Bishop Hendricken Adopts Updated Isolation & Quarantine Protocol
Today, we're making several important updates to our COVID-19 protocol based on new recommendations from the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH). Please be sure to read the contents of this message carefully. The new, full policies can be found on our website's COVID Response hub, here.
The impetus for many of these updates were changes in guidance from RIDOH. The chief rationale for these changes is to more closely align with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) current guidance on isolation and quarantine. Based on public health expertise and K-12 data, these protocols are adopted with both the interest of health and student educational experience in mind.
5-Day Isolation for Positive Cases
Effective immediately, any student, faculty, or staff member who tests positive for COVID-19, regardless of their vaccination status, must isolate at home for 5 days beginning the day your symptoms began (if symptomatic) OR the day you tested (if asymptomatic).
Beginning on day 6, the positive case will adhere to the following guidelines...
- Positive cases may return to school if they have NO symptoms. Not symptoms that are improving -- no symptoms whatsoever.
- Must wear a proper and properly fitting mask everywhere for an additional 5 days.
- If individuals have a fever, they should isolate at home until their fever has been gone for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication.
If the above guidelines do not apply to positive cases between days 6-10, you may come off isolation on day 11 as was previously the case.
Monitor to Stay & Quarantines
Effective immediately, any student, faculty, or staff member who is identified as a Bishop Hendricken close contact does not need to quarantine if they have NO symptoms and regardless of vaccination status. Bishop Hendricken will be using the Monitor to Stay strategy as outlined on our website, here.
Current Positive Cases
If you have been identified as a positive case and your return date was January 15, 2022 or before, you are now free to return to school on Monday, January 10, 2022 so long as you have NO symptoms and regardless of vaccination status. You MUST wear a proper and properly fitting mask everywhere for an additional 5 days.
Negative Tests to Return No Longer Necessary
As of this guidance, RIDOH is no longer suggesting that testing to return to school is necessary. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important that our community adheres to the above steps based on each situation. This includes being incredibly diligent of your symptoms when returning to school from an isolation or quarantine.
Vaccination & Boosters
RIDOH and CDC maintain that vaccines and boosters are the number one way to combat COVID-19. We're working to bring a booster clinic to Bishop Hendricken in the coming weeks to make it quick and easy for students who are eligible to receive their boosters.
Symptom Monitoring & Mask-Wearing
Under this updated public health guidance, RIDOH and K-12 schools are putting tremendous stock in symptom monitoring and proper mask-wearing. Throughout this pandemic, students, faculty, and staff have been asked to adhere to many rules. Now, the rules are incredibly simple. If you take nothing else away from this update, let it be this: if you are sick you must stay home AND you have to be serious about wearing your mask properly.
As we've said time and time again for the past two years: this is an ever-evolving situation that is impacted by a myriad of variables. As has always been the case, all of the above information is subject to change, though our intention is to create plans that both mitigate risk and uphold our educational promise. You and your sons deserve nothing less.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us.
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