The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday the endorsement of test-to-stay policies for schools across the country, saying they are "an encouraging public health practice to help keep our children in school.”
The CDC also says both test-to-stay programs and quarantining approaches are both equally good options for schools.
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Several schools across the country have already adopted test-to-stay policies, with many schools managing to keep students in the classroom rather than being sent home to quarantine and miss out on valuable learning time.
Nearly three weeks ago, the Erie County Department of Health announced they were partnering with Grand Island Central School District to introduce a test-to-stay pilot program to see how effective these measures could be. The program would offer its students daily testing for those who were unvaccinated and deemed as close contacts.
After two weeks of the program officially being in place, the reviews have been nothing but positive.
"I have heard nothing but successful stories out of Grand Island," said Founder of the Western New York Education Alliance, Tarja Parssinen. "I've been following Superintendent [Dr. Brian] Graham on Twitter and he's been sharing the successes coming from it. I know that in the first two days of the program alone, they tested 45 students and all 45 students tested negative and were allowed to return to class. Before the test-to-stay program, 45 kids would've been put in quarantine for 7-10 days and have that learning taken away from them. So from the two days alone, I consider that a huge success."
"We have been doing this pilot now for 10 school days, we started on Dec. 6," said Grand Island Superintendent Dr. Graham of his test-to-stay program. "For those 10 days, we have administered 175 rapid antigen tests in the morning before school. Of the 175 tests that we've administered, we have had 174 negative tests. So that means the students who had those negative tests were allowed to stay in school, continue their learning, continued access to the wonderful teachers we have, access to the mental health supports and food and nutritional supports. Those hours for the 174 negative tests equal 1,044 instructional hours that those students had access to."
Following the news of Friday's announcement from the CDC, both Graham and Parssinen are ecstatic to have the the U.S. federal agency on-board.
"I think it's absolutely a game-changer for students all-across the United States and here in New York state," Dr. Graham said. "With the director of the CDC making an announcement indicating it's a proven practice, we are so looking forward seeing how the New York State Department of Health will respond to this news, and in fact how the Erie County Department of Health will respond. Really, quite honestly, there's no reason for the New York State Department of Health to stand in the way of, what is now deemed a proven practice."
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"[The CDC is] about six months behind the science, but it is fantastic to see that they're finally doing this," Parssinen added. "What we're really hoping for now is the full support of the New York State Department of Health in helping all the school districts roll this out."
Dr. Graham says that the Grand Island Central School District is still in the pilot phase of its test-to-stay program and still working in collaboration with the Erie County Department of Health. The superintendent has been really pleased with the efforts of Erie County in this program, as well as Buffalo Homecare Inc., who has provided the schools the personnel to conduct the testing each morning.
"Moving forward, we're still considered to be in that pilot. Erie County will review the data that's within the pilot, and make a decision on how to move forward," Dr. Graham explained.
"I do hope, because of the way the CDC has responded, that perhaps the Erie County of Health, in collaboration with the New York State Department of Health, can move faster and provide this opportunity quicker for all students in Erie County."
Meanwhile, other school districts across Erie and Niagara County have observed the work done by other schools in the country and have come away impressed with the success rates their test-to-stay programs have had with their students. Dr. Graham spoke highly of the efforts being made in Massachusetts and Utah, where the positivity rate for students in the program has remained very low.
"Test-to-stay has been in Massachusetts in all of the public schools. If we look there, they've had these programs in more than 1,800 schools that's worked safely and successfully the entire school year," Parssinen said to the other programs. "To date, it's saved over 208,000 in-person school days. Right there, that's a lot of pilot programs that show that it's worked really, really well."
Parssinen has been in talks with the Erie-Niagara School Superintendents Association, and she says that other superintendents are eager to roll out the test-to-stay program.
"They see the success, they see the possibilities of having more students, healthy students in class, and I think they just need support from the county and the state with implementation," she said.
"Based on our data, it looks really good, but I think it's important for other districts to work with their boards of education and determine the best course of action for their students and their school community," Dr. Graham said.
Despite the success rates of the test-to-stay program with Grand Island and other schools around the country, Dr. Graham knows it will be a challenge for schools to implement this practice right off the bat.
"If this moves forward in Erie County or throughout New York State, there is a lot of planning and a lot of time that needs to be provided to understand exactly how to do this in a logistical way that's safe for kids and works in each school community," Dr. Graham said. "The planning and preparation is critical, but once that's done, it moves along very, very well."
Down Interstate-90 in Monroe County, schools across the county have already rolled out the test-to-stay program with the exception of the Rochester City School District. For Parssinen, it is important that every school in Monroe, and eventually Erie County, gets the chance to have a test-to-stay program available for its students.
"My feeling is if you can't roll out this program equitably, then we can't be doing it. We have to figure it out for every single school district," Parssinen said. "I really hope Erie County and Niagara County figures out how to implement it equitably in all districts.
"I'm worried for Buffalo Public Schools. I want all students who need to be in class just as much as kids in the suburbs to have access to that. I know there are some school districts in states... starting in the New Year, all asymptomatic students won't need to quarantine at all. That takes away the burden right away. If you are asymptomatic and you are not sick, you get to stay in class. That's one very equitable way of rolling it out everywhere."
When all is said and done, the test-to-stay strategy can be another option for parents when their kids are identified as a close contact to a student who has tested positive for COVID-19.
"The first thing is they can choose to keep their child in quarantine," Dr. Graham said. "Parents now, as it is endorsed by the CDC and hopefully adopted by New York State, have a choice to participate in test-to-stay, which is another option for families. And, of course, families always have the choice to consider having their child become fully vaccinated. I think when parents have choices, it empowers families to make decisions that are in the best interest of their children."