Watch the report from the July 28 Board of Education meeting regarding COVID protocols or read below:

NO DAILY COVID CERTIFICATION

• Families are required to report any potential COVID symptoms to their building nurse and await guidance prior to sending their child to school.

COVID TESTING

• SHIELD testing will be offered in a take-home format with tests distributed to students on Fridays. No testing will happen during the school day.

• Positive cases stemming from SHIELD testing will receive a phone call from a DPS 109 official outlining next steps.

• Negative results will not receive any sort of notification.

• Symptomatic/rapid same-day testing will no longer be offered outside the District Office (at home tests still accepted for symptomatic individuals).

MASKING OPTIONAL

• Masking is not required except for when visiting the nurse’s office and for recent COVID positive cases

• Masks available in the front office of each school

• Hand sanitizer will remain available at entrances

POSITIVE COVID TEST = OUT FOR 5 DAYS

• COVID positive individuals continue to have required isolation for 5 days

• Upon their return for days 6-10 following a positive test, individuals will be required to mask at all times, aligning with IDPH guidance

NOTIFICATIONS & STREAMING CHANGES

• Families will still be notified if there is a situation in their child’s class that potentially could be identified as a COVID outbreak. 

  • According to IDPH and the CDC, this would be defined as  (1) multiple cases comprising at least 10% of students, teachers, or staff within a core group or (2) at least three cases within a specified core group.

• The COVID dashboard will be retired now that we are moving to take-home testing. The SHIELD positivity rate will be heavily impacted by fluctuations in number of students testing.

• Zoom live streaming will no longer be offered for students who are absent.

  • We are working with the school administrators to create a normed system for collecting missed work.

WE WILL ADAPT BASED ON CONDITIONS

• DPS 109 retains the ability to dial up/down mitigations based on local conditions and changes in local, state, and federal guidance