Lancaster, Chester schools will quarantine students and staff exposed to COVID
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As another school year impacted by the pandemic approaches, school districts across South Carolina are taking their own unique approaches to preventing COVID-19.
With delta variant cases rising in SC, Lancaster County School District and Chester County School District will quarantine students and staff exposed to COVID-19.
In a panel alongside Lancaster medical professionals Thursday, State Epidemiologist Linda Bell said that approach will be helpful in keeping kids in school.
“The downside of these measures is that they miss school,” Bell said. “But the impact is that you prevent clusters within schools. If we don’t have those measures in place, we will simply see more and more cases, and we do not want to get to the point where we cannot have in-person learning because of disruption from clusters of cases in schools.”
Here’s how quarantine strategies will work.
In Chester
At Chester County schools, any staff or student who exhibits coronavirus symptoms can immediately receive a rapid test at the school nurse’s office, Chris Christoff, CCSD public information officer said.
If the test yields a positive result, that student or staff member will be required to quarantine. The school will immediately inform anyone who may have come in contact with that person and they also may be required to quarantine.
The duration of time quarantine will depend entirely on the case, Christoff said. Variables such as when and how someone was exposed, as well as the vaccination status of both parties, will be considered.
If exposed, a student or teacher could avoid quarantine altogether or have to stay home for up to 24 days, Chief Human Resources Officer Wendell Sumter said.
State law currently allows only 5% of students to go to school online. At CCSD, that equals 200 students.
Those students will not be taught by Chester County teachers this year; they will attend an online program called ‘Ed Options Academy.’
It would take a significant outbreak for the school district to turn to online school, Christoff said.
In Lancaster
At Lancaster County School District, if three students in the same class test positive for the coronavirus within 14 days, the entire class will be quarantined. The quarantine period will last 14 days.
Students and staff will complete a questionnaire each day, where they will be asked to report whether they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID and if they are having COVID symptoms, representative Michelle Craig said.
That means students in those classes, as well as teachers, possibly will not be permitted to attend class.
LCSD will not offer a full-time online school this year. But if possible, quarantined classes will go virtual, as not to fall behind.
Also, if the pandemic causes enough staff to be absent that the district is concerned about student supervision, the district “may need to go virtual to address the concerns for supervision and safety,” Craig said.
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Lancaster, Chester schools will quarantine students and staff exposed to COVID."
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