Illness and Exposure Protocols
  • It is paramount that parents do not send children to school with a fever that manifests without medication no matter the expected cause. There are no exceptions to this expectation. The same applies to teachers, staff, and any parent or visitor coming to campus.
     
  • Students, faculty, and staff who have symptoms will immediately go to the infirmary and kept separate from others until picked up. The infirmary will be disinfected immediately upon departure of student.
     
  • The entire Covenant community will be informed daily of positive cases by grade-level, while following HIPPA and FERPA regulations about student identity. 

Close Contact (Person Exposed to Covid-19)

Close contact is defined as being within 6 feet for 15 minutes of someone who has COVID-19 while not wearing a Covenant-approved face covering.

The close contact will stay home for 14 days from the most recent contact with the person reporting a positive test. 
 

"For example, if contact with the person occurred on Sunday, the person became symptomatic on Monday, had a PCR test 
on Tuesday, and received a positive result on Friday, the contact would count from the Sunday of the exposure (or any more recent contact) and stay home for 14 days from that day. Were the only contact on Sunday, the close contact student would miss five days of class and attend by off-campus learning for those five days. However, if you were with the person who tests positive after Sunday, then you would count from the last day you were with that person."
 
  • Siblings of a positive case are considered close contacts and will stay home until the positive case is recovered, and a negative PCR (not antigen) COVID-19 test can be obtained for the sibling. If a parent tests positive, all students living in the same household will stay home until the positive case parent is recovered, and a negative PCR (not antigen) COVID-19 test can be obtained for each sibling. 
     
  • Siblings of a close contact are not required to stay home from school. It is highly recommended that the close contact be as isolated as possible from the other siblings. If the close contact develops symptoms, they will enter positive or suspected case protocol, and the siblings would be considered close contacts.
Suspected Cases

Defined as a student or faculty/staff member with symptoms of COVID-19, but not lab-confirmed. 

If a student or staff member has ANY ONE of the following COVID-19 symptoms:

♦ fever above 100.3 F
♦ loss of taste or smell
♦ shortness of breath
♦ difficulty breathing

This suspected case will stay home for 10 days  from when the symptoms appeared 
AND
 until fever-free for 24 hours and with no remaining symptoms.

“If the individual has symptoms that could be COVID-19 and wants to return to school before completing the above stay at home period, the individual must obtain a [PCR (not antigen)] acute infection test at an approved testing location  that comes back negative for COVID-19.” (TEA)

If they receive a positive COVID-19 test, follow guidelines for a positive case. (CDC)

If a student or staff member has TWO OR MORE of the following COVID-19 symptoms:
♦ fatigue
♦ congestion/runny nose
♦ muscle or body aches
♦ nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
♦ headache
♦ cough
♦ sore throat

This suspected case should stay home for 10 days from when the symptoms appeared and consult their physician. 

If they receive a negative PCR (not antigen) COVID-19 test, they may return to school when 
fever-free for 24 hours 
AND 
with no remaining symptoms 

If they receive a positive COVID-19 test, follow guidelines for a positive case. (CDC)

Exposure to a Positive Case Within a Cohort

E-4

  • In an Explorer through Grade 4 cohort, the person with the positive test follows protocol for positive cases.
  • In an E-4 cohort, members are not required to stay home from school but will wear face coverings in class for 14 days from the day the positive tested child was last in class. Upon a second positive case within the cohort, the entire group will move to off-campus learning and follow close contact protocols, counting from the most recent day of contact with the second case in the cohort.

5-12

  • Because 5-12 students are wearing face coverings at all times, these classes will be monitored in the event of a positive case within group, and a decision will be made as to when it is necessary to move a group to off-campus learning.
     
Parents of the cohort will be informed of a positive case within that cohort in addition to the daily report to the community. 
Positive Cases

Defined as a student or faculty/staff member with a lab-confirmed* diagnosis of COVID-19, with or without symptoms.

The positive case will stay home from school for 10 days from the date of test (not date of receiving test results) 
AND 
until fever-free with no fever-reducing medications for 24 hours 
AND 
has no remaining symptoms. 

If the positive case is asymptomatic, they will stay home 10 days from positive test date. (CDC)

  • The positive case is considered recovered after all of the above criteria are met and may then return to school.
  • If a parent or sibling is the person with a positive test, all family members are considered close contacts. 
* While COVID-19 antigen tests may have a rapid turnaround, these tests are notoriously inaccurate up to 40 percent of the time. A much more sensitive and specific test is the COVID-19 PCR test. Covenant will only accept negative PCR tests, not negative antigen (rapid) tests.