On July 9th, the CDC released new guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in Kindergarten (K)-12 Schools. This guidance, which provides for local control of COVID mitigation measures by school districts, was quickly adopted by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
As a result, the Illini West administrative team developed a Return to School Plan which outlines a tier-based approach to implementing COVID prevention strategies most important for in-person learning for K-12 schools. This plan was reviewed by the Board and approved at its regularly scheduled board meeting last night. For those of you who want to dive into the details, you can access the plan using the link above. If you're more of a bullet point person, below are some key takeaways:
Major Focus
The state has clearly stated the focus of the plan is a return to in-person learning.
A tiered approach to prevention strategies to allow the district to adjust to changes in community and/or school positivity rates.
Schedule
The schedule will be for in-person learning, five days a week.
Masks
Masks will not be required, but are strongly recommended for unvaccinated individuals.
EXCEPTION: Masks will be required during student transportation for all students and staff.
Vaccinations:
Vaccinations will not be required. Individuals will not be required to disclose their vaccination status.
Quarantine and Contact Tracing
Quarantine and Contact Tracing requirements will follow those outline by the Hancock County Health Department.
The tiered strategy means that Illini West will adjust our prevention strategies based on the positivity rate in Hancock county. This rate, as outlined in the table below, will be determined from CDC data published here. We will track this data weekly and make it available to you, so you will be able to have a good understanding of which phase we are in.
We understand that there there is a lot of data associated with COVID, and we know that there is no such thing as a perfect statistic for a decision of this type, but we feel the positivity rate is the best choice for a plan of this type.
Below are the phases included in the plan (Low, Moderate, and High), and the prevention strategies that will be implemented while we are in each phase.
I'm sure many of you may have questions about our plan that I just can't address in a short form like this. If you do, please feel free to drop me a line. You can send me a message by filling out the form at the bottom of this post.
I will do my best to address any questions I receive in additional blog posts, but please feel free to ask any questions you may have even if they aren't related to the Return to School Plan.
I look forward to meeting you and enjoy the rest of your summer.
GO CHARGERS!
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