Pierce County Allows Younger Students To Come Back To Class

GIG HARBOR, WA — Younger students at Pierce County schools may be back in the classroom much sooner than expected, according to the county's top health official.

A post late Tuesday from Dr. Anthony L-T Chen, Pierce County's Director of Health, confirms that the county will be allowing select students to attend classes in-person, if their schools can facilitate it. Previously, most districts had been planning to resume fully remotely, with hybrid in-person instruction coming later in the year.

Chen says that over the last month his office has been meeting with public and private school leaders, and have decided that:

• Effective immediately, schools will be allowed to offer in-person learning in small groups of up to five students and two adults.
• In-person classes will be limited to younger students in grades K - 5 or those with the highest needs.

The decision gives schools just under a week to prepare: the school year officially begins on Monday, September 8. How each school will facilitate the change will likely depend on the individual school or district, and some may end up adopting the program later than others.

"The next couple of weeks will be crucial in reopening Pierce County schools," writes Chen. "We will join with our partners to plan time frames and show flexibility in our partnership."

The move comes in accordance with most state guidance on the issue.

The current school reopening guidance from Washington state sorts districts into high, moderate, or low risk. High risk counties are those with 75 new coronavirus cases per every 100,000 residents over the past two weeks. Moderate have fewer than 75 but more than 25 cases, and low risk have fewer than 25 new coronavirus patients per every 100,000 residents over the last two weeks.

The latest data from the county shows that currently Pierce is reporting a rate of 82.9 cases per 100,000 over 14 days. That keeps it in the high risk category, but much closer to moderate risk than when the guidance was first announced.

Related: Washington Recommends Most Schools Should Remain Remote This Fall

"Today, our case numbers and positivity rates are declining, and we are close to meeting the 4 metrics of the state's decision tree that allow phasing in of in-person learning," writes Dr. Chen.

Chen also cites several other reasons for the decision, including:

• The county's test positivity rate, which dipped from 7 percent in mid-July to less than 5 percent by mid-August.
• The 14-day average of new cases dropping from 100 in early August to under 50 currently.
• 6 percent of county hospital beds were occupied by coronavirus patients early last month. Now it is closer to 4 percent.

More information on those metrics and how they will impact school reopens can be found here.

School leaders will be meeting again on Thursday to discuss how schools can reopen to even more students going forward, and try to develop a plan to quickly react when coronavirus metrics improve.

Read the full post from Dr. Anthony Chen on the Tacoma - Pierce County Health Department Blog.