WASHINGTON — Local school systems are doing whatever they can to prevent COVID’s spread as students return from spring break.
Prince George’s County Public Schools distributed a round of at-home tests to students before the break. The school system asked families to test students and upload their results ahead of their return on Tuesday.
District of Columbia Public Schools not only handed out test kits to students, but it also required them to upload proof of a negative test result online Monday night.
D.C. is one of two communities in the region that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified as “medium community level” in terms of virus spread during the BA.2 subvariant surge.
Fortunately, hospitalizations in the District, and elsewhere in the region, have stayed very low.
In Montgomery County Public Schools, the school system also gave students and staff rapid take-home tests.
“I’m very grateful for the recommended take-home tests,” said MCPS parent Claire Rosche Matzzie, who is also a public health consultant and primary care physician assistant. “So, all children tonight are supposed to be doing a rapid antigen test and reporting any positives to MCPS.”
She added communication from the school district has been clearer now than during the omicron surge as well.
“I think they learned from previous challenges with unclear communication,” Rosche Matzzie said. “I do think they're working very hard. They've engaged some parents.”
However, she added she wished everyone in MCPS was required to take the tests before returning to school too.
“You can't just depend on the vaccination because we know that while the vaccines are excellent at protecting against severe illness, hospitalization, and death, you can still get sick and miss school,” Rosche Matzzie said.
MCPS parent Morgan Holmes has an unvaccinated 16-month-old in her home. She said she is a bit worried about one of her elementary children bringing the virus home.
“They're little kids and they bring home germs,” she said.
Holmes said, sometimes, it feels families with unvaccinated kids under the age of 5 are forgotten.
“It is a lot of anxiety to try to protect your children in an environment where there are fewer and fewer precautions being taken,” she said.