COVID-19 Back to School Safety Measures for Your Family

At this point of the year, many schools have started classes again, with many deciding to meet in person. Experts have mixed opinions about these decisions and parents are the same way, with some thrilled and ready to send their child back, while others remain concerned and cautious for their safety. Whatever group you fall into, if your child will be attending school in person, it’s important to prioritize your child’s health and safety while COVID-19 remains a risk. However, some say schools are safer than many think due to decreasing chances of children contracting the virus and becoming seriously ill from COVID-19, as well as tightened regulations and restrictions on school campuses in order to keep students and staff healthy. No matter where or how your child is attending school, here are some safety practices that you can implement both on school grounds and at home to safeguard your child and heighten awareness as they learn and mature.

Follow COVID Guidelines at Home

By now, many kids have gotten used to wearing a mask, washing their hands more, and even social distancing when around others. However, these practices may not be so easy to adhere to once school starts and they begin interacting with their friends in a familiar environment. To reinforce the importance of these safety guidelines, it’s a good idea to continue to enforce the sanitizing of high contact surfaces in your own home and minimize your child touching their face, or eating without washing their hands. Maintaining good hygiene is also essential for households with high risk family members, and children should be especially careful in their interactions with these relatives after they have been in school for the day. Also, keep your children consistently using their face masks when out in public in addition to adequate social distancing. To make this even easier, keep it positive and be a role model that also participates in those behaviors, while emphasizing that these practices are important to take seriously.

Encourage Safe Socializing

Socializing is crucial to a child’s development and mental and emotional wellbeing. Bringing kids back into school allows for these essential interactions with peers, however, there is still some risk. Make sure your child understands how to safely talk and play with their friends at school, while still maintaining safe habits. This can be difficult for kids of any age who may not be as cautious with friends they are close to. To promote safe socialization outside of school, try to organize meetups with friends at outside locations such as a park, or some place where the kids will not be in close contact with each other. Also, video calling friends over Zoom or other platforms can provide even more opportunities for socializing that kids may have been missing over summer.

Know the Classroom Requirements

While the CDC recommends specific guidelines for schools to open up safely, the implementation of these regulations can vary by state, and some schools may not have identical regulations. Because of this, it’s important to be informed about the policies and practices of your child’s individual school in order to prepare them for what to expect and how to behave during this unique school year.

Common K-12 COVID-19 procedures include:

• Requiring students and staff to wear masks and face coverings at all times
• Disinfecting high contact surfaces such as desks, doorknobs, and handles
• Fixing hand sanitizing stations in easy access points around the school campus
• Regularly sanitizing chassrooms and areas of higher student traffic
• Educating students on practicing good hygiene and following school procedures
• Keeping students within the same small group or “cohort” that do not have contact with other groups
• Teaching fewer students in the form of hybrid classes or block scheduling and teaching different groups of students on different days
• Reinforcing physical distance between students in the classrooms by spacing out desks and using dividers if necessary
• Assigning individual classroom tools and supplies and discouraging the sharing of objects between students and teachers
• Staggering school start times, lunch, and other break times so that students will not have contact as a large group
• Alternating seating and with adequate space between students on the school bus
• Checking for symptoms of COVID-19 through temperature checks and questionnaires
• Keeping students suspected to be ill under supervision and isolation until they can be checked and sent home

Through enforcing these practices, administrators and experts are hopeful that the risk of contracting COVID-19 will greatly decrease. However, schools will still be on high alert for any student who displays symptoms of illness in order to isolate them or send them home. If your student has any symptoms of COVID-19 or another illness, or simply does not feel well, it is your responsibility as a parent to keep them home. While it may cause some inconvenience, it’s better to be safer than to possibly contribute to spreading sickness around in a school.

There are also new university regulations to be aware of if you have a student who will be going to college in person, or living on campus. While many COVID-19 procedures remain the same regardless of the institution, there are a few different things to look out for at colleges and universities as it is a different situation and students have much more responsibility over themselves.

Additional procedures for colleges and universities include:

• Providing accessible on-campus COVID-19 testing
• Limiting the size and number of in-person classes
• Requiring in-person classes to meet in larger classrooms, and staggered lab meeting times
• Providing dorm rooms for quarantine if a student has been exposed to or contracted COVID-19
• Encouraging students to study in their rooms instead of communal spaces
• Limiting dining spaces to serve food to go only
• Restricting attendance at sports events and other student meetings
• Increased sanitation and disinfection of dorms and high contact areas
• Requiring the majority of classes to be held online or remotely
• Training staff and educating students about good hygiene practices and contact tracing
• Providing masks and other PPE to students and staff

No matter which institution or school your child will be attending, educating them and yourself on the new guidelines will help give you some peace of mind for their school situation and allow for a smoother transition into the semester.

Ease the Anxiety

The uncertainty and new changes that a new school year brings can be stressful enough for a child, and a pandemic will only amplify those concerns and anxieties as children learn how to cope. Make sure to talk with your child and appropriately address any concerns or struggles they have, while reassuring them by showing your support and encouraging them to seek out the help of their teachers if needed. In addition, this is going to be a difficult time for everyone, not just the students. When things seem to stress you out as a parent, from stopping your carpool, to adjusting to the “new normal” in school, having some patience and grace for yourself and others will go a long way. COVID regulations for schools may change without much warning if needed, or unexpected circumstances might experience more delays. We are all learning how to deal with things together. Additionally, it is good to maintain a consistent routine when possible, which can help incorporate new cleanliness and safety measures into your daily activities.

Prepare for the Future

While these school safety precautions will give some families peace of mind, nothing is completely foolproof, and there are many other unexpected curveballs that life can throw at us. In these uncertain times, there are new risks to be aware of that can cause emotional and financial stress as there is only so much we can control. As you take the measures to protect your children and family as best as you can now, consider how you might benefit from the ultimate long-term safety choice: life insurance. By choosing life insurance, you are choosing financial stability for your children and loved ones in the case of something ever happening to you. COVID-19 is still a real threat, and life insurance can be a real source of security for parents as they know their kids and expenses will be taken care of upon their death. At LifeQuote we offer a variety of term and permanent life insurance plans as well as options that do not require you to take a medical exam. These days, we want you to be as safe as possible, both now and in the future, and are committed to helping you find a policy that fits your needs. Don’t let the pandemic or economic uncertainty keep you from providing for your children in the future. Take the next step and get a free instant quote today through our online quote generator, or contact us and see how your future can become much safer with life insurance.