.
Jan. 25, 2022: Masks are still required in school
As the COVID pandemic keeps evolving, we are responding to new developments involving the statewide face mask mandate.
As you’ve likely heard, a state judge on Long Island has ruled against the state’s mask mandate, but more litigation is expected. All NYS school districts have been contacted by the State Education Department and instructed to continue following the mask mandate in schools and at all school sponsored events.
Our current understanding is that an appeal has been filed by the NYS Department of Health and a stay has been ordered regarding yesterday’s ruling. As such, we will still be requiring masks for all students, staff, and visitors in school at this time. If something changes, we will let our students, staff, and families know.
We know the pandemic has been exhausting and frustrating for everyone, and we truly appreciate the efforts of our entire school community that allow us to keep educating our students through it all. Thank you! We will provide any updates on this matter as soon as we have them.
Jan. 19, 2022: Latest guidance and shifts in COVID protocols
COVID-19 health and safety guidance from the state and local health departments continues to evolve, and we remain committed to providing staff and families with clear, updated information on the latest guidance on COVID-19 testing, quarantine and isolation.
Effective immediately, Glens Falls City Schools will use the following protocols when allowing individuals to return to school if they have symptoms of COVID-19, test positive for COVID-19, or are considered exposed to an individual with COVID-19. These protocols are based on the most recent updates from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the New York State Department of Health and local health departments. Please know that this information is subject to change at any time.
Major shift to personal responsibility: Step up, GF Nation!
The state’s approach to pandemic management is shifting to a personal responsibility model. This means:
- If you/your child test positive for COVID-19 (at a facility or at home), begin five-day isolation immediately. Do not wait for a phone call/letter from a DOH, as case managers are only focusing on high-risk individuals.
- Calculate your own isolation/quarantine period, with Day 0 being the first day you/child had symptoms, or the day you/child tested positive.
- Report your own “at-home” test results here, and notify your own close contacts. Also notify the school nurse, if your child tests positive.
- Download your own isolation paperwork (for adults). Glens Falls students no longer need official quarantine orders to access virtual Google Meets during their isolation/recovery.
Our state and local departments of health are no longer contact-tracing positive COVID cases. As such, GFSD is no longer contact-tracing positive cases among students or staff. Due to our layered mitigation strategies in school buildings (ie. “always-on” mask wearing, social distancing, air purifiers, hand hygiene, etc.) COVID exposure in school remains comparatively quite low.
Please note that the district may contact-trace a positive case for staff and students at high risk for severe disease, as well as in times and locations where there may be fewer layers of mitigation in place (ie. classes with students who are unable to wear a mask due to a documented medical issue and/or disabilities). These situations may result in a student or staff member being excluded from school and asked to stay home and quarantine for five to 10 days.
Regardless of whether or not there is a known exposure to COVID-19, it is very important that students/staff who are sick do not attend school.
If a student/staff member has COVID-19 symptoms:
- Regardless of vaccination status, if a person has COVID-19 symptoms they must have a lab negative PCR test, a lab negative rapid/antigen test, or two negative over-the-counter (i.e., at-home or take-home) antigen tests taken 36 hours apart, in order to return to school.
- Students showing any symptoms at school will be sent home immediately.
- When picking up their child, parents/guardians may request two over-the-counter antigen tests and an attestation form, provided by the school district.
- If parents/guardians are presenting the district with two negative over-the-counter antigen tests (from any source), they must also present the signed attestation form before a student can return.
- If faculty/staff members need assistance finding a rapid test, contact your immediate supervisor.
- In addition to a negative test result(s), symptomatic individuals must:
- Be fever-free for 24 hours without use of fever-reducing medications;
- Not have a runny nose or cough severe enough to make mask wearing difficult or unhygienic;
- Be well enough to participate in school; and
- Meet other school or district requirements to return to school after a non-COVID illness.
- If a person tests positive for COVID-19, please follow the guidance below.
- Please also note:
- If a healthcare provider makes a diagnosis of a confirmed non-COVID-19 acute illness (ie. laboratory-confirmed influenza or strep throat) AND COVID-19 is not suspected, then a note signed by the healthcare provider explaining the alternate diagnosis may be provided to allow a student, teacher, or staff member to participate in school without COVID-19 testing.
