Polis called the first meeting “very productive.”

“The classroom is one of the safest places,” he said. “We want to do all we can in that controlled environment to not have an additional semester as chaotic as this one.”

Many districts and classrooms have switched from remote learning to in-person learning and back again as virus conditions shift or students and staff are quarantined.

The new guidelines will likely mean fewer quarantine-related disruptions to in-person learning. If schools are taking certain precautions, such as following seating charts, screening for symptoms, and requiring masks, they can practice targeted quarantining.

Under targeted quarantine, only people who were within 6 feet of a sick person for 15 minutes or more while wearing masks, or within 12 feet unmasked, must quarantine at home.

In line with guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 15 minutes is cumulative. For example, two 10-minute exposures would count as 20 minutes of exposure.

If schools cannot follow all of the precautions, the guidelines call for more widespread quarantining, including of anyone who was in a room with a sick person for 40 minutes or more. For instance, the guidelines note that it’s not developmentally appropriate for young children to stay in their seats all day, and they may struggle more with mask wearing.

“This may increase the number of contacts associated with a case in younger grade levels,” the guidance says, meaning that more students would have to quarantine.

The members of the governor’s back-to-school working group are:

Diedre Pilch, superintendent of the Greeley-Evans School District

Leslie Nichols, superintendent of the Gunnison Watershed School District

Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association

Rebecca Holmes, president and CEO of Colorado Education Initiative

Lisa Larson, Boulder Valley School District paraprofessional

Dee Leyba, La Junta school board member

Rebecca McClellan, State Board of Education member

Catie Santos de la Rosa, Aurora Public Schools educator

Crystal Jennings, Colorado Springs parent

Dan Gehrke, executive director of Lutheran High School in Parker

Mike Miles, CEO of Third Future Schools charter network

Rachel Kaygi, parent and board member of Healthier Colorado

Kelly Grenham, Mapleton Public Schools nurse

Heath Harmon, director of Eagle County Public Health

Tom Gonzales, director of Larimer County Public Health

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit covering education in the U.S.