We’ll be sharing with families this week some important safety procedures we have in place to ensure that our community stays safe, healthy, and informed. This includes our quarantine guidelines and communications to expect if there’s a COVID incident at your school, and this important information also applies to staff. While many of these details can also be found in the Safe Schools Family Field Guide and on our 20-21 School Year Updates page, we would like to bring your attention to these key items, as they are essential to ensure a safe return to school.

When to Quarantine

• It is important that students and staff stay home when experiencing any of the following: 
• Have been within 6 feet of a someone with COVID for a cumulative 15 minutes or more over a 24 hour period
• Are experiencing any COVID symptoms 
• Tested positive for COVID 
• You do not pass the DSST Daily Screener Tool questionnaire, which should be taken every morning before entering the building. You can learn more about using this tool by reviewing the guidebook or watching this video. 
• Contact your school director if you are experiencing any of the above, and they will help you determine your best next steps. 
• If a student or staff member gets sick at school, they will immediately be sent to a designated isolation area to be screened by a medical assistant, who will monitor their symptoms. Families will be contacted immediately if a student does not pass the health screening.
• Any student or staff member experiencing COVID symptoms or exposed to COVID must quarantine for 10 days. 
• If you are unsure about potential exposures or symptoms, stay in touch with your school director 

Communicating COVID Incidents

In alignment with CDC guidelines, we are defining a close contact as someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. This means that anyone else, including others in the classroom, is not considered a close contact and is therefore not considered to be at risk, and does not need to quarantine. We will track who is a close contact based on diligent adherence to classroom seating charts.

However, if a member of your school community has a confirmed case/exposure to COVID-19, we will communicate with staff and with families in the following ways:

• Direct communication if you or a student is a close contact to COVID-19 at school with clear next steps, which may include a mandatory 10 day quarantine. In situations where students have been exposed and will need to quarantine, we will both call and send an email/Flyer message. 
• Email and Flyer notification to all school families and staff if there has been an exposure case at school, even if it does not directly impact you or the student.  We aim to be transparent and keep our entire community informed
• Tables displaying numbers of confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses at each school/campus will be recorded, posted on our website and updated daily.