Health & Safety
Last updated: August 9, 2021
It is critical for all members of the Minnehaha Community to be vigilant to screen every morning before school and during the school day for symptoms of COVID-19 in order to keep our community healthy. If this isn’t done, no matter how careful we are in school, our plans for a healthy learning environment won’t succeed.
Please follow our decision tree when determining whether or not to come to school.
We're Following 9 Safety Guidelines
We are committed to a safe and healthy environment for learning and will be following these nine guidelines for safety.
- Student and staff self-screening
- Small class sizes
- Social distancing
- Increased hand washing protocol and sanitizing stations
- Face coverings
- Bi-polar ionization air filtration to remove viruses and other pathogens as used in hospitals and the airline industry
- Separate space for students who exhibit covid-like symptoms
- Increased cleaning and sanitation procedures
- Limited visitors on campus
Best Practices We're Taking
Daily Health Screening
All students must be screened by a parent before coming to school. Parents must daily certify via ParentSquare that their child is well. Faculty and staff will also be required to self-screen before coming to work. If a symptom cannot be attributed to any other health condition, stay home, contact your healthcare provider and your school nurse.
When parents complete their screening on ParentSquare for the individual student(s), parents will complete a series of questions regarding student symptoms. If a student has one symptom that they are experiencing in the list of questions, the app will let the parent know that they need to stay home and follow up with a physician and school nurse if needed.
Go to ParentSquare online. Once you have logged in, there will be an orange bar that appears on the home screen that says “Submit Daily Health Screening”. Click that box to begin.
Each day, the screening form on ParentSquare must be completed and submitted (“Successfully submitted screening”) prior to entry to school building or getting on morning transportation.
- While completing or submitting the screening form on ParentSquare, if the STOP screen appears, do not put your child on morning transportation or enter the school building. Please follow the instructions on the screen for further details.
- If you run into issues getting logged onto ParentSquare or submitting the screening form, contact techhelp@minnehahaacademy.net for assistance.
If a student is staying home due to ParentSquare screening instructions:
- call attendance line for your student’s school. Provide symptom(s) student is experiencing.
Compliance to the daily screening is critical to ensure the health and safety of all. “Spot checks” will also be done routinely in school, including after lunch in preschool, and before attending extended day for Lower and Middle School students.
If a symptom cannot be attributed to any other health condition, stay home, contact your healthcare provider and your school nurse. View the decision tree for more information.
Social Distancing
As recommended by the CDC, social distancing guidelines will be followed throughout the day.
Cleaning & Sanitation
Bi-polar ionization air filtration will be provided to remove viruses and other pathogens from the air, just like in hospitals and the airline industry. Increased cleaning and sanitation procedures, including a special disinfectant, will be used for high-touch surfaces and an atomizing spray gun will be used to apply cleaner on larger surfaces. All classrooms will be equipped with cleaning products and sanitization stations will be placed throughout the school. Students and staff will receive regular reminders about about proper hand washing and social distancing.
Face Coverings
For the first month of the school year, all faculty, staff and students will be required to wear a mask. Each division's (Upper, Middle, Lower) ability to move to a parent/employee decision for masking will be based on different criteria because of the unique context of each division.
Face Coverings are required on school transportation and in the Extended Day program.
In keeping with our school dress code, face coverings must not be distracting or controversial.
Exposure/Positive Cases
Overview
The School will follow the guidance of the Minnesota Department of Health in the event that we are notified that a student or employee has tested positive for COVID-19:
- The school nurse will contact the department of health to report the case from our school per “MDH Reportable Illnesses.”
- All families in the building will receive a general notification letter via Parent Square that there was a case of COVID-19 in the school. This letter will state that their likelihood of exposure is similar to community exposure in day to day life outside of school.
- Tracing will be done to determine and notify all students/employees that are determined to be considered a close contact.
Minnehaha Academy Isolation for people who test positive for COVID-19
Notification to MDH of positive case
Students or staff who test positive for COVID-19 should stay at home until all three of these things are true:
- They feel better. Their cough, shortness of breath, or other symptoms are better; and,
- It has been 10 days since they first felt sick or tested positive; and,
- They have had no fever for at least 24 hours, without using medicine that lowers fever.
Minnehaha Academy Quarantine of Close Contacts
To identify close contacts, Minnehaha will gather and review the student's or staff member’s activity during the time they were infectious at the facility. This review should look back two days prior to the date symptoms started, or two days prior to the date of the positive test if there are no symptoms. Close contacts include anyone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. The following exceptions and recommendations will be used during investigation and notification:
- Exception for K-12 indoor classroom settings only: In the K-12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students
who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) where: - both students were correctly wearing well-fitting masks.
- Close contacts who are fully vaccinated and those who have had COVID-19 within the past 90-days do not need to quarantine or test in many situations. However, they should still monitor for symptoms and stay home if sick.
- Close contacts who are not fully vaccinated will need to quarantine. The school will work with families to determine the best 14, 10 or 7 day option for their situation.
Short Term All-School Distance Learning
Minnehaha Academy will work carefully with the MDH to determine if Minnehaha will need to return to distance learning. The MDH criteria depends on a number of factors and specific information with regard to positive COVID cases. Minnehaha will track the number of faculty/staff and students that are out for the week with potential COVID-19 symptoms and report that number to MDH at the end of the week and follow MDH recommendations accordingly.
Per the MN Dept of Health current guidelines, a distance learning only model could be considered for short periods of time if:
- confirmed cases are identified but contact tracing and notification of close contacts in the school setting cannot be completed within 24 to 36 hours. This short-term use of distance learning may allow schools to coordinate with local and state health officials to complete contact tracing and develop a clearer picture of the COVID-19 situation impacting the school while supporting continuity in learning.
- Multiple cases are identified within a short time period (e.g., several cases in one week or within a 14-day time period) that occur across multiple classrooms or activities and a clear connection between cases or to a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 cannot be easily identified.