Speaker 1: It's Friday, November nine. I'm Oscar Ramires from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.
Speaker 1: COVID disruptions two classrooms continue to happen across the country,
Speaker 1: but many schools are turning to testing over quarantine to
Speaker 1: keep kids in class. Tests to Stay programs are screening
Speaker 1: students regularly after exposure to known cases, rather than sending
Speaker 1: them straight home. This allows them to remain in class
Speaker 1: while they continue to test negative. Sabrina Sadiki white House,
Speaker 1: reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins us for how
Speaker 1: schools are finding ways to keep kids in classrooms. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us, Sabrina, thanks for having me. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about an interesting thing that's going on in
Speaker 1: schools when it comes to COVID right now. Obviously we've
Speaker 1: seen all the ups and downs and implementation of plans
Speaker 1: and how it's been a really rocky time for schools.
Speaker 1: I think this is the third academic year that we've
Speaker 1: been kind of getting these COVID nineteen disruptions. But one
Speaker 1: of the things that's been coming up that a lot
Speaker 1: of places are having some success with is test to Stay.
Speaker 1: So basically, before if somebody was exposed to somebody that
Speaker 1: might have had COVID, everybody, all the students had to
Speaker 1: go home, they had a quarantine for a period of time.
Speaker 1: All that now some schools are doing daily testing, maybe
Speaker 1: every other day, and if it's testing negative, you get
Speaker 1: to stay in school, and it's kind of easing up
Speaker 1: all the disruptions that are happening at least, So so
Speaker 1: bring it tell us a little bit more about this.
Speaker 1: As you point out, it's been really difficult for schools
Speaker 1: to grapple with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. A
Speaker 1: lot of schools across the country did not even fully
Speaker 1: reopen until this fall, a couple of months ago. So
Speaker 1: many schools have actually been closed for a year and
Speaker 1: a half. And those schools that have opened, whether prior
Speaker 1: to this particular academic year or during, have still grappled
Speaker 1: with how do we test kids, how do we keep
Speaker 1: them safe? And we'll probably how do we avoid continued disruptions.
Speaker 1: But so test this day is effectively, as you said,
Speaker 1: a way to shorten quarantine period for students who have
Speaker 1: not actually test too positive for coronavirus but simply been
Speaker 1: exposed to someone in the school who tested positive. And
Speaker 1: as you said, over the law, schools that earlier we're
Speaker 1: doing was abiding by these guidelines where students just had
Speaker 1: to quarantine for anywhere from seven to ten days simply
Speaker 1: because they had been exposed. Whereas now this is giving
Speaker 1: students the option to stay in school if they've been exposed,
Speaker 1: so long as they test daily or regularly and test negative.
Speaker 1: And I think some teachers in school districts we've talked
Speaker 1: to just say it's prevented continued disruptions. You know, quarantines
Speaker 1: have been really traumatic for parents, students, teachers alike. So
Speaker 1: it's giving kids a chance to stay in the classroom,
Speaker 1: which is so important, right, I mean, everybody agrees that
Speaker 1: having kids in the classroom is of the utmost importance
Speaker 1: with all of this. And as we mentioned before that, right,
Speaker 1: so if you were exposed, students were sent home, they
Speaker 1: can return after seven days if they tested negative on
Speaker 1: day five, or they had to do a full ten
Speaker 1: days if they weren't going to get tested at all.
Speaker 1: So huge disruption on that front. And then you know,
Speaker 1: doing the remote learning just added complexities to all of that.
Speaker 1: And as you mentioned too, you know a lot of
Speaker 1: these schools were barely implementing new programs, so even something
Speaker 1: like Tests to Stay has been rolled out unevenly across
Speaker 1: school boards and school districts. It's interesting because you have
Speaker 1: sort of mixed views among school districts about what they
Speaker 1: want to see from the federal government in terms of guidance.
Speaker 1: The CDC obviously does have guidance for schools, and so
Speaker 1: far they have not formally endorsed Tests to Stay. They've
Speaker 1: kept with the previous guidance you were talking about that
Speaker 1: if students are exposed they should quarantine for seven to
Speaker 1: ten days. They could test out sooner on day five.
Speaker 1: But you know, as they said that, you know, local
Speaker 1: school districts can make certain decisions of course on their own.
Speaker 1: Now you have some people who say they wish the
Speaker 1: Test to Stay would be endorsed by the CDC because
Speaker 1: it would limit quarantined periods and also it would create
Speaker 1: a federal standard. But having said that, there are other
Speaker 1: schools that say, the school districts are dealing with very
Speaker 1: localized populations, different problems, different challenges, different sets of resources.
Speaker 1: Some of them can afford to do this testing daily
Speaker 1: or regularly. School districts are really Hamstrong when it comes
Speaker 1: to resources, and they might not have the funding in
Speaker 1: place to be testing kids on a daily basis. So
Speaker 1: some people say they're actually happy that the federal governments
Speaker 1: stayed out their business and they'd rather do what works
Speaker 1: for them. But I think what you're finding is even
Speaker 1: a year and a happened to the pandemic, and as
Speaker 1: you point out, the third consecutive academic year, what we're
Speaker 1: dealing with the backdrop of coronavirus. It's just been very
Speaker 1: uneven across the country, and a lot of school districts
Speaker 1: are just trying to essentially make it up as they
Speaker 1: go along. Now, we've seen a lot of push back
Speaker 1: and back and forth when it comes to parents and
Speaker 1: their views on what should be happening in the schools.
