As we are about ready to return to school tomorrow, January 4, 2022 I believe many are confused about the new guidance on quarantining for students and staff who are COVID positive. Currently, the CDC has offered new guidance on a 5 day quarantine, with certain qualifiers, for those who have tested positive and are asymptomatic. Additionally, IDPH has also pushed those rules out and in both cases they have indicated the 5 day rule is for the general public and that school guidance is forthcoming. So, unfortunately we are still expected to follow the 10 day quarantine rules we have followed so far this school year. We do expect changes to those quarantine rules in the coming days or weeks and hope that those changes are friendly for keeping our students in school.
Testing supplies for the Test to Stay program are in short supply. We order our testing supplies through the State of Illinois and prior to winter break ordered 2000 tests for our program and only received 320 of those tests. Obviously, this concerns us greatly as we have relied heavily on the Test to Stay program to keep students in school and expect to continue the program as long as the State requires quarantine. We have since ordered more of the rapid tests and look forward to receiving a full order, if we do not we will insure you know how that impacts our our program and your children. One item of particular note: If your child was tested over break and was positive you should report that to your school nurse. The reason we ask for that information is it allows us to exclude your student from testing (Weekly and Test to Stay) for a 90 day period. This makes life easier for your child and helps to maintaining testing supplies at the school.
As reported earlier this school year, the PORTA District was one of approximately 150 school districts who were named in a law suit concerning quarantine of students and masking mandates. We are expecting some resolution to this law suit on the 5th of this month, as a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) hearing is set for this date. If the TRO is successful, the mask mandate for students will be lifted for a period of time while more legal actions on the issue are considered. Additionally, if the TRO is successful quarantine rules will be changed significantly and at this time we do not know how that will impact our current process. If the TRO is unsuccessful, we will continue following CDC/IDPH and Sangamon County guidelines.
It is almost a certainty that we will be negatively impacted by this sudden surge in COVID cases due to the Omicron strain. Hopefully, this newest variant quickly moves on and we can have some relief. We ask that you have patience with our district. Our focus is and has been finding ways to keep students in school while working through mandates and guidelines forced upon us.
Testing supplies for the Test to Stay program are in short supply. We order our testing supplies through the State of Illinois and prior to winter break ordered 2000 tests for our program and only received 320 of those tests. Obviously, this concerns us greatly as we have relied heavily on the Test to Stay program to keep students in school and expect to continue the program as long as the State requires quarantine. We have since ordered more of the rapid tests and look forward to receiving a full order, if we do not we will insure you know how that impacts our our program and your children. One item of particular note: If your child was tested over break and was positive you should report that to your school nurse. The reason we ask for that information is it allows us to exclude your student from testing (Weekly and Test to Stay) for a 90 day period. This makes life easier for your child and helps to maintaining testing supplies at the school.
As reported earlier this school year, the PORTA District was one of approximately 150 school districts who were named in a law suit concerning quarantine of students and masking mandates. We are expecting some resolution to this law suit on the 5th of this month, as a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) hearing is set for this date. If the TRO is successful, the mask mandate for students will be lifted for a period of time while more legal actions on the issue are considered. Additionally, if the TRO is successful quarantine rules will be changed significantly and at this time we do not know how that will impact our current process. If the TRO is unsuccessful, we will continue following CDC/IDPH and Sangamon County guidelines.
It is almost a certainty that we will be negatively impacted by this sudden surge in COVID cases due to the Omicron strain. Hopefully, this newest variant quickly moves on and we can have some relief. We ask that you have patience with our district. Our focus is and has been finding ways to keep students in school while working through mandates and guidelines forced upon us.