Los Angeles public schools have the most ambitious COVID testing practices in the nation. “The district operates the most ambitious school coronavirus testing program in the nation, with more than 500,000 mandatory tests administered every week for all students and staff.” Even so, the Los Angeles Times reported, one-third of all students stayed home.
Glenn Sacks, a social studies teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, explains the COVID protocols that have enabled the district to keep its schools open safely.
He writes:
At Los Angeles Unified, everybody gets tested every week, and anyone who doesn’t have a negative test result can’t come to school. We’ve proven this can be implemented and made routine with only a modest amount of disruption.
Los Angeles Unified’s James Monroe High School, where I teach, is typical. Every Thursday a COVID testing team sets up in our multipurpose room. All students are tested – one week all the English teachers take their classes, next week the math teachers, etc.
The testing was rocky at first and some teachers, myself included, complained about the wasted time. Yet within a few weeks it was running efficiently, and testing now usually takes only 10 to 15 minutes.
All teachers and support staff are also tested. Everybody gets their test results back in 24 to 48 hours, delivered via email and also on our “Daily Pass” phone app.
Each morning all students and staff must generate a Daily Pass, which certifies that they have a current, negative test result and are thus eligible to enter campus. The students line up and present their Daily Pass’ QR code to the administrators and support staff for scanning, and the lines move quickly.
When there is a positive test result, administrators are notified, and the student isolates. There is contact tracing – all teachers have submitted their classroom seating charts to the administration, so when there is a positive test result, administrators can quickly identify the students most likely to be exposed.
Masks are readily available for students and staff, as is hand sanitizer. We have proper ventilation and filters, and each school site has a COVID Task Force in which both union representatives and administrators participate.
Sacks hopes that the finger-pointing and blaming will end. There is a safe way to reopen schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In other news:
Skyscraper-sized asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) is projected to make a close fly-by of Earth on Tuesday, 1/18/22.
Governor DeSantis of Flor-uh-duh, is expected to make a close fly-by of reality for a few moments sometime during 2022.
Florida is the only state that has not submitted a Covid Plan for the American Rescue Act funding. In North Florida the money is not trickling down to the schools. Schools and teachers are pretty much on their own as they cannot even enforce a mask mandate. Covid numbers remain high, and DeSantis and Corcoran are unphazed by the problem.https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/state/2021/10/04/florida-covid-corcoran-dues-funds-money-department-of-education-biden-american-rescue-plan/5989935001/
Desantis and reality: touch and go, touch and go
So for two to four days a student or teacher could be in class with COVID. At which point they look at the seating chart and only those with six feet have to isolate. Am I understanding this? And, conversely, does anyone understand that the virus is airborne so that 6 foot thing is meaningless?
Why do I have the feeling that if Trump were still president none of you would think this system was acceptable?
The alternative is to put the entire class into required quarantine, which would effectively close every class in the district during the omicron surge.
Dienne, you do miss Trump.
Glenn Sacks’ description is accurate. Throughout the pandemic, I’ve been teaching in Los Angeles, reading horror stories from the rest of the nation and feeling as though I was reading news from developing nations, and wondering why more districts aren’t doing what we’re doing in Los Angeles. LAUSD deserves credit for doing right, and UTLA deserves even more credit than the district. The negotiation teams meet all hours, weekends and holidays included, sheerly out of an abundance of good will. It’s important to keep in mind that we have a strong union and an elected school board.
and feeling as though I was reading news from developing nations
nailed it
LeftCoastTeacher,
That’s excellent news that it sounds as if the LA public schools are doing a good job with this.
One thing I wondered — it said that 1/3 of the students aren’t in-person. Has there been any examining of who those kids are?
In NYC, one of the issues right after the post-holiday january 2022 back to school, that the schools serving more affluent students seemed to have higher attendance rates and the high poverty schools had lower attendance. That probably is always the case, but the disparities seemed higher than usual.
I have not seen any numbers yet. I have seen that omicron is heavy in the wealthy west side, whereas Beta and Delta were heavy in the charter privatization plagued east side, but I don’t know what effect that is having on parents’ decision making. I am certain of one thing, certain it’s a question with a complex answer.
Superb. This needs to be nationwide, along with mandatory vaccination and masks.
Sacks hopes that the finger-pointing
and blaming will end.
Well, if that’s all one has in their
“tool kit”, their bubble, their
paradigm, they “stay the course”.
Who wants to find out the framework
of critique they’re good at, attacks
more than it resolves.
Emerson tagged it:
“A foolish consistency is the
hobgoblin of little minds.”
And as Dienne77 points out, we have the constant proximity and the 2-day OPEN infection window. But know that what is described here is NOT happening elsewhere. Not even close. Kudos to District and UTLA’s determined negotiations. But their sturdy work will be undone if the rest of us are permitted to breathe all over the rest of the class, unmonitored, unmasked and untested right into February 2022.
“unmonitored, unmasked and untested” — a title for a book about this pandemic
“Glenn Sacks, a social studies teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, explains the COVID protocols that have enabled the district to keep its schools OPEN SAFELY.” [my emphasis]
Horse manure, pure 100% grade AA horse manure.
Yeah, let’s remove the word ‘safely’. …enabled schools to open without pandemic pandemonium.
Does this work because of testing, or because of precautions like mandatory mask-wearing and having a very high % of vaccinated staff and students as well as the fact that schools are 1/3 less crowded?
And I would add that mild temps, outdoor recess, and outdoor morning lines add to the mitigation efforts. When it’s zero, you can’t check students in because they need to be in.
Where do they get all these tests? Utah has had to stop its Test to Stay program because the state has run out of tests. We’re now being told schools may close for 5 days (including weekends) and then come back. No masks required before or after.
BUT, when a school reaches the threshold, THEY STILL CONE BACK TO SCHOOL THE NEXT DAY so that parents, “Have time to prepare.” And that counts as one if the 5 days. So it’s really only 4 days and no one wears masks afterwards.
No wonder Utah has the 3rd highest rate in the country and is being told if we have symptoms to not get tested–just assume we have it.
We got all the tests by planning, allocating funds, and implementing it almost a full calendar year ago. The teachers union made it happen. We fought for safe working conditions a year ago and won something good for all. When we fight, we win.
I’m sorry, but this gives me somewhat of a chuckle (although COVID is, of course, NO laughing matter).
I’m reminded of the “Seinfeld’ episode where Elaine & Jerry are at his parents FL (yes, FL!) condo, & Elaine hurts her back. The Dr. tells her they have to stay another week, or something like that, & Jerry says, “Well, it’s not REALLY a week…think that this morning’s gone by, & then there’s lunch, &, etc., & Then it’s really just like 4 days…no, 3 days, really, because…” THIS is what I think of when I hear the changes in the CDC’s recommendations for isolation, the criteria for ” social distancing” (everywhere else, it’s 6′, but it’s been 3′ for kids in schools; why, because kids are like small adults?! What about high school kids?).
Here, in the Untied States of A, it’s really just all about the 💰🤑💰🤑💰🤑💰…nothing more, nothing less. (Hope this comment appears, because I think the one I added to the Italy post disappeared.)
The Times article was updated:
“For the record:
4:19 p.m. Jan. 18, 2022 An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that LAUSD reported a 66.8% average student absentee rate. It reported a 66.8% average attendance rate.”
The LACDPH changed their rules on Jan 12, putting in place a School Surge Protocol which suspended contact tracing in favor of saying all students on campus or in a class could be considered a close contact.
This would explain why so many students have not been able to attend school.