1.12.22

1/12/22 - District Email

January 12, 2022

Dear Massapequa Families and Staff,

This week all school districts in New York State were given additional guidance from the NYS Department of Health concerning masking, contact tracing, and quarantine protocols. Please consider these guidelines to be in place immediately in the Massapequa School District.

MASKING AND DISTANCING

There is currently no change to what has been in place regarding masking and distancing.

CONTACT TRACING

Contact tracing will no longer be required or recorded in New York State.

QUARANTINE

Significant changes have been made to the existing quarantine policies for students and staff. Specifically:

• Any symptomatic person should test for COVID-19 and remain at home until symptoms subside*
• For a COVID-19 positive person, whether vaccinated or not, the minimum period of quarantine is now five days, not ten, as long as symptoms have subsided (Day 0** through Day 5). That individual may return to work or school after five full days if symptoms have subsided. If symptoms persist the individual must remain at home.

*Symptoms subsided means no fever for 72 hours, without fever reducing medication, no runny nose, and only a minor cough.

**Day 0 is the first day of symptoms for a positive COVID-19 person OR the first day someone tests positive for COVID -19.

TESTING

A supply of rapid COVID-19 tests for students has been sent to each school in the district. Please contact your child’s school if you need an additional test(s). We will first distribute those with the January 31, 2022 expiration. The tests in the second shipment obtained this week have an expiration of June 30, 2022. The tests should be used only when your child exhibits COVID-19 symptoms.

We will do our best to keep you informed with additional updates.

With Massapequa Chief Pride,
The Board of Education and Central Administration