The State Board of Education's guidance requires all individuals to self-certify that they are free of symptoms before entering school buildings, facilities, or buses on a daily basis.

https://district.u-46.org/selfCertify/

All U-46 staff who log into a computer must confirm daily that they have not come to work with any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, and are reminded of pandemic safety procedures. Public safety announcements will be made at schools twice a day to remind all staff and students of our safety measures and requirements.

For families, the self certification process means we are asking that you please check temperatures at home, prior to sending your child to school. We have thermometers at school for those who need one. Please just call your school’s main office and make arrangements to pick one up. As part of our “new normal” we are asking that all visitors make appointments prior to visiting a District school or facility. 

We have always maintained that students and staff should stay home when they are sick to take care of themselves and reduce the likelihood others may become infected, especially if they have a fever.

For our families, that means that you must click on this form at https://district.u-46.org/selfCertify. Bookmark, save or download the link to your device. Plan to complete this three-question form each day before your student’s arrival to school.

The process alerts supervisors, principals and nurses about those who report symptoms as well as those who did not complete the self-certification process. This information remains confidential. Follow-up will be completed daily to ensure all students and staff are using the self-certification process and monitoring symptoms as needed. 

Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, fatigue, muscle and body aches, headache, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, congestion or runny nose, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Individuals exhibiting those symptoms may not enter school buildings and should consult their medical provider for evaluation, treatment, and information on when they can return to school.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), masks help reduce the spread of COVID-19 when they are widely used by people in public settings.

U-46 is requiring that all employees and students wear masks/face coverings at all times in school buildings, except while taking a break to eat a meal, snack, or take a drink, even while social distancing is maintained. Face coverings are also required to be worn by all staff, students, and parents/guardians that are waiting at the bus stops and on all students and staff riding our buses.

Face coverings are not required outside if social distance of 6 feet or more is maintained. The only other exception to the mask requirement is for those who have a medical contraindication; U-46 will require a physician’s note for staff and students who are not able to wear a face covering, based on ISBE guidance.

Masks/face coverings need to be worn over the mouth, nose, and chin. A mask can be a cloth face covering, a homemade face covering, or disposable face covering. The face covering should have two or more layers. 

Personal cloth face coverings should be taken home, laundered daily, dried in a dryer, and reused. Personal cloth face coverings should be stored between uses in a clean sealable paper bag or breathable container. Face coverings must be changed immediately if soiled, wet, or torn. You can find more easy-to-understand guidance here from the CDC about masks, making them, and caring for them.  

U-46 has purchased face masks for our staff and students and they will be available this school year in the main office of buildings. Bus drivers will also have additional masks on the bus to accommodate students and staff.

Most of us are aware that during this pandemic, we should stand at least 6 feet from another individual, even if we are both wearing masks. In U-46, we will ask all teachers, staff, and students to follow this guidance during the school day. Bus riders will be assigned seating and asked to sit alone unless they are traveling with a sibling in which case they will be seated together. Floor markings and signs in our schools will remind students to maintain 6 feet of social distance. 

Families with younger students are asked to use a tape measure at home to show children what 6 feet of distance looks like and practice daily tasks or take walks while maintaining this distance so they become comfortable and familiar. Families with younger students arealso recommended to practice tying shoes, zipping jackets, and putting on gloves and mittens at home so that they can complete these activities independently while at school.

The simple practice of washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to prevent the spread of disease, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. U-46 has installed additional hand washing stations in school buildings, and additional hand sanitizer dispensing pumps will be available throughout schools, including in classrooms. 

The Plant Operations and Business Services has created detailed cleaning procedures. Specialized cleaning procedures have been developed for different scenarios at schools, including the use of additional cleaning resources. Additional cleaning supplies are present in all classrooms. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplies and a process for replenishment is established at each school site. 

Bus safety procedures mirror those of our buildings, and feature additional cleaning requirements, fewer passengers to ensure social distancing, and strict mask requirements throughout all time on a school bus.

U-46 follows all ISBE/CDC guidance on cleaning and disinfecting quarantine rooms.

• Each school has an established quarantine room. If a student becomes ill during the school day, these designated rooms will be closed and used for the student while waiting for a parent/guardian to pick them up. The student will be supervised in the quarantine room.  
• The room is then closed for 24 hours, cleaned using very specific procedures.
• Next, contact tracing occurs based on the schools’ report and notification of symptoms to  the U-46 Health Services Department and the local county public health department. Any person found to have been in close contact with the symptomatic person will be contacted and directions given. 
• Per the CDC, a close contact is anyone (with or without a face covering) who was within 6 feet of a confirmed case of COVID-19, for at least 15 minutes throughout the course of a day.

Contact tracing is used by health departments to help prevent the spread of infectious disease. In this situation, it involves identifying people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and the people who they came in contact with to try and break the chain of transmission.

If a person notifies a U-46 employee about an individual with a possible confirmed case of COVID-19, the employee should notify their supervisor within one working day. The supervising principal or administrator will fill out the appropriate reporting form.

Health Services and/or School Safety and Culture will report possible confirmed cases to the appropriate county health department, which will confirm the case, and conduct contact tracing if necessary. The county health departments, and U-46 Health Services will be responsible for contacting students and staff who may have been in contact with the person with a confirmed COVID-19 case.

If there is a second or third confirmed case that is linked as a result of the contact tracing, the local health department may recommend, based on the evidence and data, a school closure based on what is referred to as an outbreak. Note that only the Superintendent can make the final decision to close a school building.

In order to support each county’s contract tracing effort, U-46 will:

• Provide attendance of students and staff
• Provide seating charts and room locations used by the confirmed person 
• Provide bus route and bus seating charts/attendance 
• Provide a list of visitors to the building location with contact information 
• Currently, we are following the guidance of area county health departments not to distribute information widely about possible confirmed cases or suspected cases.