Bluford Unit School District 318

We have now completed three full weeks of in person attendance!  Over those three weeks, we have begun to realize a new norm full of challenges that we have never had to navigate.  I wanted to touch base with everyone to clarify some procedural items.  First, if your student has close contact with a positive COVID case, they must be excluded from school attendance for two weeks from the last point of contact with the positive case.  To this point, we have only experienced one situation like this at school, but we have had students who have had to deal with this due to contact outside of school.  I want to stress that this is simply all part of the process and shouldn’t be considered adverse.  The second scenario I wanted to speak on pertains to a student who exhibits a symptom.  Upon reflecting over the last three weeks, this is the scenario that will burden families the most.  The school follows the IDPH guidelines, so with any symptom, a student has three options: 1) provide an alternative diagnosis from a medical professional, 2) be out of school for 10 days after symptom onset while meeting IDPH guidelines, or 3) have a COVID test with negative results.  Another challenge with this scenario is that all siblings (household) have to be excluded from attendance until one of the aforementioned scenarios is met.  This scenario will be the most challenging to navigate as we progress through the school year.  Please keep in mind that absences do not negatively affect grades and students will be provided with work that was missed.  I feel that we have had a very positive beginning of the school year and that is because kids are actually here.  We are committed to meeting the necessary guidelines to continue in person student attendance.  Have a great holiday weekend.