Concluding Themes
• Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely providing in-person instruction is a priority.
• Vaccination is the leading public health prevention strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Promoting vaccination can help schools safely return to in-person learning.
• Due to the circulating and highly contagious COVID variants, masking by all students (age 2 and older), staff, teachers, and visitors, is still a reasonable option, especially for those with pre-existing medical conditions.
• Recent legislation has provided parents with the option to decide if a child should wear a mask or not.
• The PCDC Board has voted to provide staff members with the option to wear a mask or not.
• Social distancing to the degree possible to reduce transmission risk is still an effective mitigation strategy, especially when positive cases have been found in a given location.
• Screening testing, ventilation, handwashing, respiratory etiquette, staying home when sick, and cleaning and disinfection are important layers of prevention to keep schools safe.
• Students, teachers, and staff should stay home when they have signs of any infectious illness and be referred to their healthcare provider for testing and care.
• Localities should monitor community transmission, vaccination coverage, screening testing, and occurrence of outbreaks to guide decisions on the required levels of layered mitigation strategies needed to maintain an appropriate amount of safety.
· This Policy allows the rule to continue to be relevant and up to date as the level of COVID-19 impact in communities’ changes.
