Approximately 130,000 children in the Los Angeles Unified School District were missing during the first days back from Christmas break, ushering in yet another chapter of pandemic disruption in the nation’s second-largest school system.
Furthermore, teacher and employee absences have remained high, prompting the use of substitute instructors and office administrators to staff classrooms. This week, all schools have stayed open for in-person study. According to incoming Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, the district will continue to deliver a message to parents that Los Angeles schools are safe.
“They are safe places because of the protective measures that are in place here,” explained Carvalho, during an event held to welcome him at Elysian Heights Elementary Arts Magnet in Echo Park. “Parents need to understand that, they need to bring kids to school.”
Around half of all student absences are due to students who tested positive for the coronavirus in the week preceding the start of the term. Others may have tested positive or experienced symptoms, but the data was not entered into the district’s health-screening system. There was no indication of how many families are choosing to keep their children at home out of caution as the Omicron strain continues to cause record numbers of cases.
Carvalho claims that the same challenges that are plaguing LAUSD due to rising coronavirus rates are also plaguing Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the district he is leaving, generating increased student absences and squeezing an already tight labor market for teachers and other school staff.
Kelly Gonez, president of the school board, said she understood many parents’ reluctance to return their children to in-person instruction due to the high number of coronavirus infections.
“Yes, our positivity rates are higher to start the spring semester, but we’re seeing that trend in a positive direction,” Gonez said, referencing a decline in L.A. Unified students testing positive this week.
When schools reopened on Tuesday, 17 percent of children and 15 percent of LAUSD employees tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the district. On Thursday, 15.6 percent of pupils and 13.3 percent of staff tested positive, which is still more than ten times the number of cases seen before the Christmas break. The district has the nation’s largest school coronavirus testing program, with over 500,000 mandated tests given to all students and staff every week.
Despite the surge in infections, fewer students who come into contact with an infected individual are expected to be sent home to quarantine than they were in the fall, thanks to altered district regulations that emphasize a “test-to-stay” strategy.
Students can stay in school if the exposure happened while they were being supervised at school. The school must also be able to verify that both the infected individual and the close contact were appropriately wearing masks. And the exposure must take place in a school that is not experiencing an active infection outbreak, defined as three or more cases considered to have been transmitted at the school in the previous 14 days.
There is widespread confusion about who must stay home and for how long – owing to the fact that the laws are complex and constantly changing. Even Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer stated on Thursday that her department needed more time to study the changes after the state issued amended guidelines this week. On Jan. 7, L.A. Unified sent new guidelines to administrators, which went into effect one week later on Friday.
One modification in state guidelines makes it easier for schools to deal with affected students’ possible close relationships.
Rather than analyzing each case and identifying close links, schools might send out a notification to everyone who might be affected. If a 10th-grade student comes to school with an infection, for example, everyone in that student’s classes and activities will be informed. However, no one else would be sent home unless they showed signs of illness. According to the state, those who may be impacted should be checked “within three to five days” of the last exposure.
Data patterns indicate the Omicron spike is anticipated to lessen in the coming weeks, according to Carvalho, which will offer more stability to staff and student attendance. He warned against easing school safety rules too rapidly, saying he’s “concerned about the fact that as soon as conditions improve a little bit, we let our guard down, we go back to where we used to be.”
“We cannot allow that to happen,” he continued. “At stake is the viability of schools being open.”
Carvalho reaffirmed his support for the district’s attempts to keep schools open for in-person instruction, stating the board “has done everything right in terms of protective actions for the benefit of students.”
Carvalho did not confirm when he would take over as superintendent for the first time. He stated that he would relocate to Los Angeles in early to mid-February to offer transition time for the Florida school district where he served as superintendent for 13 years.
Image Credit: Getty
You were reading: Nearly 130,000 LA students miss day one amid Omicron surge
