Community Commitment (Revised January 2022)

COMMUNITY COMMITMENT/COVID EXPECTATIONS

Athena Pandemic Protocols 2021-2022

School Year Revised January 6, 2022

Whether or not your child is at home with you, traveling, or enrolled in a camp, we ask that you be mindful of following all CDC guidelines beginning at least five days prior to when school starts. If you are unable to adhere to these guidelines, we ask that your child quarantine for five days prior to starting school at Athena, with a COVID test on day five.

All children in our Primary Program are required to wear masks when inside during their work time. They will not be required to wear masks while napping or outside. Primary students should bring a clean mask to school everyday (or five on Mondays) that will be sent home for washing on Fridays. We are currently following the guidelines of the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Click HERE to read an article from AAP about children wearing masks. Click HERE to read an article with some great suggestions of what you can do at home to normalize mask wearing for your child.

 

 

The protocol in a nutshell:
● All Primary children need to bring a clean mask to school every day (or five on Mondays);
● All Primary children must wear masks while inside during work time;

● Children do not have to wear masks while working in the outdoor classroom (they rotate work time between the indoor and outdoor classrooms), playing on the playground, exercising, or napping;
● The guides continue to conduct lessons around masks, why we wear them, and why they are important to keep ourselves, our friends, and our family members safe;
● The guides will conduct frequent check-ins with their students;
● Masks for children are optional during drop-off and pick-up;
● If we notice your child’s mask does not fit properly, we will provide one that does;
● Tots children are not required to wear masks.

Mask resources, Athena student-approved: Martex Health, Bailey Blue, Happy Masks

Temperature and Health Checks at Home

● Before school each morning, check your child’s temperature and symptoms. If your child has a temperature greater than 100° F or two or more of the following symptoms: cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose or congestion, fatigue, chills, muscle aches, loss of smell or taste, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash, please notify the front office at (512) 494-6237 and do not send them to school until they have received a negative PCR test result. ● If you, your child, or someone in your family has been in contact with, or has been diagnosed with COVID, please notify a member of our administrative team and do not come to school until we have made a plan with you.
● Please ensure that your child is up-to-date with all vaccines, including for the flu.
● Review proper hand washing techniques with your child and practice these at home (20 seconds with soap).

● A student presenting with COVID symptoms while at school will be sent to the front office while they await pick up by an authorized adult. We ask that you arrive within 30 minutes of notification that your child needs to be picked up.

                    ○ Please make sure Athena has up-to-date information about emergency contacts and who is authorized to pick up your child from school if they become sick.

● Anyone with a fever (100° F and greater) must not return to school until they are fever free without the aid of medication for 24 hours and have proof of a negative PCR test.
● If a child could not attend school due to an illness with COVID-related symptoms, a negative COVID test result is required for readmittance to Athena.

 

● Any staff member or student who tests positive for COVID is required to notify the school immediately and quarantine for at least five days from the date symptoms developed or they tested positive. If your physician recommends a longer quarantine, please adhere to their advice.
● Individuals who test positive may not return to school until they have been fever free for at least 24 hours and any other symptoms are resolving, per CDC guidelines.
● Athena will report all positive cases to Austin Public Health.

 

Athena reserves the right to modify our quarantine and testing protocols based on the specific details of each known exposure. Our goal is to minimize disruption to our students’ learning, while continuing to keep our community as safe as possible.

 

Stages 4 and 5
● Vaccinated and unvaccinated staff members and students who have been exposed to COVID are required to quarantine for five days, with a PCR test on day five. 

 

Stages 1, 2, and 3
● Vaccinated staff members and students who have been exposed to COVID are not required to quarantine, but are required to test three and five days after the exposure.
● Per the CDC’s Test to Stay (TTS) protocol, any unvaccinated student who has been exposed to COVID at school may stay in school without a period of quarantine if physical proof of a negative test result is presented to Admin at drop off every day for five days. The test must be taken within 24 hours of drop off, meaning the child must test negative every day for five days to continue attending school. Alternatively, the child may quarantine for five days, with a test taken on day five, before returning to school.
● Any unvaccinated student who has been exposed to COVID outside of school will be required to quarantine for five days, with a test taken on day five. TTS is not an option for cases of confirmed exposure outside of school due to our inability to accurately assess the level of risk.

