Why does children have to go to school

To help everyone stay healthy, the whole school community should keep wearing a face mask, physical distancing, wash hands and stay home when sick.

These steps are even better when combined with good ventilation, screening, and contact tracing in a school community. Everyone can do their part to help ensure students and staff stay healthy — and physically together in school:. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all eligible children and adolescents who are 5 years of age and older receive the COVID vaccine.

Adults and children should get fully immunized as soon as possible. Everyone who is eligible should get the vaccine unless they have contraindications. Face masks are a simple, proven tool to help stop the spread of the virus to students unable to get the vaccine or to those who may have a condition that puts them at higher risk of getting sick even if they have been vaccinated. That is one reason why everyone over age 2 years should keep wearing a mask that covers the nose and mouth.

The delta and delta plus COVID variants that are circulating now are more contagious and may cause more severe illness. People who have gotten the COVID vaccine are less likely to get very sick or die from the variants.

As a bonus, masks can help stop the spread of other infections like the common cold or the flu. The mask should fit well and be worn correctly and consistently. Even most children with medical conditions can safely and effectively wear face masks with practice, support and role-modeling by adults.

Talk with your pediatrician if you think your child has a medical or developmental condition that would limit mask use. Students — including those who are fully vaccinated — should remain at least 3 feet apart within classrooms when possible. In general, CDC recommends people who are not fully vaccinated maintain physical distance of at least 6 feet from other people who are not in their household. However, several studies from the school year show low COVID transmission levels among students in schools that had less than 6 feet of physical distance when the school used other prevention strategies, such as the use of masks.

When possible, schools should use outdoor spaces and unused spaces for instruction and meals to help with distancing.

Activities like singing, band and exercising, for example, are safest outdoors and spread out. Screening testing identifies infected people. It can be used to identify those with or without symptoms and people who may be contagious before they have symptoms.

This can help slow the spread of the virus to others. Screening testing can be offered to students who have not been fully vaccinated and may be most valuable when there are higher levels of COVID cases in the community. Screening testing can also offer added protection for schools that are not able to provide optimal physical distance between students.

Screening testing should also be offered to all teachers and staff who have not been fully vaccinated. To be effective, the screening program should test at least once per week, and rapidly within 24 hours report results. Diagnostic testing is recommended when someone has COVID symptoms, or recent known or suspected exposure to the virus. Even with physical distancing, masking and vaccination, schools need to plan for exposures especially with new virus variants circulating.

If a student or staff member has close contact with someone known to be infected with SARS-CoV-2, they should quarantine as recommended by local public health officials unless they are fully vaccinated.

Fully vaccinated people who have a known exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID should be tested 5 to 7 days after exposure, whether they have symptoms or not. In addition to safety plans, there are other factors that school communities need to address:.

If your child has any chronic, high-risk medical conditions , they may need extra accommodations to stay safe. Talk with your pediatrician and school staff including school nurses to explore options for safe in-person, blended, or remote learning.

The return to in-person school may have had a greater impact on students with disabilities. Students may still have a hard time transitioning to in-school learning and missed instruction time. Or they may have had less access to school-based services such as occupational, physical and speech-language therapy or mental health support counseling. Schools should review the needs of each child with an Individualized Education Program IEP , and provide services even if virtual. In addition, the report indicates that children generally do not resume their education after a conflict has occurred.

From tsunamis to earthquakes and hurricanes, millions of children are out of school because natural disasters have devastated local infrastructure, leaving schools and communities in ruin. Approximately 37 million children have their education disrupted each year because of environmental threat or disaster. According to Education Cannot Wait, education is generally the first service interrupted and the last resumed in times of crisis. Governments are often overwhelmed by the needs and relief aid traditionally focuses on basic needs — food, water, shelter and protection — with only 2 percent of humanitarian funding allocated to education.

Education is one of the most effective ways to break the cycle of discrimination and poverty that children with disabilities often face. But children with disabilities are less likely to start school, and if they do, they will continue to face barriers such as stigma, lack of understanding of their needs, lack of teacher training, non-accessible school environments, and a general lack of resources. According to the United Nations, girls are less likely to attend school than boys.

Many barriers prevent girls from receiving an education, including early pregnancy, poor health and nutrition, violence and harassment, and child marriage. For example, a preference for sending boys to school in some communities is often fueled by a belief that girls will eventually get married off.

All children have the right to be protected from violence, exploitation and abuse. However, millions of children are vulnerable to exploitation, including recruitment into armed militias as child soldiers, sex trafficking, child labour and child marriage. Hundreds of thousands of children have been displaced in the country since violence erupted late last year. Nearly half of the Syrian school population are not attending classes and approximately schools have been destroyed or damaged in recent fighting in Ukraine.

Picture: Leonard Cheshire Disability. A child with disabilities is taught at a primary school in Bangladesh. The barriers range from the practical issues of transportation - many children have to walk to school - to the education policy of countries not supporting children with disabilities. Girls working hard at a free, charity-run school in Adonkia, Sierra Leone. Some of the poorest countries in the world struggle to finance an education system for all their children.

But evidence shows that if we invest more in education, poverty is reduced at a faster rate, there are long-term health benefits and greater gender equality. Picture: Global Business Coalition for Education. These girls are from Nigeria, where Boys can be affected but most victims of child marriage are girls. It is estimated that 15 million girls are married before they turn After their wedding they leave the education system and, armed with few educational skills, they and their families are more likely to live in poverty.

Children make their way earlier this month through the ruins of levelled homes in Tacloban City - the area worst affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines a year ago. Unforeseen events such as earthquakes, floods and disease can derail education for millions. In Liberia and Sierra Leone right now, primary and secondary schools will remain closed until at least the end of the year because of the Ebola outbreak, affecting more than 3.