As part of our commitment to providing safe and healthy learning environments, we will continue to provide you with updates and reminders from both the Ministry of Education and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health. Today, October 1, the Ministry of Education issued a notice that updates to the school screening tool for the 2021-2022 school year had been made.
Families are asked to complete the daily screening tool before students leave for school each day. The link for the screening tool can be found here: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/
Screening Tool Updates:
The following changes are now reflected in the COVID-19 school and child care screening tool and were made to provide clarity to users and individuals:
- Symptoms - Clarifying that staff, students and children should stay home from school and child care if they are unwell, even if they do not have symptoms that are most commonly associated with COVID-19, and monitor before returning to school.
- Testing - Clarifying that rapid antigen tests are not for use on individuals with symptoms of COVID-19 or on high-risk close contacts.
- Vaccination and Immunization Status – Revisions were made to the structure of the vaccination status and COVID-19 case history question to clarify that the individual could be vaccinated or had previously tested positive within the last 90 days.
- Personal Health Information and Immunization Status - Clarifying that the purpose of asking if an individual is fully vaccinated or was previously positive with COVID-19 in the past 90 days is for providing correct isolation requirements. A reminder has been added to note that no public health information is being collected when individuals complete the screening tool.
- International Travel – the international travel question has been revised to provide better clarity about who can and cannot attend school after travelling. While unvaccinated children under the age of 12 are exempt from federal quarantine if they travelled in the company of someone who qualified for an exemption from quarantine based on vaccination status, they may not attend school or child care for 14 days upon their return. Individuals with all other quarantine exemptions (e.g., travelling for cross-border custody arrangements; travelling for medical treatment) may continue to attend school or child care.
Copies of the updated screening tool, can be found here: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/download-covid-19-screenings#school-and-child-care-screening
Updates will to the screening tool will continue to occur as public health guidance evolves, we have been reassured that the Ministry will inform us of any of these changes.
Thank you for continuing to use the COVID-19 school and child care screening tool each morning ahead of school. This has been a vital step to ensuring the safety of all staff and students at school.