 

Quarantine means isolation from others and only leaving the house for essential needs. It also means that when you are around anyone not living with you, you are outside and either masked or more than six feet apart. It is essential that everyone involved agrees to the rules of engagement and conditions of quarantine, risk, and informed consent as we try to keep each other safe. Parents, guides, cleaning staff, everyone who sets foot on campus needs to agree to maintaining the agreed upon practices for quarantine and risk management.

 

We are all learning new skills in initiating and being responsive to conversations about safety, risk, and consent. It is ideal that we enter into these sensitive conversations from a place of informed consent and equity. Ideally we recognize that everyone has lived a life and incurred injury and betrayal regarding consent and informed consent. We will each come to these conversations with a different set of expectations and the more transparent we can be about this from the beginning the more likely we are to arrive at a place of mutual understanding. Start from a place of genuine curiosity, perhaps even a checklist of what you need to discuss to keep you on task, and remember to listen carefully as you speak.

 

● Always adhere to and practice the CDC guidelines for healthy habits
● Regardless of vaccination status, properly wear a face covering when around others in public
● Wash hands often
● If eating at restaurants, do your best to eat outside
● Clean and disinfect often
● Do not touch your face with unwashed hands
● Monitor your own health daily
● Regardless of vaccination status, adhere to social distancing recommendations of staying a minimum of six feet apart from people that do not live with you

 

Anytime you travel you take on a bit of unknown risk. If you spend time where you are going with people outside of those you live with, and you are not outside, or not wearing masks or staying six feet apart, then unvaccinated Athena students going on the trip need to quarantine for five days, with a test taken on day five, before returning to school. Vaccinated staff members and students do not need to quarantine after traveling, but are advised to test five days after their return. Highlights on travel guidelines:
● All travel has inherent risks.
● All non-essential travel is discouraged (but we understand using your “risk bank” during school holiday closures).
● Traveling by car can provide greater control over your risk than flying.
● Staying in places with individual, single unit ventilation is key, like a private house, rather than a hotel or apartment building.
● If your family will be traveling by plane anytime, unvaccinated Athena students going on the trip need to quarantine for five days, with a test taken on day five, before returning to school.
● If you will be traveling by car, staying at a vacation rental, practicing the CDC guidelines for protecting yourself, and not gathering in groups, we feel comfortable for you to return to school without a period of quarantine. If you are staying with family and gathering in groups where you are unable to socially distance, unvaccinated Athena students going on the trip need to quarantine for five days, with a test taken on day five, before returning to school.

 

If your child is enrolled in a group care setting throughout the year, we request that the group care is adhering to the guidelines set forth by the CDC.

 

If your babysitter or nanny is unvaccinated, we strongly recommend that you ask them to wear a mask properly at all times while around your children, and ask them to plan as much of their time outside as possible.

 

We recommend that if you gather away from school it be outdoors, like in a park, with no more than a couple of families at a time. We recommend hosting an outdoor birthday party with just a few families where the expectations and guidelines for safety are very clear and communicated up front (i.e. adults are vaccinated and/or wearing masks, parameters for social distancing, and a plan for restroom use).

 

In optimal settings, smaller gatherings are much more preferred during this time of airborne transmission of the virus. Setting up a playdate with one other family at a time has the potential to create minimal risk while also allowing for a layer of normalcy and intimacy. When considering setting up playdates with another family, we recommend:
● Invite your playdate companions into a dialogue around behavior to set up consensual agreements regarding mitigation of risk, before getting together.
● Set the tone for what all parties involved feel comfortable with, such as location, masks or no masks on the children, sharing of food and spaces, prior to the first playdate and make plans to continue to connect regarding any periodic changes that occur.
● When discussing plans, define how each of your families are handling things such as school, travel plans, playdates with other families, work life during the pandemic, etc.
● Enjoy playgrounds and swimming pools (the chlorine is a good protectant from the virus), and wear masks when appropriate.

 

Our protocols are subject to change regularly as we learn more about the virus, the variants, and how they impact our community. We commit to continue to improve or modify our protocols in order to protect you, your children, our teachers, and our staff. We commit to continue to work very closely with our medical and public health advisors, and to practice honesty and transparency in our communication with you. We will do our best to give our community at least one month’s notice in the event of a policy change that affects our families.