As long as contact tracing protocols are followed, Savannah-Chatham County schools will be able to minimize the number of students sent home to quarantine if a child comes in contact with someone who tests COVID-positive.
With more students in the classroom now compared to last year when about 12,000 SCCPSS students participated in the A-B cohort rotation system, the district is experiencing more positive COVID cases, which doesn't surprise district officials.
How they are reported and mitigated has changed somewhat, now.
Realizing that multiple quarantines of an entire classroom would be disruptive to teaching and learning, the district said it reached out to the Georgia Department of Health for additional new guidance regarding clusters, contact tracing, and quarantine.
According to the DPH, a “cluster” is at least two positive cases or one positive case and one assumed positive in the same classroom.
“[The] DPH determined that if we could reliably contact trace, then even in a cluster situation – only those identified as close contacts would need to quarantine; and then only if unvaccinated,” a Savannah-Chatham County School official replied in an email comment Monday morning. “Cluster cases are now being treated as any other case and only identified close contacts – rather than an entire classroom – are being kept home to quarantine,” the statement continued.
Classrooms of the youngest students, however, are still subject to the entire classroom being sent home to quarantine in the event of a positive COVID exposure. The reason given is because pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students tend to mingle and interact more closely with each other due to their age, as opposed to older students who have assigned desk seating, the statement added.
Coastal Middle School welcomed the change in its most recent parent newsletter posted on the school’s website. The middle school reported two new positive cases among its sixth-grade students last week.
“Had this guidance not changed [last] Friday, we would have been forced to require every sixth-grade teacher to quarantine, as well as additional students,” wrote Allison Schuster-Jones, Coastal Middle School principal, in the newsletter. “We believe this change will help in keeping our doors open all year.”
Schuster-Jones had floated the idea of returning to last year’s A-B cohorts, but with the new guidance from the DPH, she feels the cohort system won’t be necessary. She reiterated the district’s commitment to remain with full-time five-day-a-week in-person instruction.
“I’ve heard the rumors and wagers you have likely heard about how long we can stay open,” Schuster-Jones’ comments concluded. “I personally believe it will be 180 school days.”
Barbara Augsdorfer is the education and nonprofits reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Reach her at BAugsdorfer@gannett.com or on Twitter @Babs7983.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: New DPH guidance for schools tries to avoid whole-classroom quarantines of students
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