One of the most pressing questions of COVID-19 era has been when and how to responsibly reopen schools. With Florida demonstrating a steady decline in test positivity, cases, hospitalizations and daily deaths since the middle of July, there has been a renewed push to resume classroom instruction, and state leaders have advocated proceeding with offering in-person classes together with e-learning and virtual school options.

Most Florida school districts and private schools now plan to press ahead with at least partial reopenings, making it more important than ever that we implement scientifically supported measures to ensure our schools can operate safely.

Parents are understandably concerned because of the potential for children bringing the virus home. First and foremost, families must have the ultimate authority on whether to send their children back into the classroom. It can be an agonizing choice for parents who need to balance their career and personal obligations and the optimal learning environment for their children, with a desire to protect their family’s health and potentially, lives. Each parent should be trusted to make the decision on what is best for their unique situation.

For those families opting to return children to in-person (brick and mortar) class instruction, evidence-based policies must be in place to ensure students are provided a safe and controlled environment where they can maximize their educational experience. We must universally require face coverings, ideally with 2 ply cotton and not gators.

Parents and teachers should also demand and implement physical distancing at schools, “cohorting” students (that is, keeping the same group of students in a classroom with rotating teachers) to reduce the risk of viral dissemination across the entire school, and staggered school starts to reduce crowding. There must also be aggressive hand hygiene, rigorous cleaning of public surfaces and well-maintained air conditioning units with abundant access to outside air.

Schools should work with their county governments to ramp up surveillance using pooled testing which allows 5- to 10-fold greater testing capacity. If possible, such testing should be augmented by a robust contact tracing system in collaboration with the Florida Department of Health, so that all new cases are identified, isolated, and treated until symptoms have subsided. When cases occur, the smallest possible unit of exposure should be quarantined and tested – that is, close classes not schools. If certain Zip codes are identified as hotspots of viral spread, their schools should remain exclusively online until the outbreak is brought under control.

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Hillsborough County schools have adopted most of these measures already and are in a reasonably strong position to begin the academic year on solid footing. But we must all remain vigilant in identifying those steps that are and are not working, and be creative and flexible in responding to those challenges.

It’s clear that the precautions protecting us from the COVID-19 virus do not create ideal conditions for learning, but these steps are absolutely necessary for sustaining our educational system, economy and personal health until a vaccine is discovered and widely distributed.

Charles J. Lockwood is senior vice president of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.