I've heard of this happening some time back when the reality of the bratlings being at home 24/7 with Mommy would be a reality if they had any suspicious symptoms - it just didn't have a name. Sooo what better way to get around that pesky nonsense than to just not test the dumplings for the virus that's already killed over a million people? Kids don't seem to get sick and die from it like adults do, so that's all that matters, right? Gotta keep the schools open at all costs so parents don't have to actually spend time with the horrible brats they made.
This is nothing more than the typical breeder horse shit of sending your sick child to school, only this has the potential to actually KILL people. Hell, it might be something as simple as a lazy fuck parent not wanting to deal with an all-day tantrum after Junior gets a Q-tip rammed into his sinuses.
And with isolation still being sort of a thing and quite possibly becoming more of a thing again with the surge in cases lately, it's pretty easy for a parent to hide their child's symptoms, along with neglect and abuse. I guess at the very very least, this "mom code" crap advises parents to keep their sick brats at home, but if schools remain open, you know they won't. If schools begin testing students for COVID-19 like they do with hearing and vision, parents will be out for blood and screaming about discrimination, violation of rights, lawsuits, harassment and any other ten-dollar legal word they can think of.
The bottom line is that parents don't give a fuck about their kids, other people's kids or anyone else. A majority of parents will happily put their children and the rest of the world in obvious danger for the sake of convenience. I swear to god if parents worked half as hard at being parents as they do trying to skirt around their responsibilities, they might actually be half decent at their jobs.