Isolation has been reduced to 5 days at home since symptom onset or positive test, with a return to school on Day 6. To be able to return to school on day 6 symptoms must be absent or resolving, no fever in the past 24 hours with no medication. Upon return, the person will need to continue to monitor and wear a well-fitting mask for the next 5 days (days 6-10). A negative test is no longer required.

Who Does Not Need to Quarantine:

• Ages 18 or older with all recommended vaccine doses, including boosters

• Ages 5-17 with the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines

• Those with medically-confirmed documentation of COVID-19 within the last 90 days

Who Must Quarantine:

• All ages who have not completed a primary vaccine series

• Ages 18 or older with only the primary series of recommended COVID-19 and not a booster that was given at least 14 days prior

Quarantine ends 5 full days after the last close contact, with a return to school on day 6, if no symptoms have developed, and after receiving a negative test result. A negative test will need to be taken no sooner than day 5. Home antigen tests are currently acceptable during this Omicron surge period. If the test is negative, the person will need to continue to monitor for symptoms and wear a well-fitting mask for the next 5 days (days 6–10). If the test is positive or the person chooses not to test they must remain in quarantine for 10 full days and return to school on day 11.

*For those ages 18+, the third dose (booster) must have been administered two weeks prior to the exposure to be considered fully boosted.

*For household exposures the quarantine time could be longer if isolation is not maintained at home. We need to consider the last day of contact with the person who has COVID-19 while infectious.

Every situation has a unique set of circumstances and the Edmonds School District will consider several variables when it comes to a shift to remote learning. These variables include, but are not limited to:

• Number of absences due to illness, including lack of staff to operate a classroom or school.

• Number of students and/or staff COVID positive in any given classroom/ school and high transmission rate in the last 14 days.

• Number of students unable to access in-person learning due to isolation or quarantine requirements.

• Higher ratio of unvaccinated to vaccinated students in a given class or building.

The Superintendent, in coordination with Snohomish Health District, will make the final decision for any classroom, school, or district-wide shift to remote learning.

The district contact traces each positive COVID-19 case on our campuses and/or school activity. However, DOH released new guidance for schools this month to focus on high priority areas when it comes to risk of transmission of COVID-19.
Those areas are :

• School buses or other transportation.

• Indoor or outdoor school-affiliated activities such as sports, music or PE, including but not limited to those that are aerosol-generating.

• Indoor spaces where masks are not consistently worn or masking is limited such as mealtimes, Special Education classrooms with intermittent masking, and other activities.

Our COVID-19 Response Team is working through cases as quickly as possible to populate our new Edmonds School District COVID-19 Dashboard: bit.ly/ESDCoviddash. Once a positive COVID-19 case is investigated and close contacts are notified, the information populates to the dashboard.

Weekly 5-day curbside meal kits are available for children 1-18 at Lynnwood High School each Wednesday from 7:30 to 8 a.m. for the remainder of the school year.

Special meal service for remote learners will take place from 12:30-1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21 at Edmonds-Woodway High School. If driving, please enter off of 76th Avenue West, around the back of the school.

Students might notice a few temporary changes to the school menu due to food and nutrition staff shortages. Elementary schools will have assorted cold lunch options extended until Friday, Jan. 28. Middle and high schools may see reduced menu offerings and there may be times a la carte will not be available.