Children in Erie County Can Be Kicked Out of School If Parents Refuse Random Testing

Governor Andrew Cuomo officially announced that parts (most) of Erie County would fall into the "yellow-zone" for micro-cluster designation, after the sudden rise in COVID-19 rates.

There is, however, some confusion on what exactly will be the new policies in place because of the micro-cluster designation? Schools are on the top of that list for many people in Western New York.

According to WGRZ, areas in the yellow-zone in Erie County will be required to test 20 percent of their students and staff every week, which will be randomly.

But what happens if parents refuse the testing?

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz says if a child is randomly chosen to be tested and the parents refuse, then the child can be kicked out of school for two weeks by the government.

"If they refuse to be tested, then they can't go into school now," Poloncarz said.

However, this might just be an Erie County implemented policy, as this doesn't appear to represent a state policy. That remains positively unclear, however, based on Poloncarz' comments.

"I think this comes from the state," Poloncarz said. "If they are refusing to be tested then, because we are in the cluster zone, then that student has to go virtual... that's what I've been told."

Because of the confusion, and new testing policy put in place because of the yellow-zone designation, many school districts may just opt to go to all virtual learning.

I couldn't imagine how frustrating this is for a parent right now. You can read the full story at WGRZ.