The health and safety of our community is our highest priority. These guidelines have been developed in accordance with DESE’s recommendations which were supported by the medical field including the American Academy of Pediatrics and in collaboration with our local Board of Health and DPS nursing staff.
All members of the Dartmouth community have a shared responsibility to prevent the spread of illness. It is imperative that we all remain committed to the safety policies and procedures listed in this and future communications to help keep students, staff, and faculty safe. Please adhere to the following requirements:
Follow Federal, State, and Local Orders: All families are expected to adhere to the directives of applicable federal, state, and local government health departments regarding social distancing in public and other measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Testing and Notification: If your child or someone in your household tests positive for
COVID-19, you must notify your building Principal, as soon as possible. Principals will notify the Superintendent’s Office and Protocols for Responding to COVID 19 Scenarios will be followed.
Stay Home if Sick: Families are asked to monitor their household members for symptoms as identified by CDC. Do not bring sick children to school. Students who present with symptoms in school will be isolated and parents/guardians will be contacted to arrange pick-up. The district will ensure that all staff are familiar with the symptoms.
Stay Home if Exposed: If anyone in your household has been notified by the State Health Department that they were in contact with an individual infected with COVID-19, you are asked to notify your building Principal. Protocols for Responding to COVID 19 Scenarios will be followed.
Quarantine and contact tracing: If a student or employee has a COVID-19 infection, school officials will support the Department of Health’s efforts for contact tracing and enforcing quarantining of those infected and their contacts. Provisions will be made to support continuity of learning from home during quarantine periods.
Travel: All families traveling and then returning home from travel are instructed to follow MA COVID-19 Travel Order. Families must self-quarantine for 14 days or produce a negative COVID-19 test result that has been administered up to 72-hours prior to your arrival in Massachusetts. It takes everyone’s adherence to this requirement to ensure the safety of all.
Face Coverings: Anyone entering the building will be required to wear face coverings at all times. Students preK-12 and all employees will wear face coverings throughout the day unless medically or behaviorally excused with proper documentation. Students, without medical exception who refuse to wear a mask, will be removed from school and subject to progressive discipline as outlined in the Student Handbook. Parents are expected to send students to school with a personally owned (and regularly laundered) face covering that covers the nose and mouth every day. The school will have a limited supply of disposable face masks.
Personal Protective Equipment: Staff will be provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) appropriate to their job function.
Nursing: All nursing staff will be provided full PPE protection for use throughout the day, this includes, face masks, face shields, gloves and gowns. When students present to the health office, they will be screened immediately. If a student’s symptoms raise suspicion of COVID-19, a student will immediately be placed in a designated isolation area. This is a separate space from the nurse’s office or the regular space for providing medical care.
Hygiene: Students and staff will follow a regular schedule of hand washing or use of hand sanitizer throughout the day. Hand sanitizer will be available in every classroom and at strategic locations throughout the building. Please practice and reinforce good hygiene practices at home, in particular, the importance of frequent and thorough handwashing.
Students’ Personal Items: Limit the items your child brings to school each day to those essential or necessary to the day's work. Lockers will not be used.
Medical Forms / Emergency Contacts: Parents must submit all required student medical forms through our Back to School Gateway and be sure to provide updated emergency contacts. These emergency contacts should be folks who are able to pick up your child from the school within one (1) hour if your child presents with a temperature or becomes ill during the school day.
Physical distancing: Movement in the building will be controlled and directed to reduce the mixing of students. Academic schedules and classroom use will be designed to minimize the frequency and closeness of interaction between grade levels. In classrooms, students will be seated with a single desk-chair unit positioned at least six feet apart to minimize transmission risk.
Enhanced cleaning/ disinfection schedule: Cleaning will occur daily for shared spaces and furniture, using acceptSpecial ed COVID-19 cleaning procedures and EPA approved disinfectants. For high-touch surfaces (e.g., door handles, light switches, bottle filling stations) cleaning will occur multiple times each day.
Air Quality: The six school buildings of the Dartmouth Public Schools have a variety of commercial HVAC systems. These systems differ depending on age of the building as well as its design/construction. The important component of the HVAC mechanicals are the air filters which are changed twice per year at each change of the heating and cooling cycle per our preventative maintenance plan. We also clean the cooling and heating coil surfaces, disinfecting them with approved chemicals and methodology. In the HVAC systems that include wall-mounted, or console type induction units, the cabinets and fan compartments are cleaned annually. District maintenance staff will conduct HVAC preventative maintenance and will increase the replacement of air filters with greater regularity to reduce COVID-19 transmission potential. In buildings with windows that open, we will open windows for regular air flow when possible.