- Students with symptoms that are attributable to pre-existing medical conditions (e.g., migraines, allergies) and are not new or worsening do not require school exclusion or testing.
If a student/staff member tests positive for COVID-19:
- Regardless of vaccination status, if a student/staff member tests positive for COVID-19 they must isolate for a full five days. Students may return to school after day five if they are asymptomatic or if symptoms are resolving/improving.
- For example:
- Day 0: Symptom onset or tested positive.
- Day 1: Stay home
- Day 2: Stay home
- Day 3: Stay home
- Day 4: Stay home
- Day 5: Stay home
- Day 6: Return to school if asymptomatic, or if symptoms are resolving.
- For example:
- If a person tests positive for COVID-19 and took an over-the-counter (i.e., at-home, take-home) antigen test, report the results to Warren Co. Public Health here.
- In order for students/staff members who have tested positive and have had symptoms to return to school after five days, they must:
- Be fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication.
- Be symptom-free or symptoms are resolving/improving.
- State guidance states that all individuals should wear a well-fitting mask around others (at home, and in public) for a full 10 days following the first day of symptoms (or the date of a positive test, if the student is asymptomatic).
- Anyone who is moderately or severely immunocompromised should follow the standard 10-day isolation guidance issued previously.
If a student/staff member has been exposed (close contact) to COVID-19:
(For example: a household family member has tested positive, or a close sports contact is positive)
- If the exposed person is up-to-date on their COVID vaccinations as defined by the CDC (boosted if eligible), they may come to school. Students eligible for boosters, but not boosted cannot participate in extracurricular/sports activities for five days.
- If the exposed person tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 90 days, they may come to school.
- If the exposed person is not up-to-date on their COVID vaccination and has not tested positive in the last 90 days, they quarantine for at least five days after their last close contact with an individual with COVID-19.
- Day 0: Date of exposure.
- Day 1: Stay home
- Day 2: Stay home
- Day 3: Stay home
- Day 4: Stay home
- Day 5: Stay home
- Day 6: Return to school as long as no symptoms have developed.
- State guidance states that all individuals should wear a well-fitting mask around others (at home, and in public) for a full 10 days following the date of exposure.
The district is still conducting weekly asymptomatic surveillance testing for student-athletes, faculty/staff members, and any student whose parent/guardian requests it. Nurses will provide general student rapid-testing (by parent request only) as they are able to fit it into their days. Please use THIS FORM to provide consent for testing.
Additional quarantine and isolation information can be found on our local county department of health website, as well as the New York State Department of Health and CDC websites:
- Warren County: https://warren-county-ny-covid-19-warrencountyny.hub.arcgis.com/
- Saratoga County: https://www.saratogacountyny.gov/departments/publichealth/covid19/isoquar/
- Hamilton County: https://www.hamiltoncounty.com/health-human-services/coronavirus-covid-19
- Washington County: https://washingtoncountyny.gov/1147/Coronavirus-Information
- Essex County: https://www.co.essex.ny.us/Health/
- Schenectady County: https://www.schenectadycounty.com/COVID19
- Albany County: https://www.albanycounty.com/departments/health/coronavirus-covid-19
- New York State Department of Health: https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/new-york-state-contact-tracing
- Centers for Disease Control (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html
Thank you for your continued partnership as we work to keep our students and staff healthy, and our students in school.
January 11, 2022: Boosters required for 12+ students to avoid quarantine, miss sports
We received an important update from the NYS Department of Health today, Jan. 11, 2022:
A booster-eligible student playing sports, acting in the musical, participating in a club, etc. will not be allowed to participate in those activities for 5 days after a COVID exposure if they have NOT received their booster.
This means that if your student has a close exposure to a COVID positive person, and they are vaccinated but not boosted, they must sit out all extra-curricular activities (games, practices, activities, events) for five days. Read the NYSDOH letter here.
January 6, 2022: Updated quarantine guidance
Warren County Health Services has implemented New York