The state Department of Health and Education are updating their in-school guidance to bring it more in line with the Centers for Disease Control recommendations.
“Students must now be at least three feet apart in classrooms, instead of six feet it was previously,” Dr. Wendy Braund, Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 Response Director said. “However, in counties where substantial transmission continues to occur, middle and high school students should be six feet apart, unless coherting is possible.”
There was also new guidance for how districts should handle COVID-19 in schools and on the closures of buildings.
“In some instances, the recommendations for closures for in-person learning may be reduced to one to two days for a school; a change from the previous three to seven days. And may be reduced to five days for a school, a change from the previous 14 days,” Braund said.
“These closures, while of a shorter time frame, still allow for necessary cleaning and for public health staff to direct close contacts into quarantine,” Braund added.
Districts have to sign off on the changes according to the state.