Masks/Tracing/Quarantine

COVID-19 Masking/Quarantine Guidance

Effective Feb. 15th, Kanawha County Schools moved 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. 

WVDE Guidance

The WV Department of Education updated their guidance on February 24th, 2022. That updated guidance is available at: https://wvde.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/School-Recovery-and-Guidance-Document-022422-v1.pdf

Custodial Services

Daily

Cleaning staff will clean and disinfect all areas (e.g., offices, bathrooms, and common areas) used by persons, focusing especially on frequently touched surfaces.

As Needed

Specific procedures have been developed for disinfecting a room or building:

  When a reasonable suspicion of a case is suspected.
  When a positive case has been identified.

New for 2021-2022

Every KCS school now has a UVC light disinfecting trolly for use in the school. Nurses and custodians in each school have been trained on proper usage. 

More information is available here: LD676 UVC Germicidal Device V6.pdf

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