Covid-19 Response

Any student, faculty or staff member with any COVID-19 symptoms must stay home. If a student, faculty or staff member is symptomatic, all household members must quarantine until final test results or an alternative diagnosis is received. Medical evaluation and testing are strongly recommended for all persons with COVID-like symptoms, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). 

To report a student absence, send an email to the appropriate division:

• lsattendance@nscds.org
• msattendance@nscds.org
• usattendance@nscds.org 

That is up to your healthcare provider to determine. Medical evaluation and testing are strongly recommended for all persons with COVID-like symptoms, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). If testing is warranted, testing site locations can be found here. Please note, due to a change in IDPH guidelines, rapid antigen tests are no longer accepted. Only RT-PCR tests will be accepted.

These are a few facilities that provide PCR COVID-19 testing. Be sure to call in advance or check their websites to confirm eligibility and to find out whether an appointment is required.

Stay home until symptoms have improved. Follow up with your healthcare provider to report symptoms. If your child tests negative for COVID-19 within 48 hours of symptom onset or receives an alternate diagnosis from a healthcare provider, follow the return-to-school criteria for the diagnosed condition. At a minimum, the individual must be fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and have had no diarrhea or vomiting in the previous 24 hours. Documentation of a negative result or MD note re: non-COVID illness must be submitted to covid@nscds.org prior to returning to school. If your child has not been tested and has no alternate diagnosis, they must stay home for at least 10 days from when symptoms began and be fever-free without medication for 24 hours.

If you or your child tests positive for COVID-19, please send an email immediately to covid@nscds.org. This will alert the NSCD COVID-19 Response Team (Head of School Tom Flemma, Assistant Head of School Mary Fielder, School Nurse Jamie Valker and Operations Director Cindy Hooper). Please DO NOT  send any member of your family to school. Please DO NOT email any teachers or administrators directly. 

The positive individual must isolate at home for at least 10 days from the onset of symptoms; additionally, they must be fever-free for at least 24 hours (without using medication to reduce your temperature) and all symptoms must have improved. Those with close contact need to quarantine for 14 days from their last exposure to the positive individual. If the household setup does not allow for isolation of the positive individual (i.e. separate bedroom and bathroom allowing social distancing within the home), the 14-day quarantine of the close contacts would begin AFTER the 10 day isolation of the positive individual was completed. 

CDC: When to Quarantine

NSCD protects the medical and privacy rights of our community and is unable to disclose anything that could possibly identify the infected individual. We will communicate each positive case with the entire school community, but we have been advised by our contact tracer at the Cook County Department of Public Health not to include any specific identifiers in our communications about cases, including division, grade, cohort, or whether it was an adult or a student. When contact tracing has been completed relative to a specific case, it is unnecessary to share any further details since those who were identified as close contacts already know. However, in the future, if contact tracing cannot be done in a timely manner, we will certainly reevaluate our policy regarding identifiers for positive cases. We are committed to maintaining the safety and health of our community and will act accordingly in sharing pertinent and relevant information with the community. 

As always, it is vital for our community to avoid uninformed assumptions or discrimination, base our actions on the best information and data available, and support each other. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has provided resources on reducing stigma related to COVID-19.

Generally, no. You will be contacted directly by the school if your child has been determined to be a close contact of an individual who tests positive for COVID-19. If there is any uncertainty about whether or not a student has been in close contact, as with very young students, we err on the side of caution. But in order to protect the privacy of our community, we cannot provide information that could potentially identify students, and with NSCD’s small class sizes, disclosing a particular class or even grade, could compromise the individual’s right to privacy.

According to the IDPH and CDC, a close contact is defined as someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from two days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, two days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated. If the details are uncertain—for instance, the positive individual is a younger student where social distancing is hard to determine or a faculty/staff member is uncertain if they were within 6 feet of a positive student for more than 15 mins—the local health department will err on the side of caution when determining who will need to quarantine.

