Covid Health and Safety Guidance

Following the science and aligning with the guidance in order to keep students safe.

In-person learning requires a layered approach to COVID-19 safety planning, including physical distancing when possible, wearing masks indoors, frequent hand washing, symptom screening, cough and sneeze etiquette, and other safety practices. Each strategy complements the others and work in concert to mitigate the overall risk of transmission. We will continue to assess our strategies and adapt our plan as we monitor community conditions. Currently, CDC guidance for fully vaccinated people recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

COVID-19 vaccines are available for everyone ages 5 and older and have been shown to be highly safe and effective.

MMSD VAccine Clinics

schedule an appointment with Public Health Madison & Dane County

Dane County Mask Mandate Extended through February 1.

Read Order #6 here.

Below some Wellness links that many families have found helpful during the pandemic.

Mental Health Resources

Being Well Resources

Key universal practices in the MMSD COVID-19 Safety Plan include:

Mask Up - Inside

Students and staff will wear masks while inside school and district buildings regardless of vaccination status.

Masks can be removed when eating and drinking, maintaining six feet of physical distancing (when possible).

Mask Up - On Buses

Students and staff will wear masks while on buses regardless of vaccination status.

Masks - Outside

Outdoor masking is a requirement for grades 4K - 8. The mask requirement includes staff, families, and visitors in elementary and middle school buildings, as well as after school childcare and activities at K-8 schools.

Physical Distancing

Maintaining a minimum three feet of physical distancing (when possible) for all individuals.

If for any reason a student is unable to wear a mask, a six foot distance between students should be maintained.

Universal Health Practices

Following practices of proper handwashing, respiratory etiquette, and monitoring symptoms.

Prior to coming to school, students and staff should conduct daily symptom checks and stay home if they are sick and do not feel well.

Cleaning and Disinfecting

Custodial and Maintenance staff will continue “high touch-point” cleaning as be part of our daily routine.

All classrooms have been outfitted with classroom cleaning kits which will be restocked on a daily basis by our custodians.

“We were successful for the last few months. Now that the Delta variant is here, continuing to play up the efficacy of all of these mitigation procedures. We’re not backing down until we’re absolutely clear. We’ve shown that we can do it. "
– Sheryl Henderson, MD, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Additional Information and Resources:

Masking

Mask Exemption

Staff: All staff must wear a mask. Some employees may qualify for an ADA accommodation. If an employee is unable to wear a mask, principals should connect them with Human Resources.

Students: Students are expected to wear masks unless:

The student has a disability related condition that prevents them from wearing a mask. IEP and 504 teams should meet to discuss what accommodations the student may need and determine if the student will receive face-to-face instruction. Staff should take extra precautions (e.g., a face shield with a mask) if a student is unable to wear a mask. Efforts should be made to desensitize the student to wearing a mask (consult Occupational Therapy).
The student is unable to remove their mask themselves.

Alternate Face Coverings

Key messages about cloth masks

Make/buy and wear masks by following CDC guidance and guidance from Public Health Madison Dane County
Be careful not to touch your eyes, nose, or mouth while wearing cloth masks to prevent potential contamination.
Wash your hands thoroughly before putting on the mask.
Remove the mask carefully and wash your hands thoroughly after removing.
Wash the mask after each use.
After taking off cloth masks, store in breathable paper bags. Do not store in plastic bags.
Wearing cloth masks does not replace the need to continue frequent hand washing, avoiding touching the face, and practicing social distancing, which are our best tools to help prevent the spread of illness.
Cloth masks do not provide adequate protection for others if a staff member has symptoms compatible with COVID-19. Ill staff members should stay at home.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) refers to specialized clothing or equipment worn by an employee for protection against infectious materials. PPE prevents contact with an infectious agent or body fluid that may contain an infectious agent by creating a barrier between the potential infectious material and the individual. MMSD provides additional PPE to school staff who need extra protection due to occupational exposure such as nurses, nurses' assistants, and others providing direct health care to students. Personal Protective Equipment can include gloves, gowns, surgical masks, respirators, eye protection, face shields, and goggles.

Physical Distancing

To Help Students Physically Distance
What research has been done to establish this physical distancing flexibility?

