Student Informed Consent Form
January 25, 2021
Dear North Shore School District 112 Families:
We are looking forward to welcoming back students and staff to all campuses next week as we pivot from all remote learning back to the hybrid learning model that we started the school year with. As shared in messages and at Board meetings, the District has invested millions of dollars in support of risk mitigation to provide as safe a learning and working environment as possible. To further advance the efforts toward risk mitigation measures, the District has contracted with Safeguard to provide COVID-19 saliva screening to students attending in-person instruction and all interested staff. There is no cost to any family for any testing, this is part of the District 112 COVID-19 emergency funding. We will not be offering this to families and students who are in fully remote learning at this time.
We asked and you answered. Of the 1018 parent responses, 94% indicated they were in support of weekly COVID-19 saliva screening.
The goal of the COVID-19 screening program is to further reduce and prevent the spread of COVID-19, and to increase school and community safety. Screening is voluntary and will require consent to participate. If a child were to test positive, before excluding them from school, we are pleased to announce that an additional partnership is emerging with a diagnostic testing lab that will provide us PCR testing within a 12-24 hour period. This may prevent children from having to be excluded from school due to quarantine requirements. It is part of our continuing effort of risk mitigations and safety, in learning and outcomes for children and over operations for children during these unprecedented times. As we learn more - we do more! Our efforts are to have uninterrupted learning for each of our students to the best of our ability with multiple levels of risk mitigation.
For information on the screening please refer to the below documents.
If you wish to have your child(ren) participate in the COVID-19 screening, a consent form will need to be completed for each child. To participate in the screening on February 5, the consent form must be completed by January 28, 2021. If you choose to have your child(ren) participate at a later time, you can contact your child’s principal to discuss. Screening will take place at home on Thursday or Friday.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to Dr. Holly Colin or your child’s principal if you have further questions.
Best.
Holly
Holly Colin, Ed.D
Assistant Superintendent of Student Services