ACSD1 Releases COVID-19 Updates

In a recent post, Albany County School District #1 Superintendent Jubal Yennie posted an update regarding COVID-19 around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Yennie stated that there are two primary measures that must occur following the Thanksgiving Holiday break to continue to safely operate schools and to reduce the transmission of COVID-19:

Parents, students, and staff must complete the revised Daily Health Screening, and
Students or staff who have COVID-19 like symptoms must have a negative test before they can return to school, or they must remain in isolation or quarantine for 10 days.

He also stated that moving to remote learning is not likely at this time (Tier 3). Though the risk of transmission in the schools is increasing, the mitigation strategies that have been implemented in our schools continue to keep the risk of spread a low threat.

Yennie also stated that, based on the best available evidence at this time,

CDC does not currently recommend schools conduct symptom screening for all students in grades K-12 on a routine (e.g., daily) basis.
Parents, caregivers, or guardians (“caregivers”) should be strongly encouraged to monitor their children for symptoms of infectious illness every day through home-based symptom screening.
Students who are sick should not attend school in-person.

The school district will revise the symptoms check list to include other minor symptoms (congestion or runny nose) for parents to assess their children prior to arriving at school.

He also stated that starting November 30, 2020, symptomatic students will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test as well as be symptom-free for 24 hours with no fever in order to return to school before the required 10-day quarantine or isolation.

Finally, regarding the Thanksgiving break, Yennie states that the CDC recommends that people do not travel during the Thanksgiving Holiday, but that the school district will not impose quarantine measures for staff or students who travel out of the county.