ATLANTA -- Federal health officials won't revise their coronavirus guidelines for reopening schools, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. What they will do, Dr. Robert Redfield said, is provide additional information to help states, communities and parents decide what to do and when.
"Our guidelines are our guidelines," Redfield said.
In draft CDC documents obtained by The Associated Press, the agency says there are steps that schools can take to safely reopen but that it "cannot provide one-size-fits-all criteria for opening and closing schools or changing the way schools are run."
"Decisions about how to open and run schools safely should be made based on local needs and conditions," the documents say.
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They also include a checklist that encourages parents to consider whether they should send their children back to school or seek virtual instruction. Many districts nationwide are offering parents a choice. New York City, among other school districts, has announced that students will return only part time in the fall.
President Donald Trump has been pushing state and local officials to reopen schools this fall, even threatening to withhold federal funds from those that keep teaching and learning remote.
Trump on Wednesday criticized the CDC's guidelines as "very tough and expensive" and said the agency was "asking schools to do very impractical things." Speaking of CDC officials, he tweeted, "I will be meeting with them!!!" And Vice President Mike Pence said revised guidelines would be issued next week.
Asked about the apparent discrepancy between Redfield's and Pence's statements, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said they were on the same page. She said "supplemental guidelines" would be forthcoming.
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In his tweet Wednesday, Trump did not clarify which of the CDC guidelines he opposed. But McEnany said, for example, that the president takes issue with the CDC's suggestion that students bring their own meals to school when feasible.
"There are 22 million children in this country who depend on these meals at schools, who depend on access to nutrition in schools," she said.
PRIORITY: SCHOOLS
Even before Trump's push this week, Democrats and public health experts were talking about how important it is for children to return to classrooms.
When Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly issued an executive order last week requiring masks, she told legislative leaders it was because she wanted to reopen classrooms. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, made similar remarks when she shut down indoor seating in bars in some areas after outbreaks.
And Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham cited schools when she said there would be more aggressive enforcement and fines for people who flout the state's mask requirement.
"The children of this state and the students deserve a chance to go back to school," Grisham said.
A growing chorus of public health experts is urging federal, state and local officials to reconsider how they are reopening the broader economy, and to prioritize K-12 schools -- an effort that would probably require closing some other establishments to help curb the virus spread and give children the best shot at returning to classrooms.
"We need to think about what our priorities are as a society, and some other things may just have to wait," said Helen Jenkins, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Boston University. "I think there are hard choices having to be made by decision makers."
Schools are crucial to communities in ways that go beyond basic learning. They also provide children with friends, food and other support systems. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supports children returning to classrooms.
Schools are also a key part of getting the economy going, said David Rothschild, an economist at Microsoft Research.
"It's what allows so many adults, especially people without much means, to get back to work," Rothschild said. "There's this huge downstream effect in the short run of getting people back into school, which you may not be able to say in the same sort of way for bars and restaurants."
GRADUATIONS, SUMMER CAMPS
Hundreds of children and staff members have been infected in covid-19 outbreaks tied to graduation ceremonies and summer camps, including in Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, New York and Florida. Organizers of at least one of the camps said they were following CDC guidelines.
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That's why it's so important, experts say, to consider the wider community and not think of schools as closed systems, unaffected by what the virus is doing outside their walls.
Children are less likely to become seriously ill than adults, and there's not much evidence that children are driving transmission, said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 Testing Insights Initiative. Still, there is a risk they could transmit the virus to others, including teachers or vulnerable people they live with.
"That is a reason to think about how to improve safety and to reduce the risk in school environments," Nuzzo said. "Those measures and the move to reopen schools should proceed before the higher-risk environments" like bars, restaurants, gyms and other indoor spaces "where adults are packed together and they have a hard time social distancing."
If transmission can be reduced in the wider community, she said, it will make it safer for schools to reconvene.
"We should be prioritizing the reopening of those public spaces that have known benefits and low risks," Nuzzo said. "And we think that schools are one of those."
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has said schools will be failing children if they don't provide full-time, in-person instruction.
The draft CDC documents, which have yet to be released publicly, say such decisions should be left to local officials. "Each school and each community will have different needs and should implement the strategies best designed to meet them," the agency says.
SAFETY STEPS
The documents say that in-person schooling will lead to at least some infections but that there are steps schools can take to lessen the risk.
A graph of the CDC's disease modeling indicates there's likely to be significantly more virus spread if all students attend school five days a week. The graph projects that alternate schedules could cut infections by as much as 80%, although the agency acknowledges there is much more to learn about the disease.
"Scientists are still learning about how it spreads, how it impacts children and what role children may play in its spread," says the introduction to the parent checklist.