To Help Students Physically Distance

Review space between chairs, desks, and all seating spaces. Remind staff, children, and their families to maintain a safe distance from each other during drop-off and pick-up.
Keep groups together throughout the day and do not combine groups (e.g., at opening and closing, at lunch, at outdoor playtime).
Maintain the same groups from day-to-day
Minimize time standing in lines.
Develop physical/social distancing markers for individuals to remind them to stay apart.
Wash hands immediately after outdoor playtime.
Follow posted one-way hallway and entry/exit guidelines.
When working with students, maintain 3 feet of distance whenever possible and limit the time you are in closer contact with the student when feasible.
When you are working in close proximity to a student, try to work side by side or behind the student, rather than face to face.
Utilize rooms that accommodate social distancing to provide instruction and services.
Provide related services in the same classroom in which the student receives other instruction.
Assign rooms so that staff and students can easily enter and exit the building safely.
Assign so that the same students and staff are in the same room each day, with no mixing of staff and student cohorts.
Limit the number of individuals in the building and specific rooms within the building to those who need to be onsite.

What research has been done to establish this physical distancing flexibility?

This research abstract (published by Clinical Infectious Diseases on 3/10/21) is based on a study comparing 3 foot to 6 foot distancing in over 250 school districts in Massachusetts, involving over 600,000 students and staff. It concluded that “there is no significant difference in K-12 student and staff SARS-CoV-2 case rates in Massachusetts public school districts that implemented ≥3 feet versus ≥6 feet of physical distancing between students, provided other mitigation measures, such as universal masking, are implemented”. Here is a PDF of the full text of the article.

The ABC Science Collaborative pairs scientists and physicians with school and community leaders to help them understand the most current and relevant data about COVID-19 so they may make decisions that will keep teachers, staff, and children safe if and when they return to the classroom. The Duke School of Medicine and the Duke Clinical Research Institute developed the ABC Science Collaborative in response to COVID-19 and its impact on schooling. Duke and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine are working together to lead the program, which receives its funding from the National Institutes of Health.

The ABC Science Collaborative, in a guidance document published 3/3/21 included that “physical distancing to 3’ is safe in elementary schools with mitigation strategies practiced”. They also stated that “distancing to 3’ is likely safe in high school and middle school with strong mitigation and transparent reporting of cases.

In addition, a Wood County, Wisconsin study including over 5500 students and staff at 17 different schools (published in the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Report on 1/29/21), concluded that with masking requirements and student cohorting, transmission risk within schools appeared low. In the study, 89% of elementary students were distanced less than 6’ in the classroom (primarily between 3’ and 6’).

Researchers from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health also wrote an op-ed that was published in the Washington Post on 11/20/20 advocating for 3 feet distancing in schools as well.

Hand Washing & Hand Sanitizer

Germs can spread from other people or surfaces when you do the following:

Touch your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands
Prepare or eat food and drinks with unwashed hands
Touch a contaminated surface or object
Blow your nose, cough, or sneeze into hands and then touch other people’s hands or common objects
Enter or leave classrooms

Wash your hands:

Upon entering and leaving school.
After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
After using the restroom.
Before eating or preparing food.
Before and after touching your face.
After contact with animals or pets.
After playing outside.
Before and after providing routine care for another person who needs assistance.
After touching frequently touched areas and shared items (e.g., door knobs, handrails, shared computers).
Before putting on PPE and after taking off PPE (e.g., before putting on gloves for cleaning and after taking off gloves for cleaning).

Follow Five Steps to Wash Your Hands the Right Way

Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), keep the water running, and apply soap.
Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them. Use a paper towel to turn off the tap.

Use Hand Sanitizer When You Can’t Use Soap and Water

Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available. Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to get rid of germs in most situations.
Sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in many situations. However,
Sanitizers do not get rid of all types of germs.
Hand sanitizers may not be as effective when hands are visibly dirty or greasy.
Hand sanitizers might not remove harmful chemicals from hands like pesticides and heavy metals.

