Contact Tracing: Help Send Kids Back To School

Being a parent during the era of the pandemic has presented significant difficulties, with perhaps none more so than anxiously debating about the idea of sending one’s child back to school.

Over the past year, some schools in Ontario have opted to have students return to full-time in-person learning, while others have gone a hybrid route to mix in remote learning. Though health experts initially said that children are less likely to catch and spread COVID-19 than adults, the recent rise in case numbers at schools demonstrates they remain exposed, and it does little to ease the concerns of troubled parents.

Staying home, however (where kids are presumably less likely to catch the disease), is not as simple a solution as it seems, either. Aside from the toll it takes on parents who have other jobs and worries to attend to, partaking in school at home has children missing out on traditional school fun and a normal learning environment, which in turn negatively affects their mental wellbeing and, in some cases, their social skills.

Making matters worse is the fact that children under the age of 18 are presently unable to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and children under 12 are unlikely to have the vaccine until early 2022.

On top of all that, the contact tracing platforms (which are necessarily to go along with other preventative measures such as mask-wearing and hand-washing) that the government has created require the use of a mobile phone, which immediately generates challenges for some students due to socio-economic reasons as well as the fact that some may simply be too young to own their own phone.

Enter TraceSCAN.

With the wearable devices, parents can feel reassured that a safe return to school for their children is feasible. The pinpoint tracing of daily interactions allows for the quick identification of potential spread if a student tests positive for COVID-19, keeping both individuals and schools at large protected.

When it comes to withstanding the rigours of student life, the wearable devices hold up better than any alternative option. Whether it be water or mud on the playground, or paint in art class, the devices are more than durable enough. They also have a battery life of 7–14 days (superior to other wearables, which tend to wear down swiftly), which ensures tracing is done even if children forget to charge their devices.

Teachers, too, who are being forced to reinvent pedagogical methods to instruct and converse with students, will finally be able to return to some semblance of normalcy and feel safe within an environment rife with other people to make sure children are getting the best educational experience possible.

Other than revitalizing schools, every child participating in contact tracing will enable cities to reopen summer camps and sports programs — another way to benefit students’ mental health and general wellbeing.

As the battle against COVID-19 rages on and new variants begin to take hold, the reality remains that contact tracing is the key to gifting children the integral experience of school. And it also remains that there is simply no better solution of that sort than TraceSCAN.