Onondaga County will allow school districts to reduce student social distance requirements from 6 feet to 3 feet.

County Executive Ryan McMahon announced Thursday that the proposal will allow more K-12 students in the classroom, which has been a barrier to allowing more children to return for in-person instruction since the COVID-19 pandemic began a year ago. Students must still be separated by plexiglass partitions, and the county will provide schools with partitions if they need them.

They must also continue following COVID-19 restrictions and recommendations put in place by New York state and the Onondaga County Health Department, such as wearing face masks, frequent handwashing, and symptoms screening.

The decision comes after some time of studying data and conversations with school districts. In addition, the number of COVID-19 transmissions from schools have been extremely low in Onondaga County since in-person teaching returned last fall, despite the increase in cases in the community at-large, according to county officials.

“What we know now is that children are very good at wearing masks,” McMahon said.

This change will not impact the social distance between students and teachers. That distance must remain at 6 feet.

The county’s proposal also recommends 

• A school can take a graded or partial approach
• Staggered schedules should be evaluated and considered if feasible.
• Seat assignment should be considered.
• Lunch seating, and bus transportation will require careful consideration
• Physical education class should maintain a distance of 6 feet with mask wearing.
• The option for remote learning should be offered to parents if they are reluctant about in-person learning.

There is no definitive timeline for when school districts could begin implementing this reduction.

Syracuse City School District Superintendent Jaime Alicea said he hasn't decided yet whether to move desks from 6 to 3 feet.

“We will continue to work on the logistics of offering more in-person instructional days for our students based on this new guidance and the feedback from our families and our staff," Alicea said in a statement. "Bringing students back in-person on more days will take some time as we need to look at the data collected from the surveys, develop a plan for transportation, develop academic schedules, listen to our families and staff and much more.”