Schools get new viral test options
State guidance aims to allow districts to avoid closures
Closing districts is out, in-school COVID -19 surveillance testing is in.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, citing exceptionally low rates of the disease in the state’s elementary and secondary schools, announced last week that school closures will no longer be linked to COVID -19 infection rates in the larger community.
“The positivity rate in schools is amazingly low and shows that the school environment is much safer than the surrounding community, both for the teachers and students,” Cuomo said last week.
Under New York’s new “winter plan,” schools in red, orange, and yellow zones may stay open if they meet certain testing requirements.
The state’s microcluster plan is also moving away from relying on infection rates to identify concentrations of COVID -19 cases, now taking into account other factors like hospital bed capacity.
So far the state has not identified any COVID -19 clusters in the Capital Region, but health officials warn that the region is beginning to see an exponential rise in cases, linked largely to Thanksgiving gatherings.
Districts will continue to shutter individual classrooms and school buildings as needed when there are large numbers of infections or quarantines. Districts are also free to conduct testing and close buildings beyond the requirements of the state.
Nearly every school district in the Capital Region has produced a plan to conduct widespread testing to keep their doors open through the winter months, but the screening may look different from school to school
Statewide, 535,000 in-school tests have been conducted so far, with roughly 2.3 percent coming back positive, according to the governor’s office.
due to a slew of options laid out last week in guidance from the state Department of Health.
Some districts will accept written test results from health care providers or form partnerships with outside labs and organizations to conduct tests.
Others are seeking approval from county health departments to have their nurses conduct and process rapid test kits provided by the state on school grounds when possible.
Testing in schools is voluntary; only those who submitted waivers would be part of randomized testing pools, but many districts are strongly encouraging participation.
Most schools are using nasal swab tests that produce results in 15 minutes.
Schools in an orange zone must test 20 percent of in-person students, faculty and staff for the coronavirus over a one-month period following the zone designation. The tests should be conducted throughout the month with no more than 10 percent tested biweekly. For schools located in red zones, 30 percent of in-person students, faculty, and staff must be tested for COVID -19 over the one-month period following the zone designation. No more than 15 percent will be tested biweekly.
In a yellow zone, schools must test 20 percent of their populations just once as long as the positivity rate is lower than that of the surrounding community, according to the most recent state guidance.
For districts outside New York City, if a single school or sample size of 300 weekly tests generates nine or more positive cases, the school will be required to close.
It’s unclear if any parts of the Capital Region are at risk of becoming microcluster zones. Several Capital Region counties narrowly missed meeting the state’s criteria for a yellow zone last week when the state shifted its cluster formula to focus on hospitalizations.
Laura Franz, president of Albany Public School Teachers’ Association, which represents teachers at Albany city schools, said there is concern among staff about the state’s changing metrics and testing requirements in light of a recent increase in cases in the district.
The district has trained its nurses to conduct random testing on 20 percent of the on-site population but is waiting for the go-ahead from the state.
“Our biggest push is trying to pin down when and where testing will begin, how it will be carried out, and what happens if we don’t have the capacity,” Franz said.
In the Ballston Spa district, schools have partnered with Adirondack Health and Wellness in Malta to conduct tests. District spokesman Stuart Williams said the changing requirements have been “enormously challenging ” to meet.
“Many district projects have had to be sidelined as we are in nearconstant management mode related to the rules, requirements, and expectations,” he said.
Statewide, 535,000 in-school tests have been conducted so far, with roughly 2.3 percent coming back positive, according to the governor’s office.