Health officials are offering parents guidelines for a safe return to school.

The Centers for Disease Control issued its advice for K-12 schools 2 weeks before Lexington County schools begin their fall semester.

The SC Department of Health and Environmental Control is also preparing guidance for Lexington County schools.

Although health critics have questioned some of the guidance, the CDC’s guidelines include:

• Schools should reopen for in-person education to the greatest extent possible.

• Masks should be worn indoors by all individuals (age 2 and older) who are not fully vaccinated.

• Schools are recommended to allow for at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms.

When it’s not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools can’t fully re-open while maintaining these distances, it’s important to layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as indoor masking.

• Screening, ventilation, handwashing and respiratory etiquette, staying home when sick and getting tested remain important methods of preventing the virus.

Students, teachers, and staff should stay home when they have signs of any infectious illness and visit their healthcare provider for testing and care.

• Contact tracing, along with isolation and quarantine when indicated by CDC guidelines, remains important for halting the disease.

•Schools should encourage vaccinations for those eligible (age 12 and older).

Layered prevention strategies using multiple prevention strategies together consistently are emphasized and levels of them may be based on multiple factors.