As all of our nation鈥檚 schools have reopened for the new year, and many communities continue to face rising infections, one of the best defenses against school disruptions may also be one of the least contentious: .

Testing can complement masking, vaccination requirements and proactive parent communication, and it can help schools while minimizing quarantines.

But our review of 100 large and urban school systems suggests many districts are not systematically taking advantage of this critical tool.

About half the districts in our review either mandate regular testing or rely on optional testing to identify new cases, with 37 requiring testing for staff and 14 for students.

Eight districts require staff to undergo testing, usually weekly, even if they are vaccinated. Twenty-nine require testing for some staff members, such as those who are unvaccinated. Another 29 districts offer optional testing for staff.

While student testing mandates in New York and Los Angeles grabbed headlines when school resumed, such requirements remain uncommon in the rest of the country.

Four districts in our review, including L.A. Unified, require all students to undergo regular COVID screening. Ten districts require some to undergo preventative testing, such as children who are unvaccinated or play sports. at least 10 percent of students each week, targeting unvaccinated kids.

Test-to-stay is a new tool aimed to shorten quarantine time

Testing can help administrators detect COVID infections before they spread in schools, while limiting the number of students who have to quarantine. Every district we track has now clarified its quarantine policy, and a growing number offer exemptions to students who take other precautions to safeguard against the spread of the virus.

Of the 100 districts we review, 86 exempt vaccinated students from quarantine, with 69 specifying that the exemption applies if they do not show symptoms. Other exemptions include students who recently recovered from COVID (37) and exposed students wearing masks (29).

Districts are increasingly turning to testing to limit quarantines. A little more than half of districts in our review (53) allow students who test negative for the virus to shorten or avoid isolation.

A few districts (8), in an attempt to keep more students learning in-person, are modifying their approach to quarantine using a test-to-stay program. These policies allow students who may have been exposed to the virus to continue in-person learning as long as they take daily COVID-19 tests.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet approved the test-to-stay approach and continues to recommend quarantine for up to 14 days for certain students. The federal public health agency told The New York Times but is working with local jurisdictions to collect more information on the strategy and its execution.

A handful of states, including , , and , have now outlined test-to-stay protocols or similar rules that let schools use testing to ease quarantine requirements. Seven of the eight districts with test-to-stay policies are located in these states. Portland Public Schools, in Maine, is the only district in our review administering a test-to-stay program without state guidance.

In other cases, state policies might prevent districts from adding nuance to their quarantine policies. asks students or staff who are under quarantine to stay home for 14 days after their last exposure to an infected person, monitor for symptoms and seek testing. A negative test does not shorten the length of time a student has to quarantine.

Testing may be an especially valuable tool in states that limit other health precautions, like Florida and Texas, whose governors have banned mask mandates, or Montana, which passed legislation that .

More districts signal vaccination requirements, but lack clarity on enforcement

Following the Biden administration鈥檚 recent, sweeping mandates for federal workers and businesses, a few more districts are following suit, with 40 in our review now requiring staff vaccinations. Of those, 14 require all staff members to get vaccinated without a testing alternative. This is double the number of districts with vaccine mandates a month earlier, but it is far outpaced by the growing number that allow staff to opt out through regular testing.

San Antonio ISD became the first district in Texas to require staff vaccinations, a decision that .

Meanwhile, 26 districts now require staff to either get vaccinated or participate in weekly testing. The School District of Philadelphia requires unvaccinated staff to get tested twice a week.

L.A. Unified and the Oakland Unified School District remain the ones that require vaccinations for all eligible students. Another California district, San Diego Unified, for students over 16. Eight districts require student athletes to get vaccinated.

As early as January, all eligible K-12 students in California will be required to get the vaccine. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the nation鈥檚 first statewide mandate on Friday. 

State, federal leadership needed to help districts take advantage of testing

District leaders face the critical work of protecting students’ health, keeping them learning in classrooms wherever possible and helping them recover from the academic and emotional toll of the pandemic. They cannot afford to waste precious time and attention battling state officials or teachers unions over health precautions. Nor can students afford to have this school year interrupted by excessive quarantines.

Testing can be a valuable tool for catching outbreaks early in schools. It can work in concert with masking, vaccination and quarantines 鈥� or provide critical protections in districts where political barriers are blocking these crucial health precautions. And research suggests it can provide a safe, effective way to while guarding against infections in schools.

State and federal leaders should enact guidance that helps districts make the most of this critical tool. State education and health offices must come together to provide the funding, policy guidance and coordination so districts can conduct reliable testing at scale.

