The City School District of Albany is prepared to begin a district-wide COVID-19 testing system at any time following Thanksgiving break should the level of confirmed cases in the area meet the state’s criteria for a “yellow zone.”
The district will be prepared to test 20% of all in-person students and employees over a two-week period if new cases continue at recent levels. The plan calls for school nurses to lead testing teams that will visit each building daily, including district offices at Academy Park, Essex Street and Harriet Gibbons Student Services Center.
Testing would be conducted randomly each day. Parents and guardians would be required to provide consent for students prior to testing; the district will have a consent process ready for families following Thanksgiving break.
For a district-wide yellow zone designation, the district would be required to test at least 70 people daily to meet the 20% two-week threshold. A yellow zone is the least-restrictive of three micro-cluster levels defined in the state’s plan to address the significant rise in COVID-19 cases.
If a school district’s results after two weeks of testing are below the seven-day average for the county, the district can stop testing.
“We have a plan in place to be prepared to test students, faculty and staff in a building, all buildings in a certain part of our city or all buildings district-wide, depending on the guidance we receive from the state and the Albany County Health Department,” Superintendent Kaweeda G. Adams said.
The district continues to monitor COVID-19 statistics on a daily basis, she added.
If confirmed cases continue to rise in December or the new year, the district is prepared to shift to a full virtual model for all students.
“The most critical thing that everyone can do to help us maintain both in-person and virtual learning options for our students is to follow the health and safety guidelines,” Adams said. “Wear a mask, maintain social distancing of 6 feet or more, wash your hands frequently.
“We encourage our entire community to adhere to these practices in order to reduce the COVID-19 infectious rates so that we may continue to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for our students, faculty and staff.”
