Illness & Outbreaks
How Schools will Handle Illness and Outbreaks
Can I go to school/work today?
- Someone who the child or staff lives with (or has had close contact with) has been diagnosed with COVID-19, or has symptoms of COVID-19.
- The child or staff member does not feel well enough to take part in usual activities. For example, a child is overly tired, fussy or will not stop crying.
- A child needs more care than the teachers and staff can give while still caring for other children.
- The symptom or illness is on the linked document, and staying home is required.
- Feeling feverish, having chills, or temperature of 100.4F or higher
- New or unexplained persistent cough
- Shortness of breath
- Difficulty breathing
- Loss of taste or smell
- Fatigue
- Muscle aches
- Headache
- Sore throat
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Runny nose or congestion
What if I feel unwell after arriving at school?
If I’m ill, how long do I need to stay home?
Do close contacts of the sick person also need to stay home?
Please note, though we do not require quarantine for routine classroom exposures, students are still required to quarantine if they are exposed outside of school.
Why? Due to the precautionary measures we have in place at our schools, the spread of COVID-19 is much lower than in other settings. We want students to be able to have as much in-person learning time as possible, and therefore do not require all close contacts at school to quarantine unless we have a suspected or confirmed outbreak or students were exposed in a higher-risk setting.
However, being exposed outside of school, especially if it is a close contact the student lives with, means they are much more likely to come down with COVID-19. In order to keep our staff and students safe, we require that these students stay home from school for 7 days (with a negative test) or 10 days AFTER their last exposure. We also require that students with symptoms of COVID-19 stay home and await instructions from a district nurse or school health assistant before returning to school. Our weekly school COVID testing should be for students who do NOT have symptoms prior to testing.
FAQ on who needs to isolate/quarantine.