FEAR AND TREPIDATION AS TEXAS DECLARES SCHOOLS OPEN; WON'T REQUIRE SCHOOL TO NOTIFY PARENTS OF INFECTIONS

By Brian Lopez

Texas Tribune

Texas school districts will not be required to conduct contact tracing this year if a student contracts COVID-19, according to new guidelines issued by the Texas Education Agency this last week.

The agency said a district should notify parents if it learns of a student who has been a close contact to someone with the virus. But with the relaxation of contact tracing, broad notifications will not be mandatory.

The TEA announced its rules in public health guidance issued Thursday. While districts must report positive cases to their local health departments and the state, the TEA said contact tracing will not be required because of “the data from 2020-21 showing very low COVID-19 transmission rates in a classroom setting and data demonstrating lower transmission rates among children than adults.”

But some public health experts quickly questioned that rationale, noting that the more contagious delta variant of the virus was not prevalent during the last school year.

“We’re going to find that the transmission rate in schools is going to be much higher with the delta variant and it’s absolutely imperative that people get back to masking,” said Dr. Marc Mazade, medical director of infection prevention at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth.

(Ed.'s Note: One of ou readers says the photo accompanying the Tribune article is misleading since "There are very few classrooms set up this way. Most are much more crowded and not all have the plexiglass dividers and individual computers. To present this as a typical classroom misleads the public and makes it seem as if the schools are taking many more precautions than they actually are.")

The new guidance allows for remote learning for up to 20 days for students who are sick with COVID-19 or have been exposed to it. If more time is needed, schools can apply for waivers. Longer-term remote learning has largely been defunded after it was offered at the start of the pandemic, and efforts to allocate funding for it have so far failed in the Legislature this year.

Texas schools vary in when they return to the classroom, with many starting in days or having already begun. Many hoped for a safer and easier return to school after COVID-19 hospitalizations and infections declined in the state. But with the emergence of the delta variant, cases and hospitalizations — including of children — are once again surging upward, especially among unvaccinated populations, alarming some public health experts, parents and teachers.

The TEA is also allowing schools to conduct rapid tests on staff to mitigate the risk of asymptomatic individuals being on campuses. With written permission from parents, students also can be tested. Parents and school officials are to continue keeping students out of classrooms if they have COVID-19 or are exhibiting symptoms. Parents also can choose to keep their kids home for 10 days after learning their children had close contact with someone who contracted the virus, according to the new guidance.

Dr. Seth D. Kaplan, president of the Texas Pediatric Society and a Frisco-based pediatrician, said his organization believes contact tracing should be mandated in schools. After the TEA announcement, his organization contacted the Texas Department of State Health Services to urge officials to mandate contact tracing and rethink the TEA guidance, he said.

“Our concern right now is that we’re being given guidelines based on old conditions, but we’re not adjusting for what the current conditions are,” Kaplan said. “We no longer have universal masking, and we have a much more contagious variant of virus. … Not doing contact tracing is based on the old rules of the game.”

Kaplan said physicians observed COVID-19 outbreaks at summer camps where the “numbers just started to explode.” He said he’s seen parents who had to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit after contracting the virus from children who returned from camp.

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https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/06/texas-school-reopening-guidelines/