Sedgwick County’s Local Health Officer has revised guidelines for local school districts to keep students safe for in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Garold Minns said conversations were held with local school superintendents to discuss the guidelines.  He said if a student is a close contact of another student with COVID-19, they may or may not have to quarantine at home based on the nature of the close contact.   Students who are high-risk close contacts will have to quarantine at home and participate in remote learning.   Students who are low-risk close contacts may continue to attend the in-person classroom or they can go to remote learning.

The county issued the following definitions and guidelines:

High-Risk Close Contact

·       Anything unmasked – especially when not physically distanced

·       Consuming food/drink less than six feet apart

·       Activities that include physical exertion, less than six feet apart for longer than 15 total minutes

·       Athletic activity that involves close, sustained contact between participants, lack of significant protective barriers, indoors, and high probability that respiratory droplets will be transmitted between participants

·       Playing woodwind and brass instruments less than six feet apart without a mask

·       Singing/shouting less than six feet apart without a mask

·       Playground if unmasked students have sustained contact with physical exertion for more than 10 minutes

·       This list is not an exhaustive list, other similar activities may also meet the definition of high-risk close contact

Low-Risk Close Contact

·       Being in the same classroom following mask-wearing guidelines to include a tightly woven, two-ply properly fitting mask worn over the mouth and nose

·       On the same bus following mask-wearing guidelines and a minimum of three feet distance

Process

1.     Parents will be notified if their child is a close contact (high-risk or low-risk)

2.     If the child is a high-risk close contact, he/she will be quarantined per the established KDHE/ SCHD protocols and move to remote learning

a.     Child is given a PCR test on quarantine day six and can be out of quarantine as soon as day eight if the test is negative

b.     If the child is not given a PCR test on  quarantine day six, the student must remain in quarantine and be out on day 11

3.     If the child is a low-risk close contact, he/she will be given the option to remain in the in-person classroom or move to remote learning following the KDHE/SCHD protocols