Schools have more flexibility to operate based on new data that it’s safe for students to sit less than 6 feet apart.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education is revising its guidance for in-person learning. The new recommendations are that students sit at least 3 feet apart. Up until now, they have recommended that students stay 6 feet apart to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The new recommendation goes into effect today. And the Department of Education is also shortening the period a school must close if they report a cluster of cases.

Some local schools say that the new recommendations help them bring back students who are currently doing full virtual learning. Others don’t plan to make any changes with two months left in the school year.

The 3-foot guidance comes down from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies found that when schools followed guidelines for masks and cleaning, there wasn’t a significant difference in the spread of the virus whether students were sitting 3 or 6 feet apart.

“The change in the distance is based on real-world evidence,” said Dr. Wendy Braund, the Department of Health’s COVID-19 response director.

The news was celebrated by local school districts for a variety of reasons. Pleasant Valley returned for in-person classes last week. The new 3-foot minimum made that possible, according to Superintendent Dr. Lee Lesisko.

Northern Lehigh has been maintaining 3-6 feet between students since last month when they returned to classes four days a week, Superintendent Matthew Link said.

Jim Thorpe said it will help as they continue to bring back more secondary students for academic reasons. Most secondary students only have in-person classes two days a week. But students who have struggled with virtual learning are beginning to take classes four days a week, making it more difficult to meet the old 6-foot recommendation.

Bringing back more students is still up for discussion.

“I know a lot of schools are doing that in Carbon County, but we’re still in substantial and cases are ticking up again,” Rushefski said.

Tamaqua is hopeful that parents who have kept their students out of in-person classes will feel more comfortable returning them knowing that students don’t have to sit 6 feet apart to be safe.

There are some exceptions to the new guidance. Teachers are still recommended to stay 6 feet away from their students, and each other.

But there are more teachers vaccinated than ever in public schools. Braund reported that over 112,000 people were vaccinated through a special initiative aimed at school employees.

“We must remember the vaccine is our path to a new tomorrow,” Braund said.

Teachers weren’t required to participate, but local schools had good participation. Jim Thorpe had between 70-80 percent. Panther Valley had about 100 staff vaccinated including teachers, administrators, custodians, food service and bus drivers.

“We did encourage it, and they know if they don’t, they know there’s a chance they could be exposed and have to quarantine,” Superintendent David McAndrew Jr. said.

The Department of Education is also relaxing its guidelines for when a school has positive cases.

School officials said they’ve proven that the long closures aren’t needed to do the cleaning and contact tracing needed if they’re forced to close.

“We have proven that we can contact trace and disinfect and clean schools in less than three days, which was the previous minimum amount of time,” Link said.

The minimum closure will now be just 1-2 days, down from 3-7 days. The longest closure will be 5 days instead of 14.