About a month after many started instruction, Orange County public schools are taking a variety of approaches on testing for COVID-19 as they reopen classrooms and begin to ponder the potential arrival of a vaccine.
Some districts are requiring regular COVID-19 testing for all staff, including teachers, while other districts recommend testing if needed.
Testing hasn’t been required for students at any county school. Instead, schools are following state guidelines that recommend students be tested only under certain circumstances.
The differences in testing are playing out as some schools reopen under a variety of learning plans – traditional in-person instruction or hybrid — while others continue to offer distance learning.
“I think we’re split on the coronavirus in general,” said Denise Bradford, a board member of the California Teachers Association, said about Orange County.
In Orange County schools, that split plays out in the different strategies districts employ for testing their staff and workers.
The Los Alamitos Unified and Cypress school districts, for example, have mandated testing for their staff, according to district superintendents. Los Alamitos, which on Sept. 8 reopened its elementary classrooms under a state-issued waiver, has tested all of its roughly 1,100 staff members and is planning for Round 2.
“We went to every school site and we tested all of our employees within basically a week, maybe a 10-day period,” said Superintendent Andrew Pulver.
“As public agencies, it’s no different than really the ongoing requirement to check for a TB (Tuberculosis) test for staff every four years … and things of that sort.”
Los Alamitos plans to continue testing staff every two months, but some members could be tested sooner based on a rotating scheduling.
“We’ll probably do a couple schools next week,” Pulver said. “Another recommendation (from the state) was testing 25 percent of your staff every two weeks.”
The California Department of Public Health recommended in July that school staff – which includes teachers, administrators, cafeteria workers, janitors and bus drivers among others – be tested every two months. The state agency also suggested “surveillance” testing based on local trends.
Health officials also have guided schools on preventative measures such as masks, social distancing and hand washing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Los Alamitos Unified, Pulver said, used some of its approximately $4 million from the CARES Act to partner with Orange County-based Xpress Urgent Care, which conducted nasal swab tests. The district also has used its CARES funds on other pandemic expenses such as personal protective equipment and ventilation systems, Pulver said.
The test results typically were available within two days, with the agency billing the staff member’s insurance company for the test. “It will not be any cost to our employees,” Pulver said of the tests.
As of Thursday, Oct. 15, one Los Alamitos staff member and two high school students had tested positive in the previous 14 days, according to the district’s recently-launched database that tracks coronavirus cases.
“We have three cases, so I have to really believe the metrics and the systems and the plans we have in place are serving our students and community well,” said Pulver, whose district educates about 10,000 students.
Cypress School District, which has about 3,600 students, also has partnered with Xpress Urgent Care.
“We’ve probably tested the majority of our staff,” said Superintendent Anne Silavs, whose district is allowing staff to be tested at least once every two months by their own physician or at a county testing site.
Silavs said this week that her district — which offers full-time, hybrid and online learning options — has confirmed one positive coronavirus case.
Other districts such as Capistrano, Irvine and Tustin are recommending that staff be tested but aren’t making it mandatory.
Irvine Unified features a $4 million program to provide free testing for staff through Sand Canyon Urgent Care in Irvine, said Annie Brown, the district’s public information officer.
“Staff are encouraged to utilize the district’s free testing, which may be taken every two months or when there is a known exposure,” Brown said.
Orange Unified held a voluntary testing event on Sept. 23-24 that featured about 1,000 employees — or about one-third of its staff — being tested, said Hana Brake, the district’s communications coordinator.
Foothill High biology and oceanography teacher Jim Brumm, 62, said he would welcome a test if he encountered symptoms of the coronavirus: fever, cough, loss of taste or smell, difficulty breathing.
“If all of sudden I show signs, I think I should definitely get tested,” said Brumm, who also coaches water polo and swimming at the Tustin Unified school. “We’ve been working out with the kids since the summer, too, and things have been going well.”
Most school reopening plans in the county don’t mandate that students be tested. Based on the guidelines from health care agencies, schools have recommend testing only if students show symptoms of the coronavirus.
Schools also recommend testing for students if they come in close contact with someone who has tested positive. Close contact is defined as being within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes, according the health experts.
Though that standard matches up with federal recommendations by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the state teachers union would like to see more testing.
“To keep our schools safe, both students and teachers should be tested on a regular basis,” said union board member Bradford, whose organization represents teachers from Fountain Valley to San Diego. “It should be one of the top things we do.”
But for the most part, school reopening plans in the county focus on prevention and contact tracing. On both fronts, schools are being assisted by the Orange County Health Care Agency.
“The most important thing for us, by far, is when we identify cases, we make sure that we recognize all the students who are potentially exposed. (We) make sure that they are quarantined, if they (should) be, and at least educated — even if they have minimal exposure — about the situation,” said Dr. Matthew Zahn, the agency’s medical director of communicable disease control.
Zahn, speaking at press conference earlier this month, said any mandate to test all students would present hurdles. He believes children would need to be tested about twice a week to provide a “sustained, significant benefit.”
“Logistically, that poses all kinds of issues,” he said.
Pulver said schools follow the lead of health care agencies, but he believes costs and parent consent are other obstacles to mandating testing for students. He estimated that the tests in his district cost about $130 to $150 each.
“We’ve not seen any recommendation to provide (testing) to students,” said Pulver.
“I’m not sure why the public health experts make certain recommendations on one end and not on the other.”
California schools do require immunizations for other health conditions, such as measles, Hepatitis B and chickenpox, but Silavs wonders if schools have the legal authority to test students for COVID-19.
Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second biggest school district, has established a testing program for students when its campuses reopen. But that plan has raised some legal questions.
“It’s very complicated when you start talking about student testing,” Silavs said.
But the testing questions aren’t going away.
Last week, Dr. Clayton Chau, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, said he expects a small amount of the COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in the state by the “late winter or early spring.”
That vaccine does not yet exist. But the agency has started asking residents if they’ll take a vaccine when and if it arrives.
The first questions in the district’s online survey: “If a COVID-19 vaccine is available, I plan to be vaccinated,” with possible answers ranging from “agree” to “neutral” to “disagree.”
School superintendents across the county also are starting to ponder a potential vaccine, Pulver said.
“We don’t have any answers,” he said. “Some of it might depend what is dictated down to us through the public health experts or through the Governor or executive orders; if it’s mandatory for students, if it’s mandatory for staff.”
Zahn said his agency isn’t close to a decision on any future vaccine.
“I do not anticipate mandating COVID vaccination for any population, school or otherwise, until we’re way down the line,” he said. “We have to make sure that it has been well-evaluated to make sure that it works and that it is safe.”
And that will take time. “(This is) brand new for all of us,” Silavs said.
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