New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
What schools do in cases of COVID exposure can vary
If a student tests positive for the coronavirus in the Region 12 school district covering Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington, school officials walk through the classroom with rulers to see which classmates may sit within 6 feet. Students sitting close enough for an extended period of time could wind up having to quarantine.
In Norwalk, if a student tests positive for the virus, it’s more likely the entire class would have to quarantine.
At least 380 students and school staff members across the state have tested positive for the virus since the beginning of September, but there are varying protocols for how others in the building and classes have been affected. Positive cases continue to rise again in Connecticut but with common colds and other illnesses also popping up, school staff and parents are often working case-by-case to decide how to best handle the scenario.
“Every situation is differ
ent so we’re really trying to be careful here,” New Fairfield Superintendent Pat Cosentino said.
Districts can even vary when it comes to whether students and staff should get a COVID test when experiencing symptoms: some require it, while others only recommend.
State guidance explains what districts should do when students or staff have symptoms of the virus or are exposed, among other scenarios. But sometimes policies and procedures within that guidance vary slightly depending on the district and scenario.
“A lot of times you’re creating some details (in) the way an individual case needs to be handled,” said Megan Bennett, superintendent of Region 12. “There is some specification. It (the state’s document) provides guidance, but it doesn’t give you the true how-to map.”
The consistent message among school officials across the state is that if students or staff do not feel feel, they should stay home. Many teachers and children
are still able to attend classes virtually if out of school.
“Because we’re allowing students to participate virtually, I don’t think we’ll see a big change in absenteeism among students,” Bethel Superintendent Christine Carver said. “In fact, it may be better.”
With many school districts addressing cases and even symptoms, in slightly different ways, here’s a look at how some are handling scenarios that arise.
What if someone feels sick?
In Norwalk, students
and staff fill out a health screener daily before going to the buildings.
“That is another mitigating measure to prevent someone who may not be feeling well to come into a building in the first place,” Norwalk chief of school operations Frank Costanzo said, adding that the strict adherence to guidelines in schools makes them among the safest places to be in a community.
But those who start showing symptoms during school go to an isolation room, which in some schools is large enough for multiple students to stay, with partitions separating them, he said. They are then sent home with parents or guardians. Twice, students whose parents do not own a car were sent home on the bus alone, he said.
Students are sent to the nurse’s office for evaluation if they start to feel sick at school, said Cosentino, the New Fairfield superintendent.
“It’s the time of year when everyone gets sick,”
she said. “They get the sniffles, they get a cough.”
The nurse evaluates the students. If they have COVID symptoms, such as a high fever, they will stay in a separate room until parents arrive. The school may recommend a COVID test, but usually urges families to go to their doctor to see whether a test is necessary, Cosentino said.
“A lot of times, people haven’t been exposed in any way,” she said.
School nurses in Bethel consider whether the student has other health issues—from allergies to asthma—that may cause symptoms.
“Many of them are symptoms that you would find in a lot of different diagnoses,” Carver said. “It’s making those distinctions looking at the kid’s history.”
Those who test positive should stay home and selfisolate for at least 10 days since the onset of symptoms and at least 24 hours without a fever and improvement in other symptoms, the state says.
People who test negative and have not been exposed to the virus may return to school once they have no symptoms for 24 hours, the state said. But symptomatic people who have been exposed, yet test negative, still must self-isolate for the same period as those who test positive.
School members with symptoms who are not tested but have an alternate diagnosis may return.
“People are being much more proactive in trying to work with our medical providers to try to figure out why the symptoms are there,” Carver said.
Bethel school nurses track students who are out sick.
“Our nurses are really following up with families for kids that are out on illness in a much more intense way than they have in the past,” Carver said.
What if someone is exposed?
Superintendents said they have had more instances of people needing to stay home because of exposures than testing positive.
People who have been exposed but test negative and have no symptoms must stay home for 14 days from their last known contact with the COVID patient, the state says.
Danbury may close for two to five days if there is a “presumptive case” in the school community, said Kathy O’Dowd, the school health and nursing services coordinator. Closures are typically 14 days for positive cases.
“For suspected cases, we may have what it is called ‘contact of a contact,’” she told school board members at a recent meeting. “In which case, we would be waiting for test results for that positive person before we would have to move forward with closing for the full 14 days.”
Danbury, however, is yet to open its doors following a COVID spike over the summer and a resurgence in recent weeks.
Norwalk works closely with its health department in situations where it is likely someone could have the virus.
“We defer to the health department on any cases that we feel are not easy to answer,” Costanzo said.
In New Fairfield, other school members are notified only when someone they were in contact with tests positive, rather than when the person exhibits symptoms, Cosentino said. Often the person with symptoms does not have the virus, she said.
“Unless we have a positive test, we don’t contact trace,” she said. “It would just cause pandemonium...We wouldn’t be able to keep our schools open.”
What if someone tests positive?
If someone tests positive, the patient works with school nurses or other health professionals to figure out where he or she had been in the 48 hours before symptoms and who they were within six feet from for 15 minutes or more, said Bennett, the superintendent of Region 12.
“Anyone who is even hit within any of those edges, we do put them on quarantine,” she said.
This could be tricky if a younger student tests positive, she said. Superintendents
tend to “err on the side of caution” and shut down schools or classrooms if there are too many “unknowns,” she said.
“Asking that detail out of a kindergartner is too much,” Bennett said.
In New Fairfield, teachers would help figure out who younger students came into contact with.
“That’s why cohorting is so important because then we know where they have been,” Cosentino said.
Region 12 works closely with the health department to look at space in the buildings and see who may have been exposed and whether people need to quarantine or schools need to close, Bennett said. The district has had three cases among school members, but has not needed to shut down, she said.
Bennett said officials use rulers to measure whether a patient’s desk was within six feet of others in a classroom
“Social distancing is everything when it comes to making some of those decisions,” she said.
Other school officials said they do not use the ruler method.
For example, Norwalk has moved an entire class to distance learning when a student or staff member tests positive, Costanzo said. Desks are at least six feet apart in the classrooms, he said.
Testing requirements
Bethel students and staff are not mandated to get tested if they call out sick one day, Carver said.
“If it’s a COVID symptom, they have to have a test or alternate diagnosis, but they’re not required if it’s just their asthma kicked up,” she said.
Districts said they urge families to seek advice from their doctor on whether to get tested.
“They (local physicians) have really responded to help us identify what symptoms are indicative of COVID,” Bennett said.
Those traveling to a state on Connecticut’s quarantine list must receive a negative test before returning, Cosentino said. New Fairfield does not require students and staff to stay home if they take a test as a precaution, but do not have symptoms.
“We’re not keeping those people out, but I would assume many of them would stay out,” Cosentino said. “There must be reasons why people are having a test.”
Districts said they have not had problems with people attending school with the virus or similar issues. School officials said they operate on the honor system.
“We haven’t had a case of that,” Costanzo said. “We would handle that on a case by case basis. Our students, our families, our staff have been very ,very cooperative and attentive to the health, safety of our community.”