PRSD stressing simplicity
By COLLIN GALLANT on September 18, 2020.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com
A local school district is stressing that for parents navigating the whens, whats and how-longs of keeping sick children out of school that it doesn’t have to be so complicated.
And officials say that despite widespread fears that minor illness may keep kids home for a two-week quarantine period, and send parents scrambling to make arrangements, there are avenues to send kids back to class as soon as they feel better.
The Prairie Rose School Division dealt with a surge of calls from parents to explain a provincial sick policy instituted this September as pupils returned amid pandemic protocols.
In response, officials rewrote the province’s guidelines in a simpler, more easy to read flow chart on how to deal with symptoms ranging from the sniffles to sudden shortness of breath.
“It’s really important that everyone is on the same page, and we’ve made a big effort to do that,” said Angela Baron, the communications officer of Prairie Rose School Division.
Her office created the document that is now circulating for the public and for use by other school divisions in Alberta.
They are publicizing the sheet until at least the end of the month to clear up confusion, and point people to local regulations.
Instructions are essentially the same as could be gathered from a thorough reading of province’s fact sheet. However it’s half the length and more plainly written.
It breaks down symptoms into what PRSD is calling core and non-core symptoms.
With core symptoms -fever, cough, trouble breathing, runny nose or sore throat – then a person is required to isolate for 10 days.
Like AHS, the school board also strongly suggests a COVID test in those instances.
However, if that test is negative, the person can return to school when symptoms resolve.
In the other column on non-core symptoms, it states students will be welcomed back once they feel better.
Those include chills, painful swallowing, stuffy nose, headache, joint pain, exhaustion, upset stomach, loss of smell or taste, or pinkeye.
Baron says the worksheet has been approved for consistency by AHS officials, video presentations have been sent to parents in the division, staff, school bus drivers, and copies are available for everyone on the PRSD.ca website.
Anyone with a known exposure to someone who has tested positive is legally required to quarantine for 14 days regardless of whether symptoms present themselves.
Absentee data absent
Medicine Hat’s other school boards could not provide figures to the News on initial absentee rates since school began on Aug. 31.
Data is collected, but coded due to general cause, then forwarded to provincial health officials under a long-standing public health monitoring program, said officials.
As well, AHS does not publish data related to turnaround times for testing or timelines for booking appointments to be tested at specific locations.
It did announce last week that results which are now available via text message can be delivered within a 24 hour time frame after the test is complete.
Alberta government has also boasted that it leads the nation in testing on a per capita basis, and completed one-quarter million in both July and August.
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