NYC School Closing Protocols Changed Due to COVID-19 Cases

Photo by CDC from Pexels

When there are still 78 days until the end of the school year on June 25, the City authorities continue to make changes in the security protocols in public schools, with the announcement this Thursday of new guidelines for the temporary closure of classrooms and campuses if there is an outbreak of COVID-19 cases.

The new closure rules that will take effect next Monday are: If 1 positive case is reported, the entire classroom must take remote classes and will return to campus after 10 days; if they are 2-3 positive in a week, the coronavirus tests will increase throughout that school, but it will not be closed; and if there are 4 or more in different rooms, the school will be closed for 10 days, but in many cases, the entire building will not be closed.

Education Chancellor Meisha Porter specified that following the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the City's own Health experts, “we can now confidently make changes to the protocols for school closings, and the schools will only close if there are four or more cases in different classrooms in the same school and if in a period of seven days it can be traced that those who were exposed (to infections) were due to cases within that school."

Basically, that change means, compared to the previous rules, that two cases were needed in a school instead of the four now before to consider closure. Before, it did not matter if the tracing of the contagion determined that it came from a relative. In contrast, now the trace must determine that the contagion came from another member of the same school.

Another change, as the head of the City's Department of Education (DOE), continued to explain that now the closures will occur individually and only in the affected school and not the entire building, taking into account that many buildings house several campuses at the same time.

“If a case is reported, the investigation will begin, but not the entire school will have to be closed for 24 hours while the investigation is underway. And I know that many parents are next to me yelling hooray for that ", emphasized Porter, adding that" to be clear, the quarantine in a classroom will continue to be carried out if a case is identified in that class since it will be assumed that others were in close contact with that case

What does this protocol represent for the city?

We are already in a new normal life with COVID, and we must learn to live with it. A year ago, everything was closed because we did not know how to control the virus or how it behaved, but today we all know how to protect ourselves and act in a case of contagion.

Closing schools means that schools must recreate a new program for virtual classes, and children have suffered enough from this virtual modality.

Mayor Bill de Blasio explained that the new guidelines are based not only on the CDC's recommendations but also on the opinions of parents and teachers.

The new rules will help us have more consistency in student attendance and school calendars, while maintaining strong health and safety standards.

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