School leaders await details on state plan
Albany district to begin testing program next week
Capital Region school superintendents are awaiting further guidance from the state on how and when to test students and staff for COVID -19 in accordance with a new plan mentioned by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo during his Monday press briefing.
Schools in counties with positivity rates exceeding 9 percent must test a portion of their on-site populations or shift to remote instruction, the governor said.
“If their schools are below the level of positivity in the community, they can keep schools open. It’s up to the local school district to make that decision,” Cuomo said. “My position has always been, if the children are safer in the school than they are on the streets of the community, then children should be in schools.”
Few details were provided such as when testing should begin, what percentage of students and staff must be tested or how often testing should occur. Spokespersons for the state Department of Health and governor’s office did not respond to emailed questions about the new rules.
Albany City Schools announced Tuesday that it would begin testing next week when in-person classes resume — despite no clear directive from the state.
Mohonasen Superintendent Shannon Shine said procedural questions are “likely on every superintendent’s mind.”
For weeks districts have been planning for a microcluster designation, obtaining Binaxnow rapid test kits, training school nurses to administer them, and asking parents to sign consent forms.
“All we need now is the same information you are asking about,” Guilderland schools spokeswoman Amie Perrott said.
The state’s initial microcluster plan, enacted in October through executive order, targeted areas with infection rates above 3 percent. Last month, the governor announced a new winter formula that focused instead on hospitalizations and ICU capacity.
Anecdotal data suggests that schools tend to have lower rates of infection than their communities. Many children do not display symptoms, but experts note that young people infected by the virus carry a viral load similar to that of an adult and they can be vectors of transmission. More than 2,600 students, teachers and staff in the Capital Region public and private schools have contracted the virus since the start of the school year, according to the state’s COVID -19 schools report card. More than twothirds of those cases occurred among an on-site school population. Statewide, 43,552 cases have been linked to schools since Sept. 8.
The Center for Disease Control advises that in-school testing of symptomatic individuals, as well as randomly screening the asymptomatic school population, can be helpful in identifying cases and preventing the spread of COVID -19 in schools. Schools should seek guidance from state and local health departments to determine when and how to conduct the tests. Testing should not replace normal virus mitigation strategies such as social distancing, handwashing, and mask-wearing, the CDC guidelines state.
Most schools are using antigen tests that involve a cotton swab wiggled in the tip of the nose. The tests, which have a 15-minute turnaround time, are considered less accurate than slower “PCR” tests but are acceptable for the purposes of surveillance testing. Participation is voluntary; only students and employees with waivers on file will be tested.
New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta in a statement said districts should continue to “err on the side of caution” when deciding whether to keep school buildings open.
“Testing data is important, but we believe school districts must still make decisions about in-person and remote instruction in consultation with parents and educators,” Pallotta said. “The entire school community must have the confidence in a district’s plan to stay open, reopen or expand its in-person offerings as infection rates rise in the surrounding community and regions surpass a 9 percent infection rate.”