Kanecia Zimmerman
Co-Chair, The ABC Science Collaborative
Professor; Department of Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center
The ABC’s of Building Trust to Support Schools
Long term school closures to limit COVID-19’s spread remain among the many controversial moves made during the pandemic’s emergency phase.
Early on in the pandemic, when information was scarce regarding how the virus spread and who was most vulnerable, nearly every school district in the United States decided to halt in-person learning. As time went on, it became clear that children were among those at lowest risk for adverse outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 infection, yet many schools remained closed.
Research now shows the extended closures are having long-term effects on students’ learning, social skills, mental health, and even physical fitness. School closures also exacerbated inequality; some private schools with smaller student bodies and larger budgets developed interventions to open safely as early as fall 2020 while some larger, less well-resourced institutions relied on remote learning well into 2021.
As parents themselves, Duke researchers Kanecia Zimmerman and Daniel Benjamin were acutely aware of how school closures were affecting children. In July 2020, in response to requests from officials in their own districts, they teamed up to review K-12 school related data and offer guidance to districts in North Carolina. As a result, Zimmerman and Benjamin established The ABC Science Collaborative, which collected and published data on the spread of COVID-19 in schools, devised strategies for safe reopening, and engaged with educators across the state through listening sessions.
In March 2021, their efforts fueled bipartisan legislation in North Carolina requiring schools to return to in-person learning to the extent possible, following specific guidance related to masking, distancing, vaccines, and testing. Their work also influenced CDC’s school operations guidance.
Listening and Liaising
Beginning with a handful of districts, the sessions helped K-12 school personnel think creatively about how their schools could adapt scientific findings and more general pandemic protocols to the reality of their institutions. Some schools and government officials initially resisted the effort, but over time, with consistent engagement, solid science, a transparent culture of listening, and a staff that was diverse racially, by gender, and age, the ABC Science Collaborative became a trusted network that included many school districts in the state, with participation from urban and rural districts of all sizes.
Our job was to create a space for listening and liaising among the school districts and across the state. Initially, some state officials were not thrilled about our effort, which appeared to them to complicate things. But that changed when they saw we were filling a need that they couldn’t fill. We were very focused on the science, and I think that’s what made us attractive to school districts. We saw our job as providing the information and trusting that people knew their local circumstances better than we did, such that they could adapt that science and apply it to their situations.
“We ended up creating relationships with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, and local health departments. That ended up being really helpful because we could say to these entities, “This is what the superintendents are actually dealing with, this is their actual issue, and these are the problems…”
Having that on-the-ground intelligence helped the government understand and address challenges as it rolled out statewide testing programs.
“We were able to say, “They don’t have enough people to do what you want them to do. That is not something that actually can happen because they’re too worried about counting the number of cases they have or everyone’s sick…”
Keeping it Local
The Collaborative was initially able to offer guidance to districts based on local data and transmission information from hospitals, which was showing that masking was effectively limiting transmission. While many school and state officials were excited by the Collaborative’s work, others, particularly teachers, remained resistant as they worried about their health. The Collaborative met regularly with teachers’ groups, worked with them to collect local data, and – ultimately – helped develop ways for them to safely return to in-person learning.
When everyone was panicking, we said, let’s get together, let’s collect some data, let’s see how we can work with these mitigation plans set out by the state.
“We initially looked at data reported from hospitals since there’s limited transmission there, even though people are coming in sick. That prompted us to consider that mitigation strategies could be useful in other places such as schools, and data were needed to prove it. We decided what data we thought would be helpful, and then they collected it on a regular basis, and we would talk about it. They were excited because COVID wasn’t spreading – they felt: ‘We’re doing this and it’s working.’
“That got us jazzed up to do more, and we published a paper that ended up changing some of the CDC guidance and helping schools reopen.”
Choosing the Right Communicator
Through trial and error, Zimmerman and her colleagues came to appreciate the value of choosing the right speaker for each audience.
There are places where I was the spokesperson and places where my colleague [Benjamin] was the spokesperson. I went to urban places and Benjamin went to rural places. We made some mistakes early on. I decided to try a different approach and said, ‘Look, I’m a mom, I’m a doctor, I care about these kids, and I care about what the district looks like after COVID if we don’t get ourselves together.’
“It took a while for people to trust our work even in my own school district. People were constantly asking, ‘What’s in it for you?’ People had a hard time believing that our motivations were pure.”
The Value of Being There
By continuing to show up and listen, the team eventually gained people’s trust. Through those relationships, the team was able to offer critical guidance to reduce transmission.
“As time went on, because we had been helpful, we built this relationship. Now, they come to me and say, ‘Kanecia, what can we do to keep our kids safe?’
“When the kids were going back to school, I said, honestly, the thing I worry about is eating lunch inside. We need to have the district commit to supporting eating outside.”
They wrote petitions, they petitioned the board, and said, ‘We need to eat outside; the ABC Science Collaborative recommended eating outside.’ That led to a resolution by the local school board that says the ABC Science Collaborative [says eat] outside and we’re going to support that. That, to me, was awesome.
Building Resilience
Zimmerman and her colleagues have continued to build on their network to address a range of other issues facing the state’s school-aged population, including wellness, vaping, mental health, and teacher resiliency.
We continue to meet with districts on a monthly basis. We’ve continued to establish those relationships, so I think when another pandemic comes up, at least those districts will say, all right, let’s get back on it. Let’s do the things that we need to do.
I can’t speak for everyone, but there will be districts who will say, we trust you. You’ve been here and you know.