Symptoms, staff safety, bus capacity on the table as state board of education works toward start of school

The North Carolina State Board of Education said on Friday that students and teachers who show symptoms of COVID-19 can return to school 24 hours after the last symptom has passed. This decision is based off of new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that a negative test criteria is no longer required for determining when people are no longer contagious for the virus.

In updated guidance issued along with a strong recommendation that schools reopen to in-person learning, the CDC said someone can leave quarantine 24 hours after the last symptom, 24 hours after the last fever without the use of fever-reducing medications, and that it's been at least 10 days since symptoms first appeared.

The board had only a few hours to review the CDC's recommendation before their meeting Friday morning, but said "in general it does seem to be in line with" plans in place for North Carolina schools.

The original guidance from the state said that schools, when they reopened, had to open at a 50% capacity. That has since changed, and districts need to maintain social distancing.

Buses in each district will likely only have 22 to 24 students per trip, the board said. Family members will be recommended to sit together on the bus, the board said.

Lt. Governor Dan Forest asked the board what benchmark or goal they were seeking and how they would know when it was achieved. Board members responded that the goal is to get students back to school safely and control the spread of the coronavirus.

Forest responded, "This could go on forever."

Until the state sees a downward in the trajectory of new coronavirus cases, schools will not open like "normal," board members said.