Archive: Mitigation Strategies - Retired 8/11/2022

Throughout the day, custodial staff disinfect high-touch surfaces. At night, custodians clean and disinfect classrooms and other spaces that were in use during the day. Disinfecting wipes are available in all occupied classrooms for use by students and employees to sanitize high-touch surfaces periodically throughout the day.

Parents/Guardians: Each school day, you are responsible for completing an at-home health screening of your child for COVID-19 symptoms prior to allowing your child to board a school bus or enter a school building. If you answer “yes” to any screening question, please keep your child home and notify the school.

Employees: Each workday, you are required to perform a self-assessment for symptoms of COVID-19 before reporting to work. You do not need to sign in upon building entry. If you answer “yes” to any screening question, please stay home and notify your supervisor.

Visitors: Each time you visit an ACPS facility, you will be required to undergo a health screening for COVID-19 symptoms upon building entry. If you answer “yes” to any screening question, you will not be granted access to the facility.

Visit our COVID-19 Screening Tools web page to access online and printable versions of our screening tools for students, employees and visitors.

A note about temperature checks: In consultation with health authorities, ACPS is no longer performing temperature checks at our facilities. Evidence shows that fever is not always present with COVID-19 infections. Temperature readings also require a lot of resources, are not accurate when the air temperature is very high or low, and may actually make people less safe by giving the false impression that COVID-19 is not present. Families, employees and visitors are still responsible for monitoring their own temperatures and reporting a fever or any other COVID-19 symptoms as part of our daily screening.

Students are required to wash or sanitize their hands frequently during the day. Minimally, this includes each time they board a bus, enter a room, and go outside for recess, and before they eat. All building entry points, classrooms, cafeterias, and buses have hand sanitizer dispensers to promote and support this requirement.

Any student or employee (fully vaccinated or not) who develops COVID-19-like symptoms at school or work will be excluded from school or work and referred to a health care provider to see if COVID-19 testing is warranted.

If a student becomes ill at school, the school will notify the parent/guardian, who will need to pick up their child promptly. A parent/guardian or an emergency contact must pick up the student within 60 minutes of the call. The student will wait in a designated clinic space.

Before a symptomatic student may return to school, school-based child care, or extracurricular school activities, the Return to School Form must be completed by a health care provider or the student must provide a negative COVID-19 PCR test result. (The Return to School form is available below, under “COVID-19 Forms.”)

Effective March 1, 2022, state law makes the wearing of face masks by students optional when on school property, including school buses, and overrides the portions of Albemarle County Public Schools’ mask policy pertaining to mask use by students.

*UPDATE* Beginning April 4, 2022, face masks will become optional for everyone, including employees and visitors, when on school property, including all school and division facilities, inside or outside, and school buses.

ACPS will continue to provide masks (KN95, cloth or disposable) to students and employees upon request.

The decision on whether a child will wear a mask in school will be made and enforced at home. Students will not be questioned at school about this choice.

ACPS will maximize physical distancing as much as space allows: 

• In our buildings, we will maintain a distance of at least 3 feet between students. Greater distance (at least 6 feet) will be maintained when students are participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity, singing, or playing a musical instrument. 
• While outdoors, distance will be increased as much as activity and space allow.
• As often as possible, we will maintain a distance of at least 6 feet between adults and students.

ACPS is currently developing guidelines for athletic practices and events, performing arts, and extracurricular activities.

The Superintendent of Schools, in consultation with local health officials, will decide to close a school facility based on factors that include, but are not limited to:

• Extent of an identified outbreak in an ACPS facility;
• COVID-19 conditions in the community;
• Absenteeism rates among staff and students; and
• Local and/or state ordinances/orders.

If needed, individual schools will temporarily transition to fully virtual instruction for a length of time determined in coordination with the local health department. Such a decision would be based on the number of cases in the school and evidence of transmission at that particular school. (Note: ACPS may deviate from this approach due to unforeseen circumstances or in response to different guidance from public health officials.)

ACPS is currently developing a plan for how this transition would occur, if necessary.

Each school day, breakfast and lunch are available to all students free of charge, regardless of income level. Breakfast is available upon arrival, and students eat the meal in their classroom. Lunch is served primarily in the cafeteria, though larger schools may set up additional serving lines elsewhere. 

Depending on the school and grade level, students may eat lunch in the cafeteria, a classroom, another designated area of the building, or outside. We encourage eating outdoors when the weather permits and if adequate supervision is available. Whether indoors or outdoors, we maximize physical distancing to the extent possible, maintaining a minimum of 3 feet between students. In the cafeteria, for example, four students may eat at a 5-foot table.

