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At Some Public Schools, The Expanded COVID Testing Program Is No "Gold Standard"
By
David Cruz
Published Dec 27, 2020
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NYC Mayor's Office
By
David Cruz
Published Dec 27, 2020
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When Mayor Bill de Blasio reopened public schools again this month, following a two-and-a-half week closure triggered by COVID-19 positive test rates hitting 3%, he promised a more rigorous protocol to test students and faculty for COVID-19. The mayor promised the testing program would be the “gold standard,” for the country’s largest school system, but as schools entered an eleven-day holiday break period, some teachers said they are still awaiting that "gold standard" of testing.
Upon reopening schools on December 7th, the testing program did intensify, shifting from monthly to weekly randomized tests of 20% of the student body and staff (excluding 3-K, pre-K, and Kindergarten). The increased testing, which was required by the state and backed by school labor unions, was intended to better track the virus in schools—and keep them open—as cases continued to rise across New York City. The public school positivity rate now stands at 0.4%, according to testing results posted on the NYC Department of Education website.
In interviews with Gothamist/WNYC, teachers from four schools across the system raised concerns over the quality of testing logistics and instances where no testing has taken place at all.
And despite the low positivity rates reported by the DOE, 229 of 878 public schools currently open had shifted completely to remote learning well before the start of the break, according to city data. This was due to either schools reporting at least one confirmed COVID-19 case in a classroom, prompting a 24-hour closure of the school and a two-week quarantine for anyone who came into contact with an infected person in the school, or schools reporting two or more confirmed cases in separate classrooms, triggering a two-week closure of the building.
Currently, only 3K through fifth grade classes are open for in-person learning—middle schools and high schools have not reopened yet—and all students from first through fifth grades must agree to be tested for COVID.
The DOE has instituted a zero-tolerance policy prohibiting students who haven't submitted COVID testing consent forms from attending in-person instruction, sending roughly 12,000 of them back to full remote learning.
The testing requirement also applies to District 75, which serves special education students.
Before schools closed on November 18th, students at D75 schools were exempt from having to take the nose swab test. That policy has since been updated, requiring D75 students to also be tested, unless they get an accommodation.
But at P.S. 138M, a D75 high school co-located in the Park West Educational Campus on the west side of Manhattan, testing only took place in October, according to one teacher, who asked for anonymity over fears of reprisal. A search of the school on the DOE's testing tracker website does not indicate that COVID tests have been conducted at the school. P.S. 138M, part of a network of D75 schools with the same name, went fully remote on December 18th after another teacher reported that they tested positive for the virus, after getting tested on their own.
"They're not coming in and doing these tests that the city assured everybody that would be done," the teacher said. "That was their whole thing: We're gonna be testing weekly, randomly, every school, but yet they haven't shown up at all."
The teacher has since raised the issue with the principals and was told to simply consult the United Federation of Teachers union for help.
The DOE confirmed that a variety of factors led to the school not being tested, including an unexplained "mix-up" in October, and a scheduled November 23rd test date that was canceled after all schools went fully remote. When D75 students returned on December 10th, testing never happened the first full week. There were tests scheduled December 18th, but the school was fully remote that day.
The DOE told Gothamist/WNYC it plans on prioritizing the school on the schedule in January after the break.
And when schools do receive COVID tests, in some cases it has taken over a week to get results back, despite the DOE's assertions that a response should take no more than three days.
That was the case at P.S. 101, where some staffers and students have been waiting more than ten days for results. The school in Bensonhurst closed the week of December 21st after testers with BioReference Labs found four of 120 people tested—three students and one staffer—were infected with the virus.
The tests were conducted on December 10th, and some students who took part in the test have still not received an email or phone call, according to Brooklyn Councilmember Mark Treyger, whose office recently learned about the matter. The lack of notification has left parents wondering whether they have had to quarantine for 14 days, which the city requires if a student or staff member comes into contact with a confirmed positive case.
Treyger, chair of the New York City Council's Education Committee, pointed to staffing issues at the city's Situation Room—the central headquarters for the Test & Trace program whose goal is to provide a "rapid response" to testing—as the reason for the delay. In most cases, parents and school staffers are to be notified of a confirmed case by phone or email two or three days from the time the tests were performed.
"We're getting into semantics about what is the definition of a completed test. Because to me, completion means the students and staff that got tested [and] get the results," Treyger said. "I think City Hall is counting a completed test to mean that the lab processes that and they're calling it a day. That is not a completed test. Results have to be given to the students and the staff. So I think that's a discrepancy here."
At a news conference on Wednesday, de Blasio defended the Situation Room as being "very effective" and challenged Treyger's version of events.
"If there are individual cases that weren't handled well enough, we're going to address that individually," de Blasio said. "And we're also going to make sure if they need additional staffing, they get it."
The DOE, however, confirmed to Gothamist/WNYC that while those found to be infected were notified within three days, most families did not receive the results within the prescribed maximum 72 hours from the time testing took place. The DOE is working to resolve the issue going forward.
During a news conference on December 23rd, de Blasio said if the Situation Room is in need of extra resources, they'll "get them right away."
This wasn't the only instance in which the mayor has disputed reports of flaws in the testing program. At a news conference last week, the mayor questioned a report that P.S. 107 in Park Slope only tested students in one of two cohorts in three weeks.
"I would be surprised if it was something as long as [weeks], but I want to see the facts and act on it. The bottom line is we will do that testing in every school every week. We want different people to the maximum extent possible each week, obviously," de Blasio said on Monday.
At P.S. 329 Surfside in Coney Island, only one cohort of students out of two, Cohort A and Cohort B, has been tested since the second reopening. Cohort A has in-person classes Monday, Tuesday, and every other Friday, while Cohort B attends Wednesday, Thursday and every other Friday. A review of the testing dates on the city's testing tracker website shows that students in Cohort B were tested on Wednesday, December 9th and Thursday, December 10th. Cohort A hasn't been tested since returning in December 7th—and no COVID testing at the school occurred during the weeks of December 14th and December 21st.
"It’s very problematic, because how can the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conduct COVID tests on the same day every week knowing that it’s going to be the same kids being tested (in this case cohort B)," the teacher, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. "Then when they do test, it took nearly two weeks for the results to come back. I understand last week we were forced to go remote due to a snowstorm, so they couldn’t test on that Wednesday but there was four other days they could’ve tested."
The DOE said testing only one cohort of students doesn't invalidate the randomness of the testing, though it does its best to vary the days.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said to get a full picture of transmission rates at schools it's best to test all cohorts. That, to him, will be the gold standard.
"Until we're able to [test] every day... I think that having the two cohorts both tested on a weekly basis makes sense," Redlener said.
Miranda Barbot, a spokesperson for DOE, stood by the program, calling it "second to none in the nation."
“We are constantly adapting and strengthening our process to make it the most stringent program it can be," Barbot said. "As soon as we are made aware of any areas for improvement we take quick action to fix the situation and ensure it does not happen again.”
Tagged
COVID-19
coronavirus
schools reopening
David Cruz
David is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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