Redfield said the upcoming reference documents will include how to monitor for symptoms and use masks in schools.
The CDC's current guidance recommends that students and teachers wear masks whenever feasible, spread out desks, stagger schedules, eat meals in classrooms instead of the cafeteria and add barriers between bathroom sinks.
When asked about the documents that the AP obtained, CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes wrote in an email that the agency would distribute additional guidance next week and pointed to what has already been released.
The White House declined to comment on the documents.
The 30-question parent checklist asks about a child's health, use of special education services, comfort with local school plans and whether parents can facilitate at-home learning. It warns that if parents check multiple items on the "stay-at-home" column, that "could be an indicator that your family should consider alternative learning formats other than in-person schooling."
STARTING YEAR ONLINE
Nashville's school year will start off virtually instead of in person, local school officials announced Thursday.
Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Adrienne Battle said students won't be returning to classrooms from the Aug. 4 start of the school year until through at least Labor Day.
"This will allow social distancing, mask mandates and other measures to take effect and reduce the spread of covid-19 before tens of thousands of students and staff return to our schools, which could potentially spread the disease among our people and in the community if we're not careful," Battle said at a news conference.
In Louisiana, despite the surging outbreak, Gov. John Bel Edwards and a majority of state House members oppose a state senator's call for the cancellation of public school athletics this fall.
Edwards said Senate Education Chairman Cleo Fields' push to suspend K-12 athletic events as a safety precaution was well-meaning, but the Democratic governor said it's "just a little too early" to make such a sweeping determination.
"I think we all have some concerns," Edwards said. "But I don't think we're at that point in time where that decision needs to be made, and I think we need to know a little bit more."
CONFUSION REPORTED
Separately, the Trump administration's approach to testing for the virus has left state leaders and commercial laboratories confused, frustrated and unprepared for the fall, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions found in a report released Thursday.
Labs and state officials said they were unsure who in the federal government to contact about supply issues, including whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Department of Health and Human Services is in charge.
"It is increasingly unlikely the nation will be prepared with sufficient testing capacity to meet the health and economic needs of the country by late summer or even into the fall," said the authors, led by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
"Disturbingly, several interviewees, including large clinical labs, reported that despite the Administration's assurances, they did not see how the United States would reach even a million tests per day by the fall."
The Trump administration this week began a temporary testing effort in three communities where cases are surging, an experiment to try to tamp down rising numbers of cases and hospitalizations.
Personal protective equipment is still in short supply in some states, and test-makers warned that plastic is becoming a challenge.
The Democrats recommend putting a single federal official in charge of testing -- and only testing. Currently, Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir coordinates those efforts alongside other responsibilities. Congress should allocate more money for testing, they say, and the White House should distribute $14 billion already provided by Congress for that purpose.
ELSEWHERE
Asian and European officials pleaded with their citizens Thursday to respect modest precautions as several countries saw outbreaks accelerate or sought to prevent new flare-ups, while the virus showed no signs of slowing its initial advance in Africa and the Americas.
After two nights of anti-lockdown protests in Serbia, authorities banned mass gatherings in the capital of Belgrade amid an uptick in confirmed cases. Officials elsewhere in Europe warned of the risk of new flare-ups because of lax social distancing, while officials in Tokyo and Hong Kong reviewed nightclubs, restaurants and other public gathering spots as a source of their latest cases.
The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the continent would be wise to prepare for the worst-case scenario as virus-related deaths passed 12,000 and confirmed cases climbed quickly.
Much of Europe appeared to have put the worst of the crisis behind it. But Serbia has emerged as a new focus of concern -- and of unrest. On Thursday, authorities banned gatherings of more than 10 people in Belgrade, the capital, in what they said was an effort to prevent the further spread of the virus. They also ordered shorter working hours for businesses such as cafes and shops.
Flare-ups of new virus cases are causing concern in several parts of the world, and in some cases leading to the reintroduction of restrictions on public activity.
In France and Greece, officials warned that people were too frequently ignoring safety guidance. The French government's leading coronavirus adviser, Jean-Francois Delfraissy, lamented that "the French in general have abandoned protective measures."
Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said authorities were "determined to protect the majority from the frivolous few." He said the government may announce new restrictions, if needed, on Monday.
Information for this article was contributed by Jeff Amy, Carole Feldman, Jovana Gec, Geir Moulson, Nick Perry, Michelle R. Smith, Carla K. Johnson, Jonathan Mattise, Adrian Sainz, Melinda Deslatte and Dusan Stojanovic of The Associated Press; and by Rachel Weiner of The Washington Post.
