Coronavirus-exposed teachers could stay in classrooms under new fed. guidance

An updated guidance document from the Trump Administration now designates teachers and school staff as “essential critical infrastructure” workers, which would allow them to remain in classrooms and schools after being exposed to the pandemic coronavirus, rather than going into quarantine.The guidance is not a directive—school districts can still decline to include educators in the designation. Their concern is likely heightened by a rash of recent reports of schools and colleges that reopened amid the pandemic, only to abruptly close after quickly finding clusters of cases and widespread exposures.Still, at least six school districts in Tennessee have already adopted the designation for their educators, as has one school district in Georgia, located in suburban Atlanta’s Forsyth County.Craig Harper, director of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, spoke with the Associated Press and called the designation “reckless." He also noted that it “starkly contradicts the newest Georgia Department of Public Health guidance.”The guidance document at the center of the issue is one published by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, and titled “Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response." According to the CISA, the guidance aims to “help officials and organizations identify essential work functions in order to allow them access to their workplaces during times of community restrictions."The guidance was originally issued March 19 and in past versions has identified essential workers in sectors including healthcare, law enforcement, food and agriculture, energy, transportation, water and wastewater, public works, and communication and information technology.But the fourth and latest version of the guidance, issued August 18, now includes workers in the education sector, including teachers and professors, school administrators and staff, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and school safety personnel.Under separate guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, such “critical infrastructure workers may be permitted to continue work following potential exposure to COVID-19, provided they remain asymptomatic and additional precautions are implemented to protect them and the community.” This, according to the guidance, is to “ensure continuity of operations of essential function.”In a statement to the AP, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten rebuked the federal guidances, saying, “If the president really saw us as essential, he’d act like it.” “Teachers are and always have been essential workers—but not essential enough, it seems, for the Trump administration to commit the resources necessary to keep them safe in the classroom.”You must login or create an account to comment.Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox.