Dear Parents/Guardians,
Jones County Public Schools (JCPS) continues to work closely with the Jones County Health Department (JCHD) to provide safe and healthy learning environments for its students and staff. In order to ensure we maintain these healthy learning environments, clear lines of communication must be kept open between schools and families. Please keep your child home and contact your child’s school to arrange virtual education services if your child is sick, displays symptoms, or has a questionable or confirmed exposure to COVID-19. JCPS will contact the Jones County Health Department to verify appropriate actions, notifications, or precautions needed at that point.
The privacy of your child and family’s health is of the utmost importance to us. All communication regarding symptoms, exposure, and contract tracing will only be shared with school and district administrators and school nurses. Under the advice from the JCHD, you will receive this communication regarding quarantine dates and return to school dates. Every response will be based on the unique circumstances of symptoms or exposure dates noted. Only those who have been identified as close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases will be individually notified and instructed on next steps.
The school, in collaboration with the health department, will send a general notification to families and staff if a cluster of cases is identified. A cluster is defined as five or more positive cases that attend or work at the same school. However, this does not mean that the exposure or contact occurred at the school, as many incidents have been attributed to community exposures. This notification will not include identifying information about the case, such as staff/student names or grade level.
A critical step in preventing the spread of COVID-19 is notifying the school if you and/or your child have traveled out of state in the last fourteen days. Especially as we enter Labor Day weekend, we need our staff, students, and families to do their part to maintain social distance from others outside of their household, to wear face coverings, and to wash/sanitize hands often in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, if you are traveling out of state, notifying the administration is important in determining if you will need to quarantine for fourteen days prior to returning to school. The JCHD guidance regarding visits to hot spot cities or events will drive this decision-making process. The goal of this process is to protect our students and staff from the spread of COVID-19.
Sincerely,
Danielle Bryan
Danielle Bryan, Director
Exceptional Children and Student Services