My kid caught covid at DA.
Kid was isolated in the health center for 24 hours under observation. Then moved to a room at the Inn under supervision.
Kid zoomed into classes but was under no pressure to do so.
Kid rapid tested negative on day 6 so was released from isolation and could go to class in person. No sports. No eating in the dining hall. Not allowed back into dorm (roomie hadn’t had covid).
Day 10 back to sports, eating in the dining room and return to dorm.
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Happy to say that Groton is going mask optional next week. Announcement was made this week in a quite dramatic way. Hopefully the week delay does not afford the needlessly nervous parents to freak out and complain.
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Are schools that are going mask optional also adjusting the procedures if someone tests positive?
What does that look like right now? If we are at the stage where “this basically equals the flu,” should it be treated as such in terms of procedures?
I don’t know about quarantine or close contact procedures yet. And yes I think it should be treat more like the flu or at least slim down to the 5 day period. Groton was still sending close contacts home and kids who tested positive were gone for 10 days.
I haven’t heard any updates on our end either. But no word about masks either. I don’t think they will say anything until right before kids come back from spring break.
@TonyGrace For what school?
From email three days ago, Andover:
As of Wednesday, April 6, more than 99% of PA students have received 1+ vaccination dose(s) and more than 98% have received a booster (1.9% have received a religious or medical exemption). COVID metrics are starting to increase again across our campus, community, and state. COVID-related hospitalizations remain low, indicating a low level of significant COVID-related illness. We asked all students to test yesterday, April 6, using a rapid antigen test, and our updated 7-day positivity rate remains less than 1%. There are no changes to COVID protocols.
Email today:
Results from our testing in the last 24 hours show a positivity rate of 2%, and a seven-day positivity rate of 3%
Also from today’s email:
I think we might see mask mandates get reimposed. There’s been quite a big outbreak going around over here, to the point where half the school has to wear masks anyway because they’re close contacts.
The exposure notification system is quite shoddy, as well. A friend texted me on Friday saying that they were positive, but I only got an email asking me to wear a mask almost 24 hours later (after classes had ended that day)??? Meanwhile, the infirm refuses to test anyone who isn’t symptomatic despite all of us knowing we are exposed. My friends and I have resorted to the day students among our group using at-home tests to figure out if we’re good or not.
I’m not one for increased restrictions, but it is quite annoying being in this weird limbo right now.
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Pea reinstated indoor masks requirement, and said kids tested positive will need to go home if home is within 7 hours of car ride.
Positive cases are increasing.
So you know what’s funny? Groton never dropped the mask mandate but has similar cases rising. Clearly showing the masks do nothing and should be gone completely. The lack of actual scientific reasoning is mind boggling.
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CDC shows 90% of U.S. as low Covid risk. Yikes.
Maybe it was not enforced or kids wore them incorrectly? Is there a difference between day and boarding kids? I assume day students will not wear masks outside of school. Pea shows higher % of day kids are positive.
This what my kid has told me about DA too. That cases are increasing, but school is keeping it on the ‘down low’. Many kids have been exposed but DA had such a crazy Jan covid spike that there aren’t many kids left who haven’t had it.
We (as parents) haven’t heard anything official from school. Communication is centered around graduation, departure covid testing for foreign students, and moving out procedures!!! I feel like I just dropped my kid off. Time has flown.
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I just heard from my daughter last night she thinks there are maybe 10 cases and said it started with faculty. But that’s hearsay…. And they just had a super-spreader dance on Saturday. My kiddo is also sick. Again. When she came back from Christmas she was being tested 3-4 times a week and multiple contact traced weekly for all of January. She went to the health center with a sore throat, stuffy nose, cough last week and was not tested. She, as far as we know, has not had Covid.
That’s disappointing. Does she have a rapid test so that she can test herself? All DA kids were given a test kit before spring break although there was no requirement to use it. I’m sure that someone in her dorm or dorm parent has one. If not, there’s always Amazon.
Hoping that your daughter recovers quickly. These BS are human petri dishes.
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She has one. I didn’t ask if she used it. She has been sick 7 times. Including strep and flu.
Groton has a low number of day students, both on a relative and absolute basis (and many are facbrats).
And the opposite is currently the case at PA btw re: +% between day and boarders.
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Friday afternoon NPR radio suddenly had Anthony Fauci on to say that Covid cases in U.S. will rise, that we are about 4 weeks behind Great Britain in our Covid patterns. So some of the BS schools may be trying to get ahead of this latest wave.
Thanks for all the reports from the boarding school field. A very few day schools in the DC area have sent classes home.
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Day students at Groton do pretty much nothing outside of the school except sleep at home.
Continue to be frustrated with the Groton Covid performance. Sending kids home for 10 days, even if asymptomatic. Close contacts being sent home for 5 instead of stay and test. 
They seem so set on zero Covid. You’d think they would learn from countries that attempted it. Doesn’t work.
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