the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, On July 9 the US CDC released updated guidance for COVID-19 prevention in K-12 schools, prioritizing a return to in-person learning for students this fall and highlighting the importance of vaccinating as many eligible children as possible. So far, 1 in 3 adolescents ages 12 to 17 have been vaccinated, a number experts are hoping will increase over the coming months. Overall, the CDC recommends school districts tailor their recommendations to local laws and epidemiological situations, tightening or relaxing layered prevention strategies such as mask wearing and physical distancing based on local transmission rates. Some experts criticized the agency for leaving so many decisions up to local officials, saying more specific guidance would be helpful. Others, including officials with the country’s two major teachers’ unions, praised the guidance, calling it “grounded in both science and common sense.” With nearly all of the nation’s school districts set to open this fall, the CDC updated its guidance based on progress in the national vaccination campaign.