Educators, Parents, Students, and Community members across the nation stand united in the desire to keep schools open for safe in-person learning. The current struggle over balancing the need for education with covid safety will continue if additional efforts at the federal level are not taken.

Global confirmed cases of Covid and deaths are at an all time high according to WHO data, with nationwide Covid cases having increased sevenfold since Christmas Day, according to the CDC Data Tracker. Within the same timeframe, daily deaths from Covid infections have increased twelvefold. On January 3rd The United States reported a record single-day number of daily Covid cases, with more than 1 million new infections.

In a New York Times article titled Covid Updates: Number of hospitalized young children who’ve tested positive is jumping, the CDC reports that the rate of children aged 4 years or younger that have been admitted to hospitals with the coronavirus has doubled the previously reported rate from a month ago, currently bringing us to about three times the rate as this same time last year. Throughout this past week, many universities and public school districts around the nation have chosen to return to remote learning due to the current surge, or have been forced to pivot due to staffing shortages. This reality, combined with the fact that “many school districts and states holding in-person classes have ignored recommendations from public health officials or written their own questionable safety rules” is further exacerbating the struggle for schools to remain open. Coupled with the failure to prioritize air ventilation and filtration, students and staff have been compelled to enter into high risk environments for hours a day, adding to the perilous likelihood of long covid that continues to disproportionately infect underserved communities.

Currently, some state legislation is actively preventing a safe return with the prohibition of mask mandates, even in light of the new CDC quarantine and isolation guidance specifically stating that masks are required, causing contradicting policies and creating challenges. This new guidance from the CDC states that masks need to be worn in both isolation and quarantine scenarios, however, access to medical-grade masks is challenging for communities. N95 and KN95 masks are highly recommended, especially during the Omicron surge. Cloth face coverings have 75% inward and outward leakage with a filtration rate that varies from 50 to 75 percent, making them insufficient to avoid the spread of COVID. In this NPR article, Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician at Stanford University, describes that “Unlike cloth masks, N95, KN95 and KF94 respirators are all made out of material with an electrostatic charge, which actually pulls these particles in as they're floating around and prevents you from inhaling those particles."

We understand President Biden’s Covid mitigation strategy “test to stay” in order to “Stay In School.” We support testing at least twice a week with negative Covid tests in order to remain in person, provided that the test methods being utilized are proven to have efficacy in light of the changing viral conditions. But, as we are learning with Omicron, variants can be far too contagious and virulent, and more protections are required immediately.