Schools and the Path to Zero: Strategies for Pandemic Resilience in the Face of High Community Spread

Schools should use metrics of community spread as general points of information, not on-off switches for closure and opening, and should focus their own attention on developing ways to measure any in-school transmission and the quality of their infection control regime, in relation to the elements of infection control laid out below. For in-school transmission, the goal should be zero or near zero transmission. These recommendations increase the workload on schools, however, by introducing the need for robust infection control programs, and short and longterm investment in our public education system’s infrastructure and workforce. Our nation’s educators deserve full support from state and federal governments and the general public as they undertake the heroic labor of holistically transforming