CISD recently has updated our close contact and quarantine guidelines based on recommendations and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Texas Education Agency. Per TEA guidelines, school administrators are sending letters to students when a classmate has tested positive for COVID-19. Those who are identified as close contacts will receive a separate notification from a school administrator or school nurse with the quarantine protocols listed below.
Close Contact Definition
As per the CDC, close contacts are defined as someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. Except in certain circumstances, people who have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 should quarantine.
However, the following people with recent exposure do NOT need to quarantine:
- People who have been fully vaccinated.
- People who were previously diagnosed with COVID-19 within the last three months (90-days).
- Someone that is less than 6 feet but greater than 3 feet in distance from a positive person will not need to quarantine, if both individuals are wearing a mask consistently and correctly.
Quarantine Protocols
While both the CDC and Dallas County Health and Human Services recommend that a close contact should quarantine, the TEA allows for parents to opt-out of quarantining a child that was a close contact.
- Quarantine: A child should quarantine and stay at home for 10 days from last exposure, except to get essential medical care.
- 10-Day and 7-Day Quarantine Details:
- A child may return to school on day 11 without a COVID-19 test.
- If testing is done between days 5-7, a child that tests negative for COVID-19 may return to school on day 8. Please contact the school nurse and provide a copy of the test results.
- Monitor for symptoms through day 14.
- If symptoms develop, the parent or guardian must call the school nurse and the student must isolate for 10 days.
- Excused Absences: These absences will be excused and a child will have the ability to make up any work when they return. There may be parts of learning a child could access on Schoology, however there is not a virtual learning option. A child will still have access to any learning online resources such as iStation, Dreambox, etc. for their specific grade level.
- Vaccinated students will not need to quarantine.
- Fully vaccinated means two weeks have passed since the second dose was received.
- Please provide the school nurse a copy of your child’s vaccination record or a written statement regarding vaccination status.
- Stay home if symptoms develop and contact the school nurse
Because of federal student privacy laws and medical privacy laws, the district asks that identified close contacts and those in quarantine limit communications about this matter.
