What to know before you send your kids back to school in person this year

Thurston County students are heading back to school with new safety precautions in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, which has surged to levels never before seen in South Sound.

Olympia School District, Tumwater School District and North Thurston Public Schools have spent the summer updating their policies to comply with the new guidelines laid out by the Department of Health and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The mitigation measures are being implemented as Thurston County experiences an unprecedented rise in COVID-19 transmissions, according to Thurston County Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek.

The current situation with the Delta variant and other new COVID variants is ongoing, Abdelmalek said, and the county health department will update guidance and best practices as they learn more.

“Each of us in Thurston County can do our part to reduce the risk of COVID-19 in our schools by taking precautions, getting vaccinated when eligible, wearing masks indoors when around non-household members and crowded outdoor settings, avoiding large gatherings, and maintaining distance between ourselves and non-household members when possible,” Abdelmalek said.

COVID prevention efforts affect schools sports, how classrooms are arranged, what students should bring to school and what they’ll be wearing. Here’s what we think parents should know when sending their kids back to school this year:

When does school start?

Following local tradition, the first day of school for most county students is Wednesday, Sept. 8. That day is the first for grades grades 1-12 in the Olympia School District and grades 6-12 in North Thurston Public Schools and in the Tumwater School District. Grades 1-5 in NTPS will start Friday, Sept. 10, and kindergartners and preschoolers in OSD and NTPS will begin on Monday, Sept. 13, along with preschoolers and grades 1-5 in TSD .

School hours have changed this year. Olympia elementary schools will start at 8 or 8:30 a.m. and end at 2:15 or 2:45 p.m.; middle schools will start at 9:10 or 9:20 a.m. and end at 3:40 or 3:50 p.m.; and high schools will start at 8:55 a.m. and end at 2:35 p.m.. Each school will also have a 50-minute late start all Wednesdays after the first day of school.

All Tumwater elementary schools will start 30 minutes earlier than they did during the 2020-21 school year and end 30 minutes earlier than before. This means if you dropped your kids off at Littlerock Elementary school at 9:35 a.m. and picked them up at 4:05 p.m. last year, this year you would drop them off at 9:05 a.m. and pick them up at 3:35 p.m.

What supplies do students need this year?

School districts are recommending the usual list of supplies, usually modified by specific teachers — backpacks, calculators, notebooks, paper, binders, folders, lots of colored pens and pencils. The only new item: a mask.

Do students have to wear masks?

Everyone who steps foot inside of a K-12 school in Washington is required to wear a cloth face covering or mask at all times, unless they are under 2 years old, have a disability that prohibits them from wearing a mask or has hearing impairments and uses facial movements to communicate, according to rules from the Department of Health.

All students are expected to show up to school wearing a mask. While schools are required by the DOH to provide adequate PPE for all staff and may give extra masks to students who don’t come to school with one, districts want students arriving to school with their own masks.

Students will be expected to keep their masks on at all times when inside any Washington K-12 facility, except when eating lunch. When outside, masks do not need to be worn.

If a student cannot wear a cloth mask, a translucent face shield or surgical mask are acceptable alternatives.

Teachers will wear masks inside at all times, unless they are fully vaccinated and alone in the school.

Do students and staff need to be vaccinated to return?

On Aug. 18, Gov. Jay Inslee announced a vaccine mandate for all school employees. Staff of any Washington school, whether private, public or charter, will need to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18. The state includes the 14-day adjustment period after getting the second dose of an MRNA vaccine or the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine as part of being fully vaccinated, so the last day for a school employee to get a shot will be Oct. 4.

While teachers and staff are all required to be fully vaccinated, students will not have to be to come to school. Currently people ages 12 and older can get vaccinated.

What will classes look like?

Schools are holding classes in person, but social distancing measures are being put in place in classrooms and other parts of schools.

The DOH has told schools that physical distancing should not impede them from offering full-time, in-person learning and has recommended that schools maintain “3 feet or more of physical distance between students in classroom settings to the degree possible and reasonable.”

