Minns Announces Revised Quarantine Guidance for K-12 Schools

(Sedgwick County, Kan.) – Sedgwick County’s Local Health Officer Dr. Garold Minns revised grade K-12 school quarantine guidance for local school districts to keep students safely for in-person classrooms. This modification was decided following conversations with local school district superintendents.

Now, if a student is a close contact during the in-person classroom school day, they may or may not have to stay in quarantine at home based on the nature of the close contact. Students who are high-risk close contacts must quarantine at home per KDHE and SCHD guidance and participate in remote learning. Students who are low-risk close contacts may continue to attend in-person classroom or participate with remote learning.

High-Risk Close Contact

• Anything unmasked – especially when not physically distanced
• Consuming food/drink less than six feet apart
• Activities that include physical exertion, less than six feet apart for longer than 15 total minutes
• Athletic activity that involves close, sustained contact between participants, lack of significant protective barriers, indoors, and high probability that respiratory droplets will be transmitted between participants
• Playing woodwind and brass instruments less than six feet apart without a mask
• Singing/shouting less than six feet apart without a mask
• Playground if unmasked students have sustained contact with physical exertion for more than 10 minutes
• This list is not an exhaustive list, other similar activities may also meet the definition of high-risk close contact

Low-Risk Close Contact

• Being in the same classroom following mask-wearing guidelines to include a tightly woven, two-ply properly fitting mask worn over the mouth and nose
• On the same bus following mask-wearing guidelines and a minimum of three feet distance

 Process

1. Parents will be notified if their child is a close contact (high-risk or low-risk)
2. If the child is a high-risk close contact, he/she will be quarantined per the established KDHE/ SCHD protocols and move to remote learning
   1. Child is given a PCR test on quarantine day six and can be out of quarantine as soon as day eight if the test is negative
   2. If the child is not given a PCR test on quarantine day six, the student must remain in quarantine and be out on day 11
3. If the child is a low-risk close contact, he/she will be given the option to remain in the in-person classroom or move to remote learning following the KDHE/SCHD protocols

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