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Did the CDC recommend school closures?

In a word, no. Even at the very beginning of the pandemic, the CDC said only that schools might want to close depending on local transmission rates and known outbreaks—but even then said there was little evidence it helped more generally. After that they became positively evangelistic in their recommendations for schools to stay open (but to do it safely).

Here are excerpts from four CDC documents published during the first year of COVID. Not media or talking head perspectives. These are the CDC's actual words.

March 12, 2020: "There is a role for school closure" in response to outbreaks of COVID. However:

Short to medium closures do not impact the epi curve of COVID-19 or available health care measures (e.g., hospitalizations).... Other mitigation efforts (e.g., handwashing, home isolation) have more impact on both spread of disease and health care measures. In other countries, those places who closed school (e.g., Hong Kong) have not had more success in reducing spread than those that did not (e.g., Singapore).

July 23, 2020: “It is critically important for our public health to open schools this fall,” said CDC Director Dr. Robert R. Redfield. “The CDC resources released today will help parents, teachers and administrators make practical, safety-focused decisions as this school year begins.”... The resources and tools made available today support how to open schools safely by promoting behaviors that prevent spread, [etc.].

August 1, 2020: While opening schools—like opening any building or facility—does pose a risk for the spread of COVID-19, there are many reasons why opening schools in the fall of 2020 for in-person instruction is important.

  • Schools play a critical role in the wellbeing of communities
  • Schools provide critical instruction and academic support
  • Social and emotional health of students can be enhanced
    through schools
  • Mental health of students can be fostered through school
    supports and services
  • Continuity of other special services is important for student
    success

February 12, 2021: K–12 schools should be the last settings to close after all other mitigation measures in the community have been employed, and the first to reopen when they can do so safely. Schools should be prioritized for reopening and remaining open for in-person instruction over nonessential businesses and activities.

68 thoughts on “Did the CDC recommend school closures?

  1. Leo1008

    I find this quite interesting based on my own experience in a blue state university during the pandemic:

    “Even at the very beginning of the pandemic, the CDC said only that schools might want to close depending on local transmission rates and known outbreaks—but even then said there was little evidence it helped more generally. After that they became positively evangelistic in their recommendations for schools to stay open (but to do it safely).”

    This simply is not what my school communicated to its students. Now I’m speaking purely from memory, but the Covid closure updates we received from the school were frequent and similar enough to leave a fairly reliable recollection. And those updates always said some variant of the same thing: the school was staying on remote only education based on CDC guidelines.

    This continued at least up to the fall of 2021. Even then, only limited in person meetings were allowed. I don’t think in-person classes resumed in full until sometime in 2022. And some professors were apparently free to continue teaching remotely into 2023 (and a number of them did).

    I don’t think it honestly ever occurred to me to look up what the CDC might’ve actually been saying, but whatever it was, my uni somehow or other managed to utilize it for what was likely its own blue state inclination: keeping schools remote (and closed to in person activity) for as long as possible!

    1. Kevin Drum

      The CDC didn't really recommend anything. They just provided "guidance," which was detailed enough that it could be interpreted lots of ways. And it was. Local school districts mostly made the decisions based on their own read of what the CDC said and which things applied to their own situation. They also took account of parent opinion, and we forget that *lots* of parents wanted schools shut down. Also teacher unions.

    2. memyselfandi

      You maybe confusing CDC guidance with the Guidance of Trump's covid taskforce or state guidance or NIH guidance. Or Kevin maybe confusing the guidance from the head of the CDC with the actual CDC guidance. Most people aren't aware that the CDC was lead by a maggot who was as a sop to right wing fundamentalists picked solely because he had caused 10s of thousand (if not 100s of thousands) of unnecessary AIDS deaths in the 80s and 90s. Redfield is a monster.

  2. kkseattle

    lol. Kevin still quaintly believes that right-wingers have any regard for the truth.

    In fact, they crave being lied to—in particular, the superiority of straight white “Christian” males.

    They vastly prefer truthiness to the actual truth.

  3. MF

    OK, Kevin. So then who, exactly, did drive school closures?

