NJ school district mandates regular COVID-19 testing for sports programs

In requiring its student-athletes and coaches be regularly tested for COVID-19, South River Public Schools is mitigating the spread of the coronavirus within its own school-community and beyond, according to the school district’s superintendent.

South River is believed to be one of only a few school districts statewide to mandate testing for its scholastic sports programs.

Sen. Patrick J. Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), whose legislative district includes South River, praised the school district for its initiative.

“They are to be commended,” Diegnan said. “We’ve got to do everything we can to get our kids back into some sense of normalcy, while at the same time keeping them safe.”

The school district’s policy adds a layer of detection beyond the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s safety protocols, which require daily health screenings including temperature checks and the completion of questionnaires.

“We looked at the guidance from the NJSIAA and were appreciative of them, of course, especially when it came to the summer workouts,” South River Public Schools Superintendent Sylvia Zircher said, referring to NJSIAA-sanctioned voluntary practices, which precluded competition.

“We felt once we got into the actual season, we looked at the potential for contact related to athletics. We were concerned that we needed to do something more, and we knew we wanted to keep our athletic season in place, so maybe there’s a way for us to be proactive.”

Earlier this month, South River tested approximately 200 student-athletes and coaches at the high school and middle school levels, and is scheduled to conduct another wave of testing before the start of the regular season, which commences this week.

Asked about South River’s initial round of COVID-19 testing, Zircher said she preferred to keep the results internal out of deference to all who were swabbed.

Zircher said, however, that results of the testing allowed South River “to move forward with the schedule and not shut down.”

At least a dozen high school football teams or athletic programs have been forced to suspend practice since the start of the academic year due to coronavirus-related issues. Some of those gridiron squads had to cancel their season-openers as a result. 

The coronavirus testing at South River, for which all student-athletes and coaches preregister, is conducted at school facilities. Zircher said the test takes less than a minute and results are returned within 24 to 48 hours.

All school districts statewide are required to contact their local health department with any known COVID-19 positive cases. Local health officials can help determine if a school, sports team or athletics program needs to close or shut down.

South River’s COVID-19 testing is covered through a family’s medical insurance, a grant for the uninsured, the provider or – as a last resort – the district. South River reallocated resources within its existing budget for such expenses. No parent or coach is ever responsible for any testing costs, Zircher said.

Zircher said she has received calls from some of her peers regarding South River’s COVID-19 testing program.

“A few in the county (of Middlesex) have explored the option,” Zircher said. “It does take a lot of coordination and a good partner to be able to put this in place. We were fortunate. I had already started those conversations with a different purpose in mind.”

Zircher said South River initially explored district-wide testing for all students and staff, but finding resources to facilitate such a program was “challenging.”

Zircher said the district’s testing program not only protects South River student-athletes and coaches, but any other South River students and staff with whom those individuals might come in contact. She said the testing program also protects school-communities against which South River competes.

South River Public Schools, which commenced the academic year with virtual-only instruction, plans to start in-person learning for students and families who desire that option this week, while all others can continue to study remote.

Zircher said the school-community’s reaction to the district’s policy has been “very positive.”

“When it comes to testing and when it comes to COVID overall, people have varying personal opinions,” Zircher said. “A few have shared some opinions, but overall it’s been very well received.”

Testing programs such as those in place at South River may help identify positive cases that otherwise might go undetected, in turn protecting multi-generational households where elderly or more vulnerable family members reside.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, evidence suggests as many as 45% of pediatric infections are asymptomatic.

The CDC recently reported the number and rate of COVID-19 cases in children in the United States steadily increased from March to July. The increase may have been attributed to stay-at-home orders being lifted, the CDC reported.

“Recent evidence suggests children likely have the same or higher viral loads in their nasopharynx compared with adults and that children can spread the virus effectively in households and camp settings,” the CDC reported.

The CDC reported children, who comprise 22 percent of the country’s population, account for 7.3 percent of all coronavirus cases nationwide.

The NJSIAA, in its return-to-play guidance for member schools, presents multiple scenarios that could lead to individual teams or entire athletic programs being shut down due to the coronavirus.

For example, should two or more students or coaches on the same team test positive within 14 days of each other and should those cases be linked together by some team-based activity or should a connection between those cases not be easily identified, the NJSIAA protocol is to consider shutting that team down for two weeks based on an investigation by the school’s pandemic response team in consultation with local health department officials.

“Just like every other district, we struggled with the concept that we want an athletic program in place, and we don’t want kids to lose the opportunity to have their athletic season,” Zircher said.

“At the same time, we want to make sure it is safe to do so.”

Email: gtufaro@gannettnj.com