• Health & Safety Plans 2022-23 School Year

    August 18, 2022

     

    During last night’s meeting, the Ferguson-Florissant School District Board of Education reviewed and approved changes to our Return to In-Person Instruction Health Plan. As we begin the 2022-23 school year, we want to provide updated information about the health protocols we will utilize in our District. The state of Missouri is now recognizing COVID-19 as endemic. This means that COVID-19 is here to stay, and we will continue to have cases for the foreseeable future. As a District, we continue to meet with our COVID-19 task force team and community medical advisors to determine the best ways to keep our students, staff and school communities healthy. We plan to continue in-person instruction while keeping our students and staff as safe as possible.

     

    Health and safety updates to start the 2022-23 school year:

     

    • Masks will be recommended for all students, staff and visitors to Ferguson-Florissant schools and offices. We will not utilize building-level thresholds to determine if students, staff and visitors must wear masks. We welcome any individual who wants to wear a mask to continue to do so.

     

    • Individuals who are sick or having symptoms of illness are strongly advised to stay home and consider consulting with their healthcare provider on their healthcare needs. Any absences should be reported to the school nurse or human resources for staff. Please continue to self-monitor for any COVID-19 related symptoms.

     

    • Consistent with Board of Education policy on Communicable Diseases (Policy 3054), any individual who is sick with a communicable illness should isolate at home until they are no longer contagious. For cases of COVID-19, we will follow CDC guidance, which states individuals can end isolation after five full days if they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and other symptoms have significantly improved. Students or staff who were diagnosed as positive for COVID will be required to wear a well-fitting mask for five (5) additional days (day 6 through day 10).

    • We will continue to encourage hand washing and/or the use of hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer will remain available in every classroom and in common and high traffic areas throughout our schools.

     

    • We continue to encourage all staff and eligible students to talk to their healthcare provider about getting vaccinated. Children under six months are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. You can find information about where to access the vaccine here.

     

    • As supplies are available, we will continue to provide COVID-19 home testing kits in our schools with the approval of a parent or guardian.

     

    Additional information for staff:

    • We will no longer require unvaccinated staff to participate in weekly testing or vaccinated staff to participate in randomized testing.

    • Staff who are sick or having symptoms should stay home and consult with their healthcare provider on medical needs and when to return to work.

    • Employees no longer need to complete a daily health screener. We encourage staff to self-monitor daily COVID-19 symptoms at home.

    • FFSD will transition from COVID leave days to the use of sick days for employees effective Monday, Aug. 22, 2022. All employees will be required to use sick leave for all COVID-related absences. Employees without sick leave will take unpaid absences.

    • If you have symptoms, testing is key to reducing the spread in our schools and workplace. As supplies are available, we continue to provide COVID-19 at-home testing kits. We also recommend that you take advantage of free at-home testing kits to keep on hand at home. Employees can also receive a COVID-19 test through the employee health clinic ‘Ferg Flor Care’ for those enrolled in a district-issued health plan.