MILWAUKEE – It is just a matter of days now until school is back in session in the city of Milwaukee. While Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and many other districts are beginning the year virtually, when and how they return to the classroom comes in part from guidance from health officials. 

While learning from a laptop is not the most conventional way to start the school year, it will be a reality for many.

“It’s the safety of our kids, number one, and the safety of our families,” said Carrie Bickerstaff, a mother of two children attending public school in Milwaukee.

Bickerstaff welcomes the new guidance from the Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) that will apply to all K-12 schools within the city boundaries.

“We really need to be smart and extra conservative and safe when it comes to this disease,” Bickerstaff said.

To help identify and mitigate the spread of cases, MHD issued several criteria. They include: 

Any cases occurring within a City of Milwaukee-located school (either student or staff):

• Report to City of Milwaukee Health Department.
• Individualized advice will be given that includes an assessment of mitigation strategies in place.
• Each school needs to have a COVID-19 coordinator that will be responsible for contacting MHD.

2 cases within a facility that share time (within ≤ 14 day period) AND space (i.e. same classroom):

• On-site assessment of mitigation strategy implementation.
• The affected cohort will transition to virtual learning, cleaning of physical space occurs.
• Return to class after either completed quarantine (14 days) or negative test.

>3% positivity within a school facility:

• Transition to virtual learning.
• Minimum 14-day quarantine, deep cleaning of physical spaces.
• Reopening in conjunction with MHD consultation and guidance.

“This spread really fast and kids can be really close to each other. So I think it’s really best to take an extra cautious approach,” Bickerstaff said.

Similarly, suburbs are also looking at what to do if and when an outbreak occurs. Darren Rausch, Health Officer and Director for the City of Greenfield Health Department, said they are hammering out plans and best practices.

“Really looking at the data of what is happening with COVID and what is the burden of disease in the community, what is the percent of positivity in the community every 2 weeks,” Rausch said.

Rausch said the rate of COVID-19 is still the highest we have seen in the suburban communities.

The Milwaukee Health Department says this guidance is based on the best current evidence and is designed to produce the safest school reopening for our community. Just as our COVID-19 knowledge and evidence base continues to evolve, so will guidance about how to safely maintain school and business operations.