Arkansas’ public schools can decide whether they will conduct contact tracing or quarantine students who have been in close contact with some who is COVID-19 positive, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Tuesday.
Hutchinson said at his weekly news conference the number of COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant made them incapable of contact tracing at the state level and added the effort was proving to be unfruitful.
“We want as many students in school as possible,” Hutchinson said. “They’ve had a challenge with this number of cases and many of them are asymptomatic. The contact tracing has been such a burden on our schools, they can’t keep up with them, and so it’s keeping students out of school.”
Hutchinson said the shift is meant to prevent healthy, asymptomatic students from missing school, calling the move “the best step forward at this time.”
Johnny Key, secretary of the Department of Education, read a memo during Hutchinson’s news conference that was sent to school districts Tuesday, saying contact tracing and quarantines still were considered best practice as mitigation strategies, but that the districts could decide whether to implement them for themselves.
“As knowledge and resources have evolved during the pandemic, the response to COVID-19 has been modified to balance educational and physical well-being in public schools,” Key said.
Key said it is not believed that making the strategies optional would create or elevate risk of students getting sick.
The governor said it is likely many school districts will stop doing contact tracing and quarantines. Conversations with school leaders have revealed a desire to safely keep as many kids in school as possible, Hutchinson said.
“You should not stop going to school because you might have been exposed,” Hutchinson said. “That is up to the local districts, but there is not a directive from the state in that regard.”
The governor clarified if a student has tested positive for COVID-19 or if they are symptomatic, they should stay home just as they would with the flu