Food service: Students can continue to bring their own lunches to school or will have the option of ordering lunch in advance. Lunches will be served and eaten in classrooms at the elementary level and alternative spaces at the MS and HS. Accommodations will be made for students with food allergies. As students will be unmasked to eat, they will maintain a physical distance of (6) feet. During this time, we will be a nut free district.
Classroom practices: Teaching methods will be adjusted to minimize shared equipment or learning materials and personal belongings between students.
Excursions/Field Trips/Rallies or other large gatherings: All will be suspended.
Visitors: All visitors to our schools, including parents/guardians, will complete a screening questionnaire upon arrival and be required to wear a face covering while in the building. Entry to the building may be prohibited based on the responses. A log of all visitors will be kept and maintained for thirty (30) days with the date, contact phone number, arrival/departure times, and areas visited within the building.
Social Emotional Needs: We recognize how the COVID crisis has impacted the social emotional health and well-being of our students. Counselors and outreach workers will continue to support them as we transition into a nontraditional school setting.
We also recognize the importance of adult well-being. A substantial number of families are impacted by health concerns (e.g., family members who are COVID-19 positive; fears related to the virus); economic concerns (e.g., family members losing and/or employment issues, food insecurity); separation from supportive adults in their lives due to physical distancing (e.g., teachers, family members); and change or lack of routine, which can affect sleep, concentration, and emotional wellbeing. Outreach social workers can support strategies, including providing professional development to colleagues on mindfulness meditation. Notwithstanding the support Outreach Social Workers can provide their colleagues, it is important that districts provide other channels for educators to seek direct behavioral and mental health support if needed, such as through Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs).
As a supplement to DESE’s Initial Fall School Reopening Guidance, districts were provided important information on protocols for responding to specific COVID-19 scenarios this fall. Additional protocols from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) related to this topic may be released in the coming weeks and this guidance may be updated accordingly. DESE will also continue to provide relevant and clarifying information through its FAQ process.
This guidance provides more information and protocols to answer the following questions:
What should a district do if there is a symptomatic individual – at home, on the bus, or at school?
What should a district do if someone in the school community tests positive for COVID-19 – be it a student, teacher, staff, or bus driver, or one of their household members or close contacts?
Who should get tested for COVID-19 and when?
In what circumstances would someone need to quarantine (when they have been exposed but are not sick) or isolate (when they are sick)?
What should school districts do to monitor COVID-19 spread in their communities?
In collaboration with our local health agent, Dartmouth will use these CDC approved protocols to guide us when specific COVID related scenarios arise.
Seat Assignments and Boarding
Assigning specific buses, routes, and seats to students and staff in advance will limit potential
exposure and make contact tracing easier to conduct. In addition, to prevent crowding and
minimize interaction, students and transportation staff should follow the protocols outlined
below when entering or exiting the vehicle.
Bus staffing assignments will remain as static as possible by assigning drivers and other transportation staff to a single bus and a specific route.
Students will be assigned to a single AM bus and to a single PM bus, and to an assigned seat. One morning pick-up location and one afternoon drop-off location will be allowed per student.
No bus passes to allow a student to ride a different bus will be allowed.
As students board the bus, they will occupy their assigned seats starting from the rear of the bus and fill sequentially to the front. Upon arrival at school, the bus should be unloaded in a controlled manner, starting from the front of the bus and emptying sequentially to the back.
Pick-up and Drop-off Protocols
Arrival and departure protocols at each school will be modified to limit crowding upon student drop-off and pick-up. Each school will use more than one entrance and exit.
Considerations for Students with Disabilities
Some students with disabilities require specialized transportation as part of their Individualized
Education Program (IEP). To reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, we will work
collaboratively with parents of students who are eligible for specialized transportation to
determine their ability to transport their child(ren) to and from school.
Parents of students for whom special transportation is provided for in their IEPs and who transport their students are eligible for reimbursement, according to 603 CMR 28.07(6). In these cases, the student maintains the right to access transportation for a disability-related need at a future date. The IEP should not be amended to reflect the temporary change in transportation arrangements, but the family should be notified in writing of this temporary change if they agree to transport their student.
In cases where special transportation is provided for in the student’s IEP and the family is unable to transport their student, we will coordinate and provide transportation for those students, including students in out-of-district placements.
Symptom Screening
Checking for symptoms each morning by families and caregivers, before students arrive at the bus stop is critical and will serve as the primary screening mechanism for COVID-19 symptoms.
