Fewer days in quarantine

An update to the Unit 1 School District’s Return to School plan reflects a directive reducing the number of days a student or staff must quarantine after close contact with a COVID-19 positive individual.
Last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided local health departments with options to reduce quarantine for those close contact, and the Grundy County Health Department recently adopted those guidelines. A change that prompted the school district to update the plan to reflect the guidance that reduces the period of exclusion from 14 to 10 days.
Close contacts within the same household of COVID positive person may require exclusion beyond the 10 days if they are unable to avoid contact with the positive person, otherwise quarantine is a minimum of 10 days without documentation of a negative test for an individual who has remained asymptomatic.
The guidelines are a little different for staff members who could find themselves out for a shorter period.
In the case of staff members only, they could return to the classroom after seven days with documentation of a negative [non-rapid] COVID test administered on day six of exclusion and the individual must have remained asymptomatic.
“Although we understand the inconvenience that student exclusion can cause for parents, it is imperative that we continue to follow these guidelines closely to keep our students and staff safe,” Superintendent Dr. Kent Bugg said in his weekly letter to parents.
The Friday communication provides parents and guardians with an overview of the number of students and staff who have tested positive for the virus and those in quarantine for close contact.
As of Jan. 22, the school district reported three positive students cases and zero staff cases in current 14 day period, this was down from six student and one staff case reported between Jan. 2-15.
As for the daily average of students and staff quarantined the numbers, overall, were down last week ranging from student exclusions of 4.75 to 11.75 compared to one week earlier with averages ranging from 9.2 to 19.2.
As the second semester of the school year gets into full swing, Bugg reports the district is seeing more students return to in-person learning, in fact each of the district’s five school buildings witnessed an increase last week.
Data shows that in-person enrollment increased by 27 students across the district.