HARTFORD, Conn — School districts in Connecticut continue to review new guidance from the CDC for in-person instruction.
The new guidance lays out five key strategies for schools to follow: wearing masks, physical distancing, washing hands, cleaning facilities and improving ventilation, and doing contact tracing, isolation, and quarantining.
Recommendations are also broken down into four color-coded zones: blue, yellow, orange and red. Blue indicates low community transmission and red indicates high community transmission.
"I think our level right now corresponds very closely with the blue level with the CDC guidance, and of course, I always wait for the DPH to discuss this with us because they're the health professionals and that will be happening this evening," said Fran Rabinowitz, Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents.
The CDC does not list vaccination as a key strategy for opening schools but says that educators should be prioritized.
"The leading cause of closing our schools in the State of Connecticut is lack of staff due to folks having to quarantine. The faster we get teachers and staff vaccinated at our schools, the fewer disruptions we're going to have," said Donald Williams, Executive Director of the Connecticut Education Association.
According to the Connecticut state website, vaccine scheduling information for frontline essential workers should be coming soon.
New guidance from CDC lays out 5 key strategies
Officials say CT schools have been working hard to implement them