Thurston County’s three largest school districts are rearranging classrooms to make sure students are properly distanced, and in the Tumwater School District, students will sit 6 feet apart when eating lunch.

Physical education and music classes will be offered, but specific safety precautions will be taken. All singers will have to wear masks while they perform, as well as students in speech and debate and in theater productions. Students who play woodwind and brass instruments will be required to wear a mask, but may remove them when performing so long as they put them back on after they finish.

What happens if students get COVID?

The DOH wants everyone who has symptoms of an infectious illness like COVID-19 or influenza to stay home from school and isolate until symptoms have gone away or they have received a negative COVID test.

School districts will need to help connect students with COVID testing if they display symptoms of the virus or have been in contact with someone who has symptoms or has tested positive for the virus. Students from any local district can go to Capital Region ESD 113 in Tumwater for a free test.

If a student tests positive for COVID-19 while at home, they will need to quarantine there. Students will be able to return to school after they meet the following criteria: They are symptom free and it has been 10 days since symptom onset or since they had their test; 24 hours after their fever resolves without use of fever-reducing medications and symptoms have improved.

If there’s a student who displays signs of COVID while in school, they will be removed from class and put into isolation at school, referred to diagnostic testing and then sent home with a parent or guardian.

The DOH and state law requires schools to report any COVID-19 case or outbreak of two or more linked cases to local health jurisdictions and devise a communication plan to inform all staff, students and families in the district or school of the case or outbreak. Thurston County Public Health and Social Services created a multi-step communication plan for students who show signs of COVID-19 or test positive while at school.

County public health officials want any student who displays symptoms of COVID-19 — shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, high fever or a consistent cough — to immediately be removed from class, isolated and sent home. The student would then need to get a COVID test; if the results are negative, the student may return to school once symptoms disappear; if the results are positive, the testing facility will contact the school and the county public health department, and the student will need to remain at home until they are healthy.

Schools will work with county and contract tracers to find close contacts of anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 while at school. Contact tracers will use seating charts from the class, bus routes, and look at lunchtime seating to find other students or staff who may have been in contact with an infected person, a TCPHSS communications plan shows.. Anyone who was within 6 feet of someone with COVID-19 for 15 minutes or more while they’re infectious may be asked to quarantine until they can get tested, according to TCPHSS.

In the event of an outbreak at a school — which is when there are two linked cases of COVID-19 in students or staff who do not share a home or spend significant time together outside of school — classrooms may be shut down to prevent further spread. Parents who had children in the classroom where the outbreak occurred will be contacted by the school and the class will be shut down. Once everyone is tested and the room is sanitized following CDC cleaning protocol, the class may open again, which the school will notify parents of.

If there are signs COVID-19 is spreading uncontrollably in a school, it may be necessary for the whole school to temporarily shut down. Evidence of uncontrolled spread is: multiple classrooms with outbreaks, a rapid increase in cases, two or more generations of COVID transmissions and staffing limitations that would prevent the school from operating, according to TCPHSS.

Will there be school sports?

Yes, students will be able to join teams, however all student athletes and school sports staff or volunteers are required to be tested weekly for COVID-19.

Student athletes won’t be required to get vaccinated, but will have to wear a mask from time to time. Masks are required in weight rooms and must be worn by unvaccinated student athletes whenever they are not practicing, playing or performing. Vaccinated athletes and athletes who get regular COVID tests won’t have a to wear masks when participating in high-contact indoor sports.

Students won’t need to mask up when playing in any outdoor sports or any low to moderate-contact indoor sports at school.

What are alternatives to in-person school?

All three of the county’s biggest districts are offering separate virtual academies.

North Thurston has two home-based learning options: Summit Virtual Academy, which is a 100% online school, and Ignite Family Academy, which is described as a family-partnership school offering home-based learning with optional in-person classes.

Olympia and Tumwater also offer online schooling through the Virtual Academy of Olympia and the Tumwater Virtual Academy, respectively.

Update: a previous version of this story listed inaccurate dates for the start of school in the Tumwater School District for grades pre-k-5. The story has been updated with the correct dates.

This story was originally published September 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM.