Wichita school staff in quarantine surpasses 1,000 for the first time this school year

For the first time this school year, more than 1,000 of Wichita Public Schools’ staff are in quarantine from COVID-19 or exposure to the virus, district records released Friday show.

Students quarantined and positive cases in students and staff all dipped in the weekly report, but still remain high. All of the measures shed light on COVID in Wichita schools, but the number of staff quarantines directly impacts the district’s ability to keep schools open.

Last week, COVID forced the district to close its first schools of the school year. During that week, the report of staff quarantined was 912, up from 646 the week before that. Staff quarantines have increased more than twelvefold in four weeks. It’s now at 1,033 or about 13.5% of staff.

No schools are currently closed.

The Omicron variant led to a surge of cases nationwide, forcing staffing shortages that closed schools across the country. The staffing crisis has gotten so severe that earlier this month the Kansas State Board of Education lowered the standard for substitute teachers.

Rather than go remote like districts did last school year, districts have been forced to close buildings after the Kansas Legislature passed a law restricting remote learning to no more than 40 hours for an individual student.

In Wichita, the drop in the district’s students and staff who tested positive for COVID-19 coincides with a recent drop in cases, hospitalizations and deaths across Kansas, state data shows. Cases and hospitalizations reached pandemic highs in January, the data shows. Deaths also spiked but not as high as it was in December 2020.

In Kansas, children hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID reached pandemic highs in January.

At Wichita Public Schools, there were 543 students who tested positive from Jan. 20 to Jan. 26, down from 915 the week before. The high was 1,285 students two weeks ago, representing about 2.7% of the district’s roughly 47,200 students. The 543 new cases are still higher than any week from when the school year started in August through December.

Staff positive cases dropped this week to 203, down from a high of 344 the week before. The 203 is higher than any week in 2021.

Student quarantines dropped to 1,931, down from 3,300 the previous week. The high was 4,889 two weeks ago.

This story was originally published January 29, 2022 at 2:18 PM.