Is there any science behind alternating school attendance?

Post date: 2020-06-29 03:05:43

Most of the proposals I have seen for reopening schools after the pandemic call for some kind of cohort or alternate attendance plan. I'm struggling to understand any science behind why this might actually be safer. More inside.

So, the plan I just saw from Alberta (for example) was that half the kids would go on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday the school will be closed for a deep clean, and Thursday/Friday the second half would go. The idea would be that the smaller class sizes will better accommodate social distancing.

However, when you factor in where the kids would be going on the days they are not in school, I'm not understanding why 'health officials' would actually recommend this plan. In their off days, kids would have four choices: a parent who is able to stay home, a part-time daycare situation should that be available, a nanny share or other ad hoc/unlicensed child care situation, or an elderly at risk grandparent who is being recruited because there is no other choice. The 15 kids in my child's 'cohort' would therefore be returning to school each with possibly dozens of germ vector points they picked up on their off day. Wouldn't it be safer to have a single, daily class, even if it was with a slightly bigger group?

I'm prepared for the answer to be 'yes, it would be safer, but they are cheap and don't want to pay extra teachers to run smaller classes' and I'm also prepared for the answer to be 'old, rich people with stay at home wives who did all the childcare when their now-grown children were small are making this policy and it literally has never crossed their minds that some households might have (like mine) only one parent and cannot willingly sacrifice an adult to stay home.' But I am curious if there actually is something I am missing here about these 'cohort' ideas. Is there actually a reason this would be safer, and my concern about my own childcare situation is preventing me from seeing it?

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