*Updated COVID-19 & Masking Guidance* - Feb. 15th, 2022
Effective immediately, Kanawha County Schools will be moving its mask guidance from mandatory to optional. This means that mask usage in buildings and on the bus will be optional for both students and staff.
This decision is being made as Kanawha County and KCS positive case numbers are going down after the increase during the winter holidays.
As a reminder, information on testing and the vaccine is available at: https://kcs.kana.k12.wv.us/covid-19/vaccinations___testing. KCS school-based clinics and our testing partners can help support students and staff who wish to be tested. We specifically encourage athletes and those students participating in extra-curricular activities to be sure to take advantage of these opportunities so they may continue playing/participating in their activity or sport.
- We will still have masks available to anyone wanting one.
- We will still participate in daily and weekly reporting of positive cases so that parents and staff know current conditions in their schools.
- We will still talk daily and as often as needed with the KCHD about special cases and any concerning trends in classrooms or schools.
With this transition, it is more important than ever before to please monitor symptoms daily and do not come to work or school if you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.
If a student or staff member does test positive, regardless of masking or vaccination, they should stay home for at least five days and isolate from others. Day 0 is the first day of symptoms or positive test if asymptomatic. They may return on day 6 if symptoms are improving and they’ve been fever free for 24 hours without use of fever reducing medication. It is then recommended to mask for days 6-10. Household exposures to a positive case are asked to observe the CDC quarantine guidelines. Any non-household exposures to a positive case should monitor for symptoms and stay out if any are present.
Daily school COVID monitoring: Guardians can find daily school-specific COVID-19 positive case updates in Schoology. Anyone can view the countywide tracker on our COVID-19 tab. It is updated daily. https://kcs.kana.k12.wv.us/covid-19/school_covid_case_procedure___tracking.
Weekly school COVID monitoring: All KCS schools are now directly reporting positive cases to a new WV DHHR tracking survey, which appears here on Fridays - https://wvde.us/covid19/school-covid-dashboard/. This is where you will find the most robust information regarding school cases from the week before.
As always, we will continue to monitor cases and mask guidance through the coming weeks and months.
Updated WVDE Guidance from February 24th is available at: https://wvde.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/School-Recovery-and-Guidance-Document-022422-v1.pdf.