Ranking students by academic performance has been condemned as discriminatory and racist, yet New Zealand still leaves it up to individual schools to decide.
Schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania have already found Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, in their water systems.
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When water stagnates in pipes, harmful metals and bacteria can accumulate and make people sick. Buildings that were shut down for weeks during the pandemic may be at risk.
The World Health Organisation now recommends children aged 12 years and older wear masks and that masks should be considered for those aged 6-11 years.
The CDC recommends schools have one nurse for every 750 students. Only about 40% of schools meet that bar.
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School nurses were already overwhelmed, with hundreds of students and staff in their charge. Now, COVID-19 screenings and testing have become their priority.
Safety precautions like wearing face masks and leaving space between desks are also important to limit the coronavirus’s spread.
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New research points to why reopening elementary schools is the safest bet and what else needs to happen for schools to have the best chance of staying open.
Pandemic policy experts offer 10 recommendations that could reduce the risk that a bad flu season on top of the COVID-19 pandemic will overwhelm hospitals.
Students and parents at California’s Hollywood High School go through temperature checks before picking up laptops for online learning.
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Phyllis Sharps, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing et Lucine Francis, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
Checking for symptoms is just the beginning. Here are 10 ways schools can help keep children, families and faculty safe.
A seven-year-old boy waits at the bus stop in Dallas, Ga., for the first day of school on Aug. 3, 2020. Canadian schools are reopening in September, but is anyone really thinking about the well-being of the children?
(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Any decision that places a child’s physical and mental health at risk shouldn’t be taken lightly, so policy-makers and parents alike should listen to those most affected — the children themselves.
Concerns over how to make schools safe amid the coronavirus remain. But for many low-income students of color, old buildings in need of repair already presented a heath risk.
Schoolchildren, some wearing masks, attend a class in a school of Strasbourg in eastern France in May 2020.
(AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
We should make more use of randomised controlled trials – usually used in medicine – to understand which measures were effective in controlling COVID-19.
Research suggests that children are less likely than adults to catch the virus, pass it on or fall seriously ill because of it. A progressive return of children to school is therefore advisable.