NURSING NEWS

Message from the Biddeford & Dayton School Nurses

As we enter the winter months, it brings with it many viruses. We encourage families to talk with their child(ren) about dressing warm for outside play, good hand hygiene, and eating healthy foods to boost the immune system.

We continue to ask families to please be vigilant in monitoring any symptoms of COVID (linked here) and if your child is not feeling well, they should stay home until COVID can be ruled out. Please also continue to report any positive results via the Google Forms below or call the school directly. Although individuals who test positive may leave isolation on Day 6, we want to ensure our school community remains healthy. If your child is still not feeling well or if they cannot wear a mask appropriately 100% of the time, please keep your child home and rest assured it is an excused absence.

Please find below information about Drive-Thru and At-Home Testing, free N-95 masks, vaccination sites, a quarantine flowchart, and pooled testing school-specific codes and consents. Thank you for doing your part to keep our school community healthy and safe.

Every American is eligible to receive three free N95 masks per person (see PPH article here). The masks have been delivered to pharmacies and community health centers that partnered with the federal government to provide vaccinations and are available for distribution. At this time, there is no information on N-95 masks for children, and we ask parents to please send their child(ren) with additional masks each day.

For tips from the CDC on improving how your mask protects you, click here.

The CDC continues to focus on prevention measures to mitigate the spread of COVID and to protect against the omicron variant. Beyond hand hygiene, the most significant steps are vaccinations, testing, and masking. COVID vaccines and Boosters are available by appointment or walk-in at various clinics in our area through one of these links: MaineHealth Clinics, Northern Light Health Clinics, CVS, or Walgreens.

Every home in the US is eligible to receive four free at-home COVID-19 test kits. Simply go to www.covidtests.gov and fill in your household information. Tests will ship to your home in approximately 7-12 days. This is wonderful news considering the decreased access and increased cost associated with testing. In addition, many health plans are now reimbursing up to eight tests per member per month and diagnostic testing continues to be covered by the federal requirement in place. For testing sites and information on the at-home testing process, click here.

York County Emergency Management, Biddeford Emergency Management, and the Maine CDC have teamed up to create a drive-thru COVID testing location at Five Points Shopping Center (420 Alfred Street) in Biddeford. The testing location is open Monday – Friday from 10 AM to 4 PM. This testing site will provide saliva-based PCR COVID testing. To book an appointment, visit https://shieldt3portal.pointnclick.com and sign up for an account (reference the agency code “BiddefordComm”). Please see the below graphics for full instructions.

Click on the link below to provide consent to Concentric, the company handling our pooled testing. Complete one consent form for each child.
Enter your child’s school-specific access code:
Biddeford High School, COT, APC, & Central Office: B8VTHG
Biddeford Middle School: QFR9CW
Biddeford Intermediate School & Transportation: 5U5KDT
Biddeford Primary School: ANE1H2
John F. Kennedy School: 5B36J6
Dayton Consolidated School: ZAAG5M
Finally, enter your child’s information, and you’re done! This