Children exposed to COVID-19 can stay in Palm Beach County schools
Public school students exposed to COVID-19 no longer have to stay home from school if they appear healthy, Palm Beach County School Board members decided Wednesday.
By a 5-2 vote, board members endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new rule giving students the option to stay in school after close contact with a person with COVID-19, so long as they show no symptoms of the disease.
The new policy marks a drastic change in the way the county’s public schools deal with children exposed to the coronavirus.
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Until now, students who had “close contact” with someone with COVID-19 — meaning being within 6 feet of them for more than 15 minutes — were required to remain home for at least four days regardless of whether they appeared sick.
Medical experts say infected people can spread the disease without displaying symptoms, leading the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend quarantines even for healthy-seeming people after exposure.
But that policy has led to tens of thousands of healthy students missing several days of school since the district’s academic year began Aug. 10, raising concerns about learning loss.
Board members’ vote Wednesday took a preliminary step toward incorporating the new state rule into the district’s policies. In the meantime, district officials said they will comply with the rule, issued Wednesday by the state’s surgeon general, beginning Friday.
In announcing the new rule, DeSantis said letting parents decide whether to keep their children home from school would mean far fewer healthy students missing classroom time. Despite ambivalence about allowing more students with COVID-19 into their classrooms, a majority of board members agreed.
School Board Chairman Frank Barbieri, who voted to adopt the new rule, said in an interview that under the previous policy, “we were being required to send a lot of students home who weren’t infected.”
Still, he said he was not convinced the new rule was the best course. He said he asked Schools Superintendent Mike Burke to consult medical experts, and that the school board could reinstate its previous policy if they decide letting exposed students in the classroom is too risky.
“I don’t know whether it’s more dangerous for students or not,” he said. “This should really be based on medical advice rather than political advice.”
Burke, who recommended board members adopt the DeSantis administration’s rule, declined to comment Thursday.
Board member Erica Whitfield said that despite endorsing the new rule, she also had serious misgivings. She said, though, that the number of healthy students missing school was unacceptable.
“I am hopeful. I am hesitant. I want to see how it goes,” she said in an interview. “I know how difficult it’s been in the schools, having to send so many healthy children home, and I went back to our primary mission of getting kids educated.”
Barbieri and Whitfield said they hoped a planned expansion of voluntary COVID-19 testing on campuses would help to offset any risks from allowing exposed students on campus. Students who test positive must leave campus and quarantine.
Opposing the new policy were board members Alexandria Ayala and Debra Robinson.
Robinson acknowledged the number of healthy students being sent home was problematic, but she said allowing exposed children onto campus posed significant risks.
“I think it’s bad public health,” she said. “Yeah, it solves the problem of too many children being sent home who are ‘healthy.’ But I will remind you that I’ve never seen anything to refute the fact that there are significant numbers of transmissions that occur from asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people.”
