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As we prepare to fully reopen this year on Monday, April 19, the Board of Education and administration remain committed to the safety of students and staff during this pandemic. All students who will be participating in in-person learning, including those who are dropping in for related services, will be required to submit a weekly saliva sample.
STEP ONE - Consent in Skyward by April 12
All in-person students must have a NEW CONSENT FORM completed in Skyward by Monday, April 12. This includes the students who have already been participating in the program this school year. The forms have been revised and the new consent must be completed for every student who will participate in the full in-person schedule.
Click here to sign into Skyward Family Access and complete the consent form for each student who will attend in person beginning on Monday, April 19.
STEP TWO - Begin Mandatory Screening Week of April 12
Mandatory saliva screening will begin next week, the week of April 12. A process for the students who have not saliva screened in the past, will be put into place and information about the process will be sent out this week. Information about when and how to pick up the saliva collection kits will be provided soon as well.
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Our goal is to provide a safe learning environment for all students as we shift to implementing the 3 feet social distancing requirement (6 feet while eating).
What do parents need to know?
Each week, students will be required to submit a saliva sample.
Samples are collected at home and brought to school with the student. Your child can do their saliva collection in the morning before leaving home for school or later in the evening the night before. It is very important that your student does not eat, drink nor brush their teeth for 30 minutes prior to spitting.
This COVID-19 Saliva Screening “How-to Video” will take you through the step by step process for collecting the sample.
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Students can bring one sample to school each week on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. There will be collection bins available at school. More specific information will be shared by principals and a morning reminder will be given over the announcements.
Any student who does not submit a sample by Wednesday of the week will be placed on exclusion (remote learning) for Thursday and Friday. You will receive notification from the principal or their designee on Wednesday about the need for the exclusion.
Any student who is on exclusion can return to school on the following Monday by bringing a sample directly to the nurse upon arrival at school. Failure to provide a sample on Monday after exclusion (with both emergency replacement tubes already used) will result in the student being sent home and moved to the Full Remote Model for the remainder of the school year.
While on exclusion, students will have access via Google Classroom to a teacher who will assist them in completing the work that they are missing. Information about how to access the virtual homework help will be provided by the school nurse in an email following the notification of exclusion.
Please note that students have multiple opportunities and two emergency tubes available to submit a sample and prevent an exclusion from taking place. In the event that an exclusion is necessary, it is for the remainder of this school year. While it is our hope that we do not have any students who end up being excluded or moved to the Full Remote Model, this is a crucial part of our reopening plan. We have many families who made a decision to send their child for in person learning based on saliva testing being mandatory. Our obligation is to implement this consistently in all cases.
How can we minimize the need for quarantines?
With the guidelines changing and allowing for the use of 3 feet social distancing, it is very important to remember that there are many things parents can do to reduce the occurrence of transmission and quarantine:
Exercise safety precautions outside of school for the remainder of this school year. Social distancing, masking, avoiding crowds, and hand hygiene are all very important. Very soon, this school year will be over and you can make whatever decisions you want on behalf of your family. While we are in session, we ask that everyone be very mindful of the fact that outside decisions have an impact inside of school. It is concerning to parents when their child tests positive and has to go on isolation. It is even more concerning to parents when their child has to quarantine because they were a close contact to a positive case. If everyone commits to this, we can reduce the number of quarantines for the remainder of this year.
Continue to complete the daily self-certification each morning. Monitoring for symptoms and keeping symptomatic children at home helps prevent unintentional transmission of the virus. All families will receive a reminder call in the morning if they fail to complete the daily self certification.
Hold off on traveling until the school year is over.
While adults may be vaccinated, the children are not. The only way that we can prevent transmission and quarantine is for everyone to make this a priority.
If your child cannot produce a saliva sample, please reach out to D41 Nurse, Katie Adduci at kadduci@d41.org. Mrs. Adduci will discuss the BinaxNOW test with you and determine whether or not this would be an appropriate substitution for weekly saliva testing. Mrs. Adduci will make arrangements to come to your child’s school to do the BinaxNOW test.
For information regarding the disposal of saliva samples and other information from SafeGuard Surveillance,LLC please visit our website HERE
Thank you for your attention to this important information. I sincerely appreciate your partnership to help keep our entire school district community safe and healthy. We look forward to welcoming students back to full in person on April 19!
Dr. K.
Dr. Melissa Kaczkowski
Superintendent
Glen Ellyn School District 41
Email: webmaster@d41.org
Website: www.d41.org
Location: 793 North Main Street, Glen Ellyn, IL, USA
Phone: 630.790.6400
Facebook: facebook.com/glenellynd41
Twitter: @glenellynd41