Take a look at what’s taken place at some summer camps. Even camps that were adhering to safety measures — like physical or social distancing, mask-wearing, and handwashing — had to shut down due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

On the other hand, we haven’t seen major issues with day care centers being open.

Health experts say reopening schools is a tricky course to navigate and should be executed carefully on a local level.

There’s no way we can get the risk to zero, so we need to find a way to get kids back to school safely.

This is going to be a risk-calculated type of process where we’re weighing the risk of the disease versus the risk of keeping people out of schools, and I think it’s not an easy decision to make.

The risks of COVID-19 spread must be weighed against the benefits of in-person education.

Do children really have a lower risk?

One of the key points the CDC makes in its new guidance is that children tend to have a lower risk for getting seriously sick from COVID-19 and younger children [are] less likely to spread infection.

When groups gather together no matter the age, there’s a higher risk of transmission.

However, a recent study found that 10- to 19-year-olds spread the virus just as much as adults.

Even if children spread the virus less readily, some doctors still expect we’ll see new surges tied back to school reopenings.

Children may not spread the virus as much as adults, but there will still be an increase in new cases once schools reopen in an area, as other countries have observed.

Adults who work in the schools will have an increased risk for getting sick as will those who have close contact with kids and their teachers.

Here’s what schools need to think about

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all recommendation that makes sense. 

Schools should evaluate a few factors when deciding if and when to reopen. First is the level of transmission in the community. The more disease in the community, the higher the risk of bringing large groups together and increasing exposure and continuing disease transmission.

Schools can reopen safely in most places, but it may be hard to do in areas with increasing outbreaks.

For a school to safely reopen, a region must have reduced infections for at least 2 weeks.

The second factor to consider is the preventive measures the school is able to enforce — like mask-wearing, physical distancing, and outdoor activities.

Schools will need to consider forming learning pods, adjusting how kids access cafeterias, and staggering drop-off times.

The CDC released steps school administers can take to mitigate the risk of exposure. They include tips for “cohorting,” or putting students into “pods” where they only interact with a small group of peers.

Other tips include alternating students’ schedules, taking the bus, and physical distancing.

Lastly is for schools to figure out how they’d respond if a student or staff member were to contract an infection.

Even with low levels of community transmission, there will be coronavirus cases among staff and students. This includes who gets quarantined, criteria for return to school of children with fever or symptoms if testing is not easily accessible, and criteria for school closure.

Health officials will need to look at each school, and each school district, in a unique manner to determine the best path forward.

To prevent future outbreaks, local health officials will need to conduct viral surveillance and contact tracing before schools open.

Each family should assess their own risk