How to use hand sanitizer

Guidance for Visitors and Volunteers

Visitors

Visitors

“There is this temptation to feel, because we’ve improved, it’s all over and now everyone is safe. And that’s not true. The point is, we don’t want to backslide. We need to look at all the things we can do now that we couldn’t do before because of these interventions.”- Thomas Friedrich, Professor, Pathobiological Sciences, UW Madison

cirle graphics with illustration of school hallway in red with Covid germs in the air

Contact Tracing

1/12/22

Contact tracing and positive case notification

With positive COVID-19 case counts at unprecedented levels affecting all of us, our health services staff have needed to prioritize their work in order to stay ahead of an increased demand for services. As a result, they will be shifting from tracing contacts of positive cases to contacting only individuals who test positive and their high-risk close contacts (household members). In order to prioritize those who have tested positive during this surge in cases, we cannot feasibly maintain the staff resources required to maintain the level of contact tracing the district has been providing.

As a part of this shift, schools will no longer be issuing emails, texts, or phone calls to close contacts, nor providing school-wide notifications of positive cases at their school. In order to stay informed on the number of positive cases in MMSD, we encourage visiting the district’s public case count dashboard, which is updated weekly. This also means, for the time being, families will not MMSD data shows there is very low spread of COVID-19 in Madison schools due to rigorous and layered mitigation strategies, and MMSD is one of only a few school districts in Wisconsin who, at any point during the pandemic, provided this high level of contact tracing, far exceeding requirements for schools.

What are the guidelines for close contacts?

What are the guidelines for close contacts?

Individuals who have been within 6 feet of another individual who is COVID-19 positive for a time period exceeding 15 minutes within 24 hours is considered a close contact. Anyone who has direct physical contact, for any length of time, with a COVID-19 positive person will also be considered a close contact.

Exception: In the K–12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) if both the infected student and the exposed student(s) correctly and consistently wore well-fitting masks the entire time.

District-wide COVID- 19 case count dashboard

Safety in our Buildings

We've made several adjustments in preparation for students and staff to return to buildings. Some of those are outlined below and in the MMSD Covid-19 Building Analysis Final Report.

Read more about Air Quality, Navigating and Signage, Water Safety, and Cleaning and Disinfecting in our buildings.

FAQ

How will schools ensure students and staff follow important health protocols, like physical distancing?

School communities are preparing to work hard to teach and practice some new routines and behaviors, such as wearing a face covering and maintaining distance. All MMSD staff are required to complete a COVID-19 training module in our Talent Portal. Training addressed the following:

Physical Distancing
Personal Protective Equipment/Masks and Cloth Face Covering
Hand Washing and Hand Sanitizer
Symptom Screening

Will students and staff be screened for symptoms daily when they return to buildings?

Every morning families and staff will receive an email prompting them to monitor their/their child's symptoms. Students or staff who have any symptoms of illness will be directed to stay home. (Any symptom alone, such as a runny nose or congestion, may be an indication of COVID-19. It is important to stay home to avoid spreading illness to others. Those showing symptoms of illness at school will be sent home.)

When a student or staff member becomes ill at school what will happen?

What happens if someone is diagnosed with COVID-19?

Will students and teachers be provided face coverings or other personal protective equipment (PPE)?

We have been stockpiling PPE for the last six months. We have 50,000 student masks that have already been delivered to our buildings, we well as PPE for staff members.

Specialized PPE, such as plastic face shields, are available for staff members who may be in close proximity with students with special needs as well as our nursing staff.

We are grateful for our community partners, including the Boys and Girls Club and the Foundation for Madison's Public Schools, who have stepped us to support our students and families in so many ways, including donations of masks.

All staff must wear a mask. Some employees may qualify for an ADA accommodation. If an employee is unable to wear a mask, principals should connect them with Human Resources.

How will students who are unable to wear a face covering be accommodated?

Students are expected to wear masks unless the student has a disability related condition that prevents them from wearing a mask or removing their mask themselves. IEP and 504 teams will meet to discuss what accommodations the student may need and determine if the student will receive face-to-face instruction. Staff should take extra precautions (e.g., a face shield with a mask) if a student is unable to wear a mask. Efforts should be made to desensitize the student to wearing a mask (consult Occupational Therapy).

What will you do to address the mental health of students and staff?

Will schools offer COVID-19 testing?

All schools will offer free COVID-19 testing for students and staff. Testing helps reduce community spread and keeps schools operating safely. Testing individuals who are symptomatic or close contacts helps enable rapid detection of cases in the school community and reduce or prevent school outbreaks.

