Multiple COVID cases at school don’t trigger a health department. evaluation

Multiple COVID-19 cases in New York City public schools will no longer trigger “epidemiological assessments” by the health department, according to an internal memo from The Post.

The city’s Department of Education memo to school principals is coming the new Omicron sub-variant BA.2 raises fears of a possible increase.

If multiple cases emerge in classrooms or sports teams, school leaders should distribute COVID-19 home testing kits to students who have been exposed, the memo said.

The Superintendent’s Office can help assess “what might be causing the increase in transmission” and consult with the Office of School Health “to minimize further transmission”.

“I didn’t realize that epidemiology was one of my director’s duties,” said a Brooklyn administrator, who asked not to be named without permission from the DOE to speak.

The Kings County school superintendent said the new policy, which went into effect March 14, left him and several colleagues confused.

“Right now it’s the honor system,” said the principal. “The kids are coming back to school and you don’t know if they’ve been tested or what the results were.”

“We think they want to reduce the staffing in the Situation Room,” he added, referring to the team of DOE and health officials overseeing COVID cases in schools.

“That’s how they do it and put it on us.”

DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer denied any changes in the Situation Room’s procedures.

“There’s a citywide move away from universal contact tracing, but the same alerts and systems are in place in our schools,” he said. “The Headmaster’s request remains the same as it has been since January.”

The current threshold for measuring transmission is 10 cases in a classroom or sports team, although officials said that figure could be checked again as the pandemic progresses. At the Brooklyn Administrator’s building, cases have never reached that number at any point during the pandemic, he said.

The policy change comes after the Post reported that the principals will earn Millions in overtime pay for an avalanche of work imposed by the Situation Room, including tracing which students and staff have been exposed to COVID and notifying families.

On Thursday, the DOE reported 205 new COVID cases — 145 students and 60 staff. No classrooms were closed or quarantined.

The health department did not respond to a request for comment.