MA Schools Aren't Coronavirus Superspreaders: Commissioner

BOSTON — There's little evidence the rise in Massachusetts coronavirus cases has stemmed from K-12 schools with in-person learning, state Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley said Tuesday.

Riley wants public health officials to develop a better metric for measuring coronavirus outbreaks that takes into account isolated cases, which could allow schools to continue with some form of in-person learning. At Tuesday's meeting of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Riley said several towns were deemed high-risk because of outbreaks at colleges, nursing homes and jails. That designation has prevented some school districts from continuing in-person learning.

So far, the notion of schools being "superspreader places" for the virus has been unfounded, Riley said.

For the past few months, Gov. Charlie Baker has implemented a system for assessing the risk of COVID-19 spreading in cities and towns. Weekly, every town has been given a designation based on their daily coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents. As of Oct. 14, 63 Massachusetts cities and towns have the high-risk designation, a metric which schools are supposed to use as a guide to phasing in in-person learning.

But so far, spread at schools has been low, Riley said. During the week of Oct. 8 to Oct. 14, there were 160 reported coronavirus cases at Massachusetts public schools, down three cases from the week prior.

"Many of these are isolated incidences, and there's been very few incidences of spread where we've had to call the COVID-19 response team," Riley said.

Still, Riley said the department is using the data to make decisions and urged schools, especially those outside of the high risk designation, to find way to make some in-person learning possible.

"We are in a time of evolving information, and we always said we would look at the evolving medical information and make updates," Riley said.

Riley announced there will be targeted audits of school districts to make sure schools that can are providing in-person learning. The audit also assesses the quality of a school's remote learning, Riley said.

Some specific questions the audit will address include:

• Is the school district appropriately using Department of Public Health COVID-19 health metrics to inform its learning model?
• Does the district have a clear plan to return to in-person instruction?
• Is the district meeting structured learning time requirements?
• Are students with disabilities receiving required and appropriate services?
• Are teachers and administrators regularly communicating with students and parents or guardians?

During the meeting, Riley didn't specify what schools will be audited, but according to the Boston Globe, Watertown's and East Longmeadow's school districts will be audited.

According to the Globe, Riley said he is concerned both of these districts are not aligning their reopening model with the community public health metrics the state releases each Thursday.

"When the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released guidance on implementing the Department of Public Health color-coded metrics on August 11, 2020, we indicated that we did not expect any immediate changes to district plans based on this data," Riley wrote in a letter to one of the districts. "However, we clearly stated the expectation that districts use this data to inform their learning models throughout the school year."

According to a DESE spokesperson, neither district has made significant progress in moving their timeline for students to return to an in-person or hybrid learning model.

In-Person Victories

In the meeting, school officials also celebrated some victories districts had with in-person learning amid the pandemic. Uxbridge High School Principal Michael Rubin told the board how the high run a successful STEM program under its hybrid learning model.

Rubin said the school district has continued to make progress in enhancing STEM education through grants and partnerships with the local chamber of commerce and nonprofit Project Lead the Way.

One of those programs came about when the school was able to get a motion capture studio. The motion capture studio can create an animation of a person, and Rubin said it helps students learn about real-time animation, exercise science and human biology.