Wellness and public health are at the top of mind for many as COVID-19 cases remained relatively steady in Santa Clara County over the summer and as President Joe Biden declared monkeypox a public health emergency last week. Concern has mounted as children gear up to return to school, a time of year notorious for spreading illness.
Local school districts typically act in accordance with the county’s Public Health Department, which has not yet issued guidance on mitigating monkeypox spread in schools. Administrators from the Mountain View Los Altos High School District, the Los Altos School District and the Cupertino Union School District have all stated they intend to follow county guidelines when they are released.
“We will work with the county health department and rely on their support as they are the experts on how to move forward, but we do stand by as needed to provide support or information when appropriate,” MVLA Superintendent
Nellie Meyer said.
Only five children have tested positive for monkeypox nationwide, and experts are encouraging parents not to panic. To date, there have been 70 confirmed and probable monkeypox cases in Santa Clara County, which have disproportionately affected LGBTQ+ Latino men.
COVID protocols
Few changes have been made to COVID protocols since the end of the last school year in June. The county health department issued updated guidance to K-12 schools over the summer that encourages schools to continue offering personal protective equipment, testing and vaccination information.
At all local schools, masking remains recommended but not required. Students who test positive for COVID must quarantine for at least five days and may return to school if they both do not have lingering symptoms and receive a negative result on an antigen test. Students may return to school without a test after a 10-day quarantine period.
MVLA and CUSD will continue offering free testing through their partnerships with Inspire Diagnostics. The state is no longer supporting pooled PCR testing, so LASD is moving to offering antigen testing after all school breaks and for symptomatic students and staff.
“Our biggest focus remains urging students and staff to be fully vaccinated,” LASD Superintendent Sandra McGonagle said.
This story was edited to reflect that LASD is no longer offering pooled testing.