Speaker 1: Have there been in your reaction to at least this,
Speaker 1: because obviously you can keep the kids in school longer,
Speaker 1: that's all great, but now you add this layer of
Speaker 1: now you have to test daily or every other day.
Speaker 1: Has there been any reaction or pushback from parents? You know?
Speaker 1: I thought that some parents were very supportive of it
Speaker 1: because their children were just so tired of staying home
Speaker 1: and the parents were struggling with having to have their
Speaker 1: kids at home because you know a lot of people
Speaker 1: are also back work. Some of the flexibility that was
Speaker 1: their own a pandemic isn't there for everyone, and it's
Speaker 1: just disruptive. And now at the same time, when I
Speaker 1: talk to the school, there's one want to the school
Speaker 1: districts they are still dealing with, even with something like tests,
Speaker 1: to stay differing views around testing. You know, there's still
Speaker 1: a lot of parents who don't like any of these
Speaker 1: COVID protocols and don't want to have to test their kids.
Speaker 1: They may not want to test them at all, let
Speaker 1: alone on the regular basis. And then it's also logistically
Speaker 1: complicated sometimes to receive a call at night saying, hey,
Speaker 1: your kid was a close contact. If you wanted to
Speaker 1: test the state, come in tomorrow morning at seven, you know,
Speaker 1: and have your kids tested and do that for the
Speaker 1: next five days or seven days on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: That means parents have to adjust their work schedules, and
Speaker 1: you know there's a commuting factor putting your kid through
Speaker 1: a test every day, So you know, it's kind of mixed,
Speaker 1: I would say, but I do think more broadly, what
Speaker 1: you're hearing from the majority of parents is that they
Speaker 1: want their kids to be in school, and they want
Speaker 1: their kids to be learning in person, and they want
Speaker 1: to do that however is possible and as safely as possible.
Speaker 1: I think the one question mark I would in now
Speaker 1: is there's not enough data, and this is why the
Speaker 1: CDC hasn't formally endorsed it. There's just not enough data
Speaker 1: yet to know if it tests to say is potentially
Speaker 1: causing more outbreaks at schools. So far, there hasn't been
Speaker 1: any definitive example where tests say has been linked to
Speaker 1: a major outbreak, but of course you know there is
Speaker 1: a potential for false negatives. They're using rapid tests for
Speaker 1: this program primarily, so that's one question mark. And what
Speaker 1: we'll see down the road is if the data support
Speaker 1: that this is in fact as safe and effective as
Speaker 1: you know, the model that had been in place prior
Speaker 1: with the longer quarantine periods. There is a little bit
Speaker 1: of data though that suggests that it has saved school
Speaker 1: days so far this year for some students that would
Speaker 1: have otherwise been quarantined. I think out of Massachusetts we
Speaker 1: got some numbers. Yes, So in Massachusetts, Tests to Stay
Speaker 1: has saved eighty five thousand school days this year for
Speaker 1: students who would have otherwise been in quarantine, according to
Speaker 1: the state's Department of Education, which put out a report.
Speaker 1: I think over there there are about schools that have
Speaker 1: signed up for testing programs which include tests. Say they're
Speaker 1: not all tests to stay, but you know, it also
Speaker 1: require some resources from the state to stand up that program.
Speaker 1: So Governor Charlie Baker, who is a Republican, you know,
Speaker 1: he had to activate the National Guard to go in
Speaker 1: and help with COVID nineteen testing in K through twelve
Speaker 1: schools because there weren't enough staff members there to conduct
Speaker 1: those tests. So there's a resources question, I think for
Speaker 1: a lot of places whether or not they can stand
Speaker 1: up a program like Tests to Stay, But it is
Speaker 1: without question saving school days. I mean, there was one
Speaker 1: parent I talked to for a nine year old in
Speaker 1: Marietta City Schools in Georgia, and she's in third grade,
Speaker 1: and she was a close contact and the prospect of
Speaker 1: being home for another ten days, up to ten days
Speaker 1: was really daunting for a kid who's already been home
Speaker 1: for a greater part of the school year during COVID.
Speaker 1: So she was able to actually to test to stay
Speaker 1: and stay in class, and all those tests came out negative,
Speaker 1: and her father was saying, it's just important to get
Speaker 1: that social interaction right now and to also have consistency
Speaker 1: for kids who have actually suffered a great deal of
Speaker 1: learning loss. You know, there's a lot of studies showing
Speaker 1: the loss of learning over time because of COVID, and
Speaker 1: that's something that kids across the country are going to
Speaker 1: be making up for months and years to come. Sabrina
Speaker 1: Sadiki White House reporter at the Wall Street Journal, thank
Speaker 1: you very much for joining us. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't
Speaker 1: forget effort today's big news stories. You can check me
Speaker 1: out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday to Friday.
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