WA Expands School Testing To Promote Return To In-Person Classes

OLYMPIA, WA — Washington state leaders want more students back in the classroom for in-person instruction. To make that happen, the Washington State Department of Health has announced the massive expansion of a COVID-19 testing program for schools, which they say will help more districts safely bring students back indoors.

Roughly 200,000 students across Washington are already receiving at least some in-person instruction. With the testing program's expansion, more are likely to join them, says Gov. Jay Inslee.

"Educating kids is tough in general, and our educators have been doing a superhuman job remotely trying to get the attention of second-graders, trying to keep third-graders on task," Inslee said. "But all over the state of Washington, we are returning to the way we know best."

The program began as a testing pilot at 11 Washington school districts in Bainbridge Island, Okanogan, Spokane, Leavenworth, Pullman, Tahoma, Davenport, Rainier, Yakima, and Enumclaw.

For the pilot, districts identified students and staff who may have been exposed to COVID-19, then had them tested for the coronavirus. If the test came back positive, the student or staff member was instructed to enter isolation, and their close contacts were notified to prevent any potential outbreaks.

A recent study of outbreaks in Washington schools found that there have been relatively few, most of which only involved 2 or 3 students.

Proponents of the testing program say it makes those outbreaks even rarer.

Inslee announced the program's expansion with a news conference Tuesday. There, he was joined by Enumclaw Schools Superintendent Shaun Carey, whose district has been part of the testing pilot program.

"It's extremely encouraging to hear that other districts will have the ability to add this valuable tool to their return to learn plan," Carey said.

Organizers say the program was a success, so they're bringing it to 48 more school districts. Those districts will begin the testing program by the end of the month. As part of the program, schools are encouraged to set up their own testing sites and programs, which the DOH says will have the knock-on effect of increasing testing availability for some underserved communities.

Of course, increased testing of staff and students is just one tool the state will use to create safer school environments. The DOH says the program will still require schools to follow standard COVID-19 safety guidelines, like requiring facial coverings and allowing space for social distancing.

It's also worth noting that, while this program is designed to encourage schools to consider reopening, it's the districts themselves that make the final call, and parents retain the option to keep their kids out of the classroom if they so choose.

Another thing that isn't changing: when Washington's teachers will be eligible for the vaccine.

Currently, the overwhelming majority of teachers do not qualify for the vaccine, a choice that has drawn some criticism from teachers and lawmakers alike. Critics point to states like Oregon that prioritized teachers and have been vaccinating them for weeks.

Instead, Washington has largely tailored its vaccination plan to prioritize older and high-risk residents, regardless of profession. As a result, while high-risk educators 50 and older will qualify for the vaccine in the next phase, the remaining will not until late spring or early summer, potentially after school is already out.

At Tuesday's conference, the governor pre-emptively warded off criticism on the subject.

"The CDC also made very clear that mass vaccination of our teachers is not a prerequisite to going back to school," Inslee said.

While teachers are not moving up the queue, the state has announced an effort to quickly vaccinate educators the second they are available for the vaccine: a program to set up between 14 and 20 vaccination sites that will exclusively serve school employees.

Finally, Inslee rounded out Tuesday's conference touching on concerns over vaccine supply. The governor said that he had just received word that the federal government had upped its vaccine doses for the next week from 11 million to 13.5 million. That's good news for Washington, where vaccine supply has been one of the biggest limiting factors holding back inoculation efforts. According to the governor, Washington has currently used up 81 percent of its allocated vaccine doses.