Once they are seated and ready to eat, students are permitted to remove their masks.

For contact tracing purposes:

• Elementary students sit with the same group of peers for at least one week at a time.
• Middle and high schools use a system to track where and with whom students eat.

School buses are operating at normal capacity.

Before allowing their child to board a school bus or other ACPS vehicle, parents/guardians are responsible for completing an at-home health screening of their child for COVID-19 symptoms. If the answer to any screening question is “yes,” parents/guardians should keep their child home and notify the school.

ACPS has installed HEPA filters in all of our buses. Filters are located near the ceiling a few rows behind the driver. These filters remove dust, pollen, and virus particles from the air. We turn on the filters whenever the windows are closed:

• On buses without air conditioning, we open windows during warm weather and turn off the HEPA filter. During cold weather, we close windows and turn on the HEPA filter. 
• On buses with air conditioning, we keep windows closed and run the HEPA filter at all times.

All riders must sanitize their hands each time they board and exit the bus. Each bus has an adequate supply of sanitizer located in the seat directly behind the driver.

Effective March 1, 2022, students are no longer required to wear a face mask when riding a school bus; however, each bus has a supply of masks in case a student requests one. Bus drivers and other ACPS staff members are still required to wear a mask when on a school bus.

Seats and handrails are disinfected daily. 

We assign seats to all riders. This is helpful for contact tracing and limits the number of exposures if a student tests positive.

If a student or employee tests positive for COVID-19, Transportation Services will work with the school nurse to help identify close contacts. On a school bus, close contacts include anyone the infected student shares a seat with as well as students in the row directly in front of and behind the infected student. Students seated in the rows across the aisle may also be considered close contacts.

*UPDATE* Effective, February 21, 2022, ACPS student athletes are no longer required to submit proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or submit a weekly negative COVID-19 test in order to participate in athletic practices, competitions, and off-season training and conditioning. This change also applies to ACPS students participating in performing arts programs.

Our vaccination and testing requirement for ACPS student athletes went into effect on November 8, 2021, and ended on February 20, 2022.

Beginning September 15, 2021, all school division employees were required to submit proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or comply with periodic testing requirements. This requirement was adopted by resolution of the Albemarle County School Board on August 12, 2021, to protect the health and safety of our students, staff and community, and to ensure that Albemarle County Public Schools can provide staff and students with a safe and effective educational environment that supports student achievement.

*UPDATE* The week of March 28, 2022, will be the final week that our COVID-19 testing requirement for employees will be in effect. The school board has approved a recommendation from the school division to end the requirement that all ACPS employees who are unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or decline to identify their vaccination status are required to test weekly. Effective Monday, April 4, this requirement will no longer be in effect. This change follows a decision by the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry’s Worker Safety Board to remove workplace restrictions specific to COVID-19.

Employees can visit our COVID-19 Testing web page for general testing information, including the testing schedule, testing instructions for symptomatic employees, answers to common questions, and more.

ACPS has made investments and improvements to the ventilation systems in our school facilities. Wherever possible, we have installed upgraded air filters and adjusted our mechanical systems to increase airflow from the outside. Every day, in an effort to improve indoor air quality, we perform a building air flush, both before and after occupancy. Also, we have placed air purifiers with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters in all classrooms, clinics, and school buses.

All visitors to ACPS facilities are required to undergo a health screening for COVID-19 symptoms upon building entry. Approved school visitors must sign in through the visitor management system in the school's main office and receive a volunteer or visitor badge. This process is required for every visit. 

Visitors are not allowed in classrooms during the school day. Visitors must wear a mask and keep at least 6 feet of distance between themselves and students.

During the school day, visitors are limited to those who are volunteering, attending a meeting, or visiting for another purpose approved by the principal.

The following safety measures address field trips and extracurricular activities; water fountains; outdoor activities; school materials and equipment; and assemblies, large gatherings, and community use:

• A central committee reviews field trips and extracurricular activities in advance.
• Water fountains are turned off. Bottle fillers are available. Students should bring a refillable water bottle to school.
• Outdoor tents are installed at each school to promote more outdoor activities.
• We limit the sharing of materials and equipment. Students have individual classroom supplies.
• If all mitigation strategies described above, such as physical distancing and masks, are in place, ACPS will not place any additional restrictions on assemblies, large gatherings, or community use.