SLCPHD Resources

Testing and Contact Tracing Plans

Testing: According to New York State Department of Health: (https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-testing#can-i-be-tested-) As New York State aggressively expands COVID-19 diagnostic testing capacity, the Department of Health has revised guidance to increase testing for frontline workers, including all first responders, health care workers, and essential employees who interact with the public, while continuing to prioritize resources. Testing for COVID-19 shall be authorized by a health care provider for individuals who meet one or more of the following criteria:

• An individual is symptomatic or has a history of symptoms of COVID-19 (e.g. fever, cough, and/or trouble breathing), particularly if the individual is 70 years of age or older, the individual has a compromised immune system, or the individual has an underlying health condition; or
• An individual has had close (i.e. within six feet) or proximate contact with a person known to be positive with COVID-19; or
• An individual is subject to a precautionary or mandatory quarantine; or
• An individual is employed as a health care worker, first responder, or other essential worker who directly interacts with the public while working; or
• An individual presents with a case where the facts and circumstances – as determined by the treating clinician in consultation with state or local department of health officials – warrant testing; or
• An individual is included under other criteria set by the NYS Dept. of Health based on an individual's geographic place of residence, occupation, or other factors that the Department may deem relevant for COVID-19 testing purposes; or
• Any individual who would return to workplace in Phase 1 .

Testing in Schools

Universal SARS-CoV-2 testing of all students and staff in school settings has not been systematically studied. It is not known if testing in school settings provides any additional reduction in person-to-person transmission of the virus beyond what would be expected with implementation of other infection preventive measures (e.g., social distancing, cloth face covering, hand washing, enhanced cleaning and disinfecting). Therefore, CDC does not currently recommend universal testing of all students and staff. Implementation of a universal approach to testing in schools may pose challenges, such as the lack of infrastructure to support routine testing and follow up in the school setting, unknown acceptability of this testing approach among students, parents, and staff, lack of dedicated resources, practical considerations related to testing minors and potential disruption in the educational environment.

Types of Tests:

Viral tests approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are recommended to diagnose current infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Viral tests evaluate whether the virus is present in a respiratory sample. Results from these tests help public health officials identify and isolate people who are infected in order to minimize SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Antibody tests approved or authorized by the FDA are used to detect a past infection with SARS-CoV-2. CDC does not currently recommend using antibody testing as the sole basis for diagnosing current infection. Depending on when someone was infected and the timing of the test, the test may not find antibodies in someone with a current COVID-19 infection. In addition, it is not currently proven whether a positive antibody test indicates protection against future SARS-CoV-2 infection; therefore, antibody tests should not be used at this time to determine if someone is immune.

CDC recommendations for SARS-CoV-2 testing are based on what is currently known about the virus SARS-CoV-2 and what is known about it continues to change rapidly. Information on testing for SARS-CoV-2 will be updated as more information becomes available.

• Employees may be required to furnish a negative test result prior to returning to work.
• A note from a healthcare provider denoting a negative test result may be required to be provided to the HR office prior to returning.
• Testing may also be required prior to the return from school breaks of greater than 3 days.
• If an employee receives a positive test result, they must immediately notify their supervisor and follow all orders from the Public Health Department and furnish a negative result before returning.
• Testing for COVID-19 is covered under the St. Lawrence-Lewis School District Employees' Medical Plan. 

New York State continues to increase testing capacity for COVID-19 on a daily basis. The guidance below enables New York State to prioritize resources to meet the public health need. Individuals who have questions regarding eligibility or access for testing should call the New York State COVID-19 Hotline at 1-888-364-3065 or visit the NYSDOH website https://covid19screening.health.ny.gov.

Please call the testing site or your health care provider before you go for testing.

• If you go to a test site run by New York State, there is never any charge for your test.
• If you go to a test site operated by local governments, private companies including pharmacies and medical practices or not-for-profit organizations, you are advised to check with the testing site and your insurer in advance of being tested to confirm you will not be responsible for any fees associated with your test.

Contact tracing will be conducted by the department of health to limit the community spread of COVID-19. Districts/BOCES should take steps to make contact tracing easier for Public Health workers. Districts/BOCES should keep a log of any visitors to their buildings, which includes the individual’s name, the time they arrived and left, their intended destination in the building, and their phone number which may be provided to Public Health officials for contact tracing purposes. 

• Districts/BOCES should also ensure that employees use their issued badges/fobs to “swipe in” to gain access to the building so that a timestamped record of entry is maintained.Tracing will be conducted by Public Health for close contacts (any individual within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes) of laboratory-confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients.
• Tracing functions in the following ways:
• For COVID-19, a close contact is defined as any individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to positive specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated.
• The public health evaluation of close contacts to patients with laboratory-confirmed or probable COVID-19 may vary depending on the exposure setting. Contacts in special populations and/or congregate settings require additional considerations and may need handoff to a senior health department investigator or special team.
• Remote communications for the purposes of case investigation and contact tracing should be prioritized; in-person communication may be considered only after remote options have been exhausted.
• Testing is recommended for all close contacts of confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients.
• Those contacts who test positive (symptomatic or asymptomatic) should be managed as a confirmed COVID-19 case.
• Asymptomatic contacts testing negative should self-quarantine for 14 days from their last exposure (i.e., close encounter with confirmed or probable COVID-19 case)
• If testing is not available, symptomatic close contacts should self-isolate and be managed as a probable COVID-19 case.
• If testing is not available, asymptomatic close contacts should self-quarantine and be monitored for 14 days after their last exposure, with linkage to clinical care for those who develop symptoms.