When contact tracing, the health department does not take into consideration whether an individual is masked or unmasked, inside or outside. The IDPH and CDC define a close contact as any individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes. That’s why social distancing (ie. maintaining at least 6 feet of distance) is so important. Please remember to maintain distance—even while wearing a mask, even while outdoors.

Once the school receives a notification of a positive case, internal contact tracing will begin with the partnership of Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH). If you or your student has been identified as a close contact to someone who has tested positive, you will be notified directly via phone by the COVID-19 Response Team. This can take 24-48 hours.

First, take a breath. Wait until the friend receives their test results. If your child was not within 6 feet of them for more than 15 minutes in the two days before their symptoms began (or before they were tested, if asymptomatic), they would not be considered a close contact and wouldn’t need to take any action at all. If the friend tests positive and your child was a close contact of them, you will receive a phone call from the school and follow-up email with detailed instructions on what to do. Until that happens, try not to worry, and know that you do not need to keep your child home from school unless they are feeling ill. 

If your child is determined to be a close contact, they must quarantine for 14 days from the most recent exposure to the infected individual. You will receive an email from covid@nscds.org and the local health department that lists the date of exposure and the end date for the quarantine.

Yes, contacts of a person who is a close contact to a COVID-19 case do not need to self-quarantine unless they develop symptoms or if the person identified as the close contact develops COVID-19. They should, however, monitor themselves closely for symptoms of COVID-19 and if they become symptomatic, self-isolate and seek medical evaluation/testing.

No. A negative test result within the 14-day period does not mean you cannot become positive later. You must stay in quarantine for the entire 14-day period, per IDPH.

No. Only students who are planning to come to campus should fill out the wellness form.  

Yes. If students are required to miss more than a few days of school because of COVID-19 restrictions, they can participate remotely until the quarantine period has ended; however, it may take up to 48 hours to onboard a student for remote learning. You will receive specific instructions on transitioning to remote learning from your child's division.

No. Individuals who are quarantined must restrict activities and limit all movements that may put them in contact with others during the quarantine period—even those who also may have been exposed. Your child should wait until the quarantine period is over to resume social activities.

Everyone, regardless of close contact, can take action to help limit the spread of COVID-19. The most important things you can do:

• Wear a mask. Every person who comes to campus is required to wear a mask indoors at all times unless eating or drinking, and outdoors when six feet of distance cannot be maintained. Acceptable masks include fabric masks that are at least two to three layers thick and not knit, N95 and KN95, and disposable surgical masks. Neck gaiters and masks with exhalation valves or vents are not permitted.
• Wash hands frequently.
• Stay home if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
• If you are symptomatic, call your primary healthcare provider to determine if testing is needed.
   

No. The 14-day quarantine is only needed for the person who has been in a designated hot spot for longer than 24 hours themselves. However, if you have traveled to a hot spot and must quarantine at home, it is important to maintain distance from other household members during that period, as you may have been exposed to COVID-19 and could be contagious, even if you are not experiencing symptoms.

Regardless of where you traveled or what you did during your trip, take these actions to protect others from getting sick after you return:

• When around others, stay at least 6 feet (about 2 arms’ length) from other people who are not from your household. It is important to do this everywhere, both indoors and outdoors.
• Wear a mask to keep your nose and mouth covered when you are outside of your home.
• Wash your hands often or use hand sanitizer (with at least 60% alcohol).
• Watch your health and look for symptoms of COVID-19. Take your temperature if you feel sick.

CDC: After You Travel

Please continue to impress upon your children how important it is to be mindful of masking, social distancing and other basic health precautions outside of school so our collective hard work is not threatened.

Tips for helping kids stay safe during a confusing time.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's main Covid-19 information portal.

An always updated website maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) detailing the ever-evolving Covid-19 situation.

This link will take you to the Illinois Department of Public Health's main website.

This link will take you to the Cook County Public Health website.

A handwashing guide provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – PDF

A guide from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) detailing how you can help prevent the spead of germs – PDF

This link will take you to the COVID-19 information page maintained by healthychildren.org.