We, the undersigned parents, caregivers, and community of Seattle Public School students, teachers, and families are writing to express our deep concern that fully outdoor lunches— a key, highly impactful COVID mitigation strategy-- is not being supported across all SPS schools and is instead being decided at an individual school-by-school level. Having this important safety strategy handled at a school level risks creating significant health and education equity gaps as less-resourced schools may risk more frequent outbreaks and transmission due to a lack of space, resources (such as volunteer time and PTA funding), and advocacy tools to make fully outdoor lunches possible.

Many schools around the nation are currently moving to outdoor lunches as an approach; some demonstrated its feasibility as long ago as the 1918 Spanish flu. SPS should raise the minimum standard and support resourcing for all schools to outside-only mealtimes, including any additional personnel, facilities, physical infrastructure, and maintenance costs necessary.

Guidance issued about maintaining 3 feet of distance while indoors applies to masked situations, which is irrelevant for lunchtime scenarios. Moreover, this guidance does not take into account fast-changing circumstances related to the now-dominant Delta variant.

***Until a vaccine is available for children under 12, universal masking and limited indoor exposure are the best methods we have to protect our children and accomplish our goal of safe, in-person learning. Outdoor lunches are a feasible, impactful safety strategy that we should be prioritizing for ALL students regardless of the school they attend.*** 

We have two weeks until school begins and time is tight, but we've seen SPS adjust plans quickly in the past, and we have confidence we can do so again.

Thanks for all you do for the safety and well-being of our children.

Signed,