The Homa Files

Complying with CDC guidelines may be cost prohibitive and logistically impossible.
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One of my biggest coronavirus concerns has been the school-shut-down impact on kids … both socially and educationally.

• See: The “summer slide” meets the coronavirus…

Since children are negligibly hurt by the virus (i.e. lower infection vulnerability, minor or no symptoms when infected, low transmission-forward rate),  I’ve been a advocate for re-opening schools ASAP.

I’ve been implicitly assuming that “cleaning” the schools’ environment would be no big deal … just move the desks further apart and double down on nighttime deep-cleaning.

I’ve been glossing over the economics and the logistics…

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According to US News …

Adhering to CDC safety recommendations for reopening is becoming an overwhelming problem and many school districts are considering a continuation of distance learning.

What’s the problem?

For openers, it’s estimated that  schools may need to spend an additional $500 per student in order to cover costs associated with:

• Cleaning supplies: hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes.
• Protective equipment: gloves, masks
• Additional custodial staff to do the extra cleaning
• School nurses (at least one per school)
• Bus aides (to do temperature checks and maintain separation)
• Additional teachers (or teacher aides) to enable smaller class sizes

The additional expenses for an average school district of about 4,000 students could total around $2 million.

And, that doesn’t count any required capital improvements to provide enough working faucets for frequent handwashing … or upgraded HVA systems to improve air quality and filtration.

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Then, there are logistical hurdles…

For example, 55% of K-to- 12 students take a bus to school.

Bus fleets would need to quadruple in size to safely transport 100% of students under COVID-19 distancing guidelines.

And, of course, each bus needs a driver … and, drivers are always in short supply.

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Maybe reopening the schools isn’t as easy as I thought.

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Thanks to MKH for feeding the lead.

This entry was posted on June 22, 2020 at 10:00 am and is filed under Coronavirus - Covid 19, Education - Academics, Gladwell, Gladwell, Malcolm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.