ORLANDO, Fla. — A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study claims in-person schooling can be safe and the risk of coronavirus can be small if safety guidelines are followed.

The CDC looked at rural school districts in Wisconsin and North Carolina.

According to the research, at school districts where students and staff wore masks, the number of coronavirus cases was lower in schools than in the community.

“I think following the guidelines by the CDC, that will definitely increase the (safety) of schools during the time we are in right now,” said Orange County Public Schools teacher Ashley Modesto.

Modesto is a teacher at Edgewater High School. She said she does everything she can to stay safe and try to avoid getting coronavirus in the classroom.

“I have personal sanitizer the classroom, I make sure to wear and clean my mask every single day, and social distance from students the best I can at this point,” she said.

Since August of 2020, Orange County Public Schools has had 3,806 cases of COVID-19, and there are currently 770 active quarantined cases, according to its COVID-19 Dashboard. District officials said that since the beginning of the year they have had a positive rate of about 4%.

“The reason the numbers are as low as they are is because of all the safety measures, including the mandating of masks, we have directional signs around our campus,” said OCPS Deputy Superintendent Maria Vasquez.​