January 25, 2022 By Carol Britton Meyer
In a January 18 memorandum to Massachusetts school superintendents and other school officials from Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley thanking them for their "ongoing efforts to keep schools open and safe for our students,” he announced a new COVID-19 testing option for Massachusetts public schools.
"The Department of Elementary & Secondary Education is [moving away from] the Test and Stay model and contact tracing and [transitioning] toward a home-testing [model]," Asst. Supt. of Schools Jamie LaBillois told the School Committee Monday night.
The Hingham Public Schools district is changing over to that option, according to Interim Supt. of Schools Gary Maestas.
"As an additional resource, districts and schools that elect to make this change will be provided with rapid antigen at-home tests for all participating staff and students that can be used on a weekly basis," Riley states in the memo.
Forms will go out to HPS parents and guardians on Tuesday regarding whether they would like their children to participate in the new model. "The tests will be delivered to the HPS and will be distributed to families, faculty, and staff [who opt into the program, which is not required]," LaBillois said. "For those who don't participate, symptomatic testing will continue to be available in the schools."
Based on a review of statewide public schools testing program data -- including routine pooled testing and the Test and Stay program -- Riley said that “schools are safe environments for teaching and learning. . . . On top of much lower-than-average positivity rates, schools are one of the few types of settings in the state where individuals are tested on a regular basis."
(The Test and Stay approach allows students and teachers who have been in "close contact" with another student or other individual within a school building who tested positive to be tested daily as opposed to having to quarantine right away. Tests are administered every day from the first day of exposure for at least five school days.)
As a result, DESE is recommending that school health personnel "increase their focus on identifying symptomatic individuals rather than monitoring in-school close contacts who are unlikely to contract or spread the virus.”
The memo outlines the new testing option -- including weekly at-home tests for staff and students who wish to participate -- that support this shift in focus geared toward optimizing in-person learning.
As always, Riley said, DESE is committed to using data to inform its recommendations to districts and schools, noting that positivity rates in the Test and Stay program indicate that individuals identified as close contacts in school are not likely to contract or spread COVID-19, as mentioned above.
The data shared by Riley indicates that transmission from close contacts is a rare occurrence in schools and that, therefore, "extensive contact tracing and associated Test and Stay procedures are not adding significant value as a mitigation strategy despite the demand they place on the time of school health staff and school staff at large.”
To enable districts and schools to make the shift towards greater focus of school health personnel on identifying symptomatic individuals and other aspects of COVID-19 management, DESE, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health will now provide this new option to optimize in-person learning.
Specifically, districts and schools currently participating in symptomatic and/or pooled testing may choose to continue those testing strategies while discontinuing contact tracing (unless a specific situation warrants it) and Test and Stay participation.
DESE and DPH recommend that districts and schools select this new option -- as HPS intends to do -- and if they so choose, are required to notify their local boards of health. Riley noted that this new option is only available to districts and schools that continue symptomatic and/or pooled testing.
Districts and schools that choose to maintain the Test and Stay approach will continue contact tracing and will not be eligible to receive rapid antigen at-home tests, according to Riley.
This new option will remain in place from Jan. 31 to at least April 22, depending on whether it's determined that further updates are needed beyond that date.
Those who respond affirmatively by January 21 will be prioritized to start the updated testing program. The at-home antigen tests will be provided on a staggered basis, with delivery of tests for staff and students occurring in alternate weeks.
"Districts that respond by January 21 will begin receiving tests for staff during the week of January 24 and tests for students during the week of January 31," Riley said.
HPS will transition to the new testing model starting the week of Feb. 7, LaBillois said. "At-home tests will be administered on a designated day of the week for each school. This means that testing will now take place at home for those who opt into the program."
When an individual tests positive on an at-home antigen test, they will be asked to inform their school of the positive result through a form provided by DESE and to stay home. At this time, the school will not be required to report the results of at-home tests to MDPH, but districts and schools will continue to include positive at-home tests in their weekly testing reports to DESE.
As a reminder, districts and schools that select the new testing program will discontinue individualized contact tracing. As such, for these districts and schools, there is no longer the expectation that close contacts will be identified, and therefore, any potential contacts do not need to quarantine. "Instead, schools should shift their focus to monitoring symptomatic individuals," Riley said.
Vaccines "continue to be the best way to protect our residents against the effects of COVID," according to Riley, who encourages students and staff to get vaccinated.
In conclusion, he said, "The strength of our statewide approach is its adaptability to meet the needs of our schools based upon their current conditions. We have now adapted our program to further optimize in-person learning. We look forward to feedback [from school officials] as we implement this new program.”