“Texas school districts will not be required to conduct contact tracing this year if a student contracts COVID-19, according to new guidelines issued by the Texas Education Agency this week. The agency said districts should notify parents if the district learns of a student who has been a close contact to someone with the virus. But with the relaxation of contact tracing, broad notifications will not be mandatory” the Texas Tribune reports.
“The TEA announced its rules in a public health guidance issued Thursday. While districts must report positive cases to the local health department and the state, the TEA said contact tracing will not be required because of ‘the data from 2020-21 showing very low COVID-19 transmission rates in a classroom setting and data demonstrating lower transmission rates among children than adults.’ But some public health experts quickly questioned that rationale, noting that the more contagious delta variant of the virus was not prevalent during the last school year. ‘We’re going to find that the transmission rate in schools is going to be much higher with the delta variant and it’s absolutely imperative that people get back to masking,’ said Dr. Marc Mazade, medical director of infection prevention at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth.”