Column: Hawaii public schools are ready to safely resume in-person learning

It’s time to get back to in-person learning, and our educators are eager and ready to welcome students back this week.

Our public schools have spent the last four months demonstrating that our campuses can operate safely. Nearly one-third of public schools were able to welcome students back for full in-person learning during the final quarter of last school year. The majority of schools brought students back to campus in blended-learning models due to capacity constraints at the time. And over the summer, 26,000 students enrolled in summer learning opportunities at 222 schools, with 74% of students participating in face-to-face learning.

When federal education officials in April began clearing the way for the nation’s schools to begin reopening after more than a year of disrupted learning, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona rightly proclaimed: “There is simply no substitute for in-person learning.”

His statement resonated deeply, prompting our school system to ramp up in-person learning opportunities to the extent possible, and pledge that all schools would fully reopen for daily, in-person learning for the new school year.

Our public schools have done the work to ensure every student has the opportunity to return to the classroom and start making up for lost instructional time.

Consistent adherence to safety protocols has resulted in extremely limited transmission of the virus at state Department of Education (DOE) facilities — and we intend to keep it that way. With more than 165,000 students and more than 40,000 full- and part-time employees, the DOE has recorded just over 1,000 COVID-19 cases systemwide since June 2020.

National and local health officials have reiterated in recent days that school settings are no riskier — and in some cases less risky — for children than community settings. Still, because schools are a reflection of their communities, we know an uptick in cases is expected as we bring more students back to campus.

Increasing our state’s overall vaccination rate is one of the best ways to protect against and reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19.

For our part, DOE staff were prioritized for vaccines as “frontline essential workers” at the start of 2021. Soon after a vaccine was approved for adolescents 12 and older, the DOE began standing up school-based vaccination clinics in early May to make access as easy and convenient as possible for students and families. We’ve since hosted more than 100 school-based clinics statewide, which have resulted in 26,400 vaccinations to date.

As we anticipate approval for a vaccine for younger children, we are again partnering with the state Department of Health and health-care providers to ensure we can mobilize additional school-based vaccination sites.

Meanwhile, we’ve expanded access to rapid testing through a federally supported program to further contain spread. Over the summer, 18 DOE schools participated in an Increasing Community Access to Testing program with CVS; 14 schools performed weekly in-school testing while four schools provided vouchers for testing. We’re looking to expand this program to additional schools.

Our efforts around promoting vaccinations and screening testing aligns with recently updated Department of Health guidance, which continues to emphasize the importance of the core essential strategies schools have been implementing since last school year: consistent masking (masks must be worn by all students and staff when indoors); staying home when unwell; and proper hand hygiene.

Reopening schools requires a broad commitment from all of us to prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. We cannot afford to delay or jeopardize the reopening of our schools. To do so would further risk the education of our students who have already experienced too many setbacks.

Keith T. Hayashi is interim superintendent for the state Department of Education (Hawaii’s public schools).