New York State has substantially relaxed testing requirements in
conjunction with the reopening of schools to in-person instruction
in orange and red zones. Previously, Governor Cuomo released
guidelines for yellow zone restrictions as well as for schools to
reopen in red and orange micro-cluster zones in an effort to keep
schools open to in-person instruction. Those guidelines
required schools in yellow zones to test 20% of in-person students,
teachers and staff over the two-week period immediately following
the announcement of their yellow zone designation and, provided the
positivity rate remained below a certain threshold, such schools
were allowed to remain open. Once designated in an orange or
red zone, schools were required to close to in-person instruction
for at least four (4) calendar days and then, if they wished to
reopen, were required to “test out” of such zone by
testing 25% of their in-person school community weekly.
Notably, no one was allowed to be
