UPDATE Nov. 18: This story has been updated to include new information from the Oregon Health Authority, which says the “test-to-stay” program will be offered to unvaccinated staff as well as students.
The director of the Oregon Department of Education said Wednesday that public and private K-12 schools statewide should soon all but eliminate the need to quarantine students who’ve been exposed to COVID-19.
Director Colt Gill said he hopes the state will be able to implement a “test-to-stay” program by the end of November. That means unvaccinated students, who have been required to stay home from school for seven to 14 days because they’ve been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, will instead be allowed to attend school in person as well as extracurricular activities, as long as they test negative. They will be told to quarantine at home when they’re not attending school or related activities.
The tests will be paid for by the state, using federal coronavirus relief money, and free to students.
Students will be tested immediately after it’s determined they have been exposed, then a second time near or at the seven-day mark, Gill said.
In testing students just twice during a week-long span, Oregon’s programs would differ dramatically from many others in the U.S., where students are swabbed a minimum of every other day using rapid tests. In Georgia, exposed students are tested daily for seven days. In Massachusetts, it’s every day for at least five days. But Washington only requires two tests over seven days.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes the test-to-stay model as “a promising practice,” it hasn’t endorsed it or recommended how frequently students should be tested and over what period of time.
Rudy Owens, a spokesperson for the Oregon Health Authority, said Thursday the plan to test students twice over a week’s time takes into account “the low-risk nature” of school exposures because of precautions in place, such as mask requirements, and limits to testing capacity.
Owens also said the program will be offered to unvaccinated staff. Although Oregon has mandated school employees be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15, some received permission to remain unvaccinated due to religious or medical exceptions.
Gill announced the program’s rollout to a state legislative committee overseeing Oregon’s COVID-19 response.
It’s unclear if the program actually will begin by the end of the month. Officials with some of the largest districts in the state haven’t announced any plans to start test-to-stay programs in the next two weeks.
Officials at Portland Public Schools didn’t respond to a query Wednesday. Shellie Bailey-Shah, a Beaverton schools spokesperson, said the district’s test-to-stay start date will depend on test availability. Spokesperson Beth Graser said Hillsboro schools “stand ready to participate in programs that are made available to us” but she thinks districts need more information and direction from the state.
Gill told legislators that a lack of testing supplies has been holding back the program’s launch.
“Governor Brown, the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Ed have been advocating with our federal partners to get an adequate supply and a stable supply of tests going forward,” Gill said. “We think we have that nearly in place.”
According to the Oregon Health Authority, the state has amassed about 250,000 BinaxNOW rapid antigen tests, at a cost of $5 each, to start the new program and expects to receiving ongoing shipments to refresh its stores. Gill said the program would “reduce or nearly eliminate quarantines for students.” Students would need parental permission to participate.
However, Gill stressed that the best solution for avoiding quarantines is getting vaccinated.
Students and staff who are fully vaccinated but exposed to someone with COVID-19 can remain at school without testing or quarantining as long as they remain symptom-free. It’s worth noting that the CDC says vaccinated people who’ve been exposed should get tested five to seven days later, even if they exhibit no symptoms.
The requirement that unvaccinated students quarantine after exposure has caused major disruptions to the learning process this school year. Although state education officials didn’t respond Wednesday to provide a statewide figure, more than 3,300 students in Portland Public Schools have been directed to quarantine for periods of up to 10 days or more since the start of the academic year in September. However, that number could be an overcount because some of the 3,300 reported quarantines might be of students who were told to stay home multiple times.
There also have been a series of high profile quarantine incidents. In early September, between 40 to 50 students at both Duniway Elementary in Southeast Portland and Hallinan Elementary in Lake Oswego were forced to quarantine in separate incidents after riding school buses with someone who was infected. Later that month, 2,700-student Reynolds High School in Troutdale temporarily shutdown in-person learning after educators determined a third of students might have come into close contact with four contagious people. In September and October, a second grader in the North Clackamas School District missed out on a total of 16 days of school because he was exposed to different COVID-19 cases twice.
-- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee