L.A. school parents will be able to learn if anyone has coronavirus in their child’s class
Los Angeles Unified Launches COVID-19 Testing and Tracing Program At Schools To Include Research on Impact and Effect of Reopening - https://achieve.lausd.net/covidtesting
Although students and parents will not be returning to their Los Angeles public school anytime soon, when campuses do reopen, L.A. Unified plans to operate a website that will provide detailed information about coronavirus outbreaks at an individual campus and even each classroom.
Under the plan — part of the district’s ambitious testing and contact tracing plan for all students, staff and their families — anyone could learn the number of positive cases to date and the number of active cases broken down by school, grade and by the small “cohorts” of students who will spend the day together once campuses are able to reopen.
Students or staff would not be identified. But parents could learn, for example, about a new case among the 12 first-graders in a particular cohort. In that example, the public web page would note: “All families of students in Cohort 1A are notified to stay home and students in 1A will participate in online learning until health guidelines allow their return.”
The online information also would allow parents to learn about what’s going on at L.A. Unified schools around them, such as how many schools nearby are open or closed and test results in the school community by age. The age range starts at newborn to 5 and goes up to 71-plus, because the goal is to include information about infections among all family members. Families would not be identified.
If the district’s testing, tracing and website plan unfolds 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 members. Last month, schools Supt. Austin Beutner said the district effort is 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 roughly $300 per student over a year, for close to $150 million.
The district has received hundreds of millions of dollars in coronavirus-related aid but has given few details of exactly how the testing would be paid for.
The website information could help schools to open and operate as safely as possible, when the time comes, Beutner said. No campus in Los Angeles County will be allowed to reopen to all K-12 students until at least November, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said late last week.
“Don’t expect to see a decision about a return to school classrooms by students until the case rate in the area is significantly lower and remains there,” Beutner said in remarks scheduled for broadcast Monday morning. “Los Angeles is purple on the state dashboard, the highest risk category, defined as widespread COVID-19 transmission in the area. That means it’s not appropriate for students to be back in classrooms.”
As of Monday, schools in Los Angeles County are permitted to open to serve small groups of students with special needs, such as students with disabilities and students CONTINUE READING: LAUSD to offer online coronavirus school infection information - Los Angeles Times
