The COVID-19 Communication Plan was updated on October 28, 2021 to add the following:  

SLIDE 2:  

• Close contacts who are fully vaccinated and no symptoms present, or have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 90 days:  
  • May stay in school; vaccinated individuals get tested five to seven days after known exposure.  
• Close contacts who are NOT vaccinated and no symptoms present:   
  • Quarantine at home for 10* days and test for COVID-19 if symptoms develop.  
  • If school is participating in 7-day quarantine option or Test to Stay, follow the appropriate quarantine pathway.  
• *In some instances, a 14-day quarantine may be required.  

SLIDE 3:  

• This is a new slide on Household Exposure guidance. There is new quarantine guidance on what to do if someone in the household tests positive for COVID-19 based on whether that person is vaccinated.  

SLIDES 4-5:  

• No activities outside the house allowed during the 7-day quarantine. Sports, all extracurricular activities, community activities, and group childcare or youth development programs provided before and after school may resume on day 8. 

SLIDE 7:  

• Under the quarantine section:  
  • Quarantine prevents people who have been exposed to COVID-19 to spread the disease to others unknowingly. Stay home for 10 days after your last contact with a person who has COVID-19. If possible, stay away from people you live with. Watch for symptoms of COVID-19 for 14 days. In some instances, a 14 day at home quarantine may be required, such as when a person develops symptoms of the virus during the incubation period.  
  • Fully vaccinated asymptomatic individuals do not need to quarantine. They should wear a mask and get tested 5-7 days after exposure. 

Please isolate at home and get tested for COVID-19. Students and staff can be tested for free at ESD 113 on weekday mornings. Visit ESD 113’s testing page >> 

• If test is positive or no test given: Must notify school & isolate at home for 10 days. May return to school after 10 day isolation, when fever free for 24 hours (without medication), AND symptoms have greatly improved. 
• If test is negative: May return to school when fever free for 24 hours (without medication) AND symptoms have greatly improved. Please bring the negative COVID test result to the school health room prior to returning or on the day of return.
  
  

If your student receives a positive test result for COVID-19, they must isolate at home for 10 days. Please notify your child’s school as soon as possible with any positive test result. 

Your student may return to school after 10 day isolation, when fever free for 24 hours (without medication), AND symptoms have greatly improved. 

A close contact is defined as: 

• Students in a K-12 classroom: Students who were wearing a mask and were within 3 feet of another student with COVID-19. 
  
• Anywhere else at school: Someone within 6 feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes over 24 hours. This includes exposure between a student and an adult or exposure between adults. 
  
  

If the close contact is fully vaccinated: Please bring a copy of COVID-19 vaccination documentation to the school health room.

• If No Symptoms: May stay in school & should test for COVID-19 5-7 days after exposure.  
• If Symptomatic: Must isolate at home & should test for COVID-19.  
  • If test is positive or no test given: Must notify school & isolate at home for 10 days. May return to school after 10 day isolation, when fever free for 24 hours (without medication), AND symptoms have greatly improved. 
  • If test is negative: May return to school when fever free for 24 hours (without medication) and symptoms have greatly improved. Please bring the negative COVID test result to the school health room prior to returning or on the day of return.
    
    

If the close contact is NOT fully vaccinated: 

• If Symptomatic: Must isolate at home & should test for COVID-19.  
  • If test is positive or no test given: Must notify school & isolate at home for 10 days. May return to school after 10 day isolation, when fever free for 24 hours (without medication), AND symptoms have greatly improved.  
  • If test is negative: Must quarantine for 14 days. May return to school after 14 day quarantine, when fever free for 24 hours (without medication), AND symptoms have greatly improved. Please bring the negative COVID test result to the school health room prior to returning or on the day of return.
    
    
• If No Symptoms: Student may follow one of the three options below: 
  • Test to Stay: May continue attending school if all program criteria are met: receive negative COVID-19 tests on day 2-3 and day 5-7, remains asymptomatic, and does not attend any extracurricular activities or other activities outside the home. (See more detail in the Test to Stay question) 
  • 7 Day Quarantine: Must quarantine at home for 7 days. No activities outside the house are allowed during the 7-day quarantine. Take a test for COVID-19 on day 5-7. 
    • If positive: Must notify school & isolate at home for 10 days. 
    • If negative: May return to school on day 8 & monitor symptoms through day 14. Please bring the negative COVID test result to the school health room prior to returning or on the day of return.
  • 10 Day Quarantine: Must quarantine at home for 10 days and test for COVID-19 if symptoms develop. *In some instances, a 14-day quarantine may be required.
    
    

If the household member who has tested positive is fully vaccinated:

• If Symptomatic: Must isolate at home for 10 days. May return to school after 10 day isolation, when fever free for 24 hours (without medication), AND symptoms have greatly improved.  
• If No Symptoms: Can attend school. Test for COVID-19 5-7 days after initial exposure. Test for COVID-19 AGAIN 5-7 after final household exposure. Remain masked in public until they test negative 5-7 days after the last infectious period in their household.

If the household member who has tested positive is unvaccinated:

• All close contact household members must quarantine at home for 10 days during the infectious period of the positive household member AND an additional 7 days.
• May return to school on day 18, IF they have a negative COVID-19 test on or after day 15.
• If multiple members of the household test positive within 14 days of each other, quarantine starts at the end of the last person in the household's infectious period, plus the 7-day quarantine and a negative test result.

See Slide 3 of the Communication Plan for detailed calendar examples for household exposure >>

Test to Stay is an option for modified quarantine for students who are unvaccinated and asymptomatic. Students can continue to attend school after being identified as a close contact by meeting ALL of the following criteria: 

• Receive 2 COVID-19 tests (on day 2-3 AND day 5-7) with negative results,
• Remain asymptomatic,
• Do not attend any extracurricular activities, including sports, and other activities outside their home like childcare or youth development groups.

Parents/guardians must provide consent for their student to participate in Test to Stay and eligible students will be notified by their schools. 

Test to stay is not an option in an outbreak. 

You will be notified by your child’s school and/or Thurston County Public Health if your student is determined to be a close contact of a positive case from any school activities (classroom, lunchroom, transportation, activities, etc.). No identifying information will be provided to parents/guardians about the positive case in order to follow medical privacy rules. 

An outbreak is generally defined for K-12 schools as 3 or more linked cases in a shared location.  

A classroom outbreak is defined as 3 or more COVID-19 cases among students or staff: 

• within a 14 day period, and 
• who are epidemiologically linked, and 
• do not share a household and did not have significant contact outside of school grounds. 

Classroom closure may be necessary to control the spread of COVID-19. The school will notify all affected students/families when the classroom is closed and re-opened. 

While both quarantine and isolation involve staying home and staying away from others,  

• Quarantine prevents people who have been exposed to COVID-19 (close contacts) from unknowingly spreading the disease to others.  
• Isolation is used to separate people infected with COVID-19 (positive test result) from those who are not infected to prevent spreading the disease to others.