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NYC Schools Change 'Two-Case' Rule To 'Four-Case' Rule To Reduce Unexpected COVID Closures
By
Sophia Chang
and
Caroline Lewis
Published Apr 8, 2021
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By
Sophia Chang
and
Caroline Lewis
Published Apr 8, 2021
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The city’s public school system is slightly loosening its COVID-19 response protocols after months of abrupt openings and closures of classrooms and school buildings have frustrated many students, families and educators.
Starting Monday, the Department of Education will move from a “two-case” rule to a “four-case” rule. Schools will close only when there are four reported cases of COVID-19 in different classrooms within a week that are traced to a known exposure inside the school, a change from the previous policy that closed buildings if there were two or more unconnected cases from any source inside or outside the school community. These closures will last ten days.
Individual classrooms will still follow the current protocol of closing for ten days if there is even one reported case of COVID-19. If there are two to three cases reported in a school building in a week, testing will increase from randomly screening 20% of all in-person students and staff to 40%.
The city will also no longer shut down entire school buildings temporarily while suspected cases are investigated, instead waiting until cases are confirmed.
The updated policy is meant to provide more stability and classroom time for in-person learning, said schools chancellor Meisha Porter, who on Thursday called the new protocols “a more targeted, precise response to situations in our school communities.”
The new rules still rely on a set number of cases to trigger classroom or school closure, instead of focusing on the level of transmission within the school and surrounding community as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hypothetically under CDC guidelines, for example, Staten Island schools wouldn’t be able to participate in indoor sports and all schools there would be asked to treat classrooms as bubbles that don’t interact.
But the updated four-case policy does hew closer to those federal guidelines than the previous two-case protocol, by seeking to establish that positive cases are linked to in-school transmission before a school is shut down.
“We've seen the studies consulted with medical experts and based this change on guidance from the CDC. And we've heard the voices of our school communities, calling for increased stability around in-person learning, as long as we can do so safely,” Porter said at a press briefing. “This is exactly what this change represents -- fewer closures mean consistency and stability for students, staff, families, and more days in classrooms for New York City's children.”
The long-promised changes were hammered out with union support, Mayor Bill de Blasio added. The United Federation of Teachers union, which has held out against changing the protocols, hailed the updated policy as a safe way to decrease disruptions of teaching.
“Now, with our increased knowledge about the spread of the virus, and as more teachers and other school staff have been vaccinated, our medical experts are convinced that the rule can be changed and still maintain safety,” UFT president Michael Mulgrew said in a statement Thursday, adding, “This change will mean that while many classrooms will continue to close, the number of overall schools closed will decline, a repeated request of both teachers and parents.”
Dr. Jay Varma, the mayor’s senior health advisor, said the change in policy was driven by evidence from 700,000 tests conducted at schools so far this year that show a low rate of transmission in schools, though he acknowledged that contact tracing is still imprecise. Studies from around the world have also shown that in-school learning is not associated with substantial community transmission of COVID-19.
“That's why we have this criteria that we put in there, that we have to have traced their exposure to the school, and it has to have occurred in multiple different places around the school...for us to make the very difficult decision to actually move the entire school to remote learning,” Varma said.
The city did not specify exactly how many resources it expects to add to contact tracing at schools.
The increase of vaccinations among educators and school staff was also cited as a major reason for de Blasio’s confidence in changing the policy, as he noted at least 65,000 adults in the Department of Education have been vaccinated. Staff and older students who have been fully vaccinated will not have to isolate themselves if their classes are required to quarantine.
Porter said she hoped the updated policy will allow families to make informed decisions on whether to return to in-person learning, with a new deadline to opt-in to hybrid learning extended until Friday April 9th. The vast majority of the public school system is enrolled in remote-only learning, at about 700,000 of the 960,000 student population.
Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city health commissioner, acknowledged that the city’s policy remains stricter than what the CDC recommends.
The city’s plans to focus testing and boost tracing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within schools aligns with recommendations from infectious disease experts who spoke with Gothamist/WNYC, who have been generally critical of the two-case rule.
But the policy of closing a classroom for 10 days after one case is detected is far beyond what Dr. Elissa Schechter-Perkins recommended when speaking about best practices. Classrooms with suspected spread should close only for as long as it takes to investigate, rather than automatically close for the entire period of quarantine, according to the infectious disease expert, whose research led the CDC to change its physical distancing guidelines in schools.
“If there are multiple cases in a classroom without outside exposures that raise concern, then there might have been in-school or in-classroom transmission,” she told Gothamist/WNYC. “[In that case], it makes sense to temporarily close that classroom while it’s investigated, but that should be exceedingly rare.”
Tagged
COVID-19
coronavirus
schools reopening
new york city
schools
public school
bill de blasio
nyc public schools
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Caroline Lewis
Caroline Lewis is on the health care beat for WNYC and Gothamist. She has covered COVID, a nurses' strike, the overdose crisis and New York’s marijuana legalization effort, and spent a year investigating patients' medical bills. She always wants to hear about how everyday New Yorkers experience the health system. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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