Vermont schools should plan to stop contact tracing and change testing procedures, state officials say

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Vermont schools should prepare to stop Covid-19 contact tracing and PCR surveillance testing ahead of a major policy change next week, the state’s top education official said Friday.

In an email sent to local school officials Friday night and obtained by VTDigger, Education Secretary Dan French outlined an “imminent policy change” that will change how schools handle cases. of Covid-19 in state schools.

The changes mark a significant policy shift for the state agency, which state officials hope will ease the heavy workload of local educators.

“One of the major contributing factors to this change in policy is the rapid spread of the Omicron variant,” French wrote. “Many of the strategies that were once effective for us will cease to be useful (if they haven’t already been) and instead become a drain on scarce resources without a clear public health benefit.”

Under previous recommendations, school staff were advised to create a list – called a “line list” – of all close contacts after each positive case at school.

But this labor-intensive process has often consumed staff time, a scarce resource amid school staffing issues across the state.

Under new state guidelines, school staff are advised to no longer contact trace after a positive coronavirus case at school. Schools should also stop PCR surveillance testing, a regime in which larger groups of students are tested with slower — but more accurate — tests on a regular basis, French said.

Instead, schools should pursue a “quicker response option.”

In the event that a student or staff member tests positive for Covid-19, schools will only notify parents whose children share a class with the Covid-positive case.

Families of unvaccinated classmates would be advised to take rapid Covid-19 tests at school and five days of daily home testing. Unvaccinated staff members who are identified as contacts would follow the same procedures.

The new guidelines also appear to be effectively shifting the burden of testing from school staff to students’ family members.

In most Vermont districts, school workers are equipped to perform “test to stay,” a regime in which close contacts of positive cases take daily rapid tests before classes begin.

According to the forthcoming guidelines, this task would also fall to the parents.

The new guidelines follow a week that saw record Covid-19 cases and a wave of school closures.

French teased the change at a pre-holiday press conference last week, but offered few details about the process.

Friday’s letter, which was first reported by Seven Days, also leaves a lot unanswered. For one, state officials may struggle to gather data on Covid-19 cases from tests administered in private homes.

There is also an open question of how – or if – schools plan to ensure compliance with the new guidelines.

“We understand that this summary won’t answer all of your questions, but hope that having this plan in advance will be helpful,” French wrote in the letter, noting that further details would be forthcoming on Monday.

The transition, French wrote, is “based on sound science” and has the “support of infectious disease experts and pediatricians in Vermont.”

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