How Safe Is Your School's Reopening Plan? Here's What To Look For

As schools across the country grapple with bringing kids back into the classroom, parents — and teachers — are worried about safety. We asked pediatricians, infectious disease specialists and education experts for help evaluating school district plans.

What we learned: There's no such thing as zero risk, but certain practices can lower the risk of an outbreak at school and keep kids, teachers and families safer.

If you're considering sending your child back to school this fall or in the coming months, start with assessing both your own family's personal risk and the level of spread in your community. The American Federation of Teachers says it doesn't consider in-person school to be safe unless fewer than 5% of coronavirus tests in an area are positive. As of late July, that one benchmark disqualified eight of the 10 largest public school districts in the country.

If your family is relatively healthy, and local numbers look good, here's how to weigh the key elements of a school reopening plan.

1) Getting To School: Riding The Bus

Look for: Limited capacity and physical distancing. Plus masks!

Buses combine several risk factors for spread: Kids are in a closed space, for an extended period of time, often with poor ventilation.

"The best option for children getting to school would be for their parents to drop them off," says Dr. Tina Tan, pediatrics infectious disease specialist at Northwestern University in Chicago. Or walk or bike to school.

But that's not an option for many families, so to make busing safer, limit capacity to 50%, says , an epidemiologist and spokesperson for the Infectious Disease Society of America. The children and the driver should be physically distanced by at least six feet and everyone should wear masks. Ideally there's assigned seating, and tape marks