San Rafael, CA – As Marin County families and educators prepare for more in-classroom learning under public health guidelines, there are new resources for parents, teachers, and students to find answers about schools reopening under COVID-19 conditions.
Marin County Public Health has worked closely with the Marin County Office of Education and private schools to create a new online handbook and school status dashboard on a new schools webpage within Marin Health and Human Service’s Coronavirus website.
The handbook, created by the Marin Schools Nurses Organization, helps guide students and families through the return-to-classroom process from a public health standpoint. It covers topics such as daily home symptom screenings, school arrivals and departures, guidance for health and hygiene practices, the role of the school health office, protocols for returning to school after a student shows symptoms, and attendance policies. The handbook also includes a decision tree which guides parents and schools officials through decisions of keeping a child home from school.
In addition to the guidebook, a new online dashboard will features an interactive map that indicates whether a school is only teaching online, has reopened to in-person instruction, or if it is temporarily closed because of COVID-19 activity. The dashboard will also report the number of COVID-19 cases among Marin County school staff and students.
“We thought it would be helpful to have a webpage to bookmark where we have easy-to-follow steps on this gradual and safe reopening plan from trusted sources,” said Lenora Kwok, RN, Marin County Schools Nurses Organization coordinator.“We plan to have a repository of answers to frequently asked questions as they emerge. Our ability to get more kids back into school is up to all of us. It’s not time to relax our protective measures.”
Marin Public Health and Marin Office of Education will host an online town hall on Thursday, October 22 at 5:00pm to further discuss these new resources. The “Community Conversation” panel discussion will review protocols and best practices for returning to in-classroom learning and the role of everyone in minimizing the spread of COVID-19 both in and out of the classroom. Featured panelists include:
- Dr. Matt Willis (Public Health Officer)
- Dr. Lisa Santora (Deputy Public Health Officer)
- Mary Jane Burke (Marin County Superintendent of Schools)
- Itoco Garcia, Ed.D. (Superintendent, Sausalito Marin City School District)
- Chris Valdez (Principal, Marin Catholic)
Details on how to watch the event and submit questions in advance can be found at MarinCounty.org/townhall.
Initial guidelines for school reopenings were first shared in June when Marin County Public Health and the Marin County Office of Education issued “A Public Health Guided Return to Site-Based Classroom Instruction.” The document provided guidelines to help facilitate and return to site-based classroom instruction and applied to all Marin educational institutions, including public, private, independent, and parochial schools from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade. Fifteen schools in Marin County were reopened for classroom instruction September 8.
Learn more at Marin Public Health’s School’s webpage or MCOE’s Back to School webpage.