COVID-19: School Guidance – Parents & Guardians

Parents and guardians can play a big role in helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by checking their children for symptoms each day before they go to school.

Click here to use the CDC Symptom Checker to help you identify symptoms

If your child is sick

• Keep children with symptoms home from school
• Contact a healthcare provider or seek testing
• Notify your school within 24 hours of receiving a diagnosis
• Cooperate with school staff and the board of health in contact tracing efforts

Isolation

Children who have COVID-19 must be isolated at home until they meet ALL of these requirements:

• A minimum of 10 days from the date that symptoms began, or if asymptomatic, 10 days from the date they were tested
• Overall symptoms must be improving
• At least 24 hours free of fever without taking medications that reduce body temperature such as Motrin or Tylenol

If your child is a close contact of a student or staff member identified as a case

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) issued modified quarantine guidelines for those exposed in the school setting to help return them to class sooner.

ODH also created a K-12 School Quarantine Flow Chart to help identify those who must quarantine when exposed in the school setting.

They also issued a Text Symptom Monitoring Tutorial that describes how contacts can be monitored throughout their quarantine.

Identifying close contacts

Close contact is defined as being within 6 feet of someone for at least 15 minutes or more.

Close contact is cumulative, meaning that the time adds up. Repeated contact for several shorter periods of time can equal or exceed 15 minutes and is considered a close contact.

A person diagnosed with COVID-19 is considered to be infectious for the following period of time:
48 hours before their symptoms began AND until their time in isolation ends

A person without symptoms is considered to be infectious for the following period of time:
48 hours before the date of their COVID-19 test until 10 days after their test

Quarantine

If your child become sick while in quarantine, notify the school as soon as possible. It may be necessary to also quarantine other students and staff members who had been in close contact with your child.

Response from the Health Department

If your child is diagnosed with COVID-19, a representative from your local health department (the county or city where you live) will contact you. They will want to discuss your child’s symptoms, contacts and any possible exposures to illness.

Your local health department will work with your child’s school to help identify students or staff members who may have been close contacts.

Click here to learn more about the case investigation process

Resources for Parents

CDC information to help parents support their children’s health and well-being as they return to school

Research from the Ohio Department of Health regarding the effectiveness of masks

Testing

CCBH and community testing schedule

Ohio Department of Health community testing dashboard

Questions

schools@ccbh.net

216.201.2000