GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Green Bay Area Public School District is modifying its COVID-19 protocols to keep more students in school.
Effective Monday, Oct. 18, the district will implement the CDC guideline which allows for unvaccinated students to test out of quarantine for a close contact if they are asymptomatic.
“We’ve been able to add nursing staff and we’ve been able to add a contact tracers. Because of that, we now have the capacity to work with our families to hopefully get some of our kids back to school a couple days earlier than they otherwise would,” said Superintendent Stephen Murley. “One of the things I think they we’re seeing is a decrease in the number of kids that are out on quarantine or isolation. That also gives us some relief for our staff, so they can work on getting other kids back to school sooner.”
Asymptomatic students on quarantine will be able to test, either an antigen or PCR test, no earlier than day six of their quarantine, and if they test negative, will be able to return to school no earlier than on day eight. Students who are quarantined due to a COVID positive household member are able to test, either antigen or PCR test, no earlier than day 16, and if they test negative, will be able to return no earlier than day 18. Parents/guardians must provide the test result prior to the student returning to school.
“There were some people that were concerned about the safety aspect of it, but knowing that we’ll be using our local health care providers and other healthcare sources for those PCR tests I think gives reassurance,” Murley told WTAQ News.
Some exceptions to this protocol are:
- If a classroom/school is quarantined, students will not be allowed to test out of quarantine, since the entire classroom/school will be learning virtually.
- Unvaccinated symptomatic students who are quarantined for a close contact will not be able to test out.
- At-home COVID tests may not be used to test out of quarantine. DHS has expressed that these at-home tests are not as accurate as PCR or NAAT tests.
To help speed the testing process up, the district says it has added additional nurses and contact tracers to the team.
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