What guidance is FBCA following to establish health and safety protocols?
We continue to closely monitor COVID-19 cases in our area and health guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Bend County Health and Human Services, Texas Education Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, school and athletic associations, and other public health resources to inform our reopening plans.
What new health and safety measures will be in place for the 2020-21 academic year?
A wide range of new safety measures will be in place for the fall, including required daily health screenings, new cleaning protocols, staggered arrival and drop-off times, changes to dining services, required face coverings, frequent hand washing, and many other measures to prevent illness.
What responsibilities do members of the FBCA community have to help keep one another safe?
Keeping our community safe is a shared responsibility, and we are counting on everyone to do their part. This includes taking everyday precautions such as washing your hands, social distancing and wearing a mask. Members of the community are asked to notify FBCA’s School Nurse, Lisa Lucik, immediately if they have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or have a family member or other close contact who tested positive. This will allow our leadership team and Registered Nursing staff to take appropriate actions to further protect our community. Any student, staff, or faculty member who is feeling ill, has relevant symptoms, or is running a fever should not come to campus. We have developed protocols and a checklist to help families determine when a child should stay home.
How will classroom assignments and layouts change?
Faculty will organize their classrooms in such a way as to space students apart and provide for social distancing when feasible while preserving a positive environment and experience. Class sizes have been reduced to allow teachers greater flexibility in their classroom set-up. Additionally, plexiglass barriers will be placed in classrooms where tables exist as another protective measure for students and teachers.
What will be the protocol for restrooms?
FBCA will observe new, intensified cleaning protocols for restrooms, and there will be limitations on the number of people who can be in restrooms at the same time.
How will frequent hand washing be encouraged?
Additional sanitation stations will be provided throughout the School. During summer, a sanitation station was added to every classroom on campus in addition to portable stations at the entrances of each building. Students, staff, and faculty will have regular, designated times for handwashing and access to hand sanitizer throughout the day, with a specific focus on arrival to school, entering the classroom, and before meals.
Our Registered Nursing team will post communications around campus, reminding students of the importance of good hygiene practices, and will reinforce these measures on the first day of school and throughout the year.
What is FBCA’s Masking Policy?
FBCA will require all employees and middle and upper school students to wear a cloth face covering on campus. Individuals who are working alone in a private office space or classroom, or socially distanced outdoors, can temporarily remove their face coverings. Coverings may also be removed during times of eating or actively exercising. Faculty will have the ability to utilize a clear face shield when teaching and socially distanced from students. Face coverings should be simple, non-distracting, non-political, and without wording or messaging.
Lower School students are not required to wear face coverings to and from school or in their homeroom classes. Lower School homeroom teachers may offer the suggestion of temporary face coverings for classmates participating in an educational game or activity that brings students together closely. To help foster the safest campus environment, Lower School students will be encouraged to wear face coverings when traveling to and participating in enrichment classes. Face coverings will not be worn during times of eating and during PE classes and recess.
What is happening with large-group gatherings and events?
Indoor large-group gatherings and events will be very limited. Group activities may be reimagined to take place outdoors, within larger meeting spaces, or will occur in a virtual space. Chapels will be realigned for smaller groups, both in content and location, and as a last resort via video distribution. We will continue to move forward in accordance with public health guidelines and social distancing recommendations provided to us.
How will the Clinics be structured?
Clinic space will be offered for well care separate from sick care. The goal is to keep children and adults who are sick (even with regular, seasonal colds and flu) away from healthy students and staff who come to the Clinic for medication and other needs throughout the day.
What will you do if students, staff or faculty develop symptoms of illness?
Anyone who develops symptoms of COVID-19 during the school day will be removed to a separate location. FBCA’s Return to Campus Policy will be followed for self-quarantine at home until the person is fully recovered.
Will FBCA be equipped to test students, staff, and faculty for COVID-19?
The FBCA Clinics are not equipped to perform virologic testing. If an FBCA student or staff member has a known exposure to COVID-19 or has symptoms consistent with COVID-19, our Registered Nursing staff will work with the family and refer to their health care provider or other local providers for testing.
How will FBCA define Close Contact?
The definition of close contact is evolving, and individual scenarios will be determined by Fort Bend County Health and Human Services. In general, close contact is defined as:
a. being directly exposed to infectious secretions (e.g. being coughed on); or
b. being within 6 feet for a cumulative duration of 15 minutes; however, additional factors like case/contact masking (i.e., both the infectious individual and the potential close contact have been consistently and properly masked), ventilation, presence of dividers, and case symptomology may affect this determination.
Either (a) or (b) defines close contact if it occurred during the infectious period of the case, defined as two days prior to symptom onset to 10 days after symptom onset. In the case of asymptomatic individuals who are lab-confirmed with COVID-19, the infectious period is defined as two days prior to the confirming lab test and continuing for 10 days following the confirming lab test.
What happens if members of the school community are lab-confirmed with COVID-19?
FBCA will implement the following process:
- Notify Fort Bend County Health and Human Services and follow their direction.
- Close off areas of campus used by an infected student, faculty, or staff member and clean and disinfect the area before re-entry.
- Inform staff and families who may have had close contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19 while maintaining confidentiality requirements.
What is FBCA’s Return to Campus Policy?
Any individuals–including faculty, staff, students, or other campus visitors–who themselves either: (a) are lab-confirmed to have COVID-19; or (b) experience the symptoms of COVID-19 (listed below) must stay at home throughout the infection period, and cannot return to campus until the following conditions for campus re-entry have been met:
In the case of an individual who is lab-confirmed with COVID-19, the individual may return to campus when all three of the following criteria are met:
At least 24 hours with no fever without fever-reducing medications; AND
Symptoms have improved; AND
At least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared.
In the case of an individual who has symptoms that could be COVID-19 and who is not evaluated by a medical professional or tested for COVID-19, such individual is assumed to have COVID-19, and the individual may return to campus when all three of the following criteria are met:
At least 24 hours with no fever without fever-reducing medications; AND
Symptoms have improved; AND
At least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared.
If the individual has symptoms that could be COVID-19 and wants to return to school before completing the above stay at home period, the individual must either:
Obtain a medical professional’s note clearing the individual for return based on an alternative diagnosis; OR
Obtain an acute infection test at an approved testing location that comes back negative for COVID-19.
Individuals–including students, faculty, staff, or other campus visitors–who have had close contact with someone with COVID-19, must stay home for 14 days after exposure based on the time it takes to develop the illness. If the individual did not experience COVID-19 symptoms during that period, the individual can be allowed back on campus. If the individual experienced symptoms, they must stay home until the conditions outlined above have been met.
FBCA will require quarantine of any student, faculty or staff member living with an infected person for 14 days after last exposure, with return dependent upon meeting the FBCA COVID-19 Return to Campus Policy.