“School starts soon and I am hearing nothing regarding COVID. Does the stay-home-for-5-days rule still exist? Are they requiring PCR tests or is rapid OK if your kid is sent home sick? Meanwhile I get loads of other back to school emails — my favorite one was telling me I must volunteer at every swim meet.” — Amy Sherman, Fort Lauderdale
It’s the middle of summer, but yes, kids are about to return to school. The first day back is Aug. 10 in in Palm Beach County and Aug. 16 in Broward County.
Schools have gone through a COVID-19 whirlwind over the past two-and-a-half years, with constantly changing directives that were hard to keep up with. It looks like things are calming down rule-wise: Broward is keeping its protocols from last year, while Palm Beach County is relaxing many of them to reflect its view that COVID is here to stay and other issues require more immediate attention.
Here’s a summary of COVID protocols for each county. For both — and everywhere else in Florida —masks and vaccines are optional.
Broward County
The rules are unchanged since last spring: Stay home if you test positive, whether you have COVID symptoms or not. Return to school on the sixth day after a positive test or the onset of symptoms, and if you’ve been fever-free for 24 hours without medications.
No additional testing is required to return to school.
If children have been exposed but have no symptoms, they can go to school. Families still have the option to keep their children home for seven days if they have had exposure to COVID.
Students can continue their studies while they’re in quarantine. Here’s how to access the lessons: browardschools.com/quarantine
Students with symptoms can be tested at school, but parents must have previously signed a consent form.
Palm Beach County
Policies that will continue:
Students with COVID symptoms will be tested in school clinics if they have parental permission.
Students who test positive will be sent home for five days.
Policies from last year that have ended:
The district will no longer test the close contacts of infected students or call the homes of students whose classmates were infected.
Students who test positive at home no longer need to report the results to their schools.
The district will no longer publish a dashboard that details how many at each school have tested positive.
The dashboard was a useful tool that gave perspective on how many kids and staff members were contracting the infection, and it served as an indication of community spread. Broward is continuing to update its dashboard, available at browardschools.com/coviddashboard, but a district spokeswoman said it’s not clear how long that will continue.
Got a question about life in South Florida? Send it to Lois at AskLois@sunsentinel.com.
