A report issued on June 30, 2021 by The ABC Science Collaborative, as part of The ABC's of North Carolina's Plan A, shows that North Carolina schools were highly successful in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 within school buildings and offers science-based learnings for the nation’s schools to limit COVID-19 spread. Watch recorded press conference.
On behalf of the State of North Carolina, The ABC Science Collaborative collected data from all North Carolina elementary, middle, and high schools operating under a model called Plan A, which provided full, in-person instruction with masking and minimal physical distancing from March to June 2021. The data represent 100 local school districts and 14 charter schools comprising more than 1,280,000 students and 160,000 staff.
North Carolina schools adhering to the protocols succeeded in limiting the transmission rate of COVID-19 within schools. Approximately 1 in 3,000 students who were in school buildings became infected with COVID-19 during school, or 308 school-acquired cases recorded for students and 55 for staff.
“North Carolina is charting the path forward for our nation, showing that schools can safely resume full in-person instruction while mitigating COVID-19 transmission,” said Danny Benjamin, M.D., Ph.D., co-chair of The ABC Science Collaborative. “These data should help school leaders chart a safe course to resume in-person instruction in the year ahead. In-person schooling offers more than an education – it offers a safe place for students to learn, live, and grow, and it is critical to the health of our nation’s children.”
The findings demonstrated that:
- Proper masking was the most effective mitigation strategy to prevent COVID-19 transmission in schools when vaccination is unavailable or there are insufficient levels of vaccination among students and staff;
- With masking in place, Plan A – full, in-person instruction – was appropriate for all grades and all schools;
- Full-capacity bus transportation could and should resume, with the seating of up to three masked students per bus seat;
- Some within-school guidelines could be relaxed, e.g., quarantine could be modified for people who were exposed to COVID-19 but were either vaccinated or appropriately masked when exposed; and
- With proper safety protocols in place, particularly vaccination, schools could resume fall athletics while limiting the spread of COVID-19.
These findings may be accessed and shared via the video below as well this lay-friendly formatted version.
About North Carolina’s Plan A
The ABC Science Collaborative submitted the final Plan A report to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as part of The Reopen Our Schools Act of 2021 (S.L. 2021-4), a bipartisan act by the N.C. General Assembly that was signed into law by Governor Roy Cooper on March 11, 2021. It required all public K-5 schools to resume in-person instruction and allowed the option for in-person learning with minimal social distancing (Plan A) for grades 6-12. As directed by the legislation, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction engaged The ABC Science Collaborative to collate, analyze, and interpret COVID-19 data from schools in Plan A, an initiative known as The ABCs of North Carolina’s Plan A.