COVID EXPECTATIONS FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY
What are Daily Symptoms Screenings?
Daily Symptom Screenings are a way to lower the chance of COVID-19 transmission in a school and workplace.
Faculty/Staff will complete daily self-screening.
- Daily symptom screening will be on an honor system and not checked upon arrival. Please use This Daily Symptom Checklist as a guide before sending your children to school each morning.
- Any student, staff or faculty member exhibiting symptoms will be sent home. A negative COVID test or alternative diagnosis will be required in order to return to school.
- An isolation area is available when a student has been screened in the office and is waiting to be picked up by a parent.
- The quarantine and communication plan from IDPH will be followed in the event of a confirmed testing result.
The COVID-19 Exclusion Guidance information provided by the IDPH can be found here. DVWS will be in direct contact with the Lake County Health Department nurse to guide our responses.
What is in place for hand hygiene during the school day?
Each classroom has been furnished with a hand washing station with a 7-gallon water tank which will be filled at the beginning of the school day or as needed. There is a pump soap dispenser, pull up paper towels, garbage bin and a 5-gallon waste water bucket and spill tray for each station. Additional hand washing stations will be located outside on the playground and near outdoor learning spaces.
Frequent hand washing to occur:
- Upon arrival
- Before snack / after snack
- Returning from recess
- Before lunch / after lunch
- Returning from lunch recess
- End of the day
- Between class activities as needed; (handwork, games, folk dancing)
- After using the restroom
- After sneezing, coughing, nose blowing
- Hand washing will be expected following close physical contact to support a child or adult in need.
- Hand sanitizer will be available in each classroom and in the office as a secondary option.
When and where will face masks be worn?
- Faculty, staff and children will wear a face mask while indoors.
- We request each child have 3 masks on hand to be changed throughout the day.
- Disposable face masks will be provided by the school as needed for the children to use during the school day if theirs was forgotten or soiled.
- Masks are optional outdoors.
- Face masks are not required by EC students who are napping.
- Office personnel working physically distanced are not required to wear a face mask while working alone, however must don one when interacting with a student or adult.
- Faculty working alone in their classrooms are not required to wear a face mask, however must don one when interacting with a student or adult.
How will physical distancing be created inside & outside?
Physical distancing requirements will be implemented to the best of our ability.
- Student desks are spaced out as much as possible.
- Teachers will maintain physical distancing while teaching lessons when possible.
- There will be no congregating in indoor public spaces.
- Students may wait in the hallway to use the restroom at appropriately marked distances.
- Restroom use will be monitored to support physical distancing.
- EC student cots will be physically distanced and placed head to toe.
CLEANING AND DISINFECTION PLAN
What cleaning protocols will take place during the school day?
Throughout the day, office personnel, teachers and staff will be cleaning high touch areas such as, but not limited to:
Bathrooms
- Door knobs
- Flushing mechanism
- Faucet handles
- Soap dispensers
- Toilet Lid
- Paper towel dispensers
- Light switches
- Countertops
- Floors
Classrooms
- Door knobs
- Light switches
- Hand washing station spigot
- Hand washing basin
- Equipment used: balls, beanbags, library area, rhythm sticks
- Desks: before and after snack, before and after lunch, end of the day and between classes as needed
Hallways
- Door bars in the front, kitchen door and back yard
- Front counter, pens and window
- Water filter buttons by back door and middle school
- Light switches
Offices
- Phones
- Keyboard
- Photocopier
- Door knobs, inner and outer office
- Light switches
ILLNESS POLICIES
STAYING HOME FROM SCHOOL
Parents must call the office before 8:00 am each day when their child is absent.
PLEASE DO NOT TEXT YOUR CHILD(REN)’S TEACHER(S) OR OFFICE STAFF!
