Unions: Boost testings
Calls for COVID screening rise as doors start to open at schools
Calls for COVID -19 screening rise as doors start to open at public schools.
State and national teachers’ unions are calling on school districts to ramp up COVID testing efforts for students and staff as many explore ways to bring more students back for in-person instruction for the remainder of the school year.
Leaders from New York State United Teachers, American Federation of Teachers, United University Professions, the National Football League Players Association and the Rockefeller Foundation, made the case for continued screenings at a virtual news conference Thursday.
NYSUT said districts should look to models used in New York City schools, on SUNY campuses and by the NFL to create or expand their own testing programs. The union also is calling for federal and state funds to implement testing.
“Educators want to be in the classroom with their students, but they want to do that safely. Identifying asymptomatic spread of COVID -19 in particular is critical to bolstering school safety plans,” NYSUT President Andy Pallotta said. “Yet far too few districts have a testing regimen up and running. That is unacceptable. If the nation’s largest school district,
the nation’s largest university system and the nation’s biggest professional sport can do it, there’s no reason we can’t figure out how to implement testing for schools statewide.”
The union’s call comes as many school districts are considering or already are bringing more students back for in-person instruction in school buildings. During the winter COVID-19 surge, New York’s more than 700 school districts had stockpiled enough rapid testing kits for one round of required testing in case the state declared their region a “microcluster” which would trigger restrictions on businesses and schools.
When the microcluster designation never came and the state shifted its virus mitigation strategy, a number of schools in the Capital Region used up their test supplies to randomly test between a portion of their asymptomatic students and staff.
The surveillance testing, which screened between 10 and 20 percent of in-person populations in districts like Watervliet, Albany, Bethlehem, and North Colonie, turned up close to zero positive cases.
Local public schools have not indicated if this testing will continue as infection rates continue to decline across the Capital Region.
For New York’s public colleges and universities, SUNY adopted a number of COVID -19 testing measures and safety guidelines for students and on-campus faculty and staff. Currently, all locations in the 64-campus university system are required to test every student and staff member with access to the campus on a weekly basis.