Lumpkin Schools halt contact tracing for COVID-19

After contacting Lumpkin County Schools, The Nugget has learned that the school system has stopped conducting contact tracing and notifying parents of their students’ potential exposures to COVID-19.
According to the LCSS Director of Student Services, Kerri Whitmire, the change in policy was made by the superintendent’s office as a result of a letter from Governor Brian Kemp to Georgia schools giving guidance for dealing with the latest COVID-19 variant commonly known as Omicron. 
“We are no longer conducting contact tracing in the schools,” Whitmire told The Nugget, while adding that the practice will still continue for students who are in “medically fragile resource classrooms.” 
Micha Anderson found out about the policy change firsthand after his fifth-grade son tested positive for COVID on Monday, January 10. 
While he assumed the parents of potentially exposed students would be contacted the next day, Anderson didn’t want to wait. Instead he called the few contacts that he had and gave them a heads up that his son had tested positive.
“I wanted to do whatever I could to notify people,” he said. “I felt like it was the right thing to do.”
However, Anderson soon learned that this was the only notification parents ever received.
Though he had alerted the school system immediately, parents were not alerted.
“I found out that nobody was contacted,” he said. 

RULE CHANGE

Seeking answers Anderson began to ask questions of school administrators.
“They explained that the rules had changed,” he said.
Whitmire said the change stemmed from the letter.
“Governor Kemp sent a letter to schools across the state on [January] 6th that noted that contact tracing may be an optional service for schools,” Whitmire stated.
The letter from Kemp states that reporting of positive cases to DPH is still required, however contact tracing, while considered “a Best Practice,” is optional for schools.
“We know that contact tracing has become more challenging as cases have increased in schools and throughout the community,” the letter states. “While contact tracing is a ‘Best Practice,’ particularly for high-risk individuals, we understand that this may not always be possible in all cases and so can be considered as an optional service in schools at this time.” 
Superintendent Rob Brown said that the system hasn’t experienced an overwhelming increase in cases.
“We have not seen a significant increase in the number of COVID cases,” said Brown. "We are actually experiencing more flu and strep which has impacted student and staff attendance. We will continue to monitor data as we move forward.”
On Monday, Lumpkin County Schools reported 18 positive cases among students and five staff members, significantly lower than the school year’s peaks in reported positive cases of 70 students reported on August 23 and 18 staff members reported on September 1, when contact tracing was required. The number of students being quarantined is no longer available in the schools’ COVID-19 dashboard.
Kemp’s letter also states that teachers and school staff can be required to return to work despite a positive COVID-19 exposure by their employer.
“Additionally, DPH posted an updated administrative order for isolation and quarantine that adds educators and education staff to those persons that may be permitted to return to work following a COVID-19 exposure, regardless of vaccination status or point of exposure, if their employer deems it necessary to ensure adequate staffing and so long as they remain asymptomatic, wear a mask while at work, and comply with other quarantine requirements,” states the letter.
Brown said that this point doesn’t change anything for Lumpkin Schools employees.
“We have treated our staff as essential workers since we began this journey,” he said. “This statement is not new and has not changed any of our procedures.”

NO NOTIFICATION

Brown said the contact tracing change took affect in Lumpkin Schools on Jan. 11 “after much thought and discussion.” 
“This decision was made after contact tracing became optional for schools as communicated by Governor Kemp and the Georgia Department of Public Health,” said Brown.
However, as of press-time, the school system’s website stated that the practice is still underway, as a safety protocol posted on January 5 of this year begins with the following:  
“To ensure that our students and our staff are protected, our team has pledged to do the following: continue contract tracing, notifying parents of students directly exposed (within six feet for 15 or more cumulative minutes)…”
In response to this Brown said, “We are working to update our website with these recent changes.”
As for discontinuing the practice of notifying parents of potential exposures, Brown said providing contact tracing took a lot of time and effort.
“Contact tracing has proven to be very time intensive for our staff, but we saw very few resulting positive cases after potential school exposure,” he said. “We had no confidence that contact tracing did any good in protecting our students.”
He added that this does not apply to “medically fragile students,” whose parents will continue to be contacted.
In response, Anderson said he’s surprised by the lack of notification in the matter.
“You still have to tell people so they can tell their grandparents or tell people who are immune compromised and at risk,” he said.
Locally the COVID count saw a steep increase of 610 cases in a weeklong span according to reports from the Georgia Department of Public Health.
This brings the overall total to 5,920 positive cases since the beginning of the pandemic. 
Thankfully no new deaths were reported during this time span as the local death toll now stands at 94. Last week one Lumpkin County resident was hospitalized with the virus, which brings the overall count since early 2020 to 447.
Meanwhile Anderson said he feels the leaders of the school system should take every step to protect community members.
“I feel like we can do more,” he said. “I feel like this is more important than just doing the bare minimum.”

(Editor’s Note: In the interest of full transparency, Publisher Matt Aiken was one of the parents contacted by Micha Anderson after the positive COVID test result.)