K-12 students come back, safely

After nearly all of the country’s largest districts started the school year remote-only, students are slowly returning to classrooms. The Washington Post reports that 24 of the country’s 50 biggest school districts have resumed in-per... for large groups of students. Just 11 are fully remote and have no immediate plans to bring students back to classrooms.

The reversal, the Post reporters Laura Meckler and Valerie Strauss wrote, is “driven by fear that students are falling behind and early evidence that schools have not become coronavirus superspreaders as feared.”

Comprehensive data are scarce, but that trend has been borne out, anecdotally, across the country. Generally, cases are notably low in elementary schools, and increase slightly in middle and high schools. In Texas and New York City, well less than 1 percent of tests from students and school staff members are positive.

Some scientific research seems to confirm that trend. Two international studies found little relationship between transmission and the return to classrooms, NPR reported.

“Some medical experts are saying it’s time to shift the discussion from the risks of opening K-12 schools to the risks of keeping them closed,” NPR’s Anya Kamenetz wrote.