Triad Families,
Happy New Year! I hope you have enjoyed your holiday break while staying safe and healthy despite the continued rise in the number of positive COVID-19 cases in our area.
Our goal in 2022 continues to be keeping Triad students learning in-person while maintaining a safe environment. This is only possible with the support of our families and community. Now more than ever, it is important that students who are experiencing COVID symptoms stay home and consider testing. We also want to continue to encourage students, staff, and families to speak with their doctors about getting vaccinated, getting boosted, and opting-in to weekly COVID screenings at school.
NEW QUARANTINE GUIDANCE FROM THE CDC/IDPH: On December 27th, the CDC released guidance which shortened both the isolation and the quarantine period from ten to five days for COVID positive individuals and close contacts who are not displaying any COVID symptoms.
The Illinois Department of Public Health has adopted the CDC recommendations, however, according to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the reduced isolation (5 days instead of 10 days for positive cases) is NOT applicable to students or staff members in schools at this time. Triad school nurses must continue to follow the existing school guidance for 10 day exclusion from school, unless Madison County Health Department produces documentation that says a student can return to school sooner.
Triad will monitor changes in guidance from IDPH and ISBE and will continue to advocate for schools to be allowed to follow the same rules as the rest of the state with regards to the reduced number of days for isolations. We will also continue to contact our local health department for guidance with individual situations as they occur.
As a reminder, students and staff members that are vaccinated are not required to quarantine from school when they are close contacts to a COVID positive individual unless they are displaying symptoms.
VACCINATION CLINIC: Triad will partner with the State of Illinois in offering a vaccination clinic tomorrow on January 5th from 1:00-7:00 PM at Triad High School. To learn more about the clinic and the vaccine availability please visit https://www.tcusd2.org/article/616167 or to schedule an appointment visit the registration portal at https://tinyurl.com/9tf8m4kd.
SHIELD IL COMMUNITY TESTING: Weekly SHIELD IL testing will continue to be available for Triad Students who have been opted-in. If you would like to learn more about Shield IL Screening or understand how to opt your student in for weekly SHIELD IL testing, please click https://www.tcusd2.org/article/506345.
In addition, the district has arranged to have weekly SHIELD IL testing available for the community on Thursdays from 3:00-6:30 PM at the Triad High School library. While community screening is available on a walk-in basis, participants will need to register with Shield IL to obtain results. To learn more about this program, please visit https://www.tcusd2.org/article/612684.
TEST-TO-STAY: Because the District is conducting daily SHIELD IL testing, we are able to screen students more frequently in order to keep classrooms in-person. When a classroom outbreak occurs in a fully masked classroom, unvaccinated students will be contacted by school personnel to consent and test every other day to continue in-person learning. This is done on a case by case basis within individual schools.
Triad is committed to keeping schools open and continuing in-person instruction as long as adequate staffing is available and school-wide outbreaks do not occur. Thank you for your continued support as we work to provide safe in-person instruction for our students!