Tennessee is roughly a month into the school year, give or take a few weeks for some school districts. But already, we’re seeing a record-breaking number of COVID cases in children. They’re being hospitalized at a rate that would’ve been unimaginable just a few months ago.
More: Tennessee’s Pediatric COVID Cases Are Through The Roof, And Hospitals Are Feeling It
WPLN’s education reporter Juliana Kim and host Marianna Bacallao discuss how districts are handling a population that largely can’t be vaccinated. Listen to the conversation above, or read the Q&A below.
Despite the surge of cases in schools, some districts are faring better than others. Some of that might just depend on school size or location, but what do those schools have in common? What seems to be working across the state?
Many health experts and educators agree that it boils down to whether districts have a multi-layered approach against COVID. Are they enforcing masks, social distancing, quarantining, hand-washing? It’s not enough to just use of one of those tools. Instead, they work best when they’re all utilized together.
In Metro Nashville, students don’t have to isolate if the exposure happened while both people were masked. So why are there so many kids isolating?
Principals say that a lot of it has to with lunch. It’s the main time that students aren’t wearing masks for more than 15 minutes.
But it’s also important to keep in mind that quarantine data is ambiguous. Yes, it refers to students who were in close contact with an infected person at school, but it also counts those who were exposed to the virus at home. It also includes students who were sent home for COVID-like symptoms and have yet to prove a negative COVID test.
In Rutherford County Schools, one-fifth of students were under quarantine for at least one day in a recent week — that’s over 10,000 students. Some parents are beginning to ask the question: Are we over-quarantining?
Many health experts don’t see it that way. Dr. Calvin Smith, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Meharry Medical College, says districts that aren’t enforcing masks are likely under-quarantining. His reasoning is that when districts forego protections like face coverings and social distancing, they need to further utilize the tools they do have, like quarantining.
At the Wilson County School Board meeting last week, parents were asking why their kids have to mask, when the Tennessee State Fair was able to open their doors with no mask requirement.
That’s understandably confusing. Why should kids have to wear masks in schools if folks at grocery stores don’t have to? But the main difference is that schools are these enclosed settings — sometimes with poor ventilation — where unvaccinated kids are packed together and crowding classrooms and hallways. So, the risk is greater.
Do schools have any other options besides masking or quarantining?
Some districts outside of Tennessee are expanding their COVID testing to ease quarantines. Recently, Livingston County in Michigan kicked off a “test to stay” program where students who are exposed to COVID have the option to either quarantine or perform a rapid test every morning before school. But health experts say that strategy becomes logistically tough to operate in communities with a high infection rate. And many Tennessee school districts are already finding themselves stretched thin in the fight against COVID.
Clarification: A previous version of this story said one-fifth of Rutherford County students were under quarantine “recently.” It has since been updated to clarify that one-fifth were out “for at least one day in a recent week.”
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