Summary of school re-opening models and implementation approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic

Excerpted from executive summary

Executive Summary of Models of School Re-Opening Globally

• There is a lack of scientific consensus about the impact of school closures and re-openings on community transmission of SARS-CoV-2. There is considerable concern about the indirect effect of school closures on students and parents.
• Most models of school re-opening involve reductions of class size, increasing physical distance between students, and keeping students in defined groups with limited interaction between groups to reduce the potential for wide-scale transmission within schools.
• Most countries that have re-opened schools have instituted some degree of staggering the start, stop, and break times within the school. A number of countries are using alternate shifts (morning, afternoon) or alternate days, while a smaller number of countries have maintained relatively normal school schedules.
• A number of countries have re-opened schools only for younger or older students in order to accommodate the increase in resources (classroom space, teachers, etc.) required for smaller class sizes. More countries have re-opened only for younger students than have re-opened only for older students.
• In a number of countries, face masks are required for students and/or staff in schools, with variability of the lower age limit for face mask requirements. However, some countries are not using facemasks as a part of their re-opening model.
• Systematic school-based testing for SARS-CoV-2 virus or antibodies is being done on a small scale in a limited number of settings, but this approach is not widely implemented at this time