One of the many challenges of reopening classrooms is that there isnt much good data, if any, about what could happen. Will in-person learning lead to a jump in the transmission of COVID-19 ? Will students and teachers get sick ? How many? How sick?

There is so much that health officials, teachers, parents and kids will simply be forced to learn in real time. And what works in another population, in another country, may be very different from what works in this population, here.

There are so many different ways in which schools have reopened around the world, and its hard to put in a capsule to say This is the best way or This is potentially something we can replicate, said Dr. Ibukun Akinboyo , an assistant professor in the pediatrics department at Duke University School of Medicine.

Yet there is something to be gained by looking at other countries that have reopened. Schools and administrations can at least consider adopting some of their current best practices and can learn from their missteps before they become our own. Heres what experts have to say about it.

Lesson 1: Take it slow and be deliberate.

Israels effort to reopen schools has made headlines, and not because it has gone well. Students and staff have experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases since schools started to reopen in May, prompting many to call the decision to bring students back into the classroom a disaster.

But experts warn that Israel reopened too much, too soon . And having students return to the classroom at the same time that other parts of the economy were reopened has made it impossible to get a handle on where the new cases are coming from. As Hagai Levine, an epidemiologist at the Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, cautioned in an article in The Daily Beast : The government decided to open the entire system all at once on May 17. What happened next was entirely predictable.

The lesson, then, may be that instead of reopening schools while simultaneously lifting other restrictions (on bars, restaurants, larger gatherings, etc.), it is better to focus on small, incremental steps.

The key is stepwise implementation its not a red light, then suddenly a green light thing, said Dr. Sandra Kesh , an infectious disease specialist with Westmed Medical Group in New York. Schools and districts need to have the ability to track what is happening as they reopen so they can course-correct as soon as possible. Of course, widespread access to testing, which continues to be a problem, is a big part of that process.

Lesson 2: Be creative about eking out social distance.