Through a collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, we are partnering with a testing vendor called COVID Clinic. Temporarily, COVID Clinic will be housed under a tent outside school buildings. In the coming weeks, at most schools, COVID Clinic will be installing an 8 x 8 foot kiosk outdoors, adjacent to school buildings. At a limited number of schools lacking exterior electrical outlets, it will be located at a dedicated space indoors.

Families will have the opportunity to sign a consent form allowing their students, if symptomatic, to be tested right at school. Students will visit the kiosk only when accompanied by a family member or staff member.
COVID Clinic will offer two test types:
• Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Test 
• PCR COVID-19 Test 

Watch for specific details to come in the near future about this opportunity. Learn more about how the Department of Health Services is partnering with Wisconsin schools to offer testing.

How can I stay updated on any positive cases in the building?

We continue to publish a case count dashboard that is updated every Wednesday. We restarted the dashboard for the 2021-22 school year on August 18. (The previous school year's case count is archived on the page for your reference.)

You can check the page at any time to see the number of individuals who have tested positive and who have been close contacts in any MMSD building in the last 14 days: We also report the district-wide cumulative total for the school year at: mmsd.org/casecount. It is our desire to be transparent while protecting individual student and staff privacy. For this reason, we suppress numbers of 6 or fewer.

How will I be notified if my child's classroom has to close?

We certainly hope this will occur rarely if at all, but there may be times that your child is not exposed to COVID-19 but their classroom must temporarily close, or the entire building must temporarily close for a period of time.

This could be due to a variety of reasons. Factors considered include the number of student and staff close contacts, other student and staff absences, cohort cross over, safety practices, Public Health data and other community concerns.

In these cases, we will communicate with you as quickly as possible about closures so you have as much time as possible to plan. However, we know that there may be times when there is very little time to plan, but we will do our best to send texts (please be sure you have opted in to receiving text messages in Infinite Campus), automated phone calls, and emails.

What should I know about the COVID-19 Omicron Variant?

A new COVID-19 variant was identified last week in South Africa and cases of this new variant have also been identified in 14 other countries. On November 26, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified this variant, B.1.1.529, as a variant of concern (VOC). The variant was named Omicron and has been demonstrated to be associated with one or more of the following changes:

Increased transmissibility.
Increase in virulence or change in clinical presentation of the disease.
Decrease in effectiveness of public health and social preventative measures.

This variant is a cause for concern but not a cause for panic. We have more tools to fight the variant today than ever before. The best protection against this new variant, or any variant of COVID-19, is to get fully vaccinated and get a booster shot. If you are not vaccinated, now is the time to get vaccinated and to take your child to get vaccinated. Anyone ages 5 and older can get a free, safe, and effective vaccine now. If you are 18 and older and it has been at least six months since your second dose of Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, or at least two months since you got your Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, getting your booster shot will provide the best protection from COVID-19, including this new variant.

Vaccines reduce a virus’s ability to infect people. Vaccines provide protection against COVID-19 variants since many of the characteristics of the virus remain the same. The sooner people get vaccinated against COVID-19, the less opportunity we give the virus to keep mutating. To find a COVID-19 vaccine provider in your community, visit Vaccines.gov, or call 211 or 877-947-2211.

DHS also urges all Wisconsinites to take a layered approach to help slow the spread of COVID-19. People should continue to wear masks, avoid large gatherings, maintain good hand hygiene, and get vaccinated.

Should I get a booster shot?

DHS recommends that everyone ages 18 and older receive a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine following the completion of their primary series. If you are 18 years or older, you can get your COVID-19 booster dose:

At least 6 months after you got your last dose of your Pfizer or Moderna primary vaccine series.
At least 2 months after you got your Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

You are able to receive your booster dose at any vaccine provider. You may return to the site where you received your primary series, or if there is a more convenient location elsewhere, that is ok too.

It is not necessary to get the same vaccine type as your primary series.

To find a COVID-19 vaccine provider in your community, visit Vaccines.gov, or call 211 or 877-947-2211.

For additional information about booster doses, additional doses, and help accessing your COVID-19 vaccine record to determine when you may be recommended for a booster, visit the DHS Additional Doses and Booster Doses webpage.