Bus drivers or bus monitors (if applicable) will be appropriately trained to observe students upon entry. If students appear symptomatic, and a parent/caregiver is present to take them home, they will not be permitted to board the school bus. According to DESE’s guidance, if a parent/caregiver is not present to take them home, students who may be symptomatic will be referred to the school office immediately upon arrival.
If a student who may be symptomatic must board the vehicle, they will be spaced six feet from other students as feasible. After departure, areas used by the student will be closed, and not used again until after cleaning and disinfecting.
Signs will be posted at bus entrances clearly indicating that no one may enter if they have symptoms of respiratory illness or fever.
If children become sick during the day, they will not be permitted to travel home via school bus.
Masks
According to Dese’s guidance, everyone on the bus and waiting at bus stops must wear masks that cover the nose and mouth at all times.
Adults, including drivers and other transportation staff (e.g., bus monitors), are required to wear masks.
Students are required to wear masks, regardless of age, when on the bus.
Exceptions to masks for students: Face shields may be an option for students with medical, behavioral, or other challenges who are unable to wear masks. Please see the “physical distancing” section below for protocols on how to work with families of students who cannot wear masks due to medical, behavioral, or other challenges.
Masks should be provided by the student/family, but disposable masks will be available in the event a student attempts to board the bus without one.
Physical Distancing
As reviewed and advised by the Massachusetts COVID-19 Command Center Medical Advisory
Group, students must maintain a minimum distance of 3 feet from others. For transportation, this means one student per bench, alternating sides for each row. The following distancing standards must be implemented in conjunction with strict adherence to health and safety requirements:
Distancing requirements apply both while waiting at bus stops and while in transit.
Students should face forward at all times and refrain from eating, drinking, shouting, singing, or sharing items while in transit.
Students who are not able to wear a mask while riding the bus should maintain 6 feet of distance between themselves and other students. If possible, the student should wear a face shield while on the bus. Families must notify the school of a student’s inability to wear a mask and provide a note from their physician. We will work with the families of students who are regularly unable to wear a mask regarding possible alternative transportation arrangements (i.e. walking to school or the family transporting the student).
Hand sanitizing
Hand sanitizer dispensers will be placed at the entrance of each school bus for students and staff to clean hands as they board and exit the bus.
During winter months, students wearing gloves upon entry are encouraged to keep gloves on at all times during transit to the extent possible. If the student wishes to remove the gloves, they should follow the hand sanitizing protocols outlined above upon entry and exit.
Ventilation
Opening windows can greatly increase the level of ventilation within a school bus and therefore reduce COVID-19 transmission risk.
Windows will be kept open at all times during operation, unless not possible due to extreme weather conditions. Even in cold or rainy weather, bus windows should be kept open at least partially, if possible.
Roof hatches will be kept open when weather permits.
Cleaning and disinfecting
At a minimum, high-touch surfaces (see examples below) will be cleaned and disinfected thoroughly after each morning route and after each afternoon route using EPA-approved disinfectants. The interior of each vehicle will be cleaned and disinfected thoroughly at least once each day.
Clean high-touch surfaces first and most frequently, including buttons, handholds, pull cords, window latches, rails, steering wheels, door handles, shift knobs, dashboard controls, and stanchions.
Conduct thorough routine cleaning of vehicles, including dusting and wet-mopping vehicle floors, removing trash, wiping heat and air conditioner vents, spot cleaning walls and seats, dusting horizontal surfaces, cleaning spills, etc.
Routine cleaning outlined above should be completed prior to disinfection to remove all surface matter.
Doors and windows should remain open when cleaning the vehicle.
Staff will be trained to use disinfectants in a safe and effective manner and to clean up potentially infectious materials and body fluid spills. All sanitizing and disinfecting solutions must be labeled properly to identify the contents and kept out of the reach of students.
Drivers and monitors should have adequate supplies of soap, paper towels, tissues, hand sanitizer, garbage bags, and other critical cleaning supplies.
Precautions for transportation staff
Bus drivers and monitors face potential exposure through close contact with passengers, contact with high-touch surfaces, or by touching their mouth, nose, or eyes. Older individuals and those with serious underlying medical conditions may be at higher risk for more serious complications from COVID-19. To mitigate these risks, all bus drivers and monitors should take the following precautions when transporting students:
Avoid touching surfaces often touched by passengers.
Wear masks covering the nose and mouth at all times.
Use gloves if required to touch surfaces contaminated by bodily fluids.
Maintain proper hand hygiene. Wash hands regularly with soap and water when available for at least 20 seconds and use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Don’t report for duty if sick.