N.J. lowers social distancing rules to 3 feet in most classrooms, allowing more schools to reopen – NJ.com

Most New Jersey schools can move classroom desks three feet apart, instead of six feet, under new social distancing guidelines announced Wednesday as Gov. Phil Murphy urged more schools to begin reopening.

The new rules follow guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week that said it was safe for students to be closer together at school if they continue to wear masks and follow other social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The three feet guidelines apply to all New Jersey elementary schools, Murphy said at his coronavirus press briefing in Trenton. Middle and high schools can only implement the three foot rule if they are in areas deemed low or moderate risk on the state’s COVID activity map, which is currently only Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties.

“If masking and frequent hand washing can be maintained by students and educators and support staff in a classroom, then full-time, in-person instruction can begin with the distance between students within that classroom reduced to three feet,” Murphy said.

Students will still need to stay six feet apart in all schools when they are eating in cafeterias or any time their masks are removed, under the new guidelines. They will also still need to keep the six foot guidelines in auditoriums, while exercising in gym classes, while singing or playing instruments in music class and in other situations where the virus is more easily spread.

Murphy urged more school districts to begin reopening as soon as possible.

“I reiterate what I said here last week — now is the time for all of our schools to meaningfully move forward with a return to in-person instruction whether it be full-time or through a hybrid schedule,” Murphy said.

Many schools have been waiting for the social distancing rules to be reduced to three feet because it will allow them to fit more students in classrooms and possibly open full-time for all students. Many school have had to adopt hybrid schedules — in which some students learn at home each day while their classmates are in the classroom — because entire classes can not fit in a single classroom while maintaining six feet of distance.

There are currently only 143 school districts open for all in-person instruction, which includes about 97,000 students, state officials said. Another 534 districts with about 833,000 students are open for hybrid instruction, with students combining in-person and remote learning.

Another 121,600 students are in 44 districts that are mixing in-person, hybrid or all-remote learning, depending on the school.

About 90 school districts with 302,000 students are still all-remote, state officials said. That includes many of the state’s largest school districts.

“These students have now been out of their regular classrooms for more than a year. We know there has been learning loss in these scenarios, especially,” Murphy said.

The numbers include public schools, charters and private schools for students with disabilities. Catholic schools, yeshivas, prep schools and other private schools are not being tracked.

The new school social distancing guidelines mean school districts will likely be closely watching the state’s color-coded COVID-19 Activity Level map, which comes out weekly.

The map will determine when and if middle and high schools can move to the new 3 feet social distancing guidelines, state officials said. Only middle and high schools in areas in low and moderate virus activity levels can lower their distances from 6 feet to 3 feet.

Under the latest map, for the week ending March 13, most of the northern and central parts of the state are still red because their virus levels are considered high.

That means middle and high schools must stick with the 6 feet social distancing rules in the following counties: Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Warren, Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Somerset, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Union counties.

A new map is expected to be released later this week.

The rules are stricter for middle and high schools “because they have a higher incidence of transmission than the younger children,” said Judy Persichilli, the state’s health commissioner.

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Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com.