Testimony before the New York City Council Committees on Health and Hospitals

My name is Michael Mulgrew, and I am the President of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). On behalf of the more than 190,000 UFT members, I would like to thank Speaker Corey Johnson, Chairs Mark Levine and Carlina Rivera and all of the members of the Committees on Health and Hospitals for holding today’s hearing about the city’s efforts to protect our families and children from the impending spread of the coronavirus/COVID-19.

Not only are UFT members responsible for educating New York City’s (NYC) 1.1 million students every day, but they also often serve as a first line of defense in many emergency cases while students are in school. This is especially true, in this particular case, of our school nurses who have recently been made responsible of triaging and managing students and school staff that may need medical attention in the event that they have come in contact with the coronavirus.

While the communication that has been shared with schools to help minimize the spread of the coronavirus in our schools is strong, we believe more needs to be done around notifying the families of students in schools where a student or school staff members is identified as having been exposed to the coronavirus, and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) must be held accountable for properly enforcing testing protocols put in place by the city administration.

Communication to UFT membership

First, I would like to inform the members of this legislative body that on the evening of Sunday, March 1 we sent out a unionwide email sharing the guidelines drafted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on how the virus is transmitted, what symptoms they should be on the lookout for, who was at risk, and guidance on prevention and treatment. The communication additionally included guidelines for school nurses and a clear message to the membership that the union would be working with the Department of Education (DOE) and DOHMH to develop a strategic plan in the event that there is a confirmed case in a New York City public school.

Strategic plan to prevent spread

Since our communication to the UFT membership on the evening of Sunday, March 1, four specific messages have been shared with our public schools via the DOE and DOHMH on guidelines for principals and exact procedures school nurses and custodian engineers must follow.

1. The first is dated Tuesday, March 3, 2020, titled “Principal Guidelines for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)” containing: background information on the virus; the most recent updates from the CDC; general preparedness protocols calling on principals to follow standard infection control precautions; an emphasis on ensuring bathrooms are stocked with soap and paper towels; a call for announcements to be made on the importance of covering coughs and sneezes; and a mandate for custodial engineers to regularly disinfect common areas and to keep the school building properly ventilated.
2. The second is dated Tuesday, March 3, 2020 to all custodial engineers with subject line: Updated COVID-19 AKA Novel Coronavirus Cleaning Procedure. This notice mandates that they disinfect all exposed surfaces in their assigned buildings every Monday and Thursday evening utilizing an anti-viral disinfecting cleaning product.
3. The third dated Tuesday, March 3, 2020 was included in Chancellor Carranza’s P-Weekly message to all Principals providing information on the guidelines.
4. The fourth is dated Wednesday, March 4, 2020, titled “School Medical Room Guidance for Triaging and Managing Students with Symptoms and Travel History Consistent with COVID-9” and provides explicit instructions schools, in particular school nurses, should follow to establish a medical room in every school and manage students who exhibit known symptoms of the coronavirus.

We agree with the notifications that have been disseminated across the school district. We believe they contain up-to-date information and useful procedures our schools can follow to help minimize person-to-person spread of the virus if a student or staff member in a school shows any symptoms.

Testing for coronavirus is essential

It is imperative during this time that we collect all of facts before acting. As per the “School Medical Room Guidance for Triaging and Managing Students with Symptoms and Travel History Consistent with COVID-9” report issued by DOHMH, it’s important to have exact knowledge of whether a student or staff member exhibiting any COVID-19 related symptoms have either recently traveled to an affected geographical area or has been in close contact with a person known to have COVID-19.

In the event that the school can confirm having the aforementioned knowledge, the student or staff member should immediately be isolated in a medical room and then be removed from the school and transported directly to a medical facility with the ability to test for whether they contracted the virus. Following the removal of the student or staff member, all other staff members and parents and guardians of students exposed to the student or staff member removed from the school grounds should be notified that they may have been exposed to an individual showing symptoms of the coronavirus and should immediately seek testing.

Custodial engineers should continue to follow the existing procedures of disinfecting the school every Monday and Thursday, and in addition be required to completely disinfect the school building following the removal of any student or staff member from school grounds. Students and staff members that test positive for coronavirus should not be allowed to come back into the school building until they are completely asymptomatic.

School closures should be a tool of “last resort” and should be considered on a school building by school building case. Again, it is important to have a full understanding of the facts before any significant action is taken.

Address school nurse shortage

It is our understanding through our internal data that approximately 137 schools across the city, enrolling some 71,000 students, do not have a permanent full-time school nurse or school-based health clinic. And while there is a system in place to fill school nurse vacancies using temp agencies to hire school nurses, it is not completely effective as currently we estimate that about 25 schools every day go without a medical professional in the building.

Our recently instituted medical room and triage procedure is dependent on having a reliable and registered school nurse in every school. I strongly urge the administration and City Council to immediately address this shortage and fill in the vacancies where they exist. This is not the time to allow for cracks in our system to put our children and families at risk.

Closing thoughts

It is almost inevitable that the coronavirus will become an issue in New York City and in our public schools. We don’t know how serious a problem it will be, but we do know that panicking won’t help. What will help is a determination to do all that we can to be prepared and make sure our students and school staff members are safe. We need to make sure every single school has a registered school nurse; principals, custodial engineers, and school nurses are well versed in their school plan to provide accurate information, have access to the supplies they need to clean and disinfect our schools, and have an established plan to triage and manage students and staff members that show symptoms of COVID-19; and most importantly we need to make sure that our City administers a test to every single individual that is identified as a possible carrier.