COVID-19
Back-to-school lessons on COVID-19 covered at CSBA webinar
State updates recommendations for extracurriculars and quarantine
an instructor uses and iPad and sits with students
Dr. Naomi Bardach, team lead for California Safe Schools for All, gave an update on the status of COVID-19 in the state as well as lessons learned this back-to-school season during the CSBA webinar, “Governing in a Time of Chaos: Board Meetings in the age of COVID and CRT.”

As the pandemic drags on and the delta variant continues its rapid spread throughout the country — the variant accounts for 90 percent of California infections and 99 percent in the U.S. — guidance for local educational agencies has been balancing two major goals: keeping students safe and keeping them in school.

“Schools, of course, right now are planning and actively doing mitigation efforts because we’re in this elevated time,” Bardach explained at the Sept. 13 event.

Measures like vaccinations and masking are making a difference. Compared to Florida, Texas and the U.S. as a whole, California had been able to keep hospitalizations among children low in recent months.

As of Sept. 12, there were far fewer school closures in California than a number of other states that do not have mask mandates, actively prevent mask mandates or have lower vaccination rates, according to Burbio’s K-12 School Opening Tracker.

On Sept. 14, California was the lone state to move out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high” transmission category to “substantial” and had the lowest case rate in the U.S., according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.

A layered approach to school safety — including having as many students over age 12 vaccinated as possible, testing and staying home when sick, wearing masks indoors, practicing good hand hygiene, and improving indoor air quality and using outdoor space — was highlighted by Bardach. She noted that emergency use authorization for a vaccine for ages 5-11 is expected by late fall. This prediction comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the license for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the prevention of COVD-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older in late August. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine continues to be available under emergency use authorization for those 12 through 15 years old.

The safety steps Bardach outlined may be more important now than ever as the delta variant is more than twice as contagious as previous variants.

Bardach listed six patterns that have been found as schools reopen:

  1. School-associated cases (cases found in school testing) are often caused by non-school social events. Examples include a high number of cases at a suburban high school following a back-to-school party and multiple rural high schools in a community experiencing positive cases following attendance at a local fair.
  2. Cases caused by symptomatic individuals who went to school while sick. According to Bardach, there have been two outbreaks associated with individuals (adults and children) coming to school with symptoms that led to transmission on campus.
  3. Questions on quarantine and funding related to independent study. “To support instructional continuity for students in quarantine, a package of statutory amendments intended to clarify and strengthen student learning during quarantine was passed,” according to Bardach’s presentation. Updates to quarantine recommendations were published this month by the California Department of Public Health. For modified quarantine, Bardach advised LEAs to expand testing to meet recommendations, establish seating charts or stable groups to help limit and track exposures, and to use CDPH’s Decision Tree.
  4. Staffing shortages caused by low rates of vaccination among staff. Bardach reported that multiple schools with vaccination rates estimated below 70 percent among staff are reporting staffing shortages.
  5. Expanded demand for testing to prevent outbreaks. Multiple school districts have a desire to ramp up testing immediately, but the required lead time is currently slower because of a national surge in testing demand.
  6. Schools adjusting to modified quarantine practices; contributing to keeping students in schools. The Burbio tracker suggests that testing, modified quarantine and vaccination are likely all working to keep schools open, explained Bardach.

Continuing to take advantage of state resources for testing, vaccination clinics and more will be important as demand ebbs and flows.

Latest school guidance update
On Sept. 1, the CDPH released several updates to the “COVID-19 Public Health Guidance for K-12 Schools in California, 2021–22 School Year.” The updates include recommendations and requirements for school-based extracurricular activities and further clarification on the modified quarantine recommendations. For quarantine recommendations, clarifying revisions were made to Section 8 on modified quarantine to confirm the setting of exposure can be outdoors or indoors; and clarifying revisions were made to Section 9 to confirm that this section applies to students in either modified or standard quarantine.

Additionally, Section 16 was added, addressing school-based extracurricular activities, including sports and the playing of musical instruments. This section notes that masks are required for all persons while playing all indoor sports, unless wearing a mask during play has been determined to pose a choking hazard by a well-recognized health authority like the American Academy of Pediatrics.

For the playing of musical instruments that cannot be done with a face covering — or when wearing a mask during play poses a choking hazard — at least one of the following options is required: conducting activities outdoors; using modified face coverings and bell coverings when playing wind and brass instruments, maintaining 6 feet of physical distancing and/or performing at least weekly screening testing of all individuals, including those who are fully vaccinated.