In the context of infectious diseases, the assignment of students to classroom groups
can significantly influence infection dynamics within school environments,
particularly when sibling relationships introduce latent connections between
otherwise unconnected groups. Traditional grouping methods and pandemic-era
bubble strategies do not explicitly optimize student network structures or account for
equity in exposure. This study introduces the Sibling Rewiring Problem, a novel
multi-objective framework for student assignment that aims to maximize network
fragmentation, reduce potential contagion pathways and minimize variance in group
sizes and epidemiological exposure—thereby promoting fairness. We compared
baseline, heuristic, and metaheuristic strategies in realistic school scenarios. A simple
heuristic that assigns siblings to the same classroom line when feasible consistently
achieves substantial network fragmentation with minimal impact on equity.
Simulated Annealing further improved these results, particularly in complex
configurations with densely connected sibling networks. Our findings suggest that
family-aware classroom assignments can enhance epidemiological resilience while
maintaining socially acceptable distributions. This approach provides a practical and
scalable framework for integrating public health considerations into educational
planning and may inform future decision-making in both emergency and routine
contexts
