Finally: Back-to-school time is within sight in Kansas. But there are some big ifs

How badly do kids need to be in school? And do teachers have to be vaccinated first?

The answer to the first question is that kids need to get back to school as soon as safely possible, and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is right to make teacher vaccinations a top priority. As wise as Kelly was in closing schools at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly a year later the governor is urgently ramping up teacher vaccines to get schools reopened.

As prudent as it was to close schools, it has become a societal imperative to open them back up — as evidenced by reports of student disengagement and depression, as well as bipartisan pressure from President Joe Biden and Republican Kansas legislators.

Kelly has responded with a plan using suddenly-available extra COVID-19 vaccine shipments to get K-12 teachers more quickly vaccinated, as well as promising new supplies of rapid COVID-19 tests to schools.

“We all know that this has not been a good situation, that kids are losing learning time and that parents are being driven nuts by having their kids home,” Kelly explained Wednesday in announcing the new rush to inoculate instructors. “I’m very enthusiastic about getting this program running and over so we can get our schools open full time, all the time.”

For the first time in almost a year, in-person schooling appears more than doable in Kansas: As of Feb. 1, only 3.8% of Kansas COVID-19 cases have come from those age 9 or below, and only 7.8% of cases have been among those 10-17. Denise Kahler, director of communications and recognition programs for the Kansas State Department of Education, also notes a Wisconsin study revealing surprisingly low infection rates among students and teachers there: Out of 4,876 students, the study found only seven confirmed infections at school, and none — zero, zip — of the 654 staff members got it at school.

Based on all that, and on broad consultations with doctors, the Kansas State Board of Education has just approved allowing middle and high school students to remain in school full time or part time even when county case numbers would seem to advise otherwise. With rigorous mitigation criteria, of course.

That’s a confidence level utterly unseen to this point in the pandemic.

Moreover, Kahler said, “More than 70% of Kansas school districts report that the vaccine is being administered to their school staff, and we anticipate that number to rise sharply in the next few weeks.”

Confidence a relief for families, educators

Sadly, the news is not so good in Missouri, where teacher vaccinations are stuck in a maddening holding pattern.

It’s notable, and perhaps surprising, that neither the Kansas State Department of Education nor the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is saying teachers must be vaccinated before going back to class full-time.

“There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said earlier this month.

That doesn’t mean every district will open to in-person learning. Local factors may govern whether all the safe opening criteria can be met.

KSDE says it will know on Monday what the various districts are doing regarding reopening. But we already know Spring Hill and De Soto districts are now back full-time. Olathe starts March 1, while Blue Valley begins March 23. In Shawnee Mission, elementary students are already back full-time, with grades 7-12 still in a hybrid of in-person and remote learning. The district’s board of education will discuss getting those students back full-time at its meeting Monday night.

“We support the state board’s goal of getting students back to in-person learning as soon as safely possible,” said Kansas Association of School Boards’ associate executive director Mark Tallman. “But we don’t know all of the local factors influencing each community.”

The newfound confidence we’re seeing for a return to in-person school is an oasis for parents, students and teachers alike who are thirsting for a return to normalcy. But unless we’re careful, it could be a mirage. Members of the Kansas National Education Association, said spokesman Marcus Baltzell, heard two things loud and clear in a virtual panel discussion this week with immunology specialists from Children’s Mercy Hospital: Vaccines are safe, effective and globally tested. But multiple mitigation strategies need to be followed in schools — and a return to virtual learning can’t be ruled out if risk factors change.

With those qualifications — and flexibility for staff, students and parents to opt out for safety’s sake — it looks as if it’s finally back-to-school time in Kansas.