    Did this policy arise by immaculate conception like Venus from the waves?

      1. jamesepowell

        And parents. I was teaching in a Los Angeles USD middle school. By the time schools closed on March 13th, about half the students were being kept home by parents.

        And parents did not send their children back to school until vaccines were widely available. When we re-opened a year later, April 2021, there were more teachers and aides in the school then students.

      2. MF

        Just on their own? A whole bunch of local decisions?

        Not national actors like these?

        https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/07/28/teachers-may-walk-out-safety-strikes-if-forced-into-unsafe-schools-union-leader/

        https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/us/unions-may-complicate-bidens-school-plans.html

        And here we have the CDC acting as a stenographer for the AFT.

        https://nypost.com/2021/05/01/teachers-union-collaborated-with-cdc-on-school-reopening-emails/

        https://nypost.com/2023/06/02/texts-reveal-exchange-between-cdc-director-teachers-union-boss-before-school-reopening-memo/

        1. Jay Gibbo

          A couple excerpts from the NY Times article linked above:

          A teacher remembered: Matthew Beaver, 40, was a middle school physical education teacher and coach in North Carolina. He died after contracting the coronavirus, and had been teaching in person. “He affected so many people in a positive manner,” a colleague said. “Made me a better teacher.”

          A defiant school board: Patrick Key, a 53-year-old teacher in Cobb County, Ga., died on Christmas after contracting Covid-19. During a moment of silence, at least two members of his school board refused to wear masks in his honor.

          The parts about deaths and ill teachers also drove closures in cases where schools weren't necessarily planned to be close. And those things would also drive learning loss even if the school wasn't closed now that your regular teacher/s was/were missing.

          1. Atticus

            Does it say they contracted it at school? Lots of students (and teachers) at my kids' schools got covid but they didn't necessarily get them at school. Mostly people contracted it doing things outside of school.

              1. Atticus

                Lol. You're an idiot. Why in the world do you think that is not the case? For example, at my son's school, a handful (I think five) of teachers all got it at a wedding. Many of the cases were all tracked to things outside of school. The kids had assigned seats and when someone got covid anyone within a certain radius had to stay home for a certain amount of days.

                Here's an excerpt from an article published by the American Medical College in November 2020:

                TGH and other teaching hospitals that consult with schools about operating safely during the pandemic find that students and staffers who have tested positive for the coronavirus usually contracted the virus outside of school.

                https://www.aamc.org/news/kids-school-and-covid-19-what-we-know-and-what-we-don-t#:~:text=TGH%20and%20other%20teaching%20hospitals,the%20virus%20outside%20of%20school.

        2. memyselfandi

          Too mind boggling stupid to note that your first citations for national action are all about potential local actions. Your 2nd citations are from an organization that is notorious for being 100% lies, 100% of the time. And occurred three years into the crisis and is about reopening, not shutting down. And that the law requires government agency to make available any such recommendations for public comment and public suggestions for improvement before they are published. i.e. what the professional liars at NYPost are presenting as nefarious was simply the government agency following the law.

  4. MF

    Took a quick look... some data points:

    1. Recommendation to keep students 6 feet apart while eating. Not possible in most schools. No indication that if this is not possible schools should stay open anyway. https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/media/releases/2021/p0319-new-evidence-classroom-physical-distance.html

    2. CDC guidelines on school closure recommending 4 - 8 weeks closures when there is community spread and stating that 8 to 20 week closures may have impact on spread. https://www.scribd.com/document/451618496/CDC-Guidelines-Re-School-Closures, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/14/us/school-closures-cdc-long-term-trnd/index.html

    3. Director of CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases says schools may have to close and use Internet based tech. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/25/cdc-outlines-what-closing-schools-businesses-would-look-like-in-us-pandemic.html

    That's a five minute search.

    CDC's fingerprints are all over the murder weapon that killed educational progress for so many American children.

    One thing I really hope is that Kennedy brings accountability for this. Name names. Trace the decision making. Release the emails. Expose the role of the teachers' unions.

