With COVID-19 infections falling, Stanislaus moves ahead with school waiver applications
Some younger students could be returning to campuses in Stanislaus County as early as this month after the area’s COVID-19 infection rate continued to drop, officials said on Wednesday.
Public health staff has begun reviewing waivers submitted by schools seeking to reopen.
“Our 14-day case rate had to drop below 200 (per 100,000 population) for us to be able to approve waivers,” Julie Falkenstein, public health nurse manager for Stanislaus County, said Wednesday by telephone. “We dropped below yesterday. Today we stayed below. We are reviewing waivers and providing feedback.”
Schools are not allowed to fully reopen until certain infection benchmarks are met. That includes a new “health equity” benchmark introduced by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week as part of California’s new tier system of ranking counties. That benchmark has not yet been established.
This tiered system provides a blueprint for counties to open businesses and venues. Activities and businesses that have a lower risk of spreading COVID-19 and can maintain COVID-19 precautions are allowed to open sooner. For example, shopping malls, including Vintage Faire Mall, can open at 25% capacity and hair salons can operate indoors.
Schools with students between transitional kindergarten and the sixth grade can apply for waivers to reopen before the county gets to the tier that would allow it.
So far, nine private and charter schools have provided waiver applications, as has one public school district, Oakdale Joint Unified. Waiver applications can be seen on the Stanislaus County Office of Education website.
Public health staff will review the waivers, provide any feedback necessary and then, once they are approved, send them to the state.
“We are attempting to have about a five-day turnaround within our own department for reviewing,” Falkenstein said. “There’s going to be some back and forth.”
Once the waivers are sent to the state, officials there have three business days to review them and potentially deny them. If no action is taken within three days, the waivers are approved and the schools can reopen.
Falkenstein said other public school districts have provided an outline of their safety plans, seeking feedback from county public health before moving ahead with a formal waiver application.
“Something that’s important the people know is that not all the schools are going to be ready to open,” she said. “Some of the schools are very large and some of the districts are very large. So, it’s a complex issue.”
Some school officials also are casting a worried eye toward the upcoming Labor Day weekend, knowing that the county’s numbers have gone up after Memorial Day and Fourth of July as people ignore warnings to refrain from holding gatherings.
“Some of the schools are very aware that our numbers have gone up after every holiday,” Falkenstein said. “They are tentatively keeping an eye on that to see what that means.”
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 3:54 PM.
