What Happens When COVID Happens
by Jay Harnack, Superintendent Sublette County School District #1
August 5, 2020
Dear SCSD 1 Families:
I received the following question in the comments section of a previous blog and I thought it was a good starting point on the topic of what happens when students and or staff are symptomatic or we have a confirmed case of COVID for a student or staff member.
I would like to understand the expected procedure should a student in our District be exposed to COVID outside school, should a student (or teacher) have a confirmed diagnosis of COVID after having been at school, and/or should a student or teacher be suspected of having COVID. I’m sure it was all in the plan you sent, but I’ll be honest that I was overwhelmed at the size of that document. I wasn’t even sure where to begin.
I should first acknowledge the plan is overwhelming. It's designed to be comprehensive and despite my best efforts to keep it simple, it's just a lot of ground to cover.
Let's start with what happens if a student or staff is symptomatic.
SYMPTOMATIC STUDENTS OR STAFF
The plan requires all parents and staff members to be screened for COVID symptoms before coming to school. This includes prior to getting on a bus.
Appendix C of the plan contains the required health screening. If a student or staff member has any of the symptoms outlined in the screening, if anyone in the household has the symptoms, or if a member of the household has been in contact with anyone suspected or confirmed to have COVID, the student or staff member must stay home. If a student or staff member exhibits these symptoms at school, they will be sent home.
Appendix D of the plan describes the health requirements for symptomatic students or staff to return to work. It's a flowchart with a couple of different pathways, but let me try and make this as simple as possible. If you are symptomatic, you need to be home until you test negative or are symptom-free, including fever free for 24 hours. This means that if you are fever breaks at 6PM on Tuesday, you should not return to school until Thursday. If you are fever-free, but still exhibiting other symptoms, you must remain at home. If you send your student to school while they remain symptomatic, we will simply be required to send them right back home. I know you are tired of hearing me say this, but this is required of us.
Now let's talk about what happens if we have confirmed positive tests of students or staff.
CONFIRMED POSITIVE TESTS OF STUDENTS OR STAFF
What happens when a student or staff member tests positive for COVID is really at the discretion of our county health officer. Confirmation of a positive test will come to us from county health or from the family. When we are notified that a student or staff member has tested positive, we will share that with our school community. Please be aware that while we can share that a student or staff member in a particular building has tested positive for COVID, that will be the extent of what we are allowed share. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits us from sharing more.
After notification, we will work with the county health officer to enact cleaning and prevention protocols. This will occur on a case-by-case basis and could include anything from simply quarantining students and/or staff and deep cleaning specific areas of a building to closing the school for a period of time. It could also include closing specific classrooms or portions of a building.
Any closure of a building or a portion of a building from any public health order would move that building or that portion of the building from Tier I to Tier II in our plan.
Students affected by the closure will receive instruction through classroom-based virtual delivery (distance learning). In plain language, that means that any building, pod, or class that is closed due to COVID will transition from in-person instruction to distance learning for the period of closure. That could be one day, it could be ten days, or it could be more.
THE STOCKDALE PARADOX
Success for school districts during the COVID era will rely heavily on the Stockdale Paradox. We must maintain unwavering faith that we can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the brutal facts of our current reality, whatever they might be (1).
While some families in our district may choose distance learning for an entire semester or year, the current reality is that we all need to be prepared for distance learning at some point. As much as we all would like to be able to envision a school year that resembles something prior to COVID, we aren't there yet. When we cannot social distance, we will need to wear masks. Schedules, events, and learning will look different. Our classrooms, schools, and even our district may be closed at some point.
There is no doubt in my mind that this year will be unprecedented in the number of challenges we face. I also have no doubt that we have the best students, families, and staff; that together we will all make the most of our learning opportunities, both in-person and distance learning, and that we will prevail in the end.
Source: Superintendent’s Blog
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