By Reema Amin, Photo: José A. Alvarado Jr./Chalkbeat, Chalkbeat, February 1, 2022
When New York City school officials introduced a new COVID policy during winter break, panic spread among many Bangladeshi parents in parts of central Brooklyn.
In a letter to families, officials said students could now stay in school if exposed to COVID, as long as they tested negative on at-home tests. The letter also said officials “strongly encourage” children to get a test before returning to school — which, in the Bangla version, read like a mandate to families, said Tazin Azad, a member of District 22’s Community Education Council who speaks Bangla and monitors multiple WhatsApp groups for Bangladeshi parents.
“Our WhatsApp was blowing up: ‘I can’t find my site for testing,’ [and] ‘How am I gonna send my kids to school?’” Azad said. At the time, ballooning COVID cases in the city had created long lines for tests and delays in returning results. Some parents kept their children home from school because they didn’t have test results before the first day, she said.
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