Coordinate with local public health systems for school closures, for testing and quarantine of individuals with COVID-19 and for establishing protocols for public health system contact tracing for school community members who test positive for COVID-19.
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Develop communication strategy between school districts and local health departments to facilitate COVID-19-related decision-making.
Jointly develop a testing resource referral list to share with symptomatic or potentially exposed children and adults.
Clarify point persons in schools and health departments to facilitate contact tracing.
Jointly develop tiered plan for school closure (e.g., classroom, school, district), based on number of COVID-19 cases in school.
Identify school staff to assist in contact tracing and answering family/staff questions related to testing and quarantine.
Are there existing relationships with the local health department that can be leveraged to address COVID-19-related decision-making?
Will a single school closure plan work for the district? Or will different schools require different plans?
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Confirm protocol for informing and collaborating with local public health authorities (town, county, or state) to facilitate contact tracing, including those in close contact for at least 15 minutes (typically the entire classroom).
Collaborate with the local health department to define parameters for classroom or school closure due to a positive case or cases.
Develop communication plan for staff, parents/caregivers, and community when a positive case is identified (who, when, why?), including privacy policies regarding disclosure of COVD-19 status.
Collaborate with local public health authority to define a timeline for return to school for positive cases (e.g., 10 to 14 days) and consider a protocol for symptomatic individuals who test negative.
Parabola Project: Process for a Positive COVID-19 Case Among Staff/Student(s)
Communication Templates: This resource from the Donovan Group offers sample email and voice scripts for communicating with families about COVID-19 related issues, including but not limited to confirmed cases.
In general the school must work with the local health department to decide on the length of school closures, but at the least the school should be closed for 48 hours to allow for cleaning, disinfection, contact tracing, selective quarantine and education process. It isn’t clear that longer closure times are significantly more helpful than shorter closures, but evidence is scant.
FERPA and COVID-19 Federal Guidance
What has worked best for communication with families and students in the district to date?
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With the local department of health, identify local accessible and affordable testing options for children and adults to be tested for COVID-19 in the event of symptoms or exposure to people with COVID-19.
Provide education and a testing referral to the family of any student/staff who tests positive.
Confirm reporting and feedback mechanism for students/staff with positive testing results.
Develop a communication plan (mail, email, text, virtual meetings, website) to share testing options, reporting, and feedback mechanism with district families, staff, and exposed students
Example state-level tool: Massachusetts Interactive COVID-19 Testing Locator
How will we connect families and staff to options for established state and local testing options and protocols?
What confidentiality considerations should be taken into account, given the need to share information but also protect privacy of staff and students?
Prompt referral for local testing should be available when staff or students who have symptoms appear in schools, with protocols in place for testing referrals for additional classmates and staff as needed (Sharfstein and Morphew 2020).
Testing is recommended for asymptomatic individuals with known or suspected exposure to SARS-CoV-2 to control transmission and for asymptomatic individuals without known or suspected SARS-CoV-2 exposure for early identification in special settings such as school outbreaks (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2020b).