MODIFIED QUARANTINE
The Harvey County Health Department has created a Modified Quarantine protocol that will allow students who are identified as close contacts to remain in school and engaged in activities. Below are the requirements to remain in a Modified Quarantine.
Modified quarantine may be allowed in certain circumstances and would allow in-person learning/participation to continue for exposed students. However, students will resume home quarantine outside of in-person learning/participation. Schools may allow Modified Quarantine for students only when all of the following protective measures are in place:
• Student must wear a mask or quarantine at home
• Distancing of 6 feet from others is maintained at all times, especially when student is consuming food/drink or is unmasked for any reason
• Symptom screening and adopted school-based testing procedure should be completed at the beginning of each day by school personnel throughout the Modified Quarantine period
As part of the daily testing program for students who are in Modified Quarantine, we will only test students when parent consent has been provided. We will not do any random COVID-19 testing for students. If a family chooses to not have their child tested, he or she will need to serve the quarantine period at home and students choosing home quarantine will not be able to participate in extracurricular activities during this period. Our tests are rapid antigen tests called BinaxNOW, which are nasal swabs administered by our school nurses or other trained staff. Results are available in 15 minutes, and our nurses will communicate with parents immediately if there is a positive result.