Empower The School Year with Comcast Internet Essentials or RCN’s Internet First paid for by DC Government.

Reopening topics for today

• How are we collectively responding to the rise in positive cases?

• How are we collectively remaining vigilant about safety?

1. How are we collectively responding to the rise in positive cases?

1. We have imposed vaccination requirements for educators and staff across public schools and are aggressively promoting vaccinations for all eligible residents including youth.

2. Over the past two weeks DC Health has updated and clarified its health guidance for schools

1. Clarification that masks are not required during eating, drinking, and napping

2. Updates to exception to close contact definition to also apply to pre-K and adult education students

3. Clarified requirements for school exclusion

4. Addition of fever as a red flag symptom

5. Clarification around exclusion and return for symptoms other than red flag symptoms

2

How are we collectively responding to the rise in positive cases?

3. OSSE and DC Health are establishing quicker, more consistent support for in-school contact tracing, to identify and follow-up with students and staff who must quarantine

a. Additional school-based resources b. Expanded central team at OSSE
c. Direct OSSE-DC Health reporting

4. OSSE’s attendance policy accounts for short-term virtual learning

5. All LEAs are establishing greater capacity to provide short-term virtual learning for quarantining students

3

Short-term virtual learning capacity: DCPS approach

Primary model

Teacher status

At home, able to teach

• Teacher on-line

• Students learn “virtually” in the classroom or at home

• Classroom supervised by teacher aide, other staff, or sub

• Teacher provides simulcast instruction

• Classroom supervised by teacher aide

At home, unable to teach

• Substitute in classroom

• Virtual students learn (mostly) asynchronously

• Substitute in classroom

• Virtual students learn (mostly) asynchronously