Covid FAQs

Students and staff should evacuate the building wearing their mask and continue to wear it once a mask outdoors during fire drills. This is because there is a large gathering of people in one space, and is in line with CDC recommendations.

Masks are required for indoor phy-ed class.

After departing the bus, students should continue wearing their masks, and enter the school building with masks on.

We will be reviewing all of our current mitigation measures and updating as new guidance is released by CDC, DHS, DPI,PHMDC

Yes we will still recommend testing for any symptom of Covid.  If someone does not want to be tested then they need to stay home for 5 days of quarantine and symptoms are improving, no fever, vomiting or diarrhea in the last 24 hours and student feels well enough to attend school for the full day and wear a mask for the entire school day.

Yes

Yes, spectators

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

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.)

Our school leaders and nursing teams have strong systems in place to rapidly isolate sick or symptomatic individuals, contact families and send sick individuals home. 

School nurses collaborate with Public Health Madison & Dane County to provide contact tracing within schools for MMSD employees and students, following the PHMDC’s Action Plan for Confirmed or Suspected COVID-19 Case in a Dane County School, and to direct any close contacts to quarantine for the required period of time. 

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.

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). 

We know many of our students, families and staff are carrying a great deal of anxiety and stress as we approach a return in person or continuing with virtual learning. We recognize that both scenarios involve adapting to significant changes. Whatever decision is made, we will be ready to support the needs of our staff, our students and their families.

 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. 
 

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.

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. 
 

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.

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.

We encourage those that want to wear a mask at recess can and those that do not will not be required to.