The Washington State Department of Health has issued new guidelines requiring schools to offer more options to families of students who are exposed to COVID-19.
The new directive says students who are exposed and quarantine for seven days can return to class on day eight if they test negative.
“We will be requiring schools to offer families the seven-day with a negative test quarantine option so that students can return to class more quickly,” Lacey Fahrenbach, deputy secretary for COVID response, said in a statement.
Schools previously had the option to offer that path, but now must do so.
The Department of Health now has four recommendations for students who are considered “close contacts” and schools must offer one or a combination of the first two options.
The second is a seven-day “test to stay” modified quarantine. During those seven days, students are allowed to attend school and undergo daily temperature and symptom checks, but otherwise are advised to stay at home and away from others. Those students are also not allowed to participate in extracurricular activities, before or after school child care or social gatherings.
This option is meant to minimize how much time students miss in-person instruction.
Students who do not want to get tested can choose either a 10-day or 14-day quarantine.
Older students who are fully vaccinated and are exposed to coronavirus do not need to quarantine but should be tested five to seven days after the close contact.
According to Fahrenbach, 6% of schools in the state have reported a COVID outbreak. The definition of an outbreak is three epidemiologically linked cases, meaning that through contact tracing it can be shown that the infected students were in close contact in the school.
The Department of Health says there were 189 outbreaks in schools in August and September, with the median size being five students. Most of the outbreaks were in public schools, at 167, compared to 22 for private schools.
Most of the outbreaks – 120 – were in grade schools, while middle schools had 48 and high schools had 55.
“While we never want to see an outbreak in a school setting, the relatively small size of outbreaks is an indication that schools are working very hard to respond when there are cases among students, teachers and staff,” Fahrenbach said. “Getting young children vaccinated as soon as we are able will add the strongest protection possible. Everyone who is able to get vaccinated should do so now to offer protection to young kids who are not yet eligible.”
