COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Health is exploring a plan that would allow students who are exposed at school to avoid quarantines for COVID-19, even if the exposed student is unvaccinated and unmasked. 

​​​State officials are working with schools in Warren County on a pilot project that would let exposed students stay in school if they wear a mask after the exposure, Gov. Mike DeWine said Wednesday at a Columbus event.

Ohio Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said Thursday that many schools in Ohio are struggling with large numbers of quarantines just weeks into the new year. 

Ten Warren County district superintendents wrote a letter to the governor expressing concern that too many healthy students are being quarantined. 

“If we are going to keep our students safe, our schools open, and our communities from dividing any further, we need to improve our strategy for living life with COVID-19,” the superintendents wrote. 

Under the tentative plan, exposed students would get tested twice with rapid tests in addition to being required to mask, DeWine said. Families would have the option to keep their children home for a traditional quarantine. 

The Ohio Federation of Teachers on Thursday said it’s the wrong time to relax quarantine protocols with COVID-19 cases soaring in Ohio. 

“We’re disappointed and outraged at Gov. DeWine’s latest action,” Melissa Cropper, the president of the federation, wrote in a statement. “We shouldn’t be jumping through hoops to avoid common-sense protections against this deadly disease.”

In a weekly update Thursday, Ohio schools reported 4,446 new COVID-19 cases among students, a significant increase from 1,241 cases the week before, according to Ohio Department of Health data.

The governor said that at his direction, Vanderhoff held a conference call with the Warren County superintendents Wednesday to discuss testing the idea.

“We appreciated the letter very much, and we are now working with them to try to set up a testing protocol, and we will see how that works,” DeWine said. “If this is successful in this trial that we're going to have with the Warren County school systems, this will be something that we would hope to be able to rollout and make available for other schools around the state of Ohio.”

Vanderhoff said schools should require masks to avoid the problem of student quarantines, noting that students who are exposed while wearing masks do not have to quarantine. Vaccinated students in Ohio are not required to quarantine either.

Last week, DeWine said he discussed masking on a call with about 30 superintendents in suburban and rural districts that do not require face coverings. The governor said he hears their concerns, but his administration continues to strongly recommend masks in schools. 

In recent weeks, mask policies have been hotly contested during school board meetings in districts across Ohio.

The Warren County superintendents said in their letter that families are frustrated by COVID-19 protocols, describing “distrust and anger” in the school communities.

“Our families are tired of seeing healthy children sent home because of a one-size-fits-all quarantine rule that we do not use with any other virus,” their letter read. 

The superintendents that signed the letter represent Carlisle Local Schools, Kings Local Schools, Lebanon City Schools, Little Miami Local Schools, Franklin City Schools, Mason City Schools, Springboro Community Schools, Wayne Local Schools, the Warren County Career Center, Clinton Massie Local Schools, Monroe Local Schools and Warren County E.S.C.