HILLIARD, Ohio — Chrissy Foster wants her district to decide on mask-use, instead of leaving that up to her Dublin seventh-grader.
“What kind of situation are you setting up for children who have to deal with these issues?” she asked.
District leaders in Bexley, Dublin, Hilliard and Worthington will meet Monday night to discuss COVID safety plans.
While they will all work to craft their own, here's what the Ohio Department of Education recommends for guidance when it comes to quarantining in K-12 classrooms when there is COVID-19 exposure.
There are three factors to consider first:
- Masking for students regardless of vaccination status
- Maintaining three feet between desks
- Documented COVID prevention policies like increased sanitation and identifying anyone with symptoms
If a district has all three of those things and when contact happens, “individuals can safely remain in the normal in-person classroom settings and extracurriculars as long as they have no symptoms.”
If a district does not have one factor, likely the mask rule, quarantine will be determined by a series of questions for those who were exposed like: Are they vaccinated? Did the contact consistently wear a mask? If the answers are no, it's recommended they quarantine and can return after seven days with a negative test performed at least five days after exposure. If they test positive – they should isolate for ten days following the positive test.
"We shouldn't have to go to remote learning,” said Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro. "We have the means at our disposal to keep our students and our staff safe. We've got to follow the science on that."
According to Columbus City Schools "[s]afely returning to in-person instruction in the fall is a priority."
All students, staff, and visitors are required to wear masks indoors and on buses. That decision was based on guidance from The American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC, and Columbus Public Health.
"These are the bodies that they should be listening to,” said Chrissy Foster.
If any districts planned to offer an online learning model for the 2021-2022 school year, it should have been reported to the Ohio Department of Education by Aug. 1.