MALDEN, MASS. (WHDH) - Boston Public Schools families on Tuesday urged state education officials to do more to protect students and staff amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Families, students, and allies planned gathered at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in Malden on Tuesday morning as DESE’s monthly board meeting was held.
Some parents gave testimony in the board meeting while others protested in the form of a car caravan. Additional families and allies also sent emails and made phone calls to DESE with a list of the following demands:
- Invest sufficient resources and staffing to ensure a consistent, opt-out testing program.
- Pool testing should be done twice per week and generate results within 24 hours, in every school. Reinstitute a two-swab collection method as well as rapid testing for quick identification of positive individuals.
- If test-and-stay is ended, support families in using at-home rapid tests in line with Mass. guidance by offering at least two rapid tests per week, and by providing training videos and translated instructions in all the BPS languages.
- Provide high quality masks for all students and staff – N95 or KF94 for staff and KF94 for students.
- Guarantee adequate ventilation and filtration in every cafeteria or space in which students are eating meals. In schools without HVAC, all eating spaces must have the proper number and size of portable air cleaners with HEPA filters for that space.
- Support districts to investigate school outbreaks to identify contributing factors and mitigation measures to be taken, and share results widely.
- For students affected by COVID-related issues and concerns, do not enforce the policy that penalizes students for missing more than 18 days in a school year.
- Coordinate with healthcare partners on a robust outreach and service plan to increase the percentage of students who are vaccinated, especially focusing on students of color and students who speak languages other than English at home.
- Evaluate the implementation of all COVID mitigation efforts to ensure racial equity.
- Allow the remote learning days necessary to institute all of these critical safety measures and ensure that they count toward the 180 days of required instruction. Allow flexibility to institute short-term periods of remote learning if needed to address a surge. During any remote periods, there should continue to be in-person services for children with high needs, access to food, technology and Wifi, child care options, financial and other support to families that need such support.
The latest report from the state shows positive cases in schools have gone down.
Over the period of Jan. 13 to 19, more than 28,000 students tested positive, which is about 12,000 students less than the week prior.
With those case numbers trending downward, DESE has allowed schools with a vaccination rate of 80 percent to drop the state’s mask requirement. Previously, unvaccinated students and staff at those schools were still required to wear masks. The latest guidance from DESE now says that mask-wearing for those unvaccinated individuals is just highly recommended.
Gov. Charlie Baker has been vocal about how he believes the best place for students in the classroom.
He recently announced an at-home COVID-19 testing program for students.
If schools opt into this program, they discontinue contact tracing but weekly pool testing will continue.
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