By Erika Edwards and Heidi Przybyla -
NBC News
The government chaired by Joe Biden will present a new strategy on Friday to keep children in schools, according to two sources close to the Administration familiar with the plan.
The measure is known when some school districts have returned to virtual classes to avoid the omicron variant of COVID-19.
The strategy envisions a "get tested [for COVID-19] approach to stay [in schools]": instead of mandatory quarantines for students identified as close contacts of a classmate who tested positive for COVID-19, those students
will be able to stay in school if they test negative for the virus
at least twice in the week after exposure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is also expected to release two reports on Friday highlighting results from school districts where it has successfully implemented this approach.
The government is trying to avoid major problems in hospitals and schools, as the omicron variant, which is gaining ground in the United States, is expected to cause millions of infections in the upcoming holiday season.
The measure seeks to allow children to stay in school and not fall behind in their lessons. Getty Images
Schools are especially vulnerable:
Only 18% of children ages 5 to 11 are vaccinated, as are 61% of those ages 12 to 17, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
As of December 9, more than 7.1 million cases of COVID-19 in children had been registered.
One of the new CDC reports, based on 90 students from Lake County, Illinois, estimates that this new approach prevented more than 8,000 missed school days.
The other report, done in Los Angeles County, California, found that schools that did not follow the strategy missed 92,000 days of school.
Some schools are closing again as infection rates are on the rise again.
The Government is expected to
encourage teachers in particular to receive the booster dose
at vaccination clinics set up in schools.
[Why do children need the COVID-19 vaccine?]
This approach will be done in collaboration with teacher unions, which are using paid advertisements and meetings to reach out to school staff.
The prospect of children remaining in classrooms after months of virtual distance learning is appealing to parents, teachers, and public health officials, who have seen how the pandemic has affected children socially, academically, and emotionally.
When schools switched to virtual education in the spring of 2020, in an attempt to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, children began to fall behind in their classes.
Many, isolated from their peers at home,
presented high levels of stress.
"It is clear that the best thing for children is face-to-face learning in schools, and if that can be done safely with a child who may have been exposed to COVID-19, then we have to do it," said Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC.
[Vaccination for children 5 to 11 years old against COVID-19 in the US begins]
The White House strategy would also include other effective methods to reduce the spread of the virus, such as masks, hand washing and physical distance of at least three feet between students.
