Reminders and Updates from Floris

Fairfax County Public Schools sent this bulletin at 09/20/2021 05:00 PM EDT

Many parents continue to have questions about what all families can do to support the health and safety of our students and staff, and what steps are taken when a positive case is identified.

 

Parents: 

  • Complete the Health Screening Questionnaire daily. If your child presents with any illness or COVID like symptoms (runny nose, coughing, headache, body aches, fever, etc.), please keep your child at home and consult with your medical professional. While we understand this may be an inconvenience, our Floris families are the first line of defense when it comes to preventing community spread of COVID. If your child comes to school and presents with unexplained COVID symptoms, they will be placed in the Care Room and sent home with the Return to School Form. Your child must be seen by a medical professional to return to school with the completed Return to School Form.  
  • Communicate quickly with us. As soon as you have information that your child has COVID, please let us know. The sooner we have information, the sooner we can alert the health department to begin contact tracing. Information is kept confidential from other school families.
  • Send your child to school with a properly fitted mask. Wearing face coverings/masks is essential to mitigate the spread of COVID.  All masks do not provide the same protection for your child. Masks worn at school must be at least 2 layers and fit snugly over the nose and chin. Take a look at this document  for types of masks that are appropriate for students to wear at school. Single layer gaiters, vented masks, or masks with gaps that are too loose do not provide adequate protection. 
  • Talk with your child about wearing the mask.  Please talk with your child about the importance of wearing masks at school to protect each other against the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, and the consequences of refusing to wear a mask. 

The School:

  • Follows safety protocols: Our staff ensure students are consistently wearing their masks, maintaining social distancing to the greatest extent possible, washing/sanitizing their hands frequently, and high touch surfaces are cleaned frequently. 
  • Responds quickly when someone tests positive and determines potential close contacts to a known positive case. If a student, staff member, worker or visitor tests positive and was at school during the infectious period (within 48 hours of onset of symptoms or 48 hours prior to a positive test), we review seating assignments and identify potential close contacts to the person who has tested positive for COVID. If your child is considered a potential close contact, we will notify you at that time. 
  • Pauses instruction for individuals identified as potential close contacts. Out of an abundance of caution, any individual who is identified as a potential close contact by FCPS staff will have to stay home from school until the Health Department completes its contact tracing and closes the investigation. This process may take several days. While your child is at home, the teachers will provide asynchronous assignments. More information is coming soon about additional learning connections. 
  • Works in collaboration with the Health Department. We cannot disclose details of the positive case to include the child's name, grade, class or any additional information; or the staff member's name or assignment. The Health Department will contact you directly and will direct the appropriate students to quarantine and identify next steps. Once the Health Department has completed their investigation, we will invite any students who were staying home per FCPS staff direction to return to school, unless the student is required by the health department or a doctor to quarantine. We will inform the community when the case is closed. 
  • Notifies the community: Every Friday (or the last school day of the week) an email will be sent to the school community to notify if one of more cases were reported at the school during the week. If no cases are reported at the school that week, an email will not be sent.

It is our hope that sharing information about the current process will help alleviate some of the stress that is inherent in this situation.  Ensuring our students stay healthy when at school is a community responsibility.  If we all work together, we can minimize the impact of COVID in our schools and community.  We appreciate your support, flexibility, and patience.