Low COVID test scores back return to the classroom

It should come as a relief to the many parents, students, and educators still harboring concerns about returning to inclass instruction that the Massachusetts public schools participating in the state’s COVID-19 pooled-testing initiative have reported a collective positivity rate of just 0.76%, as recently reported by the Baker administration.

While teachers have been deemed eligible for the vaccine, union leadership has lambasted Gov. Baker for not ensuring all teachers be vaccinated before having schools resume in-person learning.

The pooled tests, performed once a week, have not shown any instances where more than one person was positive. The administration said this suggests there’s little evidence of inschool transmission of COVID-19.

According to the Federal Food and Drug Administration, pooled testing involves mixing several respiratory samples together in a “batch” or pooled sample, which then undergoes a diagnostic test. This approach increases the number of people that can be tested using the same amount of resources. If the pooled sample comes back positive, individual tests are necessary.

“Massachusetts’ robust and ambitious program offering COVID-19 surveillance testing to all schools, charters and special-education collaboratives led the nation,” Gov. Charlie Baker stated in his Monday announcement. “The science is clear that it is safe for kids to be in the classrooms …”

That also seems to be the conclusion of the vendors conducting these tests.

“For the amount of testing we’re doing, we’re just seeing what’s coming back is very, very low and it’s working as a screening mechanism,” Bill Jacobson, head of pooled testing at CIC Health, told Masslive. “Week-over-week in the same groups, you’re not getting additional positive results.”

Tim Rowe, co-founder and CEO at CIC Health, said the company has had zero instances of finding a new positive case from the same pool in the next week of testing.

The timing of these findings couldn’t be better for Baker; administration directives require elementary schools to resume in-person learning five days a week by April, a controversial decision that’s drawn criticism from some school officials and teachers unions.

According to guidance recently set forth by state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley, public schools must bring students in kindergarten through grade 5 back to fulltime, in-person instruction five days per week beginning Monday, followed by students in grades 6 through 8 on April 28. For both the elementary and middle-school return phases, hybrid and remote-learning options will no longer count towards the required student learning time hours, unless parents choose to keep their children remote.

While these mandates may be difficult for some school districts to meet, Lowell Superintendent of Schools Joel Boyd previously said his administration’s plans already included returning more students to inperson learning.

While sticking with Monday for elementary school and fifth-grade students, Boyd also indicated other middle-school students will return two days earlier than required on April 26, the Monday after spring vacation.

While teachers have been deemed eligible for the vaccine, union leadership has lambasted Gov. Baker for not ensuring all teachers be vaccinated before having schools resume in-person learning. Launched in February, the voluntary pooledtesting program is offered free to public schools. So far, the state has tested nearly 159,000 people in 22,679 pools. More than 329,000 students, educators and staff are eligible to be tested each week.

The state also announced that free pooled testing will be available to K-12 public schools through the end of the school year, beyond the previously announced April 18 expiration date.

“Access to this pooled testing program has given many school districts the information and assurance they need in order to be able to keep educating students inperson safely and successfully,” said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.

These pooled test results confirm statements made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Baker’s own health experts that schools present an extremely low-risk environment for COVID infection.

That should assuage the concerns of all but the most strident teachers union members.