Tuesday’s decision by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to end COVID-19 contact tracing next month rippled immediately to county health departments and to school districts.
Following guidance from KDHE and the Kansas State Department of Education, USD 253 Emporia says it is no longer telling families their children may have been in contact with COVID-positive patients, whether through classroom or extracurricular activities. The district is asking parents to keep their children home for five days if they believe kids have been exposed to COVID-positive patients, either at school or at other locations. Children can then resume normal activities, including school, after the five-day mark but they need to wear a mask for another five days — and they need to wear it both indoors and outdoors. Students need to be tested five days after exposure or immediately if they develop symptoms.
Speaking of symptomatic students, USD 253 says they should stay home for at least five days and should not return to school until they are fever-free for 24 hours without the help of medications. When students return to school, they need to wear masks for at least five days.
One other policy announcement connects to the district’s Test to Learn plan. USD 253 says students must be tested on Day 5 or later from symptom onset to be considered for release from isolation. Students testing negative can return the next day with mask use required. Students testing positive have to stay isolated for a total of 10 days before returning to school.
Other area school districts have announced changes. USD 243 Lebo-Waverly is not contact tracing for the next month, saying, “everybody has already been exposed to omicron. You either got it or you did not for whatever reason.” USD 245 Southern Lyon County, USD 386 Madison-Virgil, USD 389 Eureka, USD 434 Santa Fe Trail and USD 456 Marais des Cygnes Valley have all announced stoppages of their contact tracing efforts.
On Tuesday, Lyon and Osage counties announced contact tracing is now over after KDHE’s announcement.
