SLA uses a 7-day period for on-site positive cases to determine school closure. The below protocols apply to cases that have occurred within 7 days of each other, unless otherwise noted.
Note that in all cases in which it is known that a classroom has been exposed to COVID-19, SLA requires all families to complete COVID-19 PCR tests for their students 5–8 days from confirmed exposure. This is to help SLA determine whether any on-site transmission has occurred.
| Scenario | Response | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| One positive case, one classroom | The impacted classroom is shut down for 24 hours for disinfection and cleaning. The impacted class is taught remotely for 14 days from the last time the positive individual was on-site. | Per DOHMH regulation, all students and teachers in the classroom are considered to have been exposed to COVID-19 and will be subject to state quarantine. SLA’s remote period is based on the fact that COVID-19 symptoms may appear up to 14 days from confirmed exposure. |
| Two positive cases, one classroom, linked to shared exposure either inside or outside of the classroom | The impacted classroom is shut down for 24 hours for disinfection and cleaning. The impacted class is taught remotely for 14 days from the last time the positive individual was on-site. | SLA has identified the positive cases as having originated from an isolated, known event, so only the classroom is impacted. If it is known that the transmission occurred inside the classroom, SLA will investigate and resolve any possible protocol breach that may have resulted in infection. |
| Two positive cases, separate classrooms, linked to shared exposure outside of the school (note: this situation uses a 14-day interval between cases) | Both impacted classrooms are shut down for 24 hours for disinfection and cleaning. The impacted classes are taught remotely for 14 days from the last time the positive individual was on-site. | Because SLA has identified that shared, known source of infection outside of the school, SLA considers only the impacted classrooms to be at higher risk for COVID-19 infection. Because transmission can take up to 14 days to manifest, we use a 14-day interval for this scenario. |
| Two positive cases, separate classrooms, linked to shared exposure inside the school facility. | The school facility is shut down for 24 hours for disinfection and cleaning. All classes in the school building move to fully-remote learning for 14 days from the last time the positive individual was on-site | Because these two positive cases are known to have occurred via in-school transmission across classrooms, which may indicate that our existing protocols are not preventing in-school spread, SLA closes to confirm that further in-school transmission has not occurred across other classrooms. |
| Two positive cases, separate, unlinked exposure outside of the school, any classroom(s). | The school facility is shut down for 24 hours for disinfection and cleaning. All classes in the school building move to fully-remote learning for 14 days from the last time the positive individual was on-site. | Two unlinked cases due to exposure outside of school in this timeframe indicates that multiple members of our school community are being impacted by community spread, and that the overall environment is high-risk. This is considered a warning sign for additional on-site positive cases in the immediate future. SLA goes remote to avoid exposing further teachers and students to COVID-19 in this time-frame. |
| Two positive cases, unknown sources. | The school facility is shut down for 24 hours for disinfection and cleaning. All classes in the school building move to fully-remote learning for 14 days from the last time the positive individual was on-site | SLA is unable to identify the cause of multiple positive cases. Because we cannot eliminate the possibility of an in-school outbreak, we all move to fully-remote learning. |