A Brief Guide to Local Health Rules
Whose Health Guidelines do Public Schools Follow?
Schools and educational organizations are constantly adapting to changing circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, it can be helpful to understand how state and local health-related rules and guidance can influence how schools and school districts make decisions.
In public schools, the teacher usually reports to the school principal. The principal is accountable to the school district superintendent, who in turn reports to the district’s Board of Education (also known as the school board). In most states, the district’s Board of Education receives funding from and is to some degree accountable to the State Department of Public Instruction (or Education) to maintain educational standards. The State DOE is then to some degree accountable to the U.S. Department of Education.
When it comes to health guidance, however, the school district falls under the jurisdiction of local health departments, which are agencies within a city or county. Each state has its own configuration of health department oversight, with some governance structures more centralized than others. The local public health department is usually accountable to city and county elected officials (mayors, county executives, city councils, and county boards), but it is also accountable to and receives health guidance from the state health department, which in turn receives guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In the absence of clear direction from state and federal authorities, local health departments and school districts “do the best they can” to define reasonable health guidance for local school districts. In the case of COVID-19, an unprecedented, global pandemic involving a novel virus, it is clear that most local health departments found themselves (at least for some period of time) without clear health guidance to pass on to schools.
This means that schools also waited for informed direction about how to conduct their business, including how and whether to reopen schools, maintain physical distance in crowded classrooms, transport children via buses, feed children, allow after-school activities, use outdoor spaces, and so on. It is in this context that parents, teachers, and outdoor education advocates find themselves, and it is important to recognize the systems outside of school district control that may prohibit or restrict what is possible.
© Mary Michaud, MPP, Health & Social Impact Strategies, LLC
National Association of County
and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
Directory of Local Health Departments
Click here to use NACCHO’s Directory to find your local health department and its contact information, anywhere in the United States.
It also means that it is important to cultivate empathy for the people in the middle — teachers, principals, school district administrators, local public health officials — who are trying their best to make decisions in the interest of all students and families in the community.
When determining approaches to promote outdoor learning, school districts will consider factors that can vary from community to community. School districts should also look outside of the norm to discover what unique opportunities the local community can utilize to ensure equitable access to learning. Understanding that any of these factors can change helps teachers, principals, and local outdoor learning advocates adjust their expectations.
Community viral spread. Monitored and reported by local and state public health departments, the number of new infections in a community (the community incidence) is a measure of how quickly the virus is transmitted in public settings. Local and state health departments monitor the number of new infections per 1,000 people, and will issue city or county-specific guidance based on the CDC Mitigation Framework.
Existing state and local health guidance and mandates. If a state or community is experiencing high community transmission and death rates, there may be shelter-in-place mandates that do not allow in-person activities. Note that this is usually not a decision made at the level of the school district or school. It is most often made at a different “jurisdictional level,” such as in city, county, or state government, and school personnel cannot change it.
School district decisions given limited resources. Because of social and financial stress faced by working families in nearly every community in the United States, just about any public school district in the country is searching for the best ways to serve students and families with limited resources. Over time, leaders within these districts have had to make difficult decisions about their plans to reopen schools. While learning outdoors can seem like a viable, desirable option for many children, people working for school districts may face barriers to placing outdoor learning as a top priority during the pandemic. Knowing this, it is helpful to create a supportive relationship by first empathizing with school officials and seeing the situation from their perspective. Check out our case studies pages for useful strategic ideas.
Community resources, amenities, and priorities. Communities vary widely in the number and quality of playgrounds, outdoor classrooms, or even nature-rich parks and public spaces available and accessible to community members. Families may also face other access barriers to these amenities, including transportation, neighborhood violence, an absence of safe walking routes, police presence, or a combination of these factors. Be clear about the assumptions you are making about the community. Make sure those assumptions are accurate. Can the whole student population, for example, access outdoor learning activities in ways that allow students and staff to maintain physical distancing, wear face coverings, and wash hands? If not, what are the barriers? Some school districts and their community partners have completed racial equity assessments that could be useful for this purpose.
In a context where schools and school districts are following guidance that shifts from week to week, it is helpful to understand how decision criteria about outdoor learning can also change. Approaching decision makers with this understanding can help strengthen relationships and improve the likelihood that outdoor learning approaches will be adopted and stand the test of time.
Credits
This article was written by Mary Michaud, MPP, Health & Social Impact Strategies, LLC in December 2020.
It was reviewed by Sarah Gill, MPP; Betsy Ukeritis, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; and Christina Vassallo, MSN, FNP-BC.
National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative
The National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning Initiative supports schools and districts around the country in their efforts to reopen safely and equitably using outdoor spaces as strategic, cost-effective tools to increase physical distancing capacity onsite and provide access to abundant fresh air. The Initiative seeks to equitably improve learning, mental and physical health, and happiness for children and adults using an affordable, time-tested outdoor approach to keeping schools open during a pandemic.
