Yale Study Shows School Safety Efforts Can Protect School Employees from COVID-19

At the beginning of the pandemic, Endeavor Schools consulted with top experts to implement a comprehensive safety plan to protect our staff and students. A strong safety plan protects school communities and a Yale University study published in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics has now provided evidence.

The study, which took place from May 22 to June 8, and surveyed 57,335 childcare workers at the preschool age and below, found that there was no elevated risk of infection to these workers when preventative measures are implemented.

Data was included from all 50 states across the country, with the most data coming from California, Florida, and Ohio – three states where we operate several schools.

“This is the first large-scale study of COVID-19 transmission in childcare programs. The study utilized a large sample of U.S. childcare providers, and results were robust to different analytic approaches and to various tests of exposure interaction effects,” the study’s authors wrote. “Overall, we found no evidence of childcare being a significant contributor to COVID-19 transmission to adults. This finding is consistent with previous studies showing a lack of association between school closures and transmission rates.

According to the study, a major reason why there was no increased exposure is the high level of safety procedures in many schools, which include the following steps:

• symptom screening upon entrance
• smaller class sizes
• social distancing
• frequent handwashing
• sanitation of touched objects and surfaces throughout the day

At Endeavor Schools, our safety plan has included all these mitigation efforts and much more. In addition to these protocols, we have professional janitorial services periodically perform enhanced cleaning in our classrooms and outdoor areas and we have also upgraded the air ventilation systems in several of our facilities. We have also implemented stricter limitations on who can enter our schools, limiting entrance only to students and staff.

It is heartening to see a study by a reputable institution like Yale University show that a strong safety plan can protect school workers, especially in the early childhood education field, where children need close supervision. And given that our safety efforts exceed the norm, it only encourages us to continue doing better to protect the health of our staff and students.