Editor’s note: This is the first of a multi-part series analyzing the latest version of the school re-opening guidelines.

The Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Health Authority have released an extensive revision of Ready Schools, Safe Learners: Guidance for School Year 22020-21, a 74 page tome on what metrics need to be met before a school can re-open. The document is quite comprehensive and takes into account various non-traditional educational environments and some of the less-common aspects of education. Approximately half of the document is set in green type, indicating that it is new or changed.

Cryptically, the section numbering starts with 0 -- something found more in the basements of Computer Science labs than in the fields of health or education. Nonetheless, the sections of the documents include:

• 0. Community Health Metrics
• 1. Public Health Protocols
• 2. Facilities and School Operations
• 3. Response to Outbreak
• 4. Equity
• 5. Instruction

Some critics have pointed out the misuse of the term "guidelines." Most of the work is not a suggestion. Each page has a footer that reads “Checkboxes () indicate requirements; arrows (⇨) indicate recommendations.” There are far more checkboxes than arrows, be assured. The term “required” appears 80 times in the document.

OK, let’s cut to the chase. Is your kid going back to school -- back to a brick-and-mortar building -- in the Fall? The Governor, despite all the positive vibes she tried to project, pretty much told you “no.” Her way of sugar-coating it was to repeat over and over that “School in the Fall is not going to look like a traditional school year.” This is the new vocabulary of leadership: When you fail, introduce it as the “new normal.”

If you don't believe that analysis of her press conference earlier this week and want to read it in black and white, this is what the document says:

Returning to In-Person Instruction Through the On-Site or Hybrid Instructional Models

For a school to return to in-person instruction through the Oregon Department of Education’s (ODE) OnSite or Hybrid Instructional models, the metrics below, which consider local as well as statewide conditions, must be met:

1) Schools must be in a county that is no longer in baseline phase to consider in-person instructional models. At this time, no Oregon counties are in baseline phase.

The following County Metrics must also be met for three weeks in a row:

• Case rate: ≤10 cases per 100,000 population in the preceding 7 days
• Test positivity: ≤5% in the preceding 7 days

AND 2) The following State Metric must be met three weeks in a row:

• Test positivity: ≤5% in the preceding 7 days

Want some science to down that bitter pill? This chart is included with the bad news.

Approximate COVID-19 Case Rates in Other Countries When They Re-Opened Schools
Country	Date	New cases per 100,000 per day	New cases per 100,000 per 7 days (week)
Denmark	4/15/20	2.6	18.2
Germany	4/29/20	1.3	9.1
Netherlands	5/11/20	1.5	10.5
France	5/11/20	0.9	6.3
New Zealand	5/15/20	<0.1	<0.7
Australia	5/11/20	<0.1	<0.7
Oregon*	5/25/20	0.8	5.6
Oregon*	7/20/20	6.9	48.3
*Oregon data included at two different time intervals for comparison.

One wonders if the results in Oregon are being driven by a different level of testing or reporting. It just doesn't seem like things are all that bad in Oregon.

Smart parents who find this unworkable are looking for different options. For certain, there is one schooling option that won't look all that different than last school year. That's home schooling.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-07-30 18:25:06

Last Update: 2020-07-30 21:25:28