BEL AIR, Md. — Harford County Public Schools on Wednesday made some changes to their COVID-19 protocols.
Student quarantining period will now be reduced from 14 to 10 days, including those currently isolated due to exposure.
Student contact tracing is also being modified.
Despite mask requirements inside school buildings and buses, only those who were unmasked at the time of contact with an infected student will be required to quarantine in the future.
The process however remains unchanged if the interaction involves a school staff member.
Parents will be alerted via letter by school administration if their student is affected by a classroom or school outbreak, which is defined and broken down below.
Classroom/cohort outbreak: • Two or more laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases among students/teachers/staff with onsets (or, if asymptomatic, collection dates) within a 14-day period, and who are epidemiologically linked, but not household contacts.
School outbreak: Three or more classrooms with cases from separate households that meet the classroom/cohort outbreak definition that occurs within 14 days; OR • 5% or more unrelated students/teachers/staff have confirmed COVID-19 within a 14-day period [minimum of 10 unrelated students/teachers/staff].
Starting November 15, the school system is implementing an after-school testing program for high school winter sports and fine arts.
The program does include an opt-out for vaccinated students.
