According to the policy guidance on reopening schools from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP):

“The AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”

Physical presence matters because students learn less when they study remotely. Students from poorer families suffer the most.

As a result, the AAP challenges some of the worst elements in the CDC guidance, including its advice on physical distance, which will keep students out of the classroom, and its support for temperature checks, which are known to have failed.

More on Reopening Schools

1. Guidance on Physical Distance

• CDC: “Space seating/desks at least 6 feet apart when feasible.”

• AAP: “Schools should weigh the benefits of strict adherence to a 6-feet spacing rule between students with the potential downside if remote learning is the only alternative.”

• Fact: Remote learning is ineffective

• Fact: Remote learning amplifies inequality

2. Guidance on Temperature Checks

• CDC: “If feasible, conduct daily health checks (e.g., temperature screening and/or or symptom checking) of staff and students.”

• AAP: “School policies regarding temperature screening and temperature checks must balance the practicality of performing these screening procedures for large numbers of students and staff with the information known about how children manifest COVID-19 infection, the risk of transmission in schools, and the possible lost instructional time to conduct the screenings.”

• Fact: According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine:

  • “Asymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is the Achilles’ heel of Covid-19 pandemic control through the public health strategies we have currently deployed.”

  • “Symptom based screening failed to detect a high proportion of infectious cases and was not enough to control transmission.”

  • “Ultimately, the rapid spread of Covid-19 across the United States and the globe, the clear evidence of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from asymptomatic persons, and the eventual need to relax current social distancing practices argue for broadened SARS-CoV-2 testing to include asymptomatic persons in prioritized settings.”