementary school in New York City. At each place, most students returned to in-person class and COVID-19 case numbers remained low.
As part of my investigation, I talked to superintendents, teachers, school nurses and other staff. Those conversations made me realize that the schools in my project had a lot in common. From central Brooklyn to coastal Oregon, the schools used similar strategies to safely reopen. And these point to lots of ways students can help to keep themselves safe.
Here are seven ways, based on my research. (This list is a student-friendly adaptation of a story originally published for adults at the COVID-19 Data Dispatch.)
Wear a mask that fits well and that you can wear comfortably all day.
Face masks are one of the easiest ways to limit the spread of COVID-19, especially if you haven’t yet been vaccinated. That’s why masks are required in many school buildings across the country. Masks block coronavirus particles, making it harder for the virus to spread. Studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others have shown this to be true.
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The delta variant gives us a reason to invest in better masks, says Robin Conan. Cognn is a school nurse in Camden, N.J. She also is the legislative co-chair for the New Jersey State School Nurses Association. Delta spreads from person to person more easily than past variants, so we need to work harder to protect ourselves against it. Schools should “require properly fitting masks that are worn correctly,” Cogan says.
Your mask should cover both your mouth and your nose. And if it fits properly, it will be snug against your face. It won’t have gaps at the side of your cheeks or at your chin. Gaps could let coronavirus particles escape. It’s also a lot easier to wear a mask all day if it’s comfortable. Try out different fabrics and shapes until you find a mask that suits you.
Learn the common COVID-19 symptoms so that you can recognize them in yourself and your friends.
COVID-19 shares a lot of symptoms with a cold or the flu. These include fever, cough, sore throat and a runny nose. But the coronavirus has other symptoms, too, that aren’t as common for cold or flu — like suddenly losing your sense of smell, and developing diarrhea and nausea.
Some schools that safely reopened taught parents, teachers and school nurses about common COVID-19 symptoms. These adults could then better identify when a student who wasn’t feeling well might have COVID-19, and send them to get tested. That can help keep infected kids out of school where they could spread the disease.
“Parents are pretty good at understanding the symptoms of their kids and the health of their kids,” says Katelyn Jetelina. She is an epidemiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Parents can become a “layer of protection,” she says, along with other layers like masks and vaccines. But if kids learn to recognize those symptoms themselves, they too can become a layer of protection.
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