@MariettaCitySch 'Only school-based close contacts are eligible for "test and stay." Students and staff identified as close contacts of a COVID-positive person outside schools are not eligible for "test and stay."'
@MariettaCitySch 'The eligible student or staff member will be required to have an MCS-administered rapid antigen test on each school day of their 7-day quarantine. Upon receipt of a negative test result, the school will be immediately notified the student/staff member can attend school'
@MariettaCitySch 'No student may ride the bus or enter the school building until the negative test is received for that specific day of quarantine. Likewise, no staff member will be allowed to enter the building until cleared to do such.'
@MariettaCitySch 'Each day’s negative test result will allow the student to attend school and participate in MCS athletics and afterschool activities on that specific day.'
@MariettaCitySch 'Each eligible student and staff member will receive details about the “test and stay” option once they are identified as a close contact. If they choose to participate, the close contact will be expected to register and select a preferred 30-minute window'
@MariettaCitySch 'The close contact will remain in their car while getting the rapid antigen test in a drive-thru format.'
@MariettaCitySch 'At-home rapid antigen tests will not qualify for "test and stay." The rapid antigen test must be administered through the MCS-MAKO Medical partnership.'
@MariettaCitySch 'Rivera said the new protocol is based on a model developed by the state of Massachusetts and endorsed by the state's department of public health and department of elementary and secondary education.'
@MariettaCitySch Not approved policy: '"While this approach is not officially endorsed in Georgia or Cobb County, it holds incredible promise to reduce the impact of lost instructional time for students and staff who are identified as school-based close contacts."'
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'After the school sent a letter home to parents, which failed to characterize the incident as antisemitic, @ADL sent a letter to the Cobb County School District and Pope High School officials, offering assistance in addressing the incident and seeking information'
@ADL 'on the district’s plan to respond to the incident and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future – the letter went unanswered.' atlanta.adl.org/news/pr-adl-co…
'he spoke of masks as tools of government overreach, accusing the CDC of doublespeak. We don’t need mandates to know what to do, he said on Fox and Friends.' ajc.com/news/investiga…
'It wasn’t until intensive care units filled with COVID-19 patients, and the death toll was skyrocketing toward 20,000, that the governor did more to try to boost vaccinations.'
'“This is one of the first times in modern American history where we have a group of elected officials willing to put political chips down on a particular poker table, when those political chips are the lives of their constituents,” Koehn said.'
'Almost 60% of all new COVID-19 cases are now in Georgia’s K-12 schools, the state’s top epidemiologist said Tuesday.[...]said the highly contagious delta variant is responsible for the surge.' mdjonline.com/news/almost-60…
'“The delta variant began spreading in Georgia around July 4,” Drenzek told a virtual meeting of the state’s Board of Public Health. “There has been an exponential increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths over the last 60 days.”'
'According to Monday’s COVID totals provided by the state Department of Public Health, more than 1.1 million Georgians have contracted coronavirus since the pandemic began in March 2020. A total of 20,705 Georgians have died, and there have been more than 76,000 hospitalizations.
Since August. 'Georgia has lost more than 2 dozen teachers, staff since start of school year to COVID-19' @GovKemp, this is on you. wsbtv.com/news/local/atl…
They were teachers and coaches. They were bus drivers and school resource officers. They were administrative assistants and daycare teachers. They were lunchroom managers and education specialists.'
@GovKemp 'Leah Ann Tinsley, 64, died of COVID-19 on Sept. 11, according to her son. She was a bookkeeper with the Board of Education and had worked at Rutland Middle School. She leaves behind a son and grandson.'
Per a stakeholder, also re:the hate crime incident at Pope and others: 'Cobb’s ban on talking about bias, hate and race make it impossible for school counselors to guide students through difficult and complex conversations in developmentally appropriate ways as we are trained'
'In absence of being allowed to support students (the ones harmed AND the ones inflicting the harm) through this so they all end up doing better and being healthy emotionally, harsh punishments will be the go to'
This stakeholder has spoken to @ADL/ @ADLSoutheast and fears that the ban on CRT is an effective gag order on Cobb employees from discussing these issues with students, even when needed. Stakeholder fears the situation will get worse due to lack of addressing appropriately.
Some takeaways: A district in Texas found a 16% positivity rate. 25% of the largest districts do not have mask mandates. More kids have been infected since August than the entire pandemic. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/09…