Post by steamboat185 on Nov 10, 2020 9:42:32 GMT -5
Both daycare and elementary school notify all parents when there is a positive case in the building. Close contacts are told to stay home and receive a letter from the department of health.
Yes, email specifying if it was a student or staff member, saying that all close contacts were already notified.
We aren't notified directly of positive cases in the district outside of our own schools, nor are we notified about pending tests.
The district also started a dashboard (it's kind of rough but it's great to have) that provides a snapshot of where each school is on each day in terms of active positive cases, quarantined students, and people out with "flu-like symptoms." We can see all the district schools there and there's also a separate category for "district staff."
I only have a kiddo in daycare but we get notified of potential cases but no info on classrooms. It's just been a short "a child/child's parent/sibling is being tested and we will let you know when they have results" So far no positives, but if there were to be one we would be informed if our child was in contact with that other child.
DD is in our public school district, and we get emails every time there's a case anywhere in the district. They specify which school building, and when the individual was last at the school. In some cases they've been remote-only students, so there is no in-school risk to the in-person population, but it's still informative because our district has had problems with transmission outside of school (high school kids partying with no masks/no social distancing). Anyone who is a close contact of the affected student is contacted by the county DOH to quarantine, and are just told they've been a close contact of someone who tested positive.
At DS's daycare they were initially telling us (center-wide) every time someone was testing and what classroom they were associated with, and then again when the result would come back. That got onerous and frankly was too many emails and false alarms. I let them know yesterday that DS was being tested because he is congested, and no emails went out, so I assume at this point they are only announcing any positive test results. It's been an evolving standard though.
Our district informs us that a person in the building has tested positive. They only inform close contacts with more specific information. In your case you would not have been contacted in our district. If you knew that there was a positive in the building would you have proceeded differently last week?
Yes. Our plan was to stop seeing my parents (who we see outside, distanced, and masked) once their was a positive case in my son’s school. Our quaranteam friends that we see outside, distanced, and masked also decided that if any of our schools had a positive case we would not see each other. We saw them over the weekend, but luckily we haven’t seen my parents since I found out. Also, our pediatrician said presence and amount of Covid positive individuals in the school influences her testing recommendations in young kids. I originally told her there had not been in at his school, but I double checked when I called to give an update to the school on my son’s symptoms. The only building anyone in our family goes into outside our home is our soon at school. I realize we are more cautious than most, but I think transparency is key. The school stresses open communication with them and I feel they should provide the same.
Our district notifies the school community for a positive, and also posts the letter to the website and social media so that others in the district have access to it as well. We are not notified if someone is being tested/has symptoms.
My son's preschool did notify us and close for 48 hours when a family member of a student tested positive. Said student later tested positive, but hadn't at the time that they closed school and notified families. They do not notify for symptoms/someone being tested.
Post by maudefindlay on Nov 10, 2020 11:11:03 GMT -5
No. I'm in Indiana. This is part of the reason we chose virtual, the lack of transparency. They are also not able to social distance, their goal is 3ft apart. They do not share #s of any kind.
Yes, they send an email but not really specific info..it usually says something like a third grade class is now quarantined due to a student (or staff member) testing positive. They don't identify the class teachers name or anything. We are going remote next mon district wide since cases are bad again.
Post by sometimesrunner on Nov 10, 2020 12:25:37 GMT -5
We get an email informing us of a positive case in the building. If your child has been in direct contact with the positive case, you receive a call with instructions for quarantining and picking up materials for virtual school.
I am in a large district and there is a dashboard which reports cases by school. We have not had a case at our school for an in-person student or staff member, but the principal said she would e-mail everyone if there were one (I assume without identifying details).
We get a general notice via email if there’s been a positive result in the building.
If your child is identified as a close contact and required to quarantine you get a call to every number on record, a text to every number on record, and an email to every address on record AND the vice principal calls to make sure you got the news. We’ve had that happen 2x. Both times my kid did NOT end up contracting covid. .
They do not notify people when someone is awaiting test results. The panic that would ensue with that would be ridiculous. Even in my area where we have like 15% positivity rate, that means that 85% of tests come back negative. Trust me you would not want nor need to know every time anyone in the building got tested.
We are notified for positives within the specific school-- ie, we only get notified for positives in my daughter's elementary school building, not other buildings in the district.
Our district informs us that a person in the building has tested positive. They only inform close contacts with more specific information. In your case you would not have been contacted in our district. If you knew that there was a positive in the building would you have proceeded differently last week?
