Updated
8-21-2020 The subsequent information in this document is presented as if the Disease Activity Level is YELLOW.
Health and Safety Plan
Recognizing that every school and facility is unique, and all plans for the upcoming year will reflect individual adaptations, Ysleta ISD has created a Health and Safety Plan to serve as a baseline directive for how each school will implement reopening for on-campus, in-person instruction. This plan will be tailored to the unique characteristics of each school. Implementation details and any significant deviations or special provisions for a school will be developed in consultation with the Associate Superintendent of Elementary, Middle, or High Schools, respectively, and the Associate Superintendent of Student Support Services, and then approved by the district’s Chief Financial and Operational Officer. Once approved, the Health and Safety Plan for a school will be posted on the school website prior to the reopening of school.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Subject to updated guidance from TEA, Ysleta ISD will provide PPE as described in this plan. Ysleta ISD will require face masks to be worn in accordance with Disease Activity Levels and Face Mask Protocol. The district will provide a face mask for every student and employee. Unless a medical accommodation has been granted which prevents the use of a mask, all students and staff members must wear masks. Students will not be allowed to use bandanas as a face covering. Desk dividers will be provided for every student’s desk. Every teacher will be equipped with a face shield, contactless thermometer, and face mask. Hand sanitizer will be available in every classroom, as well as in other meeting and common areas. Disinfecting solution will be available in every classroom for frequent disinfection. Bus drivers will each have their own contactless thermometer to ensure students who may have a temperature are not transported to school. Transportation supervisors will be dispatched to wait with students while the parent or guardian is contacted to pick up their student.
Ongoing Health Monitoring and Screening for COVID-19 Symptoms
Ysleta ISD will closely monitor overall student and staff attendance for any spike in absences. Parents are urged not to send students to school if they are sick or show signs of COVID-19, as listed in the symptoms below.
COVID-19 Symptoms (As of 10/09/2020)
Parents and staff are urged to closely monitor for any COVID-19 symptoms. These symptoms include:
- Feeling feverish or a measured temperature greater than or equal to 100.0 degrees Fahrenheit
- Loss of taste or smell
- Cough
- Difficulty breathing
- Shortness of breath
- Headache
- Chills
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Shaking or exaggerated shivering
- Significant muscle pain or ache
- Diarrhea
- Nausea or vomiting
Student Screening
Updated
7-31-2020Before a child leaves home at the start of each day, a parent should answer the self-screening questions for each child.
- Has the child recently begun experiencing any of the COVID-19 symptoms in a way that is not normal for them? (Check website for the current symptom list)
- Has the child had close contact in the past 10 days with an individual who is lab-confirmed to have COVID-19? This would include someone living in the same household as the child or who regularly provides childcare.
Updated
7-31-2020By sending a child to school, the parent is attesting that the parent confidently answered "NO" to ALL of the COVID-19 screening questions for the child.
Updated
7-31-2020A child who is sick with a fever, sore throat, or other COVID-19 symptom must stay home from school, and the parent must report the absence to the attendance clerk. Any child found to have symptoms at school will be isolated; a parent or guardian will be notified to pick up their student within one hour.
Before coming to school at the start of each day, students will be screened for symptoms and have their temperature taken. Students who use bus transportation will be screened for fever using a contactless thermometer before boarding the bus.
Students who are driven to or walk to school will be screened for symptoms and fever using contactless thermometers before entering the building. In the event of inclement weather, screening will be moved inside to a gym or cafeteria, with sufficient space to maintain social distancing. Each campus will provide information on how and where students will be screened prior to entry. Screening protocols will be regularly reviewed to ensure use of the most up-to-date protocols issued by federal, state, and local public health officials. If a student is found to have a fever, the student will be isolated from others, and the student’s parent/guardian will be contacted for pick-up within one hour.
Students who arrive after the first bell must be screened at the campus’s front office before entering campus.
A child who lives with or has close contact with someone who has tested positive or has symptoms and is presumed positive for COVID-19 will need to quarantine at home as instructed by the school. Ysleta ISD follows the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidance, and considers “close contact” to mean contact within 6 feet for 15 minutes or longer. Because of the high likelihood of a false negative test if a student or staff member is tested before the full incubation period for the virus, the required self-quarantine period is 10 days from the date of last exposure to a lab-confirmed case.
Teacher and Staff Screening
Teachers and staff must self-screen daily and stay home if sick. Teachers must keep appropriate distance from other staff and students. All teachers and staff will wear masks and may wear a face shield while in class, while indoors, and while with another person outdoors, whenever social distancing is not possible. However, face shields may not replace masks. Full-face shields may be used in place of a mask to protect eyes, nose, and mouth whenever a mask is not feasible or whenever the education context may benefit from the ability to see an individual’s full face. Occupancy of teacher lounges and workspaces will be limited.
