By AIMEE GREEN/The Oregonian/OregonLive
The director of the Oregon Department of Education said Wednesday that K-12 schools should soon all but eliminate the need to quarantine students who’ve been exposed to COVID-19.
Director Colt Gill said he hopes the state will be able to implement a “test-to-stay” program by the end of November. That means unvaccinated students, who have been required to stay home from school for seven to 14 days because they’ve been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, will instead be allowed to attend school in person as long as they test negative.
The tests will be paid for by the state, using federal coronavirus relief money, and free to students.
The requirement that unvaccinated students quarantine after exposure has caused major disruptions to the learning process this school year.
Students will be tested immediately after it’s determined they have been exposed, then a second time near or at the seven-day mark, Gill said.
In testing students just twice during a week-long span, Oregon’s programs would differ dramatically from many others in the U.S., where students are swabbed a minimum of every other day using rapid tests. In Georgia, exposed students are tested daily for seven days. In Massachusetts, it’s every day for at least five days. But Washington only requires two tests over seven days.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes the test-to-stay model as “a promising practice,” it hasn’t endorsed it or recommended how frequently students should be tested and over what period of time.
When The Oregonian/OregonLive asked Oregon Department of Education officials on Wednesday why they aren’t opting for more frequent testing, they couldn’t immediately provide an answer.
Gill announced the program’s rollout to a state legislative committee overseeing Oregon’s COVID-19 response.
It’s unclear if the program actually will begin by the end of the month. Officials with some of the largest districts in the state haven’t announced any plans to start test-to-stay programs in the next two weeks.
Gill told legislators that a lack of testing supplies has been holding back the program’s launch.
“Governor Brown, the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Ed have been advocating with our federal partners to get an adequate supply and a stable supply of tests going forward,” Gill said. “We think we have that nearly in place.”
The new program would “reduce or nearly eliminate quarantines for students,” Gill said. Students would need parental permission to participate.
However, Gill stressed that the best solution for avoiding quarantines is getting vaccinated.
Students who are fully vaccinated but exposed to someone with COVID-19 can remain in school without testing or quarantining as long as they remain symptom-free. It’s worth noting that the CDC says vaccinated people who’ve been exposed should get tested five to seven days later, even if they exhibit no symptoms.