The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Sunday that it is launching an ambitious coronavirus testing and contact tracing program for all students, staff and their families – with the goal of paving the way for safe reopening of campuses in the nation’s largest school district .
If the plan fails, as described, it could be one of the most detailed to date for a U.S. school district, involving nearly 500,000 students and 75,000 staff. It turns out to be the most, at least until New York City’s larger school system makes clear how it will manage testing and tracking of contact.
The LA test program is not directly intended for relaunching campuses. No date has been set yet, and plans to offer distance learning will continue as the school year formally begins this week.
But what the test and contact tracking program will offer is a science-based trust builder that leads to the day that campuses can reopen, providing a roadmap for securely managing updated school operations and data to gather a valuable knowledge base.
“Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary action, and although this test and contact detection voltage is unusual, it is necessary and appropriate,” said LA Schools Supt. Austin Beutner in comments prepared for broadcast on Monday morning. “This program will provide public health benefits for all in the school community and the greater Los Angeles area. It will also provide important educational benefits for students as it will get them back to school sooner and safer and keep them there. “
The spread of COVID-19 in the Los Angeles area is much more than the state guidelines governing the possible return of students to campuses.
Beutner reiterated that it is not yet safe to return to campuses, even though this plan is underway.
“The level of new cases in Los Angeles is still two and a half times the state guidelines, and although the proportion of positive tests is below the state thresholds, it is still significantly higher than the standards of the World Health Organization and those they are in place for New York, ”Beutner said.
The superintendent referred to the New York school system because that district plans to open campuses in a modified way when its school year begins in September.
Beutner also outlined the plan for testing and tracking contacts in an advisory article in The Times published Sunday.
The district hopes to test all students and staff as part of a partnership that includes UCLA, Stanford and Johns Hopkins University, Microsoft, Anthem Blue Cross and HealthNet, among others – with a price tag of about $ 300 per student over a year , close to $ 150 million.
The superintendent did not immediately identify the source of the funding, but the district has received hundreds of millions of state and federal dollars for its response efforts for coronavirus. District officials have also said they can use additional funding.
The test logistics are currently being fine-tuned and tests will first be administered to teachers and staff who choose to work from schools, such as one of their children enrolled in the day care provided by the ward, Beutner wrote in the piece of advice.
“Tests will then be provided to all staff and students over a period of weeks to establish a baseline,” he wrote. “Continuing, tests for samples will be made based on epidemiological models for each cohort of staff and students.”
The district’s announcement comes amid growing concerns from parents about a fall semester of online learning for the 700,000 students. A Times survey published last week found that students from low-income families generally fare much less well than students from wealthier families.
Last week, the Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously agreed approved a plan which will restore structure to the academic schedule, while also allowing an online school day that is shorter than the traditional one. Teachers’ union members also approved the agreement.
The distance education scheme leaves some parents and lawyers of LA Unified wanting more hours over lessons. There are also parents who want less compulsory screen time for their young children – a reflection of the complexities of distance learning and the widespread parental anxiety about the start of the school year new week at home and online.
Beutner has long called for widespread testing of students and staff, saying such protocols were key to safe reopening of schools.
Public health experts have said such a plan seems impractical.
“At this point, we need to reduce the risk,” Claire Garrido-Ortega, a lecturer in epidemiology at Cal State Long Beach, told The Times in July. “Testing does not necessarily reduce risk.”
Beutner pointed to the success that South Korea, Denmark, Germany and Vietnam had seen in fighting the virus, and noted that the contact detection operations of those countries could be applied to LA County schools.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explicitly “does not recommend” comprehensive school-based testing, citing a lack of evidence that it would reduce transmission, plus concerns about resources, parental consent, and student privacy. It is not yet clear how often LAUSD students will be tested.
It was not clear Sunday when the first tests would begin. It is also not clear whether certain provisions of the plan would have included negotiations with trade unions for workers.
School nurses are likely to play a central role in the plan. They are represented by United Teachers Los Angeles. Union leaders said they were preparing to negotiate problems regarding a return to campus.
So far, “we have only negotiated the impact and effects of distance education,” said Arlene Inouye, the union’s elected secretary. “Our next negotiations will be about the physical return to schools.”
She pointed out that members of UTLA are not required to work off campus, although members of some other unions should do so.
Researchers from UCLA and Johns Hopkins University, which provide pro bono services, will use the test data to analyze the effects of campus openings, the district said. Researchers hope the program could be a nationwide model.
In the first phase of the program, researchers will determine a schedule for the frequency of tests for students and staff, the district said.
“Determining an ideal test strategy involves the application of epidemiological assumptions and modeling informed by all available information,” said Drs. Kristan Staudenmayer, an associate professor at Stanford who is a spearhead of the university’s contribution, said in a prepared statement.
Staudenmayer said in an interview with The Times on Sunday night that the plan ‘pursues a very noble cause: to continue teaching the children of LA Unified School District. ‘
Experts at UCLA will study Los Angeles Unified’s redesign plans and also share findings of this effort worldwide, said Dr. Steven M. Dubinett, director of the school’s Clinical & Translational Science Institute, in a statement.
Other key players include Microsoft, which will provide an app that families and staff can use to report symptoms – and which will be used to collect data that leads to the district’s ongoing response. The application is also meant to help people register for tests and get necessary information.
