Should you go to School in a Pandemic?

Throughout the country, schools are slowly starting to open up, whether it’s a phased opening or giving the choice to students and parents. If you are debating whether it is safe to return to school or if you are preparing to return, here are some useful things to know.

Preparing to Return to School

If you are returning to school, make sure you know what your school/county is doing as a preventative measure for the students. Contact your teachers and ask how their classrooms will be set up: will desks be spaced out? Will there be plexi-glass shields? These are all important questions for your return to school. From there, start prepping on your own.

Have a tool-kit with hand sanitizer, extra masks, gloves, etc. with you. Although schools are trying their best to keep students safe, taking measures of your own is equally as important to keep yourself and others healthy. Disinfecting surfaces that are touched often, communicating with your parents/children, communicating with faculty and staff, and keeping yourself clean are all important to ensuring a safe return to school; not just for you, but for others as well.

Should I Go Back to School?

The answer to this question depends on the state/county you live in. Other than just looking at your state’s numbers, look at the growth curve and see what the trend is and has been for the past couple of weeks. If you see cases are on the rise with school opening and you feel unsafe about returning to school, try your best to opt for at-home learning. Again, contacting your school might be beneficial to decide whether you want to come back or not.

Going back to school or not is a personal choice, but there are important things to take into account for your safety and well-being. Make sure you note how your school is re-opening, as well as how the teachers plan on handling it in their own classrooms.

Know your own limits as well. If you need to contact your doctor to talk over whether going back to school is safe for you personally, make sure you do it with enough time to notify the school. Finally, go with your gut. If you feel as though your state is rushing, or your school is opening in an un-safe way, try to opt for at-home learning. It is hard to tell where this pandemic is going and making these heavy decisions can be stressful, but the most helpful indicator of staying home is that gut feeling.

We’re all in this together.

Stay safe!