Locally, health authorities can pool resources and share protocols. And they should help districts find creative ways to overcome one of the biggest logistical barriers to robust COVID testing programs: a lack of staff. As one district official in Texas told The Times, 鈥�.鈥� That army could include parent volunteers, school system workers, employees from community organizations or personnel from local health agencies.

There is still much we don鈥檛 know about the barriers preventing schools from implementing effective COVID testing programs. Until more districts start enacting testing programs and talking openly about the operational barriers, it may not be clear exactly what states, health agencies and community volunteers can do to help.

Bree Dusseault is principal at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, supporting its analysis of district and charter responses to COVID-19. She previously served as executive director of Green Dot Public Schools Washington, executive director of pK-12 schools for Seattle Public Schools, a researcher at CRPE, and as a principal and teacher. Christine Pitts is a resident policy fellow at the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

President Joe Biden鈥檚 push for more employers to require vaccines is likely to accelerate an already-growing trend in schools.

In the past month, the number of states requiring teacher vaccinations has jumped to 10, including the District of Columbia, according to a new analysis we conducted at the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

Those include roughly a third (31) of the districts in our review of 100 large and high-profile school systems. And Los Angeles Unified鈥檚 high-profile move to require eligible students to get vaccinated suggests vaccine mandates won鈥檛 be confined to school employees.

Rising vaccination rates are good news for the country鈥檚 students. They increase the chances schools will be able to keep them safe, and keep them learning, all year and in person as much as possible.

But they won鈥檛 totally eliminate other challenges school systems are likely to face. Clarifying quarantine rules, and supporting high-quality instruction for students who are forced to quarantine or isolate because they鈥檝e tested positive or been exposed to the virus, remains a critical task for state and school district leaders.

Right now, the amount of time students can expect to spend in quarantine if they are suspected of being exposed to the virus, and the amount of instruction they can expect to receive, varies a lot depending on where they live.

State quarantine and isolation policies leave districts hanging

Forty-three states and D.C. have updated their quarantine and isolation guidelines for the 2021-22 school year, while seven states offer no guidance and simply link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage.

In 15 states and D.C., schools and districts must follow statewide quarantine guidance, while 29 states offer only recommended guidance. The remaining six states provide very little. , for example, stated that it is 鈥渘ot currently issuing isolation or quarantine orders for COVID-19 positive or COVID-19 exposed individuals.鈥�

Half of the states provide detailed guidance about how long a student should spend in quarantine. Of these, 14 specify isolation periods that range from seven to 14 days for different categories of exposure, and 11 specify periods that range from seven to 10 days.

The other half of states give school districts broad flexibility to determine the number of days students and staff are expected to quarantine, depending on whether they are asymptomatic, vaccinated or have a negative COVID-19 test.

The result of this loose, varied and minimal state guidance is a wide range of district quarantine policies.

Alaska鈥檚 Anchorage School District allows up to 24 quarantine days for students who live with an infected household member and cannot avoid continued close contact. At the other extreme, Kansas鈥檚 allows exposed students to return to class immediately, provided they wear a mask for 14 days and take daily rapid antigen tests for eight days.

The shortest quarantines are heavily concentrated in Florida, where seven of eight districts in our review allow students to return as early as two to five days after exposure. , which requires a 10-day quarantine, is the exception. Florida state guidance recommends four to seven days of isolation.

When will students and teachers have to quarantine? For how long? It depends

Most states have at least some policies that ease quarantine requirements for students who meet certain criteria.

Thirty-eight states exempt fully vaccinated students from quarantines, 23 provide exemptions if an individual has previously been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 7 exempt individuals if they are asymptomatic. In addition, 19 states include the to determine whether a student counts as having been exposed to the virus.

Easing quarantine rules for vaccinated people can reduce unnecessary learning disruptions and create an incentive to get vaccinated that stops short of a mandate. But some states have tied districts鈥� hands.

In , a state law prohibiting people from being treated differently based on vaccination status means that local leaders cannot use it as a way to shorten quarantines. In Ohio, a outlines 鈥渁nti-discrimination鈥� practices that would prohibit schools from establishing safety precautions specifically for unvaccinated individuals.

Some states devised creative guidance to keep teachers and students in schools as much as possible. The allows for teachers and staff deemed 鈥渆ssential鈥� to keep working if they remain asymptomatic, wear a mask at all times, self-monitor for symptoms and self-quarantine at home when they are not at work. In , local health departments and districts can offer students the option to wear a mask at school for 10 days in place of following quarantine-at-home protocols.

How will students in quarantine continue learning?

Remote learning is a critical tool for keeping students learning during quarantine, but not all students will have access. Eight states 鈥� Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas 鈥� are restricting at least one aspect of remote learning.