    1. Kevin Drum

      Oh come on. None of this shut down schools. The CDC *did* make safety recommendations, but there's nothing wrong with that.

        1. Jasper_in_Boston

          When the CDC made safety recommendations...

          recommendation command

          If they were commands, a lot fewer red state Covid truthers would have died than, tragically, was actually the case.

        2. memyselfandi

          And once again you resort to a citation that you know is 100% lies. All this reveals is that the CDC obeyed the law about public comment requirements while presenting it in a deliberately fraudulent manner to deceive its readers.

    2. jdubs

      Poor guy. Angry everyday and demanding vengeance. About everything.

      Facts don't matter, just VENGEANCE, err ACCOUNTABILITY! LORD DONALD WILL DELIVER THE VENGEANCE!!

      1. MF

        Actually, in this case it will be Lord Robert Kennedy.

        And yes, I do want accountability. I doubt we can get vengeance - most of what was done was probably legal even if morally wrong and a betrayal of our nation's children.

        Why do you oppose accountability and, if appropriate, punishment? Don't you agree that the long school closings were total malpractice?

        1. memyselfandi

          "Don't you agree that the long school closings were total malpractice?" No, I don't believe that bald face lie. Why do you ignore the fact that education outcomes were the same in states like flordia and South Dakota that intentionally tried to maximize their death rates and states like ohio that saved the most residents that they could.

        2. Larry Jones

          When Donald Trump is held accountable for the insurrection on January 6, 2021; when Donald Trump is held accountable for stealing and hiding top secret government documents as a private citizen; when Donald Trump is sentenced (and serves his sentence) for his 34 fraud convictions; when Donald Trump is held accountable for suggesting bleach injections, ivermectin and vaccine avoidance during the pandemic; when Donald Trump is held accountable for bungling the distribution of those vaccines during the pandemic; when Donald Trump is held accountable for his attempts to pressure Georgia election officials to change the legally counted vote in the 2020 election; then see me about appropriate vengeance against the staff of the CDC for issuing health guidelines -- not mandates.

      1. Jasper_in_Boston

        Have we noticed MF is lying about the guidelines?

        Q: How can you tell when MF Is lying?

        A: When his typing fingers are moving.

    3. memyselfandi

      "1. Recommendation to keep students 6 feet apart while eating. Not possible in most schools. No indication that if this is not possible schools should stay open anyway. Why is this not possible in most schools, other than you are a compulsive liar?

    4. Josef

      "1. Recommendation to keep students 6 feet apart while eating. Not possible in most schools. No indication that if this is not possible schools should stay open anyway."
      Just off the top of my head, scatter lunch times, shorten the time allowed within reason, use alternative spaces like gymnasiums and auditoriums. I would say you have a lack of imagination but I know it's not that. It's the need to reinforce your own narrative above all else. Why else would you link to such disreputable sources like the New York Post?

  5. Crissa

    Every other time we've closed schools for an epidemic in them - that just means their parents take them to the zoo or museums or whatever to keep busy and spreads to the community.

    So necessarily schools must be last to close, first to reopen.

    And no, MF, the guidance to use personal space didn't close schools. As noted elsewhere, many kids were being kept home already.

    1. MF

      Rich people who could work from home were keeping their kids at home.

      Front line workers needed their kids at school.

      This kind of arrogance is why President Trump is going to be sworn in on Jan 20. Enjoy.

    2. memyselfandi

      "Every other time we've closed schools for an epidemic in them - that just means their parents take them to the zoo or museums or whatever to keep busy and spreads to the community." That's truly completely imbecilic. No parent with an IQ higher than their shoe size, i.e. not you, would do that.

  6. Atticus

    Thank goodness I live in Florida where we had some sanity during this time. Our schools were open at the start of Fall 2020 for anyone that chose to attend in person. Those that wanted to do remote learning could. Less than half chose remote and by the second semester about 90% of students were back in person.

