Back-To-School COVID To-Do List

From learning new vocabulary to acts of kindness; modeling critical thinking to making a family COVID plan

Recently I wrote about thriving during the 2021-22 school year (and not just surviving). Many people sent me messages asking for COVID-specific to-dos — a list of things to prepare for, understand, and anticipate as we begin the new school year. I am sharing here my to-do list for the year as our family prepares for in-person learning as the delta variant rages throughout the country (details below) —

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To end the pandemic, we each need to stay healthy AND we need to work to create healthy communities. Public health professionals know how to do both. Public health has been working behind the scenes to prevent disease for years (decades and centuries, actually). We have the tools, plans, and vision to prevent COVID infections and bring an end to the pandemic.

Please listen to the public health leaders in your community.

Wear a mask (indoors) and get vaccinated.

The pandemic has introduced the world to the vocabulary of public health. Words such as quarantine, isolation, variants, and close contact are part of everyday conversations. Do you know your pandemic vocabulary? are you using your words accurately? These are the words you should be familiar with as we enter another COVID school year. If you want to take a vocabulary quiz and test your knowledge, you can do so here.

Each school district has put together its own back-to-school health and safety plan. Find your school’s plan; read it; ask questions if you don’t understand something; and know that you can take additional precautions (read: wear a mask) in addition to what is written in your school plan. Back-to-school guidance is also available from CDC.

School plans have clear quarantine guidelines for students. These guidelines are dependent on vaccination status and mask-wearing. To minimize time out of school for quarantine — get your kids vaccinated (if they are 12 years old or older) and send them to school in a mask each day. Here is a flow chart showing how decisions regarding quarantining of students will look like this —

Teachers and administrators will quarantine according to this decision tree —

Let’s be honest — there is so much misinformation online. I suggest getting accurate COVID information, news, and facts from one of the following sources: STAT News, Johns Hopkins University, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, CDC, or WHO.

And please remember — being a parent does NOT make you an expert in disease prevention or pandemic research. As a family, please work to identify trusted sources of information. Find experts (I’m right here — your epidemiologist mama) and reliable sources of information. Model critical thinking, problem-solving, and research skills to your children.

As a parent, talk with your kids about risks. You need to talk about masking, vaccine safety, quarantine, and disease spread. But also, talk with them about vaping, consent, alcohol, poverty, nutrition, violence, bias, and so much more. Talk with your kids about risks. And together make a COVID plan for the school year. Your plan should include answers to the following questions —

1. What risks are you willing to take as a family in the midst of COVID? are sleepovers ok? what about indoor social events? outdoor events? do you have a quaranTEAM/pod family? how can extracurriculars be done safely? will you take the bus to school or carpool?

2. Who is the most at-risk person(s) in your family? how will you protect that individual from COVID exposure? will you all mask to protect someone who is immunocompromised or unable to get the vaccine because of their age? what else will you do to keep each other safe and healthy?

3. What will you do if someone in your home is diagnosed with COVID? where will they isolate? where will people sleep? how will bathrooms and other shared spaces be cleaned in order to decrease disease spread?

4. What will you do if someone in your home is exposed and is required to quarantine? where will they quarantine? how will schoolwork get done? if they are small children, who will stay home from work with them? how will you communicate risk? how will you monitor for symptoms? how will you deal with the loneliness and fear associated with quarantine?

5. Where is up-to-date school information posted/shared? Who will be responsible for keeping up to date on the COVID news from your school?

6. Where can you go to get a COVID test? where can you go for a vaccine? what type of proof of infection, negative test results, vaccination status are needed by your school district?

And finally — how will you and your family show kindness towards others this year? Our family has decided that we will all be masking indoors for the foreseeable future as an act of love and kindness and in an effort to create a healthy community. We are working hard to follow the command to love your neighbor through mask-wearing. And we know that wearing a mask will also keep us healthier.

We are also thinking about ways of showing kindness to our teachers, ballet instructors, and soccer coaches. I invite you all to join us in our quest to show kindness to others. Please share your acts of kindness with me through the comments.

Being prepared for another COVID school year is necessary. And listening to public health officials will bring an end to the pandemic. We all need to —

1. Mask when indoors. All students (preschool through college; K-12 through graduate school) need to wear a mask in the classroom.

2. Get vaccinated - if over 12. For families with kids under 12, start talking to your kids about getting vaccinated later this year (crossing my fingers that vaccines are available for 5-11-year-olds before the end of the year).