Close Contact
Close contact is determined by an appropriate health agency. For clarity, close contact is defined as:
● Being directly exposed to infectious secretions (e.g., being coughed on while not wearing a mask or face shield); or
● Being within 6 feet for a cumulative duration of 15 minutes throughout the course of 24 hours, with or without wearing a mask or face shield;
● Individuals are presumed infectious at least two days prior to symptom onset or, in the case of asymptomatic individuals who are lab-confirmed with COVID-19, two days prior to the confirming lab test.
● You provided care at home to someone who is sick with COVID-19 or lives in the same household
INDIVIDUALS CONFIRMED OR SUSPECTED WITH COVID-19
Any individuals who themselves either: (a) are lab-confirmed to have COVID-19; or (b) experience the symptoms of COVID-19 (listed below) must stay at home throughout the infection period and cannot return to campus until the school system screens the individual to determine any of the below conditions for campus re-entry have been met:
● In the case of an individual who was diagnosed with COVID-19, the individual may return to school when all three of the following criteria are met:
● at least three days (72 hours) have passed since recovery (resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications);
● the individual has improvement in symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath), and at least fourteen days have passed since symptoms first appeared.
In the case of an individual who has symptoms that could be COVID-19 and who is not evaluated by a medical professional or tested for COVID-19, such individual is assumed to have COVID-19, and the individual may not return to the campus until the individual has completed the same three-step set of criteria listed above.
Suppose the individual has symptoms that could be COVID-19 and wants to return to school before completing the above stay-at-home period. In that case, the individual must either (a) obtain a medical professional’s note clearing the individual for return based on an alternative diagnosis or (b) receive two separate confirmations at least 24 hours apart that they are free of COVID via acute infection tests at an approved COVID-19 testing location found at https://tdem.texas.gov/covid-19/.
Identifying Possible COVID-19 Cases on Campus:
● Schools must immediately separate any student who shows COVID-19 symptoms while at school until a parent or guardian can pick up the student.
● School administration will need to designate a room to isolate a student displaying symptoms while waiting to be picked up. Do not utilize the nurse’s station as other ill and not COVID-19 positive students might also be in the nurse's office.
● Schools should clean the areas used by the individual who shows COVID-19 symptoms while at school (student, teacher, or staff) as soon as it is feasible.
● Students who report feeling feverish should be given an immediate temperature check to determine if they are symptomatic for COVID-19.
RESPOND: PRACTICES TO RESPOND TO A LAB-CONFIRMED CASE IN THE SCHOOL
Required Actions if Individuals with Lab-Confirmed Cases Have Been in a School
● If an individual who has been in a school is lab-confirmed to have COVID-19, the school must notify its local health department, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations, including confidentiality requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
● Schools must close off areas heavily used by the individual with the lab-confirmed case (student, teacher, or staff) until the non-porous surfaces in those areas can be disinfected unless more than 3 days have already passed since that person was on campus.
● Consistent with school notification requirements for other communicable diseases and consistent with legal confidentiality requirements, schools must notify all teachers, staff, and families of all students in a school if a lab-confirmed COVID-19 case is identified among students, teachers, or staff who participate in any campus activities.
CLOSURE PROTOCOLS-TEA
Should the superintendent of schools order a campus closure due to a confirmed COVID-19 case, the school will immediately switch to a virtual learning environment the next school day. Each campus should have a plan to transition to virtual learning. The distribution of devices, materials, teacher training, parent communication guidelines, and procedures for special needs students should be included in this plan.
Google Classroom and Seesaw will be the adopted districtwide primary platforms used for all campuses to minimize the overall number of technology platforms used and avoid any confusion or delays in learning for families and students. In addition, communication platforms such as Remind will only be used to communicate with students, not for actual classroom teaching.
The district level and campus level employees will continue to utilize Microsoft TEAMS to hold virtual meetings and disseminate information from central office to campus-level personnel.
The Maintenance Department will train school-level custodian departments on how to utilize the Clorox Deep Cleaning machine and deep cleaning procedures for disinfecting the campus. The superintendent of schools may close the campus a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5 days.