Gilmer County School System alters protocols
With COVID-19 variants leading to an uptick in positive cases, the Georgia Department of Public Health continues to alter guidance for schools.
The Gilmer County School System relayed the latest guidance from Jan. 6 to parents, staff and students in a Monday press release.
“Throughout the pandemic, our district has made every effort to follow governor and DPH guidance as much as possible,” it stated. “We understand the hardship this has placed on families in the county as many have endured multiple quarantines of a child due to contact tracing.
“On Jan. 6, the governor and DPH acknowledged this hardship and loss of instructional time with revised guidance effective immediately.”
Students who are exposed to COVID in a “school setting” but are asymptomatic are allowed to continue to attend in-person instruction. This guidance was adopted by the school system Jan. 11.
“We will shift our focus away from contact tracing and quarantine to monitoring children for signs of illness. Moving forward, we will be sending out letters notifying you that your child was in class, on the bus, participated in a sport, etc., with a positive case just as we do with any other communicable disease.
“We are asking that parents assist us in this endeavor by carefully monitoring your child each morning before sending them to school and not sending them if they exhibit any signs of illness.”
Modified quarantine is still in place, and students who have been exposed but are not positive can serve their quarantine at school as long as they wear a mask.
The school system strongly encourages students who have been in contact with a positive case to wear a mask for 10 days after notification. The district also encourages parents to get their child tested if they show any signs of illness and notify the school if they test positive for COVID.
“We’re basically shifting our focus to keeping kids in school as much as possible,” Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley said Monday. “Throughout this, what we’ve seen, is we follow the rules and we wind up quarantining a lot of kids, but we’re quarantining a lot who are not sick and they don’t get sick. It’s frustrating for us, families, parents and kids because they’re not sick, and they just end up missing a lot of school.
“Throughout the pandemic, it’s had a terrible effect on academics nationwide and in our state. We’re dealing with the kids who come up positive, working with families to help them find resources to get them tested and working on individual guidelines based on their exposure date and vaccination status.”
There are currently 43 students and 26 staff members with a positive COVID diagnosis as of Monday afternoon.
Per the DPH’s administrative order from Dec. 30, those who have tested positive and had symptoms can discontinue isolation after at least five days have passed since symptoms first appeared, at least 24 hours have passed since their last fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and symptoms have improved.
Those who tested positive and are asymptomatic can discontinue isolation after at least five days have passed since a positive laboratory test.
“I’d like to thank all of the families for their patience. We’re working really hard to get this information out in a timely and clear manner so everyone can have good information,” Ridley said. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of confusion because guidance changes so much.
“Families who have any questions can contact us directly or call their school to talk to a school nurse or administrator at any time.”