BUFFALO, N.Y. — “There needs to be a lot more explaining to me.”
Buffalo Public Schools superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash is not sold on state government’s latest initiative to keep kids in school while COVID test rates are still high all around Western New York.
The program dubbed, Test-to-Stay, aims to put at least 2 million at-home COVID test kits into the hands of school teachers, staff and parents of students.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has been pushing this program in recent weeks, and she did again Wednesday at an appearance at Erie County Medical Center. She explained that if a student was suspected to have come in contact with the virus, “test the child, and if they are negative the first day, send them back to school. A few days later, test again.”
Among the questions Cash has is how many negative tests must there be before the student is cleared. With over 50,000 people in city schools, he estimates the number of test kits could rapidly grow.
“You can see how you do the multiplication, you can get to a million very quickly, testing kits the Buffalo school alone needs,” Cash said.
Representatives of the governor’s office confirm that guidance on the specifics on how Test-to-Stay will operate has not been distributed to school districts yet, and most are scheduled to return from Winter Break in less than two weeks.
Cash says he and other key members of the school administration will monitor COVID data and make a decision on how education will continue. That could come down as early at Tuesday when Cash is scheduled to give an update.