DETROIT — This week Michigan schools opened their doors to students, and for some districts, it's the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. The disruption to the state's children has affected them greatly, academically and mentally, and schools must do everything in their power to keep learning in person this year.
Moving back to a virtual model should be an absolute last resort.
It became very clear last school year that the abrupt switch to online learning did not serve most students well, and this negatively impacted students of color and those in high-poverty districts the most.
Recent Michigan standardized test scores highlighted these learning losses.
For a while it seemed like this school year would be much more normal, with a COVID vaccine readily available and the majority of teachers having had the opportunity to receive one. And many studies in the past year, including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, underscored that virus transmission at school was low in most cases.
The delta variant has made things more difficult, however, with its ability to spread quickly and its greater impact on younger people. Since the vaccine is still unavailable to children 12 and under, schools and parents have understandable concerns about how to keep these students safe.
About 40% of Michigan districts are currently operating under a mask mandate for schools, whether self-imposed or ordered by the county. This includes Wayne and Oakland counties.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services have refrained from issuing a statewide order, even though the MDHHS could do so under the state's epidemic law. And Whitmer still retains emergency powers.
They've opted to let local districts and health departments figure this out, and that's the right call at this point, as these institutions are closer to the needs of their communities.
The MDHHS did step in Wednesday and offered in-depth (and fairly convoluted) guidance around how to handle quarantining students exposed to infected classmates or teachers.
The recommendations advocate for allowing exposed students, without symptoms, to stay in school if they wear masks and undergo daily testing. Yet there are stricter guidelines for unvaccinated students who were exposed and weren't wearing masks. The department says these students should stay home for at least seven days.
Given the number of districts that aren't imposing mask mandates, this could create real headaches for schools — and disrupt too many students' learning.
Some schools in Michigan and other states have already experimented with a "test to stay" framework, to keep as many kids in school as possible, and it seems to work well. This should be the focus for schools across the state.
Constant COVID testing, along with varying mask mandates, are likely to frustrate parents, but if this is what it takes to maintain some level of consistency, then it's the right call for kids.
