How should parents make tough decisions about returning their kids to school this fall?

One of the most challenging and divisive decisions of the coronavirus pandemic is whether and how to reopen schools this fall.

We heard the same thing from a dozen nationally prominent psychologists, parenting experts and authors with whom we met by Zoom recently. One after another admitted that they, too, were unsure what they will do for their own children.

“We want our children to return to school for a variety of reasons, but safety is our top priority right now,” says Katie Hurley, a child and adolescent psychotherapist.

If experts aren’t sure what to do, how should parents decide?

In a new story in The Washington Post, co-written with the esteemed (and I would say beloved) parenting author Jessica Lahey, we summarize the data pro and con returning kids to school and provide a decision-making checklist to help parents make the right call for their own families.

The quick summary is that there is no one-size-fits-all answer, and parents and schools need to individualize decisions based on local epidemiology, family health issues, and how seriously schools take science-based prevention. Here’s a tweetorial.

Life in the time of COVID

A few days ago I held the COVID-19 “pager” for my hospital. I couldn’t keep up. For every call I answered, 3 more showed up. In my 21 years as a physician there have been quick emergencies during which I couldn’t keep up with calls. But nothing close to this.

As our hospital, which serves over a million people in Vermont and surrounding states, gets reads for COVID-19 to hit hard, I’ve worked incredible hard, and been inspired every day. The way our hospital and our entire health network works has been entirely changed. Whole hospital floors retooled. Thousands of elective surgeries cancelled. Buildings commandeered. Entire clinical processes and teams fully made a new over and again.

I direct our ethics program, and a cascade of questions have kept me busy. If we run out of hospital beds or PPE or mechanical ventilator, how should we apportion them wisely? Should we resuscitate someone with COVID-19 even if it could infect their caregivers and the next patients those caregivers see? Should we save the lives of children over older adults? Is it ethical to consider disability in resource allocation schemes?

Even as we address hard ethical and scientific questions, one of the biggest challenges of the COVID-19 epidemic has been getting trustable information out to the general public. Questions abound, from should I stay home (yes), to should I get tested (not if you are stable), to should I take hydroxychloroquine (probably not) . Oh, yeah, and is the grocery store totally safe? (No, but nowhere is).

Here is one example of a PSA put out through the magic of our hardworking communications team. I hope you like it. More to follow, and today I’m going to try my first Facebook live Q&A about the novel coronavirus to see if that is helpful.