Yes. Our plan was to stop seeing my parents (who we see outside, distanced, and masked) once their was a positive case in my son’s school. Our quaranteam friends that we see outside, distanced, and masked also decided that if any of our schools had a positive case we would not see each other. We saw them over the weekend, but luckily we haven’t seen my parents since I found out. Also, our pediatrician said presence and amount of Covid positive individuals in the school influences her testing recommendations in young kids. I originally told her there had not been in at his school, but I double checked when I called to give an update to the school on my son’s symptoms. The only building anyone in our family goes into outside our home is our soon at school. I realize we are more cautious than most, but I think transparency is key. The school stresses open communication with them and I feel they should provide the same.
I can understand your frustration. I was unclear in my answer previously. We are NOT informed of students or teachers who are being tested. You would have been informed there was a positive student in the building and only contacted with more details if there was close contact.
I’m curious why the doctor said to wait? If you are symptomatic you would likely be positive if it is covid. It’s not the same as waiting as known exposure.
She said that the false negative rate is much lower on day 3-4 of symptoms.
Short question: does your school notify all families of any positive cases in the building or only affected individuals? Do they notify for any “potential” cases where people are out sick with Covid symptoms or awaiting test results?
My son is home sick with Covid symptoms (cough). I emailed his school Sunday to alert them right away. His doctor wants him to wait 2 days to see if symptoms persist, then receive a PCR test Wednesday if they do. She says testing on day 3-4 of symptoms will be much more accurate. This will mean like Friday for results.
I called the school Monday to update them on his doctor’s plan. I asked if there have been any cases in the building, and the director told me the class next door to his had a student with a positive test last week. That class was shut down, but no notification to the school. I asked if they shared a dismissal hallway, and she said it wasn’t relevant because it doesn’t meet the 6’ for 15 min threshold. I am pretty livid because being 6’ away for a 20 min dismissal window over 24 hours is not a magically safe distance.
They are apparently also not notifying my son’s class that he is out with symptoms and awaiting potential Covid testing. I think this a bit more grey, but I am always on the side of full transparency. I would be pretty upset to know if one of my son’s classmates was in the other situation and we weren’t notified.
What’s the practice are your school?
Yes, our school emails and posts in their "News" section on the website (which parents can follow for email notifications) any time there is a positive or presumed positive case in our district. So in your case, I would have gotten an email about the kid in the class next door. Except they don't say the grade, classroom or share any other identifying information. It just says "a case in XXX school".
For your son, they would not send a notification just for being out sick, even if they are covid symptoms (I mean, everything is a covid symptom these days). Once your son tests positive, they would send the notification, contact trace, quarantine close contacts, etc. I think to be presumed positive, you have to had a known exposure. Just being sick would not be presumed positive.
My kid has been out sick 4x already with some kind of symptoms for multiple days while we wait for the test results, which have all been negative so far (thank goodness). It would be impossible and overwhelming to notify everyone for every single absence. I agree they should be notifying for actual positive Covid cases though. I understand your frustration with that.
Post by luv2rn4fun on Nov 10, 2020 14:03:59 GMT -5
We get emails for all positive tests on campus. People who need to quarantine because they are considered high risk exposure are notified. We are not told of every kid out for symptoms (DS1 had a cold with a cough, missed 6 days of school and there wasn’t any communication to the other classmates).
Post by ilikedonuts on Nov 10, 2020 17:12:49 GMT -5
We are notified of all cases in our district, but unless your kid was exposed they don’t tell you the grade or class. We picked virtual, but still get the daily emails with the numbers.
Yes, we get text/phone call/email for every positive in the district. They tell us whether student or staff, which school building, and whether there was any exposure at school. Student/staff positive numbers are available online for every school in the state. Any direct contacts would be contacted separately by the health department. Classroom cohorts are all considered close contacts.
Yes. My twins are in kindergarten in a public school. For any positive cases the superintendent has sent an email out to all families in the district letting us know which school was affected. The principal of that specific school also emails all the families at their school.
We are notified for every positive case in the building, but only people who meet the close contact definition (within 6 feet for a cumulative period of 15 min or more over 24 hours) will be contacted by the school nurse or health department and made to quarantine.
Each time we are notified by email. But there is also a school covid dashboard for our county. I have a virtual learner but each time I get the email it makes me feel better about our decision.
We're just now running into our first conflict with communication, so I'm happy to weigh in.
DD2's daycare has not notified us that someone in the classroom next to hers has tested positive. I just found out from another parent, and I'm really annoyed! (I guess parents in that room found out late yesterday afternoon, and the whole class is quarantining. But why no center-wide communication?!) DD1's elementary school has been good about emailing the entire district about every case. For example, I have received notification about two cases among high school staff and one about a middle school student. Those notes also indicate whether the individual was in one of the school buildings at any time during the 48 hours prior to symptom onset (or positive test alone, in the absence of symptoms). Those with close contact receive a different and separate
I'm on the fence about notification of symptoms in the absence of a positive test. I'm all for full transparency, but I don't want or need to hear about every runny nose. My opinion is different if the person experiencing symptoms has reason to believe there's any real possibility of exposure. Not sure if that makes sense.
