Confusion persists on school quarantine protocols

HARTFORD — Connecticut has a new approach to quarantining students, but not all families seem to know about it.

For close to two hours at this month’s state Board of Education meeting, parents, students and a former teacher who left the profession because she was not vaccinated flooded public comment to speak out against mask and vaccine mandates and quarantine procedures.

But department officials expressed concerns about misinformation and a lack of understanding about the state’s current quarantine protocols, including its latest push to decrease missed classroom time: Screen and Stay.

In a recent survey, 83 percent of school districts indicated they have implemented or plan to implement the voluntary initiative, the department told the board. Close to 90 districts had responded to the survey as of Sunday night.

About 1,000 students had actively engaged in the program, officials reported.

“We anticipate we’ll get some more responses as we move forward,” said John Frassinelli, the division director of the department’s bureau of health.

Screen and Stay was designed to avoid repeat, disruptive school quarantines when students are exposed to the coronavirus — meaning more in-person instruction for children, and less uncertainty for working parents.

The program lets unvaccinated students who came in contact with COVID-19 while masked and in supervised classroom settings stay in school by screening them for symptoms, not sending them home.

State guidance has allowed the same for vaccinated students since the start of the school year.

Screen and Stay also aligns with the department’s stance that inperson learning is more effective than remote or hybrid instruction, which officials say is backed by state assessment data. In its analysis, the department found students who learned in-person last year lost the least ground academically, while their peers in hybrid or mostly remote models showed weaker achievement and growth.

Before Screen and Stay, more than 26,200 students missed class as cases spiked in September.

“The purpose here is to really try to keep as many kids in school as possible,” said Charlene RussellTucker, acting commissioner of education. “We heard loud and clear from our superintendents, and from families as well, and students, about the impact of the quarantines.”

“Like any new protocol or policy, there’s sometimes confusion,” she said.

Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Connecticut has a new approach to quarantining students, but not all families seem to know about it.