EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — This summer, UCLA Lab School created a pilot program to see what it’d be like for students to return to school during a pandemic. The purpose was to discover what steps should be taken to safely resume in-person classes.
The three week program hosted 36 students who went to school from 9 a.m. to noon. The students were between 5- and 12-years old. There were eight educators, two on-site administrators, and a full-time nurse. Each child was put into a cohort that he or she stayed with for the duration of the camp.
Students were dropped off in a carpool lane, and the administrators and nurse conducted no-touch temperature checks before the student could get out of his or her car.
“What did surprise us and what we did learn is that at an initial positive read, if a child initially reads having a temperature, in this case it was 100 degrees or more, it’s important to do a second read,” said Georgia Ann Lazo, the principal of UCLA Lab School. “We found that after the initial read, if it was positive, families said, ‘But I did the check in the morning, and my child doesn’t have a fever.’ So what we learned is that an initial positive read really does need a second check, and preferably a second check with a different instrument and with a different adult."
"We found that really helps to validate and confirm if the child indeed has a fever or not, and should be excluded from class for that day,” Ann Lazo added.
While L.A. County’s Department of Public Health and Department of Education have provided guidelines and recommendations for reopening schools, Ann Lazo said the UCLA Lab School wanted to get feedback from students and teachers who actually conducted in-person classes.
“I think the question for us and for any site administrator would be, how does that play out at the school site? What does that look like?” she said. “There’s always a need to make adaptations to any policies that are coming our way. And you know, that was basically the impetus. We wanted to learn about how we open schools as safely as possible and learn from the perspectives of the children and those who work closest with them.”
UCLA Lab School normally has children between 4- and 12-years old. It’s located on UCLA’s Westwood campus and classes are taught by students from UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
“The school was established as the state normal school to be a training ground for public school teachers. And with that about 140 year history, we have been at the UCLA campus more recently, and we have a mission of public service, of innovation, and of really trying to garner expertise and a partnership with the community to be of service,” said Ann Lazo.
The pilot program found that children adapted well to wearing masks all day.
“They were able to keep the masks on. They were able to, after the first week, wear them properly for the duration of the time that they were in class and in activities," Ann Lazo said. "And what we also learned is that the children themselves said that one of the things that helped them keep the mask on and get used to wearing the masks was seeing other children wear the masks. So that peer influence is something that we want to capitalize on when we’re thinking about how to make this work at a school site."
On the other hand, teachers struggled wearing masks in the classroom.
“One thing is going out to the supermarket or going out for a few errands and wearing a mask outside for an hour, but when we’re talking about having an employee need to wear that mask for a prolonged period of time, three hours or more, we really need to listen to that,” Ann Lazo said. “Many of the educators said that they felt a little fatigued throughout the day. They need more frequent breaks. They felt a need to go outside of the door in the hallway to just kind of take a little break, take it off, away from the children of course, and recover from a little bit of the fatigue.”
It was also difficult for the students to hear and understand instructions when the teacher was wearing a mask.
“The clear face shields actually provide a little more breathing room and flexibility,” Ann Lazo continued. “Children are also able to see facial expressions in a way that they’re not able to with the cloth face coverings.”
Ann Lazo said trying out COVID-19 mitigation strategies during this three-week pilot program has "great value" for school administrators who are currently making plans to reopen.
“Whether or not schools indeed reopen remains to be a decision that stands within the purview of the superintendents or of the local educational agencies," she said. "Our goal is to provide as much information as we can to inform decision making. For anybody who is planning in-person instruction, we know that this is going to be a challenge.”
Ann Lazo noted that although it will be tough to reopen, children are highly adaptable.
“Children have universal traits of being passionate, empathetic. They are very caring, and they feel connected with other adults and other children," she said. "And, you know, as much as possible, when we can use language that is child-friendly, when we can use imagery that children are familiar with and can connect with, the better off we’re going to be in making sure that we can implement the recommendations that are being given to us and that we can maintain those as well."
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