New Quarantine Guidelines & Welcome School Nurses

Thank you for helping us accomplish a great start to the school year. Every week, I spend time in classrooms, hallways, and at after school activities, and it is energizing to hear positive comments from staff and students. A comment I have heard over and over again this year is how happy our staff is to be back with kids and our families. An example of this took place during my visit to Anderson Middle School on Monday, as a teacher told me that this has been her best start to a school year in her fourteen year career. I realize we still have obstacles to overcome and challenges we will likely face, but the past four weeks have provided many positive and encouraging stories.

Also, over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of news coverage about COVID-19 cases in schools, new quarantine guidelines and vaccination rates. With so much information out in the community, we thought it would be good to update the Berkley Schools community with the guidance we are following. We also are happy to announce we have hired two school nurses to assist with our COVID-19 protocols and contact tracing. I’ll share more about our nurses later in this email.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) updated their guidance for quarantine and isolation recently. The biggest change is that there is a new option for students who are identified as close contacts to return to school if they were masked while exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Please see the MDHHS chart for clear guidance.

Here is the guidance we are now following:

Positive Cases - Vaccinated or Unvaccinated Students

Anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 will need to isolate themselves at home for 10 days from when symptoms began. If the person has no symptoms, it’s a 10 day isolation from when they received a positive test. Students can return after 10 days if they have no symptoms and are fever free; or, are fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications and improved symptoms.

Unvaccinated Student Quarantine Guidelines for Close Contacts

If both COVID-19+ and exposed students are masked and students are...

• 0-3 feet apart: Parents will have three options to consider if their child falls into this category.
  • Quarantine for 10 days
  • Take a COVID-19 test on day 7 and return on day 8 if negative
  • Test daily for 7 days in a row at the Administrative Offices
• 3-6 feet apart: Continue to attend school and monitor symptoms for 14 days

If one or both students are unmasked and students are…

• 0-6 feet apart: Students must quarantine at home
  • After 7 days, students may return if they show a negative test on days 6 or 7
  • After 10 days, students may return if they are symptom free

Vaccinated Student Quarantine Guidelines for Close Contacts

If vaccinated students are exposed to a COVID-19+ person and are...

• 0-3 feet apart, masked or unmasked: Continue to attend school and test once on days 3, 4 or 5, monitor symptoms for 14 days
• 3-6 feet apart, unmasked: Continue to attend school and test once on days 3, 4 or 5, monitor symptoms for 14 days
• 3-6 feet apart, masked: Monitor symptoms for 14 days

Siblings / Household Contacts

All household contacts are recommended to be excluded from work or school while test results are pending for a household member. If test results are positive or if the symptomatic person does not get tested, unvaccinated household contacts are recommended to quarantine for 10 days from last known exposure.

It is very important for all families to notify their school if their child was considered a close contact at an outside of school activity. The guidelines above also apply to exposure outside of the school buildings. If you believe your child was a close contact to someone who is COVID-19 positive, call your school office to determine next steps.

You’ll notice on the new guidance document from MDHHS that students who are masked while exposed have a greater chance of staying in school. Many of our current cases and close contacts were exposed outside of school while unmasked. These students have to stay out of school for at least seven days.

As a reminder, rather than sending building-wide communications on every COVID-19 case, we are notifying families of children who are identified as a close contact. If your child is identified as a close contact, you will receive a phone call from your school and will be given instructions on what to do next. If you would like to see the cumulative COVID-19 positive numbers in the Berkley School District, you can view those on the District’s COVID-19 Dashboard.

To help with our COVID-19 protocols and contact tracing, Berkley Schools hired two part time school nurses to help support our schools this year, Rose Fenster and Julie Borkin. Rose was our Oakland County Health Division (OCHD) appointed COVID-19 school nurse last school year. Julie was also an OCHD COVID-19 school nurse last year and was assigned to Lamphere Schools. Both Rose and Julie are very familiar with COVID-19 safety protocols and isolation/quarantine requirements. Their main responsibilities will be to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing, staff/student rapid testing, case reporting to OCHD, and case follow-up. They will work together to support all buildings and we are happy to have them on our staff.

Please let me or your building principal know if you have any questions regarding our new protocols. I hope we can continue to have a great school year with minimal disruption.

Sincerely,

Scott Francis
Superintendent
Berkley Schools