Dive Brief:
- Just weeks into the new school year, several school systems canceled in-person classes and extracurricular activities due to staff and student illnesses in what feels like a repeat of fall 2022, when the tripledemic of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, caused similar disruptions.
- Districts in Kentucky and Texas called off classes last week because of illnesses, according to the districts and local news reports.
- Meanwhile, oppressive heat shut down Midwestern districts and schools including Milwaukee Public Schools last week, and districts in parts of Florida will close this week with the approach of Hurricane Idalia.
Dive Insight:
While these events are likely temporary disruptions, any pause in traditional learning formats have educators and families concerned as they continue to work on recovery of COVID learning losses.
Like last fall, school systems are gearing up to address respiratory illnesses and the flu, which emerge as the weather gets colder and people congregate indoors. The difference this year is that free COVID tests and shots may be more difficult to find now that the national COVID emergency has ended.
Many states and communities, such as Virginia and Philadelphia, will continue offering free diagnostic tests for children.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID guidance for schools and child care centers was last updated July 13. One of the biggest changes compared to last school year is that now CDC recommends schools make prevention decisions based on local hospitalization rates rather than on COVID community infection levels.
CDC is no longer tracking community transmission levels, but it is monitoring hospitalization rates for a new COVID variant — BA.2.86. The agency says it's too soon to know how transmissible this variant is or if it will cause more severe illnesses compared to previous variants.
Most school districts relaxed COVID protocols such as masking, vaccinations and social distancing last school year or earlier. District of Columbia Public Schools began the school year on Monday without requiring negative COVID tests, as it had done when students returned to schools in the nation's capital from spring break earlier this year.
