• **For the most recent Isolation/Quarantine Guidelines, please click here**

    NPCSD SICK CHILD PROTOCOL

    (formerly Nurses’ Safety Proposal) 

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    The NPCSD follows guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), and the Ulster County Department of Health (UCDOH). 

     

    Keep Your Child Home When:

    • Your child, regardless of vaccination status, is experiencing any new or worsening symptoms from this CDC list OR
    • They have been in contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 OR
    • In the past ten [10] days, your child has been tested for COVID-19 and awaiting results OR received positive results.

    If your child has developed symptoms while in school, they will be isolated and sent home from school. See below for what is necessary to provide in order for your child to return.

    Seek immediate medical care if your child has: 

    • Trouble breathing or is breathing rapidly
    • Prolonged fever 
    • Is too sick to drink fluids 
    • Severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, or vomiting 
    • Change in skin color 
    • Racing heart 
    • Decreased urine output 
    • Lethargy, irritability, or confusion 

    If your child does not have a Health Care Provider, please call the UCDOH’s COVID Hotline for testing recommendations: (845) 443-8888 

     

    Please note that a negative result on any COVID-19 test cannot release any person from quarantine in Ulster County; the official Release from Quarantine from the UCDOH is the only way to be released from an ordered quarantine.  

    Given the growing prevalence of breakthrough infections among vaccinated populations nationwide, there is currently no recommended exemption for symptomatic vaccinated people. 

    If your child is sick and has not been evaluated by a Health Care Provider - Has not undergone a COVID-19 test - Does not have a letter documenting an alternative diagnosis: 
    Your child must remain at home and is not able to return back to school until at least 10 days have passed since the first date of symptoms, AND your child is symptom-free, AND your child is fever-free without use of fever-reducing medicines for 24 hours.

    To return to school, provide the following to the School Nurse after quarantine or illness: 

    If Quarantined: 

    • UCDOH Release from Quarantine document 

    If Ill: 

    • Copy of negative COVID-19 PCR or NAAT test* OR
    • Letter from the child’s doctor showing an alternate diagnosis of a chronic medical condition with unchanged symptoms or a laboratory-confirmed illness AND stating that COVID-19 is not suspected. Please note that medical notes with a diagnosis of headache or viral illness are not acceptable unless they are accompanied by a negative PCR or NAAT test result).

     

    • *Polymerase Chain Reaction test (PCR) or a Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) 

     

    In addition, if a student is symptomatic following a dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and their symptomatology follows a typical course (three to four days after dosage) then proof of vaccination may be accepted to return to school. 

    To read more about these criteria, please visit NYSDOH’s School Guidance document.