Here’s how Beaufort County schools will report COVID-19 cases during in-person classes
As Beaufort County School District reopens school buildings on Oct. 5, it will also change the way it reports COVID-19 cases among students and staff, according to district officials.
Currently, the district is only notifying those who have been identified as “close contacts” of infected individuals, meaning they’ve spent at least 15 minutes within six feet of each other.
District spokeswoman Candace Bruder said that once in-person classes begin on Oct. 5, “an email will be sent home to the entire school community each day a COVID-19 case is identified.”
When in-person classes begin, the parents or guardians of any students identified as “close contacts” will be reached via phone call and a letter sent home with students to explain that their student is under a state-mandated quarantine and how long their student must stay home.
Staff members who are “close contacts” will be notified and required to quarantine.
The district will send a letter home with every student in the classroom with an infected individual. Those students will not be required to stay home unless they are also identified as “close contacts.”
“Any information about potential changes to a child’s schedule will be communicated by the child’s teacher or school principal,” Bruder said Tuesday.
“Individual classes, grade levels and/or schools may need to be switched to distance learning as a result of localized outbreaks of, or contacts with, COVID-19 during the school year,” she said.
South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control is tracking COVID-19 cases among students and staff who are regularly visiting school buildings. During online instruction, that’s just been staff working at schools and students participating in extracurriculars.
As of Thursday, Bruder said nine district schools have reported a total of 16 COVID-19 cases since Sept. 1:
- One student case at Battery Creek High School,
- Four student cases at Beaufort High School,
- Two employee cases at Coosa Elementary,
- One student case at Davis Early Childhood Center,
- One contract employee case at Hilton Head Island Early Childhood Center,
- One student, one employee and one contract employee case at Hilton Head Island High School,
- One student case and one employee case at May River High School,
- One student case at River Ridge Academy
- One employee case at Bluffton Middle School.
Beaufort County is currently considered “medium-risk” for COVID-19 activity, per a Monday report from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
The DHEC classification system has three metrics:
Number of new cases in the past two weeks;
Whether new cases have increased, decreased or stayed level over two weeks;
Percent of positives among people tested for COVID-19 in the past two weeks.
Beaufort County’s number of new cases fell in the “medium” risk category for the second week in a row, with 175.9 new cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks.
The trend in new cases fell in the “medium” category, while the percent of positives among COVID-19 tests — 11.6% — remained “high risk.”
What will in-person classes look like?
Superintendent Frank Rodriguez announced the start date for in-person classes at last week’s school board meeting.
The district will use a hybrid instructional model, with students going to school buildings two days a week (either Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday) and completing independent work two days a week. All in-person students would receive virtual instruction one day per week.
Students will be put on an “A” or “B” schedule, which will be divided by last name to keep families on the same instructional schedule even if they attend different schools. Rodriguez asked that blended families with different surnames among students contact their principals about any possible scheduling conflicts.
Rodriguez said Wednesday that he wanted the district to spend “at least four weeks” in the hybrid model before transitioning to five days a week of in-person classes for students.
The district will use the in-person class plan it released in July for guidelines on masks, social distancing and safety measures.
When in-person classes begin, everyone on campus will be required to wear a mask, and each school will share with parents the protocols for entering buildings — such as staggered start and dismissal times to maintain social distancing.
Classrooms will be socially distanced, and school buses will run at 50% capacity and be sanitized between routes. Students will eat breakfast and lunch in their classrooms.
The district will not test students for coronavirus or conduct temperature checks.
Students and staff will not be asked to sign COVID-19 liability waivers, as was the case for many Catholic school teachers in South Carolina who resumed in-person instruction last month.
Elementary school students will be grouped into “family units” that will remain in one classroom all day, with elective and special education teachers visiting that classroom to provide instruction or services.
Students will be asked to disinfect their own desks at the end of each day, “if age appropriate & without asthma/allergies.”
Teachers and students will sanitize high-touch surfaces, such as desks and light switches, every day.
Restrooms and common areas will be sanitized several times a day by custodial staff.
“Restroom breaks are scheduled by classroom teachers in small groups of 3 or fewer students,” according to the plan. “For students in grades 6-12, restrooms will be monitored during class changes to ensure there are no more students than stalls in the restroom at a given time.”
Students will be dismissed in waves, and staff will monitor waiting areas for social distancing.
This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 4:45 AM.