Beaufort County schools to start student temperature checks, daily COVID-19 dashboard
Starting Monday, Beaufort County School District’s hybrid students and staff will have their temperatures checked every day before entering school buildings.
If a student’s temperature is higher than 100.4 degrees, the student will be taken to the nurse for a preliminary health assessment. The schools aren’t accepting visitors, and any parents who have to come inside the school building will be screened and must have a temperature below 100.4 degrees.
“While temperature checks will not harm anyone, they are likely to decrease anxiety and bring a level of comfort to those that are still worried about the virus,” superintendent Frank Rodriguez said Friday. “We want our students back in their optimum learning environment, in our school buildings.”
The district has also published a COVID-19 dashboard that will be updated every weekday with coronavirus cases by school. The dashboard will include cases from only the last two weeks “since the typical quarantining period ranges from 10-14 days,” according to a district email sent to parents Thursday.
As of Friday, the district has reported one new COVID-19 case this week, five new cases last week and 20 new cases in total since Sept. 28, the week before hybrid classes began.
Nine of those 20 total cases were from Hilton Head Island High School. Two were from transportation, and three were from May River High School.
Whale Branch Early College High, Beaufort High, H.E. McCracken Middle, Lady’s Island Middle, Pritchardville Elementary and the District Education Services Center each reported one case between Friday and Sept. 28.
While the dashboard includes cases among virtual and hybrid students and staff, “schools will only send out notifications when a face-to-face student, staff member, or athlete tests positive as virtual students are not in direct contact with others on school property,” according to the web page.
According to the dashboard page, case numbers “may fluctuate” due to the turnaround time on some COVID-19 tests.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 11:10 AM.