Health & Wellness 2021-2022

To facilitate a smooth transition from summer into the start of the school year, all of our community members to be proactive in doing their part to keep our community free of COVID-19. Please be especially aware of interactions and risk leading up to the start of school. If you feel you have been engaged in a situation that may put you at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, please consider getting a COVID-19 test. Last year Key had no community transmission on our campus. Working together and taking into consideration the health of not only ourselves but others in our Community is a powerful tool in our efforts to keep campus safe. 

Has your family traveled to high transmission environments domestically or internationally?

Please review the following testing requirements and recommendations.

International Travel

• According to CDC guidelines, individuals traveling internationally, regardless of vaccination status, must get tested with a viral test 3-5 full days after return to the United States following international travel and quarantine until negative results are received. Unvaccinated individuals must get tested AND quarantine a full seven days. Quarantine may end after seven days if the test is negative.

Domestic Travel

• Although the State of Maryland no longer requires COVID-19 testing and quarantine following domestic travel, Key School strongly encourages individuals traveling in the weeks leading up to the start of school to get tested 3-5 days after travel (or sooner if symptoms arise). This is especially important for those traveling to areas experiencing high rates of transmission.

Key requires that all families fill out the daily SchoolPass* wellness assessment prior to arriving on campus. This year we will not be doing daily wellness screenings at drop-off for students given that the temperature check appeared to be a superfluous step that did not result in any student being prohibited from coming to campus. 

Like many schools we are going to rely on your commitment as a family to take the daily wellness assessment seriously. Please make the daily assessment part of your morning routine.

Please keep your students home if they have any symptoms of or potential exposure to COVID-19 and consult with your medical provider and Nurse Katie.

* A welcome email from SchoolPass will be emailed to all parents on August 25. It will have instructions on how to log in and use the system.

Given that both the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that everyone in schools ages 2 and up wear a mask indoors regardless of vaccination status along with the Anne Arundel County Department of Health endorsing this recommendation, at the start of the school year all students, faculty and staff will wear masks in the internal spaces on campus except when eating. We will have assigned seating arrangements in indoor spaces that will be used for Middle and Upper School lunch periods. Masks will not be required outdoors, but strongly encouraged, especially for unvaccinated individuals.  

The CDC also changed quarantine guidance for masked individuals who are exposed to COVID-19. Exposure to a positive case of COVID-19 will not require a quarantine period given the ventilation and air quality controls that were installed at the start of the last school year and remain in place. In short, masks provide a layer of protection and give us the greatest chance of having students not miss on-site instructional time due to exposure to a positive case of COVID-19. 

Everyone must wear a well-fitting face covering that is at least two layers while indoors at Key School. Face coverings may be removed outside and at recess/play time outside when students are not sitting next to each other for extended periods of time. Athletes do not have to wear masks while on the field of play, but will be required to wear them on the sidelines if social distancing is not feasible. Protocols for athletes will be provided to student-athletes and their families by the Athletic Department.

Thank you to all of you who have shared your student's vaccination information with our School Nurse Katie Anderson. We continue to strongly encourage families of students who are eligible to get vaccinated to do so. If your student has been fully vaccinated please send Katie Anderson in the Health Office a copy of their vaccination card. This documentation will help to determine if/when your student needs to quarantine if there has been a potential exposure. In addition, knowing the total number of students who are vaccinated will help inform decisions about safety protocols for several co-curricular programs. Vaccination of all eligible individuals is an essential element of mitigation of spread that will enable us to revisit and reassess safety measures that we will have in place at the start of the year.

Parents will have access to all outdoor spaces at Key School without restriction. Internal building access will be by invitation only at the start of the year, and will require a face covering. If you are going to be in attendance at an outdoor school event where you may be in close proximity to other individuals, we strongly encourage you to wear a mask at those events if you are not vaccinated. 

Fully vaccinated individuals:

• Per the Anne Arundel County of Health, which endorses the CDC guidance, fully vaccinated individuals do not need to quarantine after a known exposure but should wear masks for fourteen days or until they receive a negative COVID-19 test three to five full days after exposure.

 
Unvaccinated individuals:

• If the unvaccinated individual experiences a known exposure to COVID, they must quarantine.
  • For students five years old and over, quarantine may end after day seven with a negative PCR test taken five to seven full days after exposure. If no test is administered a full ten-day quarantine must be completed.
  • For students under five years of age, quarantine must extend the full fourteen days, based on CDC guidance.
     
• If anyone in an unvaccinated individual’s household is experiencing any symptom (even just one) the unvaccinated individual cannot come to campus until the individual with symptom(s) has had a negative COVID test or a health provider has given Key’s Health Office documentation that the symptoms can be attributed to something other than COVID (strep throat, allergies, ear infection, etc.).

We will continue to work directly with the Health Department to determine which specific individuals may need to quarantine should they be exposed to COVID-19. Katie Anderson, our School Nurse, will continue to be the point-of-contact onsite for COVID-19 related issues.

Should quarantine related to COVID-19 be required, students will be able to Zoom into classes in grades Kindergarten-12 for the duration of the quarantine period. For students in Key-Wee - Pre-Kindergarten, developmentally appropriate accommodations will be made on a case by case basis. Key will not utilize synchronous online instruction for other illnesses or absences.

Note: Per the CDC, in the indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student where both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks and other school prevention strategies (such as increased ventilation) were in place in the school setting. More mask information.

Students with any symptoms (temperature of 100F or higher, sore throat, cough, difficulty breathing, diarrhea or vomiting, new onset of severe headache, or new loss of taste or smell) may not attend school and families should notify Key’s Health Office and adhere to the following guidelines from the Health Department:

• Person has symptoms and positive test for COVID-19: May return when it has been at least 10 days since symptoms first appear AND no fever for at least 24 hours without fever-reducing medication AND improvement of other symptoms.
• Person has symptoms and negative test for COVID-19: If no known exposure, may return when symptoms have improved and no fever for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication.
• Person has symptoms and health care provider documents symptoms are due to a specific alternative diagnosis (e.g. strep throat, ear infection, pre-existing condition such as asthma): If no known exposure, vaccinated individuals may return when symptoms have improved and no fever for at least 24 hours without fever-reducing medication. If known exposure, and individual is unvaccinated, may return when quarantine completed according to the Department of Health and local guidance. 
• Person has symptoms with no negative test for COVID-19 AND no specific alternate diagnosis: May return when it has been at least 10 days since symptoms first appear AND no fever for at least 24 hours without fever-reducing medication AND improvement of other symptoms.

Students who become ill at school must be picked up within an hour.

Key School will continue to inform the Key community as soon as we are made aware of a positive case within our student, faculty and staff body. We will use text messaging and follow-up email communications.