St. George CCSD No. 258 Protocols When A Student or Staff Member is COVID+
When our school district is notified that a student or staff member has tested positive for COVID-19, we have specific protocols in place. Our team implements these protocols immediately, working directly with the Kankakee County Health Department (KCHD) for appropriate advice as well as guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).
Symptomatic students should not report to school. Siblings of symptomatic students should also not report to school. If someone in your household is COVID+, your student should not report to school. Please contact the school and Liz Baker at [email protected] to begin working with the KCHD if your student is COVID+ or has been in close contact with someone who is COVID+.
We want to provide our school community with information around these protocols:
- When informed of a COVID+ case, we contact the KCHD and provide them with the information they request.
- Outside of the KCHD, we are not permitted to share the name, grade level, or other identifying details of students or staff members who test positive for COVID-19.
- We follow contact tracing guidance from the KCHD and IDPH to identify individuals who are “close contacts” of the COVID+ person.
- “Close contacts” include anyone who is within 6 feet of the COVID+ individual for 15 or more minutes (bus, classroom, extracurricular activity).
- School personnel will directly notify these “close contacts,” and the student’s parent/guardian listed in PowerSchool will be called.
- “Close contacts” must quarantine for 14 days from the date they were last in contact with the COVID+ individual. A return to school date will be noted in the letter provided to the student.
- The building principal will work with any student who is in quarantine to seamlessly move to the virtual learning environment. These students will participate in their scheduled classes from home using Google Meet. As a reminder, classes are taught in real-time by their St. George School teachers.
- When there is a positive case in a school setting, this does not automatically mean that an entire classroom must quarantine or that the school will close. We will work in consultation with the KCHD if this decision is necessary.
- Individuals who are in quarantine because of a “close contact” should be monitored for