Biden school-reopening guidance to focus on ‘mitigation’ efforts rather than vaccinating teachers, report says

The Biden administration's school-reopening guidance is to focus on Covid-19 mitigation efforts rather than prioritising vaccinating teachers.

This guidance will come from several federal agencies, addressing a variety of issues related to schools reopening.

At the head of this guidance is the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is expected to release its plan for K-12 schools this week. This report will be an "operational strategy" advising how schools could reopen safely by following proper "mitigation" practices, CBS News reported.

The guidance will focus on five areas, and builds on what the CDC has already recommended for schools. These areas include emphasising mask wearing from teachers and students, following social distancing guidelines, and instituting good "hand hygiene" programmes that cover coughing and sneezing techniques.

The CDC will also focus on providing schools with proper ventilation and cleaning recommendations for their facilities, as well implementing a contact tracing and quarantine programme if any cases were to arise, according to one official.

Coronavirus vaccines are secondary to the plan.

The federal agency was expected to state that schools reopening did not require all teachers to first receive a vaccination. Instead, the guidance will suggest that if each institution follows the mitigation rules they can reopen without staff being required to receive a Covid vaccination

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, hinted last week that the federal agency could take this stance when speaking at the White House Covid response team briefing.

"There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated," Dr Walensky said at the time, emphasising that vaccinations were not a precondition to reopening schools.

This take has been a point of contention between government officials and teachers' unions, as the unions across the country fight for educators to receive a vaccine prior to returning to school buildings.

Educators were already prioritised in the CDC's guidance for who states should vaccinate first, with the Covid-19 vaccine by being placed in Phase 1b of vaccine rollout. Already 26 states and Puerto Rico have opened up vaccine eligibility to some or all of their teachers, according to Education Week.

President Joe Biden emphasised school reopenings when unveiling his coronavirus response plan in January. But his plan only targeted schools K-8.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that Mr Biden's hope was to open 50 per cent of schools for "some teaching" in person "at least one day a week" by the 100th day of his presidency.

"Hopefully it's more," Ms Psaki said. "And obviously it is as much as is safe in each school and local district."

Included in Mr Biden's plan was $130bn under his $1.9tn Covid-19 relief plan that would go directly to schools as they work to reopen safely. This money would go towards more educators to help class sizes remain small, properly ventilating and cleaning schools, and providing PPE equipment to schools. Funding could also provide assistance to students who fell behind during the pandemic.

"I think it's time for schools to reopen safely – safely," Mr Biden said when speaking to CBS News' Norah O'Donnell on Sunday. "You have to have fewer people in the classroom, you have to have ventilation systems that have been reworked."