New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced the end of COVID-19 rules and regulations in schools, with teachers and school boards reacting cautiously.
As students and teachers prepare for the fall semester, Hochul announced updated COVID-19 guidance on Monday. "As of last Thursday, August 11, the CDC is no longer recommending quarantining due to exposure," Hochul said. "So let's lay this out: if a student or teacher is exposed, has a close contact who's exposed and they don't have symptoms, they no longer have to go home. They will stay in school, and the CDC does recommend the wearing of a mask for about 10 days if someone's been exposed, so no more tests to stay. With that means if a classmate tests positive for COVID and your child doesn't have symptoms, your child can stay in school, as long as they would wear a mask under those circumstances. That's what we're recommending."
Jay Worona is deputy executive director and general counsel for the New York State School Boards Association. "Throughout this pandemic, we have maintained that following the science keeps children and staff safe," Worona said. "And I think the science now is pointing to us, hopefully, and God be willing coming out of this pandemic. So there's a much greater degree of flexibility that the CDC is recommending."
Again, Hochul.
“The days of sending an entire classroom home because one person was symptomatic or tests positive — those days are over. Children need the essential experience of being together in a classroom for their development and mental health," Hochul said.
Worona believes Hochul is capitalizing on the looser CDC guidelines.
"There's a lot of, you know, school districts ‘should’ language as opposed to ‘must,’ Worona said. "And certainly, you know, school districts have that authority now to try to handle the pandemic in the best way they can."
New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta responded to a request for comment via email, saying the union “supports these recommendations and will continue to look to public health experts to issue guidance that maintains a safe learning environment so educators can focus on what they do best: supporting our students academically, socially and emotionally.”
Hochul says COVID cases currently are low, about 22 per 100,000 New Yorkers, compared to about 35 per 100,000 a month ago, and preparations are being readied in the event of an autumn surge.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett discussed the possibility of monkeypox spread in schools:
“A child might be at risk, so if people have children, and if they have a parent and or a caretaker in the household who has monkey pox," Basset said. We've had very, very few cases diagnosed, however, under a dozen nationally. Out of some approaching 15,000 cases, which have overwhelmingly been in young adult men. So the school setting is not a setting in which I am concerned about transmission. I am concerned that schools know what to do if they have somebody who's either been exposed to monkey pox ,or who has been diagnosed with monkey pox. And as the governor has said, teenagers have sex, half of teenagers have had sex before they're 18. That's what our data show whether parents like that or not. That's what our data shows. So we expect that we will see cases diagnosed and children and we learned to household exposure and related to their personal behavior. But I do not see the schools as a place where we are going to have to worry about transmission."
