Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey defended hard-and-fast limits on when businesses can reopen. But he also says it's OK for schools to send children back to class even if local health conditions do not meet the guidelines set by his administration.
Unlike the restrictions on businesses, Ducey has no interest in making those safety guidelines for schools mandatory.
"We've got different variations of spread throughout the state,'' Ducey said Thursday. And he said the state — and most of the counties — are "headed in the right direction.''
"So what we wanted to do is provide a menu of options and flexibility in the guidelines so there's safety inside our schools,'' the governor said. But he said the "ultimate and final decisions'' to superintendents and principals.
"I'm confident they'll make the decisions,'' Ducey said.
The guidelines, released last week by the Department of Health Services, say that schools should consider a three-part test before offering any in-person instruction at all:
- A decline in the number of cases for at least two weeks.
- Two weeks where the percent of tests coming back positive for COVID-19 is less than 7%.
- Fewer than 10% of hospital visits for at least two weeks are for people with COVID-like symptoms.
The benchmarks are set on a county-by-county basis, with the guidelines saying all three conditions should be met.
As of Thursday, 11 counties met two of the three benchmarks.
Gila, Graham, Greenlee and Pima counties meeting only one.
The health department has set similar benchmarks for reopening of now-shuttered businesses. But only two counties have reached the point where spread is considered only "moderate'' and some of those businesses can reopen, albeit only on a limited basis.
While business activity is strictly regulated by those benchmarks, that's not the case for schools. Officials in several districts have announced they plan to start in-person instruction on Monday, decisions that run afoul of the health department guidelines.
Ducey said he sees nothing wrong with that. Some of it, he said, comes down to local conditions.
"Part of this is around being able to physically distance, wearing masks,'' the governor said. "We have some school districts that are packed with children. We have others where there's more room and availability.''
And what of the benchmarks?
"We're not ignoring the benchmarks,'' Ducey said. "Many of the districts are close on the benchmarks and they're making decisions.''
That drew questions about why the same options are not open to businesses in counties where the governor said it's safe enough to send kids to school.
"Because we've been in the unhappy but responsible business of dispersing large adult gatherings,'' Ducey said.
All that raised questions about whether it is safer to have large gatherings of children rather than large gatherings of adults.
"There's still a lot that we're trying to learn about the virus,'' responded state Health Director Cara Christ.
For example, she said, it appears that children do not transmit the virus "as effectively as adults.," though she acknowledged there is still much unknown about the virus.
Whether or not it's worth the risk to send children back in classroom is "going to depend on those mitigation measures: If they can appropriately physically distance; if they make them wear the masks; if they are able to cohort groups. That would be a safe environment for kids to return,'' Christ said.
Christ said she believes that the issue of where kids learn — at home or in class — goes beyond the question of safety.
"There's so many things that happen at school that are important for the appropriate growth and development of children that if we can get them back into the classroom we want to get them back in the classroom,'' she said.
The question about safety has spilled over into local schools.
In Queen Creek Unified School District, for example, some teachers have resigned since the school board voted 4-1 to reopen earlier this week. Ducey made it clear he's not siding with them.
"I support the principals, I support the superintendents and I support the parents,'' he said when asked about the situation. "I feel that they have the best interests of the kids at heart.''
The governor said teachers also have the interests of children but seemed to separate those willing to return from those who were not.
"There's a lot of teachers that can't wait to get to the front of the classroom,'' he said.