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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS NEWS AND COMMENT. By John F. Bailey September 2, 2020:

There are 8 days before schools reopen in Westchester County.

Westchester County has a policy at the present time that the county will not schedule Covid-19 tests for parents or guardians for their children. What the County Department of Health will do is provide a list of places parents can contact to schedule a test. That policy has to be changed and aggressively revised.

New York City agreeing with the United Federation of Teachers to Covid-Test 10% to 20%  all students and staff monthly, after New York City Schools open September 21 changes the game.

Teachers have once more shown the light.

It is unclear if the tests will be made on the first day of school and then another round one month later.

The teachers’ stand for sanity,  is a wakeup call to this health decision in Westchester County not to supervise testing — especially before  students come to  Westchester schools, or as they come to school for the first time

The opening of Westchester schools should be delayed to make an effort to enhance this policy by the County Health Department arranging to test every child for covid, whose parents are returning them to school, before the children return to school.

The effort to get the NYC economy with children and teachers paying the price started up by opening schools without any kind of testing, corrected by the United Federation of Teachers by monthly testing in schools is a big step towards doing the opening of schools intelligently and more safely.

 Not enough, though. I suggest test children and teachers and staff when they come in to school the first time, immediately identifying in the first week Covid-positives.

To get ahead of covid spread in county schools, Westchester County should offer test scheduling through County Health Department supervision and personnel on a crash basis  for the next two weeks to assure that no child returns to school without a medical clearance they have not tested positive for Covid.

Two weeks ago, the county reported to WPCNR  they would not schedule tests for parents, that it was up to the parents or guardians to pick from lists of  centers offering covid tests, provided by the County Department of Health, on the county website.

Pre-return-to-school testing is the most vital tool to counter the seriousness of the coronavirus ability to spread rapidly, painfully, preposterously demonstrated by the shutdown of New Paltz SUNY with over a hundred infections of returning students who spread the disease in a week.  

There has been no explanations from the county as to why the county health department cannot step up and supervise test scheduling, (vastly aiding harried parents), except for liability to the county.

Why wouldn’t the health department want to make sure children are safely covid-free before going back to school  When I first learned the Health Department did not want to schedule tests, when it was announced two weeks ago, I was stunned. The State Department of Health should be just as concerned.

I was also shocked that school districts as part of the health forms information  they require every year from parents and guardians did not require parents to have their children tested within a month, two weeks or a week of school opening (the closer to opening the better), as having passed a covid-19 test negative with an official paper documenting the result. If the children had not had a Covid test, they would not be allowed to return to school.

There is still time parents and public health officials to require this. And make a mid course correction.

There is still time to delay school openings, as NYC has, to get this done.

The County has to request a school opening delay to get this done.

Thanks to the United  Federation of Teachers, the bar has been set higher to reopen the NYC schools.

If Governor Cuomo is concerned that there will be outbreaks in schools as he is reported in the news story in The New York Times, he should make an Executive Order requiring Covid testing before the kids come to school.

 It is too bad the colleges did not think of this, as part of students’ health documents.

The governor should divert the testing upstate to the school populations opening up.

If Westchester County test centers, public and private do not have the testing kits available, that is another issue, and it can’t be done.

But there is no excuse for not having adequate test kits available. The state is doing upwards of 80,000 tests a day. So a lot of people are being tested.

How about children, they’re people, too. Our most precious people.

School Districts should think seriously about delaying and getting test kits to test their incoming students. And the state and county should get the tests to them or administer them in an urgent manner.

A delay can be made up.

Lives end forever.

Futures stop.

Delay and test.