Days before New York City public school kids were dismissed for their winter recess, a few council members requested New York City Department of Education (DOE) and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to make more COVID-19 testing available at public schools.

 

At a press conference on Dec. 20, originally scheduled to take place in City Hall Park but which was switched to an online event due to the latest surge of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, District 11 city councilman, Eric Dinowitz, pointed to past instances of rising numbers of infections following holidays as a compelling reason to increase testing in schools.

With many of NYC’s public school students expected to be in close proximity with family and friends during various holiday gatherings, including Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year celebrations, some health experts expect a rise in infection rates in the weeks that follow. The Omicron variant of COVID-19 has already created a surge in infection rates since Thanksgiving.

 

“With the current trend, cases will only continue to rise,” Dinowitz said during the press conference. He was joined at the event  by fellow council members, Mark Levine, who represents Manhattan District 7 and is chair of the city council health committee, and Mark Treyger, chair of the education committee who presents District 47 in Brooklyn. Janella Hinds, vice president for academic high schools at the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), also spoke during the press conference.

For several months, Dinowitz, a former special education teacher in the Bronx, and chapter leader for the UFT, has been asking the DOE for information on its response plans to an expected, post-holiday increase in COVID-19 infections in schools. “At the October education committee [meeting], I asked about post-holiday testing, knowing what we all know: families travel,” he said.

 

“I sent a letter to [Schools] Chancellor Porter on November 24th … no response,” he said. “I wrote a follow-up letter with Council Member Levine and Council Member Treyger on December 7th, both to the chancellor and [DOHMH] Commissioner [Dr. David] Chokshi, no response. …To a certain extent, we can’t avoid the spread of the virus, especially one as infectious as the Omicron variant, but we’ve seen this before. We know what we can do to mitigate the spread and protect people.”

 

Increased testing is seen by public health experts as the first step in assessing the spread of the virus, especially the more contagious Omicron variant, and it not only affects students and teachers, but thousands of other workers including administrative and janitorial staff inside schools, as well as school bus drivers.

 

COVID-19 testing of students in public schools began on Oct. 9, and consisted of random, weekly tests of unvaccinated children in schools which have a minimum of 10 percent of students who are unvaccinated. As for teachers, the DOE, at the mayor’s urging, mandated they all get their first shot by Oct. 1, and their second dose by Nov. 18.

On the DOE website, a page labeled Daily COVID Case Map shows all known active interventions and cases of COVID-19 at New York City public schools, and is updated Sunday through Friday at 6 p.m.

• A grey dot on the map indicates a member of the school community has tested positive but the school community was not exposed.
• A blue dot on the map indicates one or more classrooms closed in a school.
• An orange dot on the map indicates one or more classrooms are partially quarantined in a school.
• A purple dot on the map indicates a school has one or more non-classroom quarantines.
• A yellow dot on the map indicates a school has multiple cases under investigation.
• A red dot on the map indicates a school that has transitioned to fully remote for 10 days.

 

As of Dec. 27, there were 1,383 COVID-19 cases recorded by the DOE, comprising 900 students and 483 staff.

The map revealed that almost 40 schools in Bronx School District 10 had one or more classrooms partially quarantined in a school prior to the holiday break, three had one or more classrooms closed in a school, while one had one or more non-classroom quarantines.

 

School District 10 covers the entire northwest Bronx and extends to the Bronx River Parkway on its eastern border and follows a jagged southern boundary that sometimes includes Tremont Avenue. Hinds identified three actions the UFT would like to see implemented by the DOE when public school students return to classrooms on Jan. 3. “We want to see an increase in testing in our school communities. … [and] we need to increase staffing in the city’s Test and Trace operation immediately,” she said.

The third was a request for the DOE to provide specific numbers on COVID-19 infections the department uses to
determine when classrooms or schools are deemed suitable for quarantine or closure. “It’s unclear right now why classrooms are closing, why schools are closing,” Hinds said. “Everyone needs to have some clarity around the decisions being made about school closures.”

 

Norwood News reached out to the DOE for a comment on these points. We did not receive an immediate response. However, we did find a section on the DOE website with COVID testing numbers per individual schools as of Dec. 23, which can be viewed here.

 

The full press conference on the topic can be watched on the council member’s Facebook page here.

 

On Tuesday, Dec. 28, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Mayor-Elect Eric Adams, Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter, and Incoming Schools Chancellor David Banks announced a multi-pronged approach for safely returning to school in-person in January following winter break.

 

DOE officials are strongly encouraging all eligible students to get vaccinated, and all students and staff should get tested prior to the resumption of classes on Jan. 3.  City officials said in addition to existing school safety measures, the City is adding City-run testing sites this week and the DOE will double the in-school, surveillance testing program, and deploy millions of at-home rapid tests to allow students to continue learning in school.

Families can book an appointment at any eligible site with “$100 incentive available” listed on the nyc.gov/vaccinefinder or call 877-VAX4NYC (877-829-4692) to find a participating site. “Schools are among the safest places to be throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and we’re working closely with the incoming administration to keep it that way,” said de Blasio. “By doubling COVID-19 testing in schools, getting our students vaccinated, and sending students, teachers and staff home with at-home test kits, we can keep everyone healthy and finish out this school year strong.”

Meanwhile, Adams said the numbers speak for themselves and that kids are safer in school. “Thanks to testing, vaccinations, and at-home testing kits we’ll keep it that way. We’re working closely with the de Blasio Administration and we’ll be ready to bring students and staff back to the classroom on January 3rd,” he said. “This is how we move our city forward.”

In partnership with the Test+Trace Corps, families and DOE staff members can go to any City-run testing site to get tested or pick up readily available at-home rapid tests prior to Jan. 3. Sites with rapid tests can be found at: nyc.gov/covidtest, text “COVID TEST” to 855-48, or call 311 to find a testing site near you.

City officials went on to say that the nation’s largest in-school surveillance testing program is expanding, to double the number of individuals tested in each school by including both unvaccinated students and vaccinated students, as well as staff. They said the random, in-school surveillance program continues to provide public health experts with an accurate look at the prevalence of COVID-19 in schools.

 

They said all families, regardless of whether their young person is vaccinated, should consent to in-school testing at https://www.schoolsaccount.nyc/ or return a signed consent form to their school. As part of the return to school, school leaders will continue messaging the importance of providing consent as a critical part of keeping schools open and communities safe during the winter months.

 

Porter said the safety of students, staff members, and communities is the City’s top priority. “Thanks to our multi-layered, gold standard approach to health and safety, New York City’s schools continue to be some of the safest places to be during this pandemic,” Porter said. “These new measures in school testing build on our high standards for safety, protects our communities, and allows for students to continue receiving an excellent education in-person.”

Meanwhile, new State policy, which aligns with new CDC guidance and which was co-written with the City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, shortens the isolation period for fully-vaccinated critical workers (including school personnel) who test positive, but are asymptomatic, to five days.

 

Officials said staff can return on the sixth day as long as they remain asymptomatic, have not had a fever in 72 hours, and wear an appropriate high-quality mask (such as a KN95, which will be provided to staff). Staff will continue to have access to at-home rapid tests as well as in-school testing.

Every student and adult in a classroom with a positive case will immediately receive an at-home, rapid test kit and will need to take two tests in five days. Students who are asymptomatic do not need to quarantine and can continue attending school. This policy is more expansive than the CDC’s quarantine policy, which applies to only close contacts. The DOE is sourcing approximately two and a half million at-home rapid test kits, in addition to the one million test kits provided by the governor, to have on hand before the start of school.

Additionally, in anticipation of a winter increase in cases, the DOE “situation room” has doubled its staffing levels from 275 to over 500. All positive cases, including from rapid tests, will be reported directly to the situation room, via phone or email, and the situation room will, in turn, provide schools with support, communications to families, and monitoring for instances of widespread in-school transmission that would result in a school closure.

DOE officials said they are closely adhering to CDC guidance: making vaccination easily accessible and available for all, a vaccine mandate for all in-school staff members, universal indoor masking, physical distancing, routine screening testing, fully functioning ventilation systems, backed up by two air purifiers in every classroom, and oversight by the situation room.

They said that for the 2021-2022 school year, to determine the effectiveness of COVID-19 prevention practices in New York City public schools, public health experts assessed how many students, teachers, or staff members of a New York City public school developed COVID-19 after being exposed in school, an epidemiologic measure called “secondary attack rate.” They found that only 1 in 120 contacts developed COVID-19, or a secondary attack rate of 0.83 percent.

They said this is far below the secondary attack rate that would be expected in a household where 1 in every 7 close contacts become infected, or a secondary attack rate of 15 percent. Additionally, it is comparable to the secondary attack rate during 2020-21 school year when only 40 percent of students were learning in-person, indicating that prevention measures continued to be highly effective at reducing in-school COVID-19 transmission from October – November 2021.

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.