Parents must be watchful and use the daily symptom checklist. This is an honor system. If a child is sick with a serious or contagious illness he/she must stay at home until he/she is no longer contagious. Parents must let the office know if the condition is highly contagious so that other families can be notified. Such cases include, but are not limited to:
- COVID
- Strep
- Pinworms
- Lice
- Conjunctivitis
- Flu
- Varicella
- Pertussis
- or other common childhood diseases or conditions.
BECOMING ILL WHILE AT SCHOOL
What is the Infirmary?
The Infirmary is located in the front office. Not every visit to the office infirmary will be COVID related and staff will follow the infirmary protocols for minor injuries, bruises, cuts, splinters, etc. including parent notifications.
What is the Isolation Area?
The Isolation Area is located in the front lobby. A student displaying COVID symptoms will be placed comfortably in this private, curtained off area until a parent is able to come and pick him/her up from school.
What happens if my child develops COVID-like symptoms while at school?
- The child will visit the office infirmary.
- Temperature will be taken as a first step and precaution.
- The child will be taken to the isolation area until a parent arrives to pick up the child.
- The individual will be sent home as soon as possible.
- Per IDPH Guidance, siblings of a child with COVID-like symptoms will also be sent home at the same time.
What happens if an adult at the school develops COVID-like symptoms while at school?
- The adult’s temperature will be taken as a first step and precaution.
- The individual will be sent home as soon as possible.
- A substitute will be arranged as soon as possible. No classroom will be left unattended.
What actions should be taken by students/staff sent home with COVID-like symptoms?
- All students and staff sent home with COVID-like symptoms should be diagnostically tested. Students and staff should remain home from school until they receive the test results.
- Students and staff who have a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis must complete 10 calendar days of isolation from the date of first symptom onset and be fever-free for 24 hours without use of fever-reducing medications and other symptoms have improved before returning to school. A doctor's note or county health department release letter documenting that the student or staff is okay to return to school is required.
- Students and staff returning to school after experiencing COVID-like symptoms but being diagnosed with a non-COVID illness must meet the criteria for returning to school for the illness with which they have been diagnosed. The individual must be fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and have had no diarrhea or vomiting in the previous 24 hours. A doctor’s note documenting the alternative diagnosis or a negative COVID-19 test result should accompany a student or staff member returning to school.
- Students and staff with COVID-like symptoms who do not get tested for COVID-19 and who do not provide a healthcare provider’s note documenting an alternative diagnosis, must complete 10 calendar days of isolation from the date of first symptom onset and be fever-free for 24 hours without use of fever-reducing medications and other symptoms have improved before returning to school.
- For other COVID-19 school related questions, please refer to the IDPH School Exclusion Guidance.
If you become ill at home over the weekend or before school, please call the office and let us know what symptoms you are experiencing. Prior to returning to school, you MUST bring a doctor’s note with an alternative diagnosis, a negative COVID-19 test result, or remain at home for 10 calendar days and for 24 hrs with no fever (without fever- reducing medication) and improvement of symptoms.
What actions should be taken by a student or staff member if considered a close contact to a COVID-19 positive person?
- You must quarantine if you have been in close contact (within 6 feet of someone for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period) with someone who has COVID-19, unless you have been fully vaccinated. People who are fully vaccinated do NOT need to quarantine after contact with someone who had COVID-19 unless they have symptoms. However, fully vaccinated people should get tested 5-7 days after their exposure, even if they don’t have symptoms and wear a mask indoors in public for 14 days following exposure or until their test result is negative.
- Quarantine for unvaccinated individuals can end after Day 10 without testing and if no symptoms have been reported during any day of the daily monitoring period. Or can end after Day 7 if a RT (Reverse Transcriptase)-PCR test is negative and if no symptoms were reported during any day of the daily monitoring period. The earliest a specimen may be collected and tested would be on Day 6 with quarantine being discontinued no earlier than Day 8.
- **We are asking for and keeping copies of negative tests, or vaccine cards for the purpose of: evidence of compliance should numbers peak in the area and the health department asks for our records.
Note: When any household member presents with symptoms, we request ALL students in that household follow the IDPH School Exclusion Guidance.
