HARTFORD, Conn — A group of education unions released a report Monday calling for the state to establish and strictly enforce consistent statewide safety protocols for schools, and require uniform transparency in reporting and responding to COVID-19 cases.
The “Safe and Successful Schools Now” report was put together by The Board of Education Union Coalition, which represents over 60,000 unionized public education employees across the state and includes members of CEA, AFTCT, SEBAC, CSEA, MEUI, AFSCME, and UAW.
It’s recommendation’s are:
COVID-19 Case Notification: Districts must make public, within 24 hours, COVID-19 incidents by school building (including positive cases and the number of those exposed and quarantining) and immediately forward the information to SDE for inclusion in the state’s COVID-19 school dashboard. The state website should have a continuing tally of COVID-19 cases per school district, by school building, and the number of individuals—delineated by staff and students—who need to quarantine.
Increase Reporting on State Dashboard: The state dashboard should include a list of schools that are closed due to COVID-19 and for how long. Districts that publicize COVID-19 incidents that could be used as partial models include
Fairfield: https://www.fairfieldschools.org/
Middletown: https://sites.google.com/mpsct.org/re-entry/home
COVID-19 Notice to Employees: Provide notice within 24 hours to all employees, their exclusive association representatives (if any), and employers of subcontracted employees who were on the premises who were potentially exposed to COVID-19.
Teacher and Staff Input for Contact Tracing: Ensure that teachers and bargaining unit representatives who are selected by their association are included on local committees or entities that decide who requires contact tracing and/or quarantining in the aftermath of a positive COVID-19 case.
Establish consistent statewide protocols in schools for: 1) reporting and public notification of positive COVID-19 cases; 2) contact tracing and quarantines; 3) social distancing; 4) COVID-19 testing; and 5) PPE availability.
Require that social distancing standards are strictly followed, not compromised, and not required only “where possible.”
If a test-positive person is identified as having spent a day in a particular classroom, the entire class must be quarantined, not just those closest to the person.
There must be a single statewide length of a quarantine. (for example, is the day of exposure day one of the quarantine, or is it day zero? Both practices exist).
Contact tracing must include classroom staff when a classroom is impacted.
No educators or school staff who must quarantine shall be required to use sick leave (which they may need if they get sick), but rather shall receive quarantine pay or be allowed to teach their students remotely.
Schools, with state assistance, must provide regular COVID-19 testing of students and staff to check for both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases.
Meet Standards or Go Remote After Holidays: All schools should go fully remote after Thanksgiving (November 30) through Martin Luther King Day (January 18) to help minimize the spread of COVID-19 after the holidays, unless the statewide standards in this document are implemented and schools are fully staffed.
Red Zone Districts Must Reduce Density or Go Remote: Towns in red zones must, at a minimum, reduce density and be in “hybrid” mode or go to full remote education, unless the statewide standards in this document are implemented and schools are fully staffed.
Provide Adequate Planning Time: Institute mandatory planning time—an additional hour of planning time per day or one day per week for planning only.
Phase Out Dual Teaching Setting: Teachers should either teach remotely or in-person, but not both at the same time. Until dual settings are phased out, provide 1.5 hours of planning time per day to help manage dual teaching settings.
Continue Payment and Prohibition of Layoffs: Continue the Governor’s Order to protect the continued employment of all public school staff who are directly employed by the local or regional board of educations, including but not limited to teachers, paraprofessionals and other support staff, cafeteria, clerical, transportation, and custodial staff.
Institute a Moratorium on Annual Standardized Testing: For the 2020-2021 school year.
Cleaning Plan and Statewide Protocols: The State Department of Public Health must create a cleaning plan for all school districts to use, with a checklist for specific tasks.
Require schools to keep and post cleaning logs: Logs are required to be kept by restaurants and other entities, and should also be required in schools.
Fix Inadequate Ventilation Systems: HVAC systems in all schools shall be inspected by December 31 and upgraded where necessary to minimize the spread of COVID-19 droplets.
