While students begin their return to school the Lake Oswego School Board came up with a set of strict guidelines for isolation and quarantine to keep students and staff safe. The state has put in the infrastructure to help school boards keep students safe during the Covid 19 pandemic. They have also set up a system to keep students on track with their school work if they are in isolation or quarantine.

For students, some of these rules feel concerning because they are afraid that their education is going to suffer if they are quarantined or isolated due to exposure to Covid 19, and they’re not being a quick option for students to test back into school.  Students’ only options are a 14-day quarantine or a covid test that takes up to 7 days to get back but, being vaccinated helps students avoid being quarantined for two weeks.

¨I feel the district would not handle me getting Covid well. They are trying to meet expectations of everyone and not focusing on protecting the students from Covid and how online affecting students,¨ said Jordan Bowermaster a sophomore at LHS

The Ready School, Safe Learners states when a student tests positive for Covid 19 a set of procedures immediately goes into place, that student is placed in a 10 day isolation period that cannot end until the student is fever-free for 24 hours. The school then begins contact tracing to identify any staff or students that need to be placed into a 14-day quarantine that also cannot end until that person is 24 hours fever-free.

Deciding if a student has been exposed is determined by a set of guidelines set by the state. If you are within 3 feet, unmasked, and unvaccinated of the student that tested positive, you must quarantine. If you are unvaccinated within 3 feet and masked, you do not need to quarantine. 

¨Any student that is vaccinated and is showing no symptoms they do not have to quarantine,¨ said Kirsten Arid, Lake Oswego School Board chair. ¨As soon as a vaccinated student who may have been exposed starts showing symptoms, they are tested, and based on those test results, we make a plan.¨

For the students that are placed in quarantine or isolation, there has been a system built to help students keep on top of their school work. The district has hired more teachers, mainly at the elementary school, to make sure students are getting their school work. 

¨You should email your teacher and make a plan with them to make up any work you will have missed, just like if you were sick,” said Aird.