Area schools' Return to Learn plans reflect an endemic approach to the pandemic

When school starts Wednesday for Broken Arrow Public Schools, it’ll be the first day of in-person classes for Andrew and Owen Green since March 2020.

Their younger sister, Charlotte, is considered at high risk for catching more than just COVID-19. In an effort to minimize the chances of exposure, the boys have studied at home for the last two school years.

Their mother, Katy Green, said part of the reason her boys are going back in person rather than waiting for case numbers to go back down is that the family did not find an at-home educational option that really worked for them.

Although they said they are not nervous about the shift, both Andrew and Owen are not entirely looking forward to it, either.

“I’m not looking forward to the school work part, but I’m looking forward to at least getting to see my friends,” Andrew said.

The Green boys’ pivot back to in-person instruction comes as several area school districts implement Return to Learn plans for the coming year that reflect an endemic approach to the pandemic.

For example, the parent reference document published by Owasso Public Schools announced that that district will be sunsetting its COVID contact-tracing efforts and weekly case reports that were issued in 2021-22.

The Return to Learn plan approved by Union Public Schools’ Board of Education on Aug. 8 does not include maintaining cohorts of students in elementary grades and removed an early recommendation to restrict visitor access to buildings, including barring parents and guardians from walking their students to class.

However, as Assistant Superintendent Charlie Bushyhead told the board, if conditions warrant, revisions to the plan could come back for consideration.

“This is a working document,” he said. “It’s changing.”

Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new pandemic guidance for schools earlier this month. They include deemphasizing screening exposed people who are not symptomatic and eliminating a recommendation that districts test anyone exposed in order to let them stay in school rather than quarantine.

Although the new guidance encourages wearing a mask for up to five days after exposure, state statute bans school districts from implementing a mask mandate unless a state of emergency is declared by the governor.

However, because of a temporary injunction issued in September 2021 by an Oklahoma County District Court judge, Oklahoma school districts may require face coverings if they offer the same exemptions required by law for mandatory school vaccines.

Although they can partner with outside entities such as the Oklahoma Caring Van and tribal or county health departments to host vaccine clinics, school districts are also not allowed to require students or staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Despite the injunction’s remaining in place almost a year later, several area school districts’ Return to Learn plans to start the new school year do not call for a mask requirement. Those districts include Broken Arrow, Jenks, Owasso, Tulsa and Union.

A spokeswoman said Tulsa Public Schools will maintain protocols similar to those in place at the end of the previous school year, including an emphasis on cleaning and monitoring case counts among students and staff. Masks will be encouraged and available for staff and students, but they won’t be “expected,” as was the case for most of the 2021-22 school year.

Ebony Johnson, chief learning officer for TPS, said that while the new academic year feels more like a return to pre-pandemic days compared to the start of 2021-22, the district is still prepared to have individual sites move to distance learning in the event of an outbreak among students, staff or both.

“We always prepare for the ‘what if,’” she said. “It is our hope that we are completely in person from now through the end of the school year. That is the goal.

“However, if at any point, if we have to shift, … we will do what we have to do in order to ensure students can continue their learning opportunities. If that means having to shift into distance so that we are both safe and learning, then that will happen.”

Meanwhile, with Tulsa County still classified as a high community spread area by the CDC, Katy Green is still a little nervous about sending her boys back to school in person — even if they aren’t fazed at the prospect of being the new kids in class.

“I know we’re in the minority in that we have a situation that forced us to be serious about COVID-19 and stay in a bubble and not get it,” she said.

“I’m just hopeful that others aren’t sending their kids to school sick and are aware that there are families like ours who can’t completely isolate her (Charlotte) from the boys. We (Katy and her husband, Daniel Green) are still around all of our kids.”