District urges families to perform daily self-screening of students before school

The Carson City School District has offered information to help parents perform health screenings of their students and assess symptoms before they enter a school bus or district campus on a daily basis.

The school district has a “Daily Self-Screening” tool available under the “Parents” tab on www.carsoncityschools.com to help families determine if their child has flu-like symptoms and, if so, whether they should contact their medical provider or their local health district.

Carson City School District risk manager Ann Cyr on Monday said it is vital that all community members take part in the listed procedures on the website to protect the public’s health.

“It is so important that the school community all participate in self-screening and that parents screen their children before sending them to school,” Cyr said. “(If your student’s temperature is) 100.4 or higher, we would ask you keep your student at home, contact your medical provider and arrange for testing if they feel that’s necessary.”

She also encouraged families to check for COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, chills, nausea, shortness of breath and chest pains. The website also lists fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, vomiting and diarrhea.

“The virus has a range of symptoms that can be from mild to severe … but if any of those flu-like symptoms are present, then you probably should contact your medical provider and/or your local health district and arrange for testing,” she said.

Students who do test positive will be placed into quarantine by the health department and then be allowed to return to school once cleared, she said. If the student is well enough to participate in distance learning, the school district will make arrangements for a transition from learning in the hybrid model into the fully online option.

However, Cyr said, if he or she is not able to continue in online learning, they’ll be provided with an excused absence as if they’ve had any other kind of illness.

Cyr added if anyone in the student’s household has had close contact, typically 15 minutes or longer, with someone else who has tested positive for COVID-19 who has not had a mask on and has provided notification they have the virus, the family should keep their student home and in quarantine.

“We will work with our local health department to identify any of those potential close contacts and exposures, and notification to those families will be made by the local health department, and if those students do need to be tested and excluded for some period of time, then accommodations will be made,” Cyr said.

The school district webpage also provides other online resources including www.gethealthycarsoncity.org for those who think they might have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.