MILWAUKEE — A new study focused on schools in Wisconsin will come as welcome news to those pushing to get students back in the classroom as soon as possible during the pandemic.

The main finding?

"We found very limited case spread within the schools of COVID-19," Dr. Amy Falk, a pediatritian with Aspirus Doctors Clinic in Wisconsin Rapids who conducted the study, told Spectrum News 1 Wednesday, "and those were only among children who were mildly affected."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the report Tuesday. In it, Dr. Falk focused on 17 schools in Wood County and found the spread of COVID-19 among students was lower than community spread outside of the school, thanks in no small part to mitigation efforts put in place by the schools and enforced by teachers.

"The mandated masks at all the schools-- they all had separate mandates aside from the statewide mandate," Dr. Falk told Spectrum News 1. "They were really good at enforcing it or at least encouraging it with the students as best as they could, [plus] extra sanitation measures, distancing as much as possible..."

Falk monitored the schools during a stretch of 13 weeks starting in September and found that just 7 of 4,876 students contracted the virus at school with no teachers contracting the virus during that same period.

You can watch the entire interview above and read the full study here.