A program designed to help students return to school faster following coronavirus is launching soon in some Alexandria City Public Schools.
"Test to Stay is a practice that consists of contact tracing and serial COVID-19 testing to allow school-associated close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to continue to attend school during their quarantine period," the Virginia Dept. of Health explains.
While the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is on the decline, Alexandria still sees an average of 35 confirmed cases each day. (That's about one-tenth of the seven-day average 5 weeks ago when Alexandria hit its most recent peak for virus transmission.)
The program will start in a handful of Alexandria City Public Schools, the program will be in addition to opt-in weekly testing offered in schools by Curative. The new program will allow some students to return to school following five days of quarantine under a variety of conditions.
"The benefit to students and families is that students are able to return to in-person learning more quickly than with a full 10-day isolation period following COVID-19 diagnosis or the development of COVID-19 symptoms," according to an email sent home to parents from ACPS.
Not all schools will be participating in the program — the pilot program only includes James K. Polk Elementary School, Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy and the Satellite Campus of Alexandria City High School. Parents at those schools have received an email from their principals with complete details.
According to ACPS:
"Starting Tuesday, Feb. 22, students who have tested positive for COVID-19 will be required to fulfill one of the requirements below in order to return to school:
- Fulfill a 10-day isolation period.
- Fulfill a minimum five-day isolation period, be free from symptoms and submit a negative antigen (rapid) test result from an at-home test or a test from a medical or testing provider to reportingCOVID@acps.k12.va.us.
- Fulfill a minimum five-day isolation period, be free from symptoms and participate in the ACPS Day six to10 COVID Testing program.
In addition, last week, ACPS officials announced they would be convening a special School Board meeting to discuss masks and other coronavirus mitigation measures. Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed into law a bill that eliminates mask mandates in Virginia public schools, giving parents the ability to decide whether their students wears masks or not. Alexandria City had joined several other school districts in a lawsuit earlier this year when Youngkin tried to essentially accomplish the same thing via Executive Order.
"At its upcoming special called school board meeting on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, the Alexandria City School Board will discuss the current mask requirement, which is one of several mitigation measures put in place to help reduce the transmission of COVID-19. The staff has been actively planning for when masks will become optional. Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our students and staff in our school division," the school board announced.
