(New Orleans – January 10, 2022) - Due to robust testing among students and staff, we have strong evidence that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has impacted NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) at levels comparable to the community spread detected throughout New Orleans.
Our school community has done an outstanding job of ensuring our students and staff received a COVID-19 test before returning to school after the Winter Break. As a result, more than 18,100 tests were administered between Jan. 1-7 with a positive test rate among those tested of approximately 13 percent. These efforts account for a large proportion of the city's overall tracking data; give our schools the most accurate information available for decision making; and aid all our efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 on school campuses and in our city.
Schools continue to assess the impact of this surge on staffing levels and other critical needs and communicate directly with families about any decisions to pivot to distance learning options. At this time, NOLA-PS is not issuing a Districtwide directive for distance learning.
The commitment of NOLA-PS and its school community to keep students and staff safe and healthy continues. NOLA-PS has revised its guidelines based on the information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) to better protect everyone and continue our students' educational journeys. These updates can be viewed here.
"We are doing our best as a school community to protect our students, teachers, and support staff and preserve in-person learning," said Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. "I am grateful to everyone in our school community, staff, teachers, parents, and students, for their work protecting themselves and their friends, families, and colleagues."
The increase in our school community's positive test rate, however, is another compelling reason why all eligible students should be vaccinated by the District-established deadline of Feb. 1. Currently, the vaccination rate among 5-17 year-olds across New Orleans is 35 percent according to City data. While parents or guardians can opt out of vaccinations for their children, we all need to do our best to grow the number of vaccinated students to continue to preserve in-person learning. Vaccinations are proven to be the best tools to minimize quarantines and disruptions to students' classroom time and their families' daily lives.
Please contact your school or visit www.nolapublicschools.com/vaccinations for www.ready.nola.gov for details on testing and vaccination sites.
New to the COVID Tracker
NOLA-PS will begin providing the weekly tally of tests administered to students and staff and the associated positive test rate to highlight the tremendous participation in our community to keep each other safe.
This week's COVID Tracker provides an update for the week of Jan. 1-7.
As of Jan. 7, the District is tracking 2,233 total cases of COVID-19 (597 staff; 1,636 students) among 81 schools in our school community, resulting in 2,192 individuals in quarantine. From January 1-7, NOLA PS completed 18,112 COVID-19 tests with a positive test rate of 13%.
The increases in total new cases are due to the Omicron surge and the robust testing among our schools to track this pandemic. The overwhelming majority of tests were performed before students and staff returned to the classroom, thereby drastically reducing the number of close contacts and those required to quarantine. Schools with high numbers of positive cases represent schools that had the highest level of participation in our return to school testing and not a result of COVID-19 spread within schools. Due to the high number of new cases, some schools may not have been able to fully report all associated close contacts from each positive case.
As we've been doing since the start of the pandemic, NOLA-PS will continue to monitor the data that measure the impact of COVID-19. Our goal is to continue to preserve in-person learning.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, the LDH, and the New Orleans Health Department have analyzed the data, and all agree the best place for children to be is in the classroom. The benefits include developing social and emotional skills, access to healthy meals and activities, and access to mental health support that cannot be offered through virtual learning.
With that in mind, NOLA-PS will continue to publicly share each week the number of confirmed cases and precautionary quarantines that our schools self-report. We will also continue to remain in close contact with the LDH and our health advisers as we navigate the 2021-2022 school year.
NOLA-PS' COVID-19 Case Tracker provides cumulative data of self-reported cases in our public schools since this reporting began on Sept. 21, 2020. Last school year's data is archived and available for viewing on our website.
The NOLA-PS COVID-19 Case Tracker reports the number of active and cumulative positive cases of COVID-19 by school site, the number of quarantined individuals and the number of positive cases of COVID-19 reported over time for the district and by school site.
The case numbers above reflect data the District has received from schools. In some cases, there may be a lag time in reporting due to the timeframe in which families notify their schools regarding test results among students.
All schools are required to report positive cases to the LDH and the District. The District is continuing to stay on top of updates, collaborate with state and local agencies, and work closely with our school leaders, task force, and community stakeholders to ensure a safe 2021-2022 school year.
To learn more about our quarantine and isolation process for the 2021-2022 school year, please refer to NOLA-PS' COVID Guidance for the details.
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About NOLA Public Schools: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district's administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 76 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr.
For more information, visit www.nolapublicschools.com. For updates, follow NOLA Public Schools on Facebook @NOLAPublicSchools, Instagram @nolaps and Twitter @NOLAPSchools.