Large student absences from COVID create critical barriers to learning, district says

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the number of students who have been absent due to COVID-19 quarantining and isolation since August 2021.

The Greenville County school district has counted more than 34,000 student quarantines from COVID-19 so far this academic year — and district board members are seeking protocol changes to get more students back in classrooms.

Between Aug. 17, 2021 and Jan. 15, the district counted more than 34,000 student quarantines and 9,755 student isolations, according to data the school district provided Thursday. Some of those cases were from the same students who have had to quarantine multiple times. The district's total student population is around 76,000.

The Greenville County Schools' Board of Trustees called a special meeting Thursday to address current issues with the school district's COVID-19 protocols and absences that have significantly impacted school attendance this year.

In-person classroom time saw a significant decline since the beginning of the school year from following S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control guidelines, according to the board.

The school district's administration and board members sent a letter to DHEC and Gov. Henry McMaster's Office Friday morning to ask that student guidelines align with the protocols for teachers and staff.

As for staff, 1,178 have quarantined since the beginning of the 2021-22 school year and 2,160 have isolated.

Isolation relates to having a confirmed infection with COVID whereas quarantining refers to the time following exposure to the virus or close contact with someone known to have COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

This distinction is what allows teachers in quarantine to be able to work with a mask on pending a test and why the board is seeking approval from the state to allow the same policy for students.

Timeline of Greenville County Schools' advocacy on the state level.
Timeline of Greenville County Schools' advocacy on the state level.

As of Jan. 16, DHEC allowed employees to work during quarantine regardless of vaccination status as long as they wear a mask through the 10th day of exposure and staff can still work days one through five after exposure to COVID, said Janet Lage, Greenville County Schools' director of health services.

On day five, employees are required to take a COVID-19 test if they are not vaccinated and they must isolate if COVID-positive but can continue to work pending test results. At-home and rapid tests are accepted, according to the guidelines.

This change in protocol, according to board members, has left the lingering question — if staff can return to school under these conditions, why can't students?

"It’s about all of us and making an environment conducive for learning," board member Lynda Leventis-Wells said. "Students and teachers need to be in the classroom and at school."

All board members voted unanimously in favor of sending out the letter, and Greenville County Schools' Superintendent Burke Royster said school district administration also has no objection to the letter.

"The letter aligns with what we have previously shared with them (DHEC) before," Royster said. "The negative impacts we are seeing on the school district are not supported by statistical data provided, so we need to do something different."

The administration is comfortable adopting the proposed solution with one caveat — the school district must continue to notify parents of exposures, isolations and quarantines, Royster said. Right now, if you are a student you have to quarantine at home and cannot return until day five from exposure.

"We are asking for students to not have to miss five days of school," Royster said. "Student return-to-school COVID protocols should be the same as teachers and other staff."

According to the school district, as of the end of the day on Wednesday, 672 teachers, aides, nurses, and clerks were absent (68 were in isolation and 26 were in quarantine) along with 3,286 students (230 were in isolation and 1,342 were in quarantine).

'Day-by-day decisions'

The new employee COVID-19 reporting process requires about 15 hours a day of work, seven days a week. There are five staff members trained to handle the employee COVID-19 reporting process and 41 employees trained to handle the student COVID-19 reporting process, Royster said.

The process involves all staff and students to complete COVID-19 questionnaires if they are COVID-positive, isolating and/or in quarantine.

"Hard work behind providing and keeping up with the data allows us to advocate at the highest levels for students, staff and schools," board member Carolyn Styles said.

All supplemental pay to cover the extra hours of work is coming from Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, Royster said. The process allows current COVID information to come back as quickly and accurately as possible, he said.

Greenville County Schools' returned to eLearning the week of Jan. 17, simultaneously, as DHEC relaxed its COVID protocols for school district staff members.

Related coverage: Winter storm could be blessing for Greenville school district that's battling COVID surge

On Jan. 16th, DHEC changed school district COVID protocols just as the largest snow storm in recent years came through Greenville County, resulting in eLearning for a week. The snow storm impacts skewed the data when looking specifically at the impacts COVID has had on classroom attendance, Whitney Hanna, Greenville County Schools' Executive Director of Strategic Communications and Engagement, said.

No decision made last week about eLearning was related to COVID-19 impacts, she said. The decision was strictly based on the safety of students, faculty and staff related to weather conditions, she said.

"We talked about safety of students and staff, not only parents driving them to school and bus drivers but students driving as well," Hanna said. "Employees start reporting to work as early as 5 a.m. Traveling in the dark and depending on the time of year, varies on the time of year, but we have to consider all of that. Also, 18% of student population does not attend home base school. Similarly, employees live in other counties as well."

Hanna told The News the school district's Inclement Conditions Evaluation (ICE) Team process is not changed because of eLearning capabilities.

"ELearning is just a tool to continue instruction," Hanna said. "Just because we have that tool doesn't change the process of ensuring students and staff can return to campus safely considering the weather conditions."

Hanna said the ICE Team is made up of about 30 to 40 people who are deployed across Greenville County to assess "troublesome spots" and take road temperatures to determine the feasibility of ice melting over a certain period of time while also assessing each school's driveways and parking lots, and if they are safe for both staff and students.

S.C. Department of Education launches federal funding transparency dashboard

On Thursday afternoon, the S.C. Department of Education announced in a news release they have developed a public ESSER funds dashboard to provide transparency on how South Carolina school districts are utilizing federal education COVID-19 relief funds.

“This dashboard is a transparent way for our taxpayers to see how schools and districts are utilizing an unprecedented amount of federal money to rebound and address issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman said in a statement. “Public input has been key in our districts’ development of spending plans and it is critical that the public remain informed on the use of these funds.”

In 2020, Congress approved two major COVID-19 relief packages — the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, according to the release. These relief packages were designed to support states and school districts in responding to the pandemic. In March 2021, Congress approved additional funding under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, the release said.

The state has received a total of $3.3 billion in federal funding through the three supplemental funds, the release said.

Ninety percent of the funds are allocated to school districts with the remaining funds reserved for state-level activities. Districts may use the funding for a wide variety of COVID-related needs including providing mental health services, improving school facilities, purchasing technological devices, training staff and addressing the academic impact of the pandemic. The dashboard will be updated quarterly.

The dashboard allows the public to see the amount of ESSER funds allocated, spent and remaining for individual school districts. The public can also view expenditures by category.

To view the ESSER dashboard, visit ed.sc.gov/data/reports/esser-funding.

Education and Family Issues Reporter Krys Merryman can be reached at 864.420.7111 or kmerryman@greenvillenews.com. Continue the conversation or join a new one on our Education and Family Issues in Greenville Facebook page or on Twitter @krys_merryman.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Student absences from COVID create barriers to learning, district says