Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The Erie County Health Department held its rescheduled meeting with school superintendents Friday and rolled out its test to stay for schools.
The highly anticipated program. for some, may begin as early as this coming week.
The meeting had been scheduled for Wednesday, but county health officials say they had to postpone the meeting after getting late notice about changes from state health officials.
"The Test to Stay program has many moving pieces, and schools will have substantial day-to-day responsibility, as they are the ones who are identifying school-based contacts, following the testing protocol, and reporting results to NYSDOH and ECDOH," says Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein. "That being said, schools, students and families have shown remarkable resilience this pandemic, and demonstrated the importance of in-school learning. Broadly, they indicated this is a challenge they are willing to accept. Our school team is available as a resource for schools to implement this program safely."
The health department says the plan will allow students, who would otherwise be subject to quarantine, at qualifying schools to attend classes following an in-school COVID-19 exposure, as long as they remain symptom free. They says the goal of this program is to maximize the time that students spend learning in classrooms, while minimizing the risks associated with COVID-19 transmission following a known exposure in-school COVID-19 exposure.
Schools will perform COVID-19 testing on eligible students whose parents provided consent to participate on a schedule recommended by ECDOH.
Fully vaccinated students are not subject to quarantine under current NYSDOH guidance, and will not be eligible for the Test to Stay program.
Superintendents from across the region participated in the virtual meeting Friday and began to adapt the program to their districts and come up with plans that need to be submitted to and approved by the county.
"For too long health students have been subjected to unnecessary quarantine," Erie Niagara School Superintendents Association President Michael Cornell tells WBEN following the meeting.
"School superintendents have been advocating for 'test to stay' for months as a safe and effective way to ensure that healthy students are in school every day possible. With the delays finally behind us, schools across Erie County are ready to implement 'test to stay' next week."
