Asher Lehrer-Small, The 74 Million |
After months of highly politicized debates, and as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to rise, a new consensus is emerging on how to keep schools open during a pandemic: prioritize the youngest students for in-person instruction.
Existing data, however, raise what could be an important caveat. While in-person learning appears to be relatively safe for elementary and middle school students, the risks may not be reduced for teachers.
“[School staff] are experiencing a completely different trend than what the students are,” said Rebekah Jones, who runs a national tracker of school coronavirus cases called the COVID Monitor.