As school districts across the county reopen for in-person instruction, they will work with the Orange County Health Care Agency to track and respond to coronavirus cases on campuses, but for the system to work district officials say families and school employees will need to provide accurate and timely information in the event of a positive test.
Schools will be watching for signs of illness – temperature checks will be part of many pre-classroom routines – but districts can’t test for the virus, leaving the vital case information that would spring the schools and county health agency into action in the hands of parents, teachers and staff.
“They’re supposed to notify us,” said Tustin Unified School District spokesman Mark Eliot. TUSD opened its elementary schools to students on Thursday, Sept. 24.
“I don’t know how else we would find out,” he said. “We’re relying on them to be up front with us.”
In the Irvine Unified School District, families will be reporting suspected or confirmed coronavirus cases for students in the Aeries Parent Portal, commonly used by Orange County schools. The password-protected website is the same place where grades, absences and missing school assignments are also documented for parents to track.
Irvine Unified plans to have staff follow up on the submitted forms and “gather pertinent information to ensure accurate and timely reporting.”
The information gathering efforts in the Cypress School District will include a wellness check by one of its two registered nurses if students are reported absent due to illness, Superintendent Anne Silavs said.
She said the district of 3,600 students, which opened to in-person instruction on Wednesday, Sept. 23, usually doesn’t conduct such checks, but has to be “reliant” on accurate information to potentially ignite its strategy for stymieing spread of the virus.
If a student or employee reports testing positive, the district will be contacting the Orange County Health Care Agency for guidance while maintaining confidentially required by the state and federal law.
“They’re the medical professionals, so they guide us,” Silavs said.
Tracking could be an extensive operation, depending on the course the pandemic takes – in recent weeks the spread has been slowing in the county. Orange County is home to 28 public school districts and, according to data from 2019-20, almost 474,000 public school students.
County Health Director Dr. Clayton Chau and his colleagues seem confident their agency can fulfill its role in tracking, assessing and offering guidance when cases are reported.
The agency has formed a 10-member school support team led by Dr. David Nunez. The team consists of seven public health nurses and an epidemiologist, and could be expanded if needed, Nunez said during a media briefing on Thursday, Sept. 24.
The county also has contracted with Children’s Hospital of Orange County and UC Irvine for consultation support. CHOC’s contributions include a physician or nurse available to respond to schools from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. (CHOC offers its own assistance to the public with its 24-hour line at 1-844-GET-CHOC.)
“There’s a team of pediatricians and pediatric specialists that stand ready to support the school,” said Chau, who added that private schools and colleges can receive support as well.
Dr. Matthew Zahn, director for the agency’s communicable disease control division, added Thursday that investigations will include contact tracing – especially when multiple cases in the same class are reported – and determining where the coronavirus was acquired. Students or teachers, he noted, could become infected at home.
“Whenever we have a concern, we will talk to an administrator or a nurse associated with the school and talk through the issues to make sure everyone understands who are potential exposures,” Zahn said. “Then we will work with them to make sure that the family members of any students who have had close contact, and teachers and staff who may have had significant contact, are aware of the situation and are able to take appropriate actions.”
Close contact is defined as being closer than 6 feet for more than 15 minutes.
Given the plans and guidance in place, the Orange County Department of Education expects that the identity of students and staff who test positive will remain confidential, said Ian Hanigan, chief communications officer for the department.
He said districts or schools throughout the county should be sending letters to families of students who are in “close contact” with a confirmed case and with quarantine instructions.
The California Department of Health says school districts need to implement a 14-day quarantine for close contact and recommend a COVID-19 test. For individuals who test positive, districts should require isolation from school for 10 days from the test date or onset of symptoms.
Tustin Unified spokesman Eliot said students in isolation would transition back to distance learning.
Hanigan added that notes likely won’t be sent home for unconfirmed cases.
And while schools aren’t testing for the coronavirus, they “recommend” students get tested if they have coronavirus-like symptoms such as fever, cough, loss of taste or smell or difficulty breathing.
Once schools reopen, the California Department of Public Health recommends”surveillance testing” of teachers and staff based on the local trends. County officials say super-testing sites in Anaheim and Costa Mesa can help schools with that.
“It’s incredibly important that everyone in the community is aware of the range of symptoms that can present with COVID-19 and to be aware of potential exposure to cases,” Nunez said.
State health officials also offered districts recommendations on when to physically close schools due to a COVID-19 outbreak: if at least 5% of the total number of students, teachers and staff have coronavirus cases within a 14-day period and switching to online learning if 25 percent of a district’s schools have closed during a 14-day span.
On Thursday, county health care agency officials said there has been “minimal school-related COVID-19 disease” in the county and declined to release details about specific schools.
Cypress School District began implementing its COVID-19 plans during the summer with employees who were working. A “couple people” tested positive, Silavs said, but after following protocol and recovering, they returned to work and didn’t infect others.
“Our system worked,” she said.
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