    1. Jasper_in_Boston

      Florida's schools suck:

      https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2023/01/05/floridas-education-system-is-vastly-underperforming-column/

      Excerpt:

      No other state comes close to Florida’s level of consistent fourth to eighth grade performance collapse. In the last three NAEP cycles — 2017, 2019 and COVID-delayed 2022 — Florida ranked sixth, fourth and third among states in fourth grade math. In those same years, Florida ranked 33th, 34th and tied for 31st in eighth grade. For comparison, Massachusetts typically ranks at or near #1 among states on both the fourth grade and eighth grade NAEP for math and reading. Its eighth grade rank has never been more than one spot lower than fourth.

      Lots of good links in this article for any non-Atticus readers who want to learn more about the dismal performance of Florida public schools.

      1. Atticus

        State any opinion you like and I’ll send you some links to support it.

        Google “Florida public school success” and read some of those links. Among the headlines: Florida ranks first in the nation in college preparedness.

        Anyway, my point was FL schools reopened quickly. Which, in hindsight, basically everyone agrees was the right decision.

        1. Solar

          As others have pointed out, that "success" is purely based on students SAT and ACT scores.

          On the flip side it ranks 19 in High school graduation rates, 21 in 8th grade reading, and a dismal 32 in grade 8th math scores.

          If those things are what rightwingers consider success I'd be worried about what you classify as a total failure.

      1. Atticus

        I wasn't claiming Florida was the only place that opened schools in Fall 2020. Although I think it was the largest state that had state-wide openings. And again, the schools were open for those that opted to go back in person. No one was forced. Teachers were also given a preference. My wife is an elementary school teacher and she choose to go back.

  7. wvmcl2

    Does anyone here remember that the COVID epidemic killed over one million Americans in a little over a year, more than were killed in wars during the entire 20th century?

    This was a major disaster, for Christ's sake! Of course there were disruptions.

    I wonder how many teacher's lives were saved by shutdowns. Or how many students lives were saved? (Yes, young people did die).

    This Monday morning quarterbacking of people who took difficult decisions to try to save lives makes me sick.

    1. jdubs

      Most of America doesnt give a single care about any of this. Adding to the suffering of other people, including other Americans is a central selling point of one of the parties, perhaps the only selling point.

      Americans demand convenience and deferential treatment, no matter the cost. If grandmas gotta die, grandmas gotta die. The kids too. Most dont care.

      The rapidity of the school shutdowns and the massive social programs were two major success stories that people are trying very hard to misremember.

      It is now the common wisdom of the doofus class that the shutdowns and stimulus programs were harmful.

      we learn nothing

      1. wvmcl2

        I really wonder how the politics of this would have played out if children and young people had been the primary victims rather than oldsters. Maybe next time.

        If the primary motivation was to protect teachers, well the fact is that we don't pay teachers enough in this country that they should be expected to risk a lonely painful death on a respirator just to come to school.

        If the WWII generation was the greatest, this one is absolutely the worst.

  8. Austin

    We need a war or something to occupy our time.* Otherwise, Americans are prone to relitigating the past over and over and over again, like this bullshit about whether schools were closed too long or should have closed at all. Hindsight is always 20/20, but even the sainted state of Florida - which can apparently do no wrong, despite having shitty schools that only do well at "college preparedness" whatever the fuck that means** - closed their schools for a while in 2020 when nobody knew how deadly the disease would be or how transmissible it was. But Jesus Christ, I can already see ten years from now we'll still be bitching about all the "lost time" kids had and how that impacted their educational trajectory, even though by then all the kids that experienced any disruption at all will have aged out of K-12 schooling. (The Civil War and the World Wars also fucked up lots of kids educational trajectories, but literally nobody worried about that during or afterwards.)

    *And it looks like we might just get one, with evil people and people who don't know anything about anything running the federal government for the next 4 years.

    **I suspect - but can't be bothered to research it, because fuck Atticus and MF and Justin and the others who are here just to throw shit on the walls - that when they say Florida rank high on college preparedness, it's
    (1) based entirely on SAT scores so what they're saying is they teach to the test and their kids don't learn how to think,
    (2) excluding wide swathes of the population like, for example, all the kids who don't end up going or finishing college - what use is it to be "college prepared" if you end up saddled with 3 kids and working at Burger King forever immediately after high school? - and
    (3) not taking into account that high schools are diploma mills these days and, even in sainted Florida, Praise Thy Name, the universities themselves report upwards of like a third to half of incoming freshmen have to take remedial math and English courses - "college preparedness" apparently doesn't mean much in a world where the non-elite universities have lowered admission standards so that practically anybody can get in... and bring guaranteed state funding with them to help the university shore up its budget. (Universities in states like FL with lotteries that fund education have all sorts of perverse incentives to flood the campuses with students... the more kids, the more cash that flows in, and who cares if they graduate?)

    P.S. Really, fuck Atticus and MF and Justin and others who exist solely to poison public discourse with their bullshit arguments, nihilism and amorality, all for the lulz. I enjoy the internet, but goddamn, who knew the anonymity it provides would unleash so much more performative assholery into the world.

    1. Atticus

      I think you have me confused with someone else. I am not here "solely to poison public discourse with...bullshit arguments, nihilism and amorality, all for the lulz." I come here because I enjoy discourse on topics I'm interested in, especially with people that have different opinions. Over the years I have been influenced by and evolved my opinions on some topics because of this discourse.

    2. jdubs

      Florida also did poorly when it comes to age adjusted covid deaths. The social warriors dont care about that or the long term well being of students.

    3. memyselfandi

      "But Jesus Christ, I can already see ten years from now we'll still be bitching about all the "lost time" kids had and how that impacted their educational trajectory, " Completely ignoring the fact that it was covid infections that caused the damage to the kids learning, not the school shutdowns.

  9. Anonymous At Work

    I think the problem that divided people on the topic the most was the word "safely" because no one knew what it meant or trust others on it. To "mask-holes", it meant spritzing diluted bleach on desks once a day. To very anxious parents, it could mean full masking and plenty of plexiglass dividers.
    Throw in questions about whether kids would wear masks (no, especially when their parents discouraged it), testing was done on both teachers and students (yes/no), quarantine provisions for students (no), adequate money and supplies for whatever safety protocol was established (no), etc. etc. etc.
    Basically, liberals didn't trust conservatives to take CDC guidelines seriously and conservatives openly mocked the CDC guidelines. Without parents modeling good behavior for their kids, the guidelines were largely ignored.

  10. Vog46

    Slightly OT but appears to show the governments willingness to bend the rules

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-farm-groups-want-trump-spare-their-workers-deportation-2024-11-25/

    WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - U.S. farm industry groups want President-elect Donald Trump to spare their sector from his promise of mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on immigrants in the United States illegally.
    So far Trump officials have not committed to any exemptions, according to interviews with farm and worker groups and Trump's incoming "border czar" Tom Homan.
    Nearly half of the nation's approximately 2 million farm workers lack legal status, according to the departments of Labor and Agriculture, as well as many dairy and meatpacking workers
    Trump, a Republican, vowed to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally as part of his campaign to win back the White House, a logistically challenging undertaking that critics say could split apart families and disrupt U.S. businesses.
    Homan has said immigration enforcement will focus on criminals and people with final deportation orders but that no immigrant in the U.S. illegally will be exempt.
    He told Fox News on Nov. 11 that enforcement against businesses would "have to happen" but has not said whether the agricultural sector would be targeted.
    "We've got a lot on our plate," Homan said in a phone interview this month.
    Mass removal of farm workers would shock the food supply chain and drive consumer grocery prices higher, said David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University.
    "They're filling critical roles that many U.S.-born workers are either unable or unwilling to perform," Ortega said.
    Farm groups and Republican allies are encouraged by the incoming administration's stated focus on criminals.
    Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers, which represents produce farmers, said the group supports that approach and is concerned about impacts to the farm sector if a deportation plan was targeted at farmworkers.

    *********************************************************************
    This us something that has been said here many times
    I can see Trump deporting 1 million but not much more

    The article is saying the quiet part out loud. We NEED immigrants, we want immigrants. And if they couldn't be bothered to do it legally how are the farmers gonna do back ground checks on an out of country worker?
    The republicans will probably exempt farm workers and then everyone coming here illegally will magically become farm workers
    Gee, I wonder why?