A staff member who lives with or has close contact with someone who has tested positive or has symptoms and is presumed positive for COVID-19 will need to quarantine at home as instructed by the school. Ysleta ISD follows CDC guidance, and considers “close contact” to mean contact within 6 feet for 15 minutes or longer. Because of the high likelihood of a false negative test if a student or staff member is tested before the full incubation period for the virus, the required self-quarantine period is 10 days from the date of last exposure to a lab-confirmed case.
Positive Case Identified at a Campus or Facility
If a student or staff member at a school is diagnosed with COVID-19, TEA requires the district to send notice of this occurrence to every parent of a student at the campus, regardless of whether close contact occurred. The diagnosed student or staff member will be required to stay at home until all the following criteria are met:
Students or staff member with new or worsening signs or symptoms listed above may not return to work until:
- In the case of a student or staff member who was diagnosed with COVID-19, the individual may return to work when all three of the following criteria are met:
Symptom-based method (no severe illness or severe immunocompromise) Maintain isolation until:
- At least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared; AND
- At least 1 day (24 hours) has passed WITHOUT fever and without the use of fever-reducing medications); AND,
- Improvement in symptoms
Symptom-based method (severe illness or severe immunocompromise)
Maintain isolation until:
- At least 20 days have passed since symptoms first appeared; AND
- At least 1 day (24 hours) has passed WITHOUT fever and without the use of fever-reducing medications); AND,
- Improvement in symptoms
- In the case of a student or staff member who has symptoms that could be COVID-19 and does not get evaluated by a medical professional or tested for COVID-19, the individual is assumed to have COVID-19, and the individual may not return to work until the individual has completed the same three-step criteria listed above.
- If the individual tested positive but had no symptoms the individual may return to work when the following criteria are met:
Time-based method (tested positive without symptoms)
Maintain isolation until:
- At least 10 days have passed since the date of their most recent positive COVID-19 diagnostic test; AND
- Have continuously been without symptoms (assuming they have not subsequently developed symptoms since their positive test.)
- If a case has severe immunocompromising condition without symptoms, at least 20 days should have passed since the date of first positive specimen collected.
NOTE: If they develop symptoms, then the symptom-based strategy should be used based on the date of symptom onset.
- If the student or staff member has symptoms that could be COVID-19 and wants to return to work before completing the above self-quarantine period, they must obtain a medical professional’s note clearing the individual for return based on an alternative diagnosis OR obtain an acute infection test that comes back negative for COVID-19, be fever-free for 24 hours, and have improvement of symptoms.
Exposure to COVID-19
Do not allow a student or staff member with known High-Risk Close Contact to a person who is test-confirmed to have COVID-19 to return to work until the end of the 10-day self-quarantine period from the last day of exposure. Students and staff members should be screened after the quarantine period. If the student or staff member did not experience COVID-19 symptoms during the quarantine period, they may return to school or work. If the student or staff member experienced symptoms, they must stay at home until the conditions outlined above for symptomatic individuals have been met.
Students and staff members who have had High-Risk Close Contact with someone who is test-confirmed to have COVID-19, as narrowly defined below and as determined by the appropriate public health agency, should stay at home through the 10-day quarantine period, and should not be allowed on campus. Students and staff members should be referred for testing five to seven days following exposure, prior to returning to campus.
High-Risk Close Contact
This document refers to High-Risk Close Contact with an individual who is test-confirmed to have COVID-19. High-Risk Close Contact is determined by an appropriate public health agency. For clarity, High-Risk Close Contact is defined as:
Someone who was < 6 feet of a test-confirmed positive case for ≥ 15 minutes starting from 2 days (48 hours) before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated. (DPH)
Factors to consider when determining if someone was in High-Risk Close Contact, resulting in exposure to a test-confirmed case of COVID-19, include proximity (< 6 feet), duration (≥ 15 minutes), and not wearing a mask, face shield, or without a desk divider in place. If all three factors were present when the employee or contractor was exposed to a test-confirmed case, the individual should remain in self-quarantine for a period of 10 days.
Apart from the diagnosed student, parents do not need to keep their own children at home unless they are separately contacted by school officials after contact tracing.
Students may be temporarily moved out of their classroom pending thorough cleaning and disinfecting. Approved EPA Disinfectants will be used to defog and disinfect classrooms and other campus areas. Custodial staff will defog and disinfect classrooms, restrooms, indoor athletic areas, cafeterias as well as common areas in school buildings.
The district will make every effort to avoid unplanned school closures. If a school must close temporarily for extensive quarantining or cleaning, school officials will determine on a case-by-case basis how the instructional minutes will be recovered in accordance with published TEA guidance.
COVID-19 Testing for Staff Members and Students
Testing for employees and students who are symptomatic will be available at no charge through the district’s testing facilities, in collaboration with the City of El Paso Public Health Department and City/County Office of Emergency Management. Referrals will be provided for testing if a staff member or student is identified as having close contact with a lab-confirmed case.