Remote Learning

The Remote Learning option requires virtual instruction by teachers while students attend daily lessons synchronously using a learning platform. Teachers will provide live lessons via computer video technology as all students participate in the activities.   

To ensure equity in education, the district Reopening Committees realized that  our efforts were to prioritize the return of all students to in-person instruction at this time. However, based on the dynamic nature of local community transmission of the COVID-19 virus, a phased-in approach or hybrid model combining in-person instruction and remote learning may be necessary at various times through the 2020-2021 school year.

Hybrid Learning further defined for Massena Central School District

The District understands that a basic premise of hybrid learning is that it is imperative that the District works, to the greatest extent possible, to keep families on the same learning schedule.  The Reopening Committees determined that the optimal learning model for Massena Central was an A/B schedule with a Remote Learning Day on Monday for the majority of our students.  Within this framework we did determine that some variability existed at different grade levels as illustrated below:

Pre-Kindergarten Student Schedule

Students will attend school for a half day (AM/PM) schedule.  Additionally, in order to assure social distancing, it will be necessary to break the groups into an A-group and a B-Group resulting in an every-other-day face-to-face instruction model.

Prekindergarten: The elementary schools would continue to offer half-day(am/pm) prekindergarten instruction with smaller groups of students attending every-other day. (Tues/Thur or Wed/Fri).

Kindergarten Student Schedule

Kindergarten students will be attending school every day for a half day (am/pm).

Kindergarten: The elementary schools would continue to have daily face-to-face instruction with kindergarten students through a half-day rotation. Deviating from our traditional full-day kindergarten attendance model, students will attend kindergarten daily in smaller groups either in the morning or afternoon. Special transportation will be provided at mid-day.(All digital Monday- Face-to Face Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri)

Grades 1 and 2 Student Schedule

Targeting resources, reassigning existing staff, and utilizing existing spaces will allow the district  to bring these students to full-day face-to-face instruction four days each week.

Maximize the face-to-face learning experiences for critical foundational literacy development at grades 1-2 by having these students attend four days each week.

(All Digital Monday- Face-to Face Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri).

Grades 3-12 Student Schedule

These students will attend school per the schedule delineated below.  This will be a Remote, A/B, A/B Hybrid Schedule.

Students in grades 3-12 will attend school face-to-face every-other day while attending virtually/remotely on opposite days. Mondays will be remote learning for all students.

(All digital Monday-A=Tues/Thur or B=Wed/Fri)

The district will prioritize returning to in-person instruction more frequently based on the educational or other needs of early learners, students with disabilities, and English language learners.

Self-contained special education classrooms (12:1+1, ABA) will attend four days each week (Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri). Monday will be digital learning for all students in the district.

Remote Instruction

Students who are not attending school in person

We expect, due to a survey being conducted of our families, that a percentage of our students will opt to not attend in person Hybrid Learning.  We understand that families will need to consider many factors as they determine if and when to send their child to school in person.  Families and students will have the opportunity to opt for a fully Remote Learning Experience that will consist of an all-virtual instructional model.  We will provide opportunities at the end of every quarter to allow students to opt-in to the hybrid model, if they elect to start the year in Remote Learning.

These students will also follow the general plan of a Digital Day, A/B, A/B Hybrid Schedule. The educational experience is far more robust than what we were able to do in the Spring of 2020 in Emergency Remote Learning.  These students will follow a schedule similar to that of the Hybrid Model with the exception that all instruction happens via technology.  

Assigning students to Schedules

The groupings of the students for the A/B days will be done collaboratively.  We will make every effort to ensure that siblings in the same household are attending school on the same day if they are participating in the Hybrid schedule.  Families that have students attending in the Hybrid Model will need to identify childcare opportunities three days a week according to the group of students their child(ren) is assigned to.

Students with Disabilities (Complex Need Students)

These students will be prioritized for in-person learning in order to ensure that they are receiving a Free and Appropriate education as laid out by IEP requirements.  The district will communicate and collaborate with the families of our at-risk students to ensure that the families are informed about and agreeable with the educational program their student is participating in.  The district will collaborate with the Committees on Special Education(CSE) and Committee on Preschool Special Education(CPSE) to assure that all services that at-risk students require are available to them in accordance with the Health and Safety requirements of the NYS Department of Health as well as the information in the NYS Reopening Guidance Document.  Furthermore, all modification, accommodations, supplementary aides and services, technology (including assistive technology) will be provided to meet the IEP requirements of students.

Students in self-contained, special education programs (K-12) will be on-site daily while school is in session.

Students receiving special services (Special Education, ENL, Speech, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, etc.) will continue to receive those services either in person or remotely.

Enabling Digital Learning

Access to devices and the internet is critical for high-quality teaching and learning to be successful within the Hybrid and fully Remote Learning models.  The district will provide a chromebook to any student in grades 3-12 that needs one to be successful.  We are committed to ensuring all students who need access to a device have one, as well as access to the internet.  We will work to solve connectivity issues with these families.  If no solution can be found, we will prioritize these students for in-person learning in the Hybrid Model.  It is essential that families communicate with the district when either of these items becomes an issue so we can remove any potential barriers to learning.