Sacramento students return to school as COVID-19 cases decline. What restrictions remain?

With COVID-19 transmission rates on the downturn in California, Sacramento-area schools are finalizing their public health guidelines for the upcoming academic year.

Sacramento and Yolo counties this month were downgraded to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s medium COVID-19 risk level for the first time since June 1, joining neighboring El Dorado and Placer counties. Across California, positivity rates and hospitalization numbers have gradually improved in recent weeks.

The state released its COVID-19 guidelines for the 2022-23 school year on June 30, recommending that districts consider testing students and staff returning from major breaks and prohibiting schools from preventing students or faculty from wearing masks.

The final say on most COVID-19 restrictions in the classroom rests with individual school districts. The guidelines released in June affirmed districts’ authority to set their own masking and distancing policies, in accordance with local COVID-19 levels and vaccination rates.

“You know your community a whole lot better than they do at the state level,” said Sacramento City Unified School District spokesman Brian Heap. “I think we’ve got a good team here at Sac City Unified who follow this stuff really closely and make intelligent decisions that are based on data.”

Statewide efforts to standardize COVID-19 restrictions in the classroom have faltered since the statewide mask mandate dropped in March. This April, Democratic state Sen. Richard Pan tabled a bill that would require all children between under 17 to be vaccinated against the virus before attending in-person school or other childcare.

In the same month, the California Department of Public Health declared a vaccine mandate announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October 2021 would be postponed until July 2023, at the earliest. Newsom’s mandate would add the COVID-19 vaccine to the state’s list of required immunizations for children attending in-person school.

Local decision-making

The use of face masks indoors remains strongly recommended, but not required, in Rocklin Unified, Elk Grove Unified, San Juan Unified and Natomas Unified.

Sacramento City Unified instituted a mask mandate for the final two weeks of 2021-22 academic year after CDC shifted Sacramento county into the high-spread level.

In March, the Sacramento City Unified school board voted for an automatic return to mandatory masking if Sacramento County had a high COVID-19 risk level.

The board voted on Aug. 11 to align with CDC guidelines, easing masking guidelines ahead of the first day of school. With Sacramento County currently in the medium level, masking will now be “strongly recommended indoors” when students return on Sept. 1, district spokesman Al Goldberg said.

Previously, the district required a multi-week wait after alert-level shifts to ensure that COVID-19 numbers held before adjusting classroom policies. The board lifted that guideline, too.

Now changes to COVID-19 guidelines will now take effect on Mondays, after the CDC updates risk levels on Thursday afternoons, Goldberg said.

State or county public health orders to the contrary will supersede this policy.

Rules for California school employees

Schools in the area have moved away from requiring employees to participate in contact tracing, instead leaning on messages to families notifying them of possible exposure to COVID-19. State guidelines also advised schools to rely on over-the-counter antigen testing, rather than PCR testing, for the 2022-23 school year.

Nearly 80 million tests have been administered at schools, and about 32 million over-the-counter tests have been distributed to local schools, according to the state. Over the next few months, the state plans to distribute 15 million COVID-19 tests to all county offices of education for use by public and private schools.

When these shipments arrive, San Juan Unified spokeswoman Raj Rai said, the district plans to make testing kits available for families to test their children at home. Most area schools will also continue to administer COVID-19 tests to students, and provide information about the locations of other testing sites.

State COVID-19 guidelines strongly recommend that all eligible individuals returning to school get vaccinated. Children as young as 5 are currently eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and vaccine clinics have popped up at local schools throughout Sacramento-area districts.

In an Aug. 3 news release, Placer County Public Health announced that the county would offer free immunization for children returning to school, including those who are uninsured. Parents can schedule an appointment at 530-886-1883 and must attend the clinic with their child and provide either the child’s immunization records or a school letter.

‘As normal as possible’

Ahead of the new school year, representatives of local districts emphasized their goal to provide the normalcy of in-person instruction while suppressing the transmission of COVID-19.

“We could still keep these lower-level COVID modifications in place to keep students and families healthy,” Rai said. “The ultimate goal is to have a more normal year than last year, and last year was a little more normal than the year before.”

Rai added that the district has largely followed the public health guidance of the state and the county, making the process of adopting new guidelines for the school district a “smoother transition.”

Natomas Unified spokeswoman Deidra Powell echoed this sentiment, explaining that her district has remained closely aligned with state and county guidelines to keep instruction “as normal as possible.”

This story was originally published August 15, 2022 at 5:25 AM.