COVID rules eased for Wichita-area schools; some close contacts won’t have to go home
COVID-19 rules for schools are being relaxed and fewer students will have to stay home if they have close contact with infected classmates, Sedgwick County and most of the school districts serving Wichita-area children announced Friday.
Dr. Garold Minns, the county health officer, said he’s approved two levels of close contact when it comes to school kids — high-risk and a new category for low-risk contacts.
The low-risk category will include students who are exposed in the classroom setting where masks and social distancing are required. Those children will be allowed to stay in school and will no longer have to be quarantined at home, although they may be observed for several days to ensure they don’t develop fever or other symptoms that could indicate COVID-19.
High-risk contacts will include students exposed to the coronavirus that causes COVID in settings where students aren’t masked or distanced, such as while eating in lunchrooms or participating in sports. They’ll still have to follow the quarantine protocol of staying home with testing on the sixth day after exposure and returning to school on the eight day, officials said.
Minns said the change was prompted by two recent developments in the course of the ongoing pandemic.
First, overall case rates have gone down substantially across the community, implying that most people are complying with the county’s mask mandate, gathering limits and social-distancing requirements.
Second, new data has recently emerged that shows the health guidelines have been effective in preventing the spread of infection in schools.
“School systems that have enforced the requirements that we’ve already articulated . . . can keep the number of infections in the schools very low,” Minns said. “I think it’s fair not to make people stay out unless they have violated those regulations.”
The rules will remain unchanged for teachers, who will still need to quarantine for any close contact with an infected person.
While school districts and private schools have the authority to set their own rules on COVID-19 policy, most have been following county guidelines for COVID quarantine.
That’s been a problem for districts such as Andover, which is split between Sedgwick and Butler counties. Sedgwick has been generally more strict on COVID guidelines than its less-populated neighbors.
“For us, this is really a game-changer as far as creating more consistency between the two counties,” said Andover Superintendent Brett White. “When there’s differences, it just creates another layer of complexity for our staff to work through, so this is much appreciated.”
Several superintendents said the previous guidelines were keeping too many children at home for too long.
“Here at Maize we’ve had approximately 7,000 cases of quarantines or isolations and only a handful, fewer than 30, can we attribute to spread within schools,” said Superintendent Chad Higgins. “In almost every case, that’s athletics and what’s considered a high risk, a lunchroom where masks aren’t being worn.”
Janet Eaton, school superintendent of the Wichita Catholic Diocese, said parents will be given the choice of whether to keep their kids at home after a low-risk contact.
“We will invite their children to stay in the school, but a parent that really feels like their child should be at home, then they would be quarantined by the regulations that we’re following,” she said.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 2:02 PM.
