Middletown Schools Made Quarantine Optional, Saw No Case Spike

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — In mid-December, the Middletown school district raised eyebrows when the school board decided to make quarantine optional for students and teachers who had been exposed to coronavirus.

Now, two months later, data from the district shows that moving to an optional quarantine did not cause a surge in coronavirus cases, which some feared would happen.

In fact, making quarantine optional did not even lead to an increase in cases, this newly released chart from the school district shows. (However, several weeks of case numbers are missing from the chart, which the district said was because of winter break.)

As Patch reported, the Middletown school board unanimously voted to make quarantine optional on Dec. 14. The change went into effect immediately.

In the four weeks prior to Dec. 14, which included the Thanksgiving holiday and intense family gathering time, the Middletown school district had 340 new cases.

In four weeks after making quarantine voluntary, starting Jan. 19, Middletown logged 222 new cases. Middletown schools also did not have an increase in new cases compared to overall cases in Middletown Township.

(The Middletown school district provided this chart to state Sen. Declan O'Scanlon, and schools were closed from Dec. 23 - Jan. 2. "The data for the dates between Dec. 15 - Jan. 19 would not be complete or accurate due to their winter break," said a spokeswoman for New Jersey Senate Republicans.)

It is also worth noting that case numbers started to go down — across New Jersey and the United States — starting at the end of January.

Here are case numbers from the Middletown school district:

In making quarantine voluntary, the Middletown school district specifically bucked a recommendation from the state Department of Health, which at the time said all school districts should have a two-week mandatory quarantine for a student or teacher who was near a COVID positive.

Middletown was the only school district in the state to make quarantine optional.

At the time, David Henry, health officer for the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission, warned what Middletown schools were doing was a risky move, and one he advised against.

"In the worst-case scenario, it's a recipe for disaster," he told NJ.com. "Monmouth County is one of the many counties that have a very high COVID activity rate. We don’t know what the omicron variant is going to bring."

He also tweeted Dec. 16 on the official Monmouth County Regional Health Commission Twitter account that what the Middletown school board was doing was "not in the interest of community/public health. I do not recommend the policy."

His criticism actually sparked a feud with Middletown Mayor Tony Perry, who announced that Middletown would not be renewing its partnership with the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission because of Henry's Twitter comments. Read that story: Middletown Feuds With Health Agency Over COVID Quarantine

O'Scanlon (R), who represents this area in Trenton, said the data shows him it's safe to make quarantine optional in New Jersey schools.

"Low and behold, it worked," he said. "Middletown public schools successfully demonstrated that eliminating quarantines had no negative impact on in-school transmission. Parents of New Jersey are perfectly responsible and capable of maintaining a healthy situation for their children."

"The hard evidence — in other states and here in our district — shows all of these quarantine policies should be discarded," he added. He also said the in-school mask mandate should end today, not March 7.

Currently, the NJ Health Department's quarantine recommendation for anyone exposed to coronavirus is 10 days, and 7 days with a negative test.

School board president Frank Capone said Middletown switched to optional quarantine after the district recorded thousands of children missing weeks of school at a time in the fall of 2021.

Capone said in the past year, more than 2,400 Middletown students had to miss at least two weeks of school due to the state's two-week quarantine recommendation.

Prior: Middletown Schools Make COVID Quarantining Optional (Dec. 16)

Middletown Feuds With Health Agency Over COVID Quarantine (Dec. 20)

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