In some cases, states outlined these restrictions in their American Rescue Plan documents, which were created before the Delta variant started rampaging across the country. For example, New Jersey states that, 鈥淚n the 2021-22 school year, if buildings are open for in-person instruction, parents or guardians will not be able to opt their child out of in-person instruction.鈥�

Only 17 states have stated they will require districts to ensure that students can access instruction during quarantine or isolation.

Some provide detailed guidance in their 2021 reopening plans about how districts should provide remote learning. explains that schools opting to provide long-term virtual options must commit to quality instruction, state-aligned standards and certified, well-trained staff. The spelled out details about instructional time and enrollment.

Five districts of the 100 we reviewed 鈥� Boulder Valley, Colorado; Houston ISD; Kansas City Public Schools; Metro Nashville; and San Diego Unified 鈥� are offering their remote learning program, or an equivalent, to quarantined students. The rest will likely rely on schools and teachers to create their own solutions 鈥� which, again, means the education students will receive could vary a lot depending on where they live.

Chicago Public Schools expects teachers to provide coursework aligned to the instruction students would have received in class, and for students to receive up to two hours of live, real-time teaching a day while they鈥檙e in quarantine.

In Miami-Dade County Public Schools, teachers will be expected to revive a practice from last year: concurrent instruction, in which some students join class by videoconference while others attend in person.

Vermont鈥檚 Champlain Valley Public Schools distinguish between individually quarantined students and whole-class quarantines. The district will provide remote instruction only if the entire class must quarantine. Otherwise, quarantines will be treated as regular absences, and students won鈥檛 receive instruction.

Most states back COVID-19 testing

The majority of states 鈥� 36, as well as D.C. 鈥� provide schools and districts with both guidance and funding to administer COVID-19 testing. A robust initiative from the Washington State Department of Health, , helps schools provide vaccines and tests.

The remaining 14 states provide either limited or no information about statewide COVID-19 testing. In the “,” testing is mentioned as one of nine key prevention strategies. However, there is no reference to statewide support for districts that wish to establish and run these programs.

This month, a new type of policy, known as test-to-stay, has emerged to limit major school-based outbreaks.

Under 鈥檚 recommended policy, if 30 students, or 2 percent of a school鈥檚 student body 鈥� whichever is lower 鈥� test positive for COVID-19, the school will screen all students. Those who test positive will be required to isolate at home, but those whose results are negative can continue in-person classes.

In , schools can opt in to a test-to-stay protocol in which someone who comes into close contact with an individual testing positive for COVID-19 can receive a negative test and continue to attend classes, but quarantine from all extracurriculars and other activities.

These policies can help catch outbreaks before they spread out of control. But they also underscore the importance of providing instruction to students who are asked to stay home.

Vaccinations necessary but not sufficient

States and districts received a historic infusion of federal COVID relief dollars with the charge to keep kids safe and learning through the 2021-22 school year.

However, emerging fall trends reveal that states鈥� plans are underwhelming and largely miss the mark. Policymakers and education leaders can shift course to ensure students are safe and learning this fall and beyond by reinforcing the things that work:

• Provide districts support for coordinated vaccination and COVID-19 testing. States can give districts a framework to increase vaccinations among staff and students while implementing robust testing programs to catch potential outbreaks. For example, state education and health agencies can develop a network of local health authorities who can facilitate both vaccination and testing in schools.
• Develop a sense of safety by reporting staff vaccination coverage. A  across a state will protect students who are not eligible to be vaccinated and limit learning disruptions. Many states publish COVID-19 vaccination rates for health care professionals by county on public dashboards to establish transparency and trust among those who visit care facilities. Reporting similar data for teachers would help develop a  for parents and students.

• Establish clear, easy-to-follow quarantine rules. Differing federal, state and local policies on quarantine and isolation leave parents and students confused and uncertain about what is safe and what to do next. States can establish clear, straightforward quarantine policies along with streamlined communications efforts to ensure students, teachers and families feel secure about school safety precautions and reduce guesswork for local education leaders.

• Ensure students have access to remote learning throughout the year. States must set clear expectations about enrollment, attendance and quality of remote learning. With many competing priorities, districts need state support to ensure schools are providing high-quality remote instruction to students in quarantine or isolation.

These measures demand stronger action by state leaders. Students cannot afford to lose days or weeks of instruction while school district administrators navigate vague, conflicting or counterproductive guidance from other layers of government.

Christine Pitts is a resident policy fellow at the Centers on Reinventing Public Education. Bree Dusseault is principal at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, supporting its analysis of district and charter responses to COVID-19. 

This the first in a series of weekly analyses of COVID-19 policies in 100 large and high-profile school systems, produced by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, Bothell. Get this weekly snapshot, as well as rolling daily pandemic updates, delivered straight to your inbox 鈥� sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter.