If a student or school employee tests positive for coronavirus, who should be told? The whole school? Only those who are most affected? Or is the answer somewhere in between?
School districts in the Baton Rouge region are grappling with this question and their answers run the gamut.
Scott Devillier, superintendent of Zachary schools, said he’s leaning towards alerting the entire school when there’s a case.
“Parents like to know,” Devillier said. “They think you’re hiding something if you don’t tell them.”
At the neighboring Central school district, Superintendent Jason Fountain is reluctant to go that far.
“I don’t think our plan is that every time we have something is to put it out for everyone because that could cause confusion,” Fountain said.
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State guidelines require schools to notify only those who came into close contact with the individual who tested positive for COVID-19 or who showed symptoms of the disease. Those “close contacts” will then have to quarantine. Schools can inform a larger audience of an infection on campus, but, to avoid violating medical privacy laws, they must take care not to reveal information that would identify those individuals.
A close contact is narrowly defined. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines it as any individual who has been within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes during the two days preceding them learning of their infection.
To help with contract tracing, schools are working with regional officials in the state Office of Public Health.
Backed by medical experts and education groups, Louisiana's top school board Tuesday approved minimum safety standards for the reopening of pu…
Monday was the first day of school for East Baton Rouge Parish public schools. Instruction, however, is strictly online at present. In-person instruction is not starting until after Labor Day at earliest.
Spokeswoman Taylor Gast said the school district is not planning to issue schoolwide messages for each new infection. But messages sent out will reach more people than just close contacts, she said.
“Once students return, the entire class will be notified as well as any other close or possible contacts,” Gast said.
In Central, Fountain said he won’t necessarily inform an entire classroom if there’s a lone infection, saying it depends on the circumstances.
He noted that only a small number of individuals are likely to be determined to be close contacts. For instance, schools already have taken pains to keep everyone 6 feet apart, and students and adults are all wearing masks. And staff are supposed to be working separately from each other all day.
It’s more difficult, though, to avoid close contact in the lower grades, Fountain acknowledged. Up through sixth grade, Central students are going to school in person daily. And up through second grade, masks are optional for students.
“We know we are going to have situations where a teacher tests positive or a student tests positive, and we will address those,” he said.
Last week, a Central teacher did test positive. Fountain said that teacher never interacted with students, but two other teachers proved to be close contacts and were told to quarantine as well. The school ended up notifying only the teachers at the school who taught the same grade level as the infected teacher, he said.
Fountain said such decisions are case by case, “moment by moment,” and his thoughts on the topic are evolving as he learns more.
“Two weeks ago, I might have answered these questions differently,” he said.
In West Baton Rouge Parish, where schools started Monday, Superintendent Wes Watts said he has not yet had to make one of those calls. Like Fountain, Watt said he’s inclined to limit such communications to those most affected.
“We’re not trying to hide anything, though some people take it that way,” Watts said. “We’re just trying to protect everyone physically and privacy-wise.”
Watts worries sending too many messages could backfire.
“People say you can’t over-communicate. Well, yes you can,” Watts said. “Because people start tuning you out.”
Zachary, Ascension and Livingston school districts are currently issuing schoolwide announcements to parents and staff about new infections. Thus far, they are declining to share those messages publicly, but leaders in those districts realize that such messages quickly reach a wider audience.
“In today’s world when you send something out to parents, they are going to put it on Facebook. They are going to share it,” said Devillier.
That’s already happening.
More than 150 Livingston Parish school district employees and students have been quarantined three days into the 2020-21 school year.
On Tuesday, Livingston Parish school officials revealed that more than 150 students and employees have been quarantined due to the virus. School officials did not initially say which schools were affected, but a social media post noted a case in the Walker area. When asked, officials acknowledged one of the affected schools was North Corbin Junior High School in Walker. That entire school was notified Monday night.
In Ascension, where in-person instruction began on Monday, school-level notification letters and other messages have quickly found their way to social media. On Wednesday, a system spokeswoman acknowledged 10 schools have had positive cases over the past two weeks: Dutchtown High, Gonzales Primary, Central Primary, East Ascension High, Lake Elementary, Pecan Grove Primary, Dutchtown Primary, St. Amant High, G.W. Carvery Primary and Galvez Middle School.
In their school-level messages, Ascension officials don’t identify if the individuals infected are students or staff and don’t say how many were infected or otherwise required to quarantine.
Zachary's school board voted Thursday to postpone the reopening of its schools after 19 of the district's teachers were infected with or expos…
Last week, Devillier revealed that seven Zachary employees were infected with the virus, and 12 more came into close contact and had to go into quarantine. But he said he’s declined subsequent requests to say more. He’s considering an idea he heard from another superintendent to reveal such information once a week in a newsletter.
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