I'm on the fence about notification of symptoms in the absence of a positive test. I'm all for full transparency, but I don't want or need to hear about every runny nose. My opinion is different if the person experiencing symptoms has reason to believe there's any real possibility of exposure. Not sure if that makes sense.
This is where I am, too. My school is pretty aggressive when it comes to testing— people have had to stay out and get tested when they were fairly sure it wasn’t COVID— they caught a stomach bug from a child who’d tested negative, for migraines, etc. I think this is good that they are erring on the side of caution, but I feel as if it’s OK not to be notified of potential cases like this and our already high absence rate would go even further if we had classes and teachers out for things like this, not to mention students. The person involved should absolutely get tested and stay out, but I feel like informing the entire community is probably unnecessary in the absence of a test. This is probably flammable, but I might feel different if someone had more severe or “classic” symptoms— I know asymptomatic transmission is a huge concern, so it probably shouldn’t matter what symptoms led to a test, but I could see wanting to be informed of someone had a dry cough or fever. My view is probably colored by the fact that we have decent protocols and that none of the aforementioned cases led to positive tests. We’ve had a handful of cases in our school, but none seem to have led to larger spread at this point.
Yes, we get notifications of cases, but no specifics and ONLY if they are verified. We are directly contacted if a close contact (anyone in their class is a close contact, or on the bus, etc)
FWIW my daughter sat in class for 5 hours with a kid who doesn’t wear his mask well and tested positive last Monday. Her test came back negative, but her full class is quarantined until next week still, and teachers. Our schools haven’t seen on positive case as a result of in-school transmission so far. So hopefully all of their precautions continue to work.
Can I ask what the benefit is of being told about someone who has not tested positive but has symptoms? I guess I don’t know what that accomplishes.
My friend has a son in class with a kid out pending Covid results. She decided to keep her son home pending results in case it’s being spread in the classroom.
Post by UMaineTeach on Nov 11, 2020 12:41:40 GMT -5
We haven’t had one yet, they claim that they will alert people for a positive case. I don’t have 100% faith in that. They lie in emergency situations all the time, even after we paid a consultant to tell them not to lie in emergency situations.
They did not alert in the one case my student was sent home for a test, nor my student who’s family was choosing to quarantine.
Communication is a consistent downfall of my district. If you are not in the right place at the right time, you know nothing, even things you actually need to know.
Daily symptom questionnaires are meant to work in concert with distancing, contact tracing, and quarantining. These things are meant to minimize any covid spread among people even if a positive person comes onsite or a person is contagious before symptoms begin.
Obviously we all have our own comfort levels, but symptomatic people should be excluded from being onsite and asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people should have their spread minimized by distancing and masks. Any spread that could have happened is picked up my contact tracing and quarantining is really a hammer on any further spread if they feel that contact tracing can’t be accomplished accurately.
We're just now running into our first conflict with communication, so I'm happy to weigh in.
DD2's daycare has not notified us that someone in the classroom next to hers has tested positive. I just found out from another parent, and I'm really annoyed! (I guess parents in that room found out late yesterday afternoon, and the whole class is quarantining. But why no center-wide communication?!) DD1's elementary school has been good about emailing the entire district about every case. For example, I have received notification about two cases among high school staff and one about a middle school student. Those notes also indicate whether the individual was in one of the school buildings at any time during the 48 hours prior to symptom onset (or positive test alone, in the absence of symptoms). Those with close contact receive a different and separate
I'm on the fence about notification of symptoms in the absence of a positive test. I'm all for full transparency, but I don't want or need to hear about every runny nose. My opinion is different if the person experiencing symptoms has reason to believe there's any real possibility of exposure. Not sure if that makes sense.
I think that makes sense! It’s such a hard line to draw. I can totally see the panic from oversharing info but can see why some people want to know. I do think the more likely it is to be positive, the more the school want to error on the side of caution and informing the class that there is a pending test. There’s a gradient between informing the entire school of a runny nose and informing a class of 10 kids that a student is out awaiting a Covid test with a fever, severe cough, loss of taste/smell, and two family members with positive tests. Especially if it’s 2 weeks from now and the class may be going to spend time with others for thanksgiving.
Our school (2 year olds through 8th grade) sends an email out every time there is a positive case. We have had 3 students and maybe 4 or 5 teachers in 13 weeks. No community spread. They do not announce when a child is out awaiting a test, only when the test is positive.