What happens if someone tests positive for Covid-19 in school?

Many Buffalo area school districts are developing plans to follow if classes are held at least part of the week, but most of the reopening plans reviewed by The Buffalo News lack specific protocols for closing a school if a student or employee becomes infected.

Districts say in their plans they will coordinate with the Erie County Health Department on what steps they will take.

A school may not have to totally shut down if one person tests positive, provided strict social distancing practices are employed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But those who have been in "close contact" with the person who tested positive – regardless if anyone wore a face covering – would be required to stay home and check for symptoms of the virus. 

"Our contact tracers identify close contacts, or individuals who were within six feet of that person for 10 minutes or more during a time when the confirmed case was infectious," the county Health Department said in an email in response to questions from The Buffalo News.

The Health Department said those who have been in close contact with the infected person are "advised that they are under quarantine for 14 days past their last date of exposure and told how to monitor for symptoms and how they can get a diagnostic test."

The 10-minute contact rule is why many school districts plan to limit the interaction of students with one another and staff members in school buildings. And it's the reason why school reopening plans talk about placing children in "cohorts," groups of students who stay together throughout the entire day to limit potential exposure.

Cohorts also make contact tracing more efficient and allow "for targeted testing, quarantine and isolation of a single cohort instead of school-wide measures in the event of a positive case or cluster of cases," according to the CDC.

The CDC says a single case of Covid-19 would not, in most cases, warrant closing an entire school.

"Community spread and how much contact the person with Covid-19 had with others, as well as when such contact took place, need to be considered," according to the CDC website.

If the infection rate is higher in the school than in the community, or if the school is the source of an outbreak, "administrators should work with local health officials to determine if temporarily closing the school building is necessary," the guidance states.

Some reopening plans developed by districts provide more specific information than others on this issue.

Sweet Home's plan lists specific metrics for transmission rates for determining if a school should be closed. An indication for a school to move to all remote learning would be when student absentee rates due to illness for in-person instruction are above 20% for five consecutive attendance days, the plan states.

Lancaster's plan spells out that the 10-minute period starts "from 48 hours before illness onset until the time the person was isolated."

The North Tonawanda City School District plan says a smaller, short-term closing of a building could be employed, such as closing the area used by the ill person for 24 hours before cleaning and disinfecting it.

"The classroom or office where the Covid-19-positive individual was based will typically need to close temporarily as students or staff quarantine," the plan says.

It also says districts may consider closing buildings if staff cannot procure enough cleaning products and personal protective equipment.

But most plans contain few specifics regarding what would trigger the closing of an individual school because of the coronavirus.

Orchard Park Superintendent Matthew McGarrity said the district would immediately contact its medical director and the Health Department in the event of a positive case.

"It's our understanding they would be the ones at that point to guide anything to do with either the closure or the contact tracing," he said.

The Erie County Health Department did not provide specific criteria for when an individual school might be forced to close because of Covid-19.

"We anticipate working with school districts as we move into the fall but the process is being managed at the state level," the Health Department said.

State education guidance says schools must collaborate with the local health department to determine if absenteeism or increased illness are increasing "beyond an acceptable level." And administrators should consider closing school "if absentee rates impact the ability of the school to operate safely," according to the reopening guidance report.

If schools open in some form, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that they would close in a particular region if the regional infection rate rises over 9% based on a seven-day average. The Western New York region's seven-day average is 1%, as of Friday.