Updated guidelines from the Oregon Department of Education have given teachers and parents more ideas about what they can expect from the fall school year amid COVID-19.
A “toolkit” released by the department lays out scenarios for when students, teachers or staff become sick or test positive for COVID-19 on school grounds.
It lists primary COVID-19 symptoms to include cough, chills, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, or temperatures of greater than 100.4 degrees in line with the CDC‘s reports.
The plan draws a careful distinction between presumptive and near-certain levels of COVID-19 exposure, which heavily depend on whether persons involved test positive.
It recommends that anyone in close contact with a person who tests positive for COVID-19 symptoms should self-isolate. The plan does not recommend that someone who has been in close contact with another person who was exposed to COVID-19 self-isolate.
Department guidelines illustrate how even one infected person riding the same bus as their classmates can spread the disease in and outside the school district.
It also recommends that in-person classes resume for students with disabilities and English language learners.
Per the governor’s orders, children ages 5 and up must wear face masks, which remain preferred over face shields.
Another 62-page plan from the Oregon Department of Education also laid out “home kits” for families and teachers with “step-by-step instructions for art projects, science exploration projects.” These kits would incorporate short surveys per completing a kit with some process of reimbursement for teachers assembling them at home.
The plan does not specify what classroom activities they would supplement or replace, if any.
According to the plan, provisions protecting undocumented immigrant students and families recommends school districts substitute secure student school IDs in lieu of student names.
Any districts holding in-person classes, the plan said, should include “trusted community members” working with families at the door to explain and demonstrate public health guidelines like social distancing and face masks. It did not specify how such demonstrations would work for foreign language learners online.
A trio of private Oregonian Christian schools, meanwhile, have filed a lawsuit against the governor, claiming her health orders could inflict great financial harm on their essential community service should students leave permanently.
Horizon Christian School in Hood River, McMinnville Christian Academy, and Life Christian School in Aloha are named as plaintiffs in the suit.
School districts finished the remainder of the past school year online only in March following Gov. Kate Brown’s stay-at-home order.
The list of school districts starting the new school year online for at least the first six weeks this fall is growing. They include Portland Public Schools, the Salem-Keizer School District, the Klamath County School District, the Corvallis School District, the Ashland School District, North Clackamas Schools, and the Eugene Public School District.
Going into fall, districts will be distributing “grab-and-go” meals for students in school buildings.
Rural and remote areas, according to the department, have the freedom to reopen schools sooner so long as reported COVID-19 case numbers remain low.
Oregon continues to see high rates of COVID-19 cases, especially in northeastern counties on the Idaho border. Umatilla and Morrow counties’ reopening phases were rolled back by Brown late last month as they continue to see positive test rates as high as 20 percent.
Brown mandated at the end of July that counties must see positive test rates at or below 5 percent positive for and 20 cases per 100,000 people for three weeks before resuming in-person classes. As most Oregon school districts are less than month away from September classes, virtually no county save for rural Wheeler County makes the cut.
Oregon’s total COVID-19 caseload stood at 22,300 on Thursday with the death toll at 383, according to data from the Oregon Health Authority.
