THE CRUCES – As schools begin their classes remotely, districts have already noticed instances of COVID-19 staff on their campuses, adding Hatch Valley Public Schools, the Gadsden Independent School District, and Deming Public Schools.
This forced schools to work intensively with the New Mexico Department of Health to locate those who came in contact here with other people who tested positive.
Across the state, school districts are long-term and planning to get students back to campus for face-to-face learning. This has led districts to think about what steps they will take to restrict the spread of the virus at the time of face-to-face learning.
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“It’s not a doubt if we have positive instances, that’s when we have positive instances – (and) to the extent that we have them,” said Kelly Jameson, spokeswoman for Las Cruces Public Schools. “If there was a possible outbreak, it would be up to the district to be guilty and disclose any kind of risk to the public.”
Like other districts, the LCPS will adhere to the DOH recommendation and recommendation on how to proceed. Jameson stated that LCPS would transmit any coronavirus activity to the community.
According to Jameson, if a member or student test positives, the first priority would be to tell those who would possibly have contacted that user about the case, and then the District would make a broader public announcement in a press release.
Alamogordo Public Schools plans to follow public health and John Hopkins recommendations of tracing any face-to-face contact a person with the virus had with others back to two days before any sign of infection was shown, according to Lisa Patch, health services director at APS. They would then contact each person individually to notify them of the potential contact, without giving away the infected person’s private details.
“How can we ensure the protection of others and, at the same time, confidentiality?” Patch says. “That was actually one of my biggest concerns.”
Patch explained that this type of protocol has been put in place for diseases such as tuberculosis and chickenpox.
Schools will not only have to comply with the Confidentiality Rights and Family Education Act (FERPA), which protects the privacy of students in the school environment, but once the disease is concerned, they will have to adhere to the Portability and Accountability of Health Insurance. Act (HIPAA), which protects the medical patient. Intimacy.
“The public fitness style is to tell those who would possibly have been exposed and make sure they’re as complete as possible,” Patch said. “Now, when you enter — God forbid — cases, and then public fitness would be a factor in a program for school, if we closed school or something like that. Then everyone would be alerted.
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When Hatch Valley Public Schools had a member who tested positive for COVID-19 on August 7, the district acted temporarily to inform the community, sending a press release the day they heard about the case.
HVPS superintendent Michael Chavez said the district would keep the network informed on its website, email and social media.
“Social media tends to be our primary means of communicating with the community, and I’m still impressed by its speed and efficiency,” Chavez said.
He said the case discovered at Hatch Valley Elementary served as a smart control for the communication system.HVPS will work hard with NMDOH, like other districts, and adhere to your instructions.
“We just found out we want to register quickly,” Chavez said.
The Gadsden Independent School District Reintegration Plan describes other scenarios that may be the reaction of each school and district.
Depending on points such as risk and symptom display, GISD will stick to the express steps that will serve as rules when staff and students are on campus.
The rules are in place lately, but are very likely to be replaced as you are replaced by the pandemic scenario.
“The GISD will change this document the year as new COVID-related developments occur,” GISD spokesman Luis Villalobos said in an email statement.
To date, GISD has had two positive cases of viruses, one of which was a food staff worker who quarantined itself after discovering that he had been in contact with a positive tester.
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The Associated Press reported on a state press convention in which Department of Public Education Secretary Ryan Stewart answered students’ questions at a video convention organized through the state’s bankruptcy of the National Education Association’s teachers’ union.
Stewart responded to a fourth grader named Monica Brycelea, who asked her what would happen if she was given in poor health at her school.
A case of COVID-19 at a school in Deming last month resulted in a 72-hour closure. Stewart said the closures would happen on a case-by-case basis.
“We’d probably have to close the school, leave everything blank and make sure we’ve removed the virus from all surfaces before other people return,” he said.
Miranda Cyr, member of the Report for America Corps, can be contacted on [email protected] or @mirandabcyr on Twitter. Show your for the Report for America program on https://bit.ly/LCSNRFA