    1. Josef

      Exemptions will be granted on the basis of bribes given. As has been clearly demonstrated already by one of his advisors. It will probably be called something else for legal purposes. Like "consulting fees".

  11. Narsham

    There's actually some good data on all this:
    https://www.edweek.org/leadership/map-where-are-schools-closed/2020/07
    At that link, besides one of the worst data-realization maps I've ever seen, is a long list by state of school districts with links to the state pages announcing how they will handle the 2020-21 school year. (Edit: many of the state pages were either updated with more recent school years or no longer exist, so not as good a resource as I thought.)

    A number of states (mostly Republican-controlled states) offered "guidelines" about reopening or "encouraged" schools to take specific actions without any requirements at all. I've interpreted these as local control, because schools were never required to do anything at the state level. Speaking broadly, political control isn't a predictor of what states did, with multiple states at both ends of the political spectrum mandating reopening.

    I also came across a Harvard study of student performance linking lower test results to factors besides whether schools met in-person, including COVID death rates, measures of adult depression/anxiety, and places where daily family routines were most restricted: these measures related to decline in test scores even in districts where schools were open and in-person through almost all of the pandemic.
    https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/news/23/05/new-data-show-how-pandemic-affected-learning-across-whole-communities

    The extremes weren't actually all that extreme: Kentucky took the IMO cowardly option by issuing a press release that voters could read as mandating re-opening while actually having no formal guidelines at all. Hawaii appears to have been the only state exercising full state control over schools. Authorizing local districts was the most common option, though states varied in the degree of "guidance" offered, varying from some to none. Three states set thresholds which would trigger automatic closures based on COVID indicators; Vermont tied in-person instruction to the statewide vaccination rate.

    Here's the summary for schools by state in 20-21:

    States mandating return to school: Arizona (exempting high transmission districts), Arkansas, DC (but limited capacity/family choice), Florida, Idaho, Iowa (schools must offer remote/hybrid to families demanding them), Kansas, Massachusetts (some districts received waivers), Minnesota (2021 half-year), New Hampshire (family choice/districts may close for up to 48 hours based on conditions), New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, West Virginia (school waiver option, family choice) (18 total)

    States giving full control (or de facto control) to local school districts: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia ("state decision matrices"), Wisconsin, Wyoming (24 total)

    States with mandated guidelines/conditional reopening: California (new-case rate 25 per 100K or lower must open), Delaware (remote only if 2+ indicators show "significant" COVID spread), Louisiana (minimum standards must be met to reopen), New York (9% threshold positivity rate for closures), Puerto Rico (minimum standards), Utah (minimum standards), Vermont (schools reopen once state vaccination rate hits 80%) (7 total)

    State control: Hawaii (state monitored openings/closings) (1 total)

    States prohibiting return to school: ZERO

    Other: Connecticut (Schools move between form of instruction based on 14-day COVID rates in consultation with the state), Kentucky ("Expects" reopened schools but no official order issued) (2 total)

    1. Atticus

      Thanks for all the info. I see Florida is listed under states mandating return to school in 2020-21. That's a little misleading. The state mandated schools be open for anyone that chose to attend in person. Florida students could have done remote learning during the whole school year if they chose to do so. Some did. Although, at least in my district, about 90% of students were back in person before the end of the school year.

  12. FrankM

    Lost in all this blather is the fact that closing schools had minimal effect on learning. States with low rates of school closures saw about the same loss in achievement scores as states with high rates of closures.

    So why is any of this argument important?

    1. memyselfandi

      Because the motivation of people complaining about school closures have nothing to do with learning and nothing to do with health (they actually argue that governments should pursue policies that maximize deaths. )

    2. Atticus

      Because it was still a huge impact to parents. Even if it didn't impact kids' learning (and I tin k there's no way ti didn't), parents still had to be home to monitor the the kids, get them set up on the computers, etc. If they had young kids, they either couldn't go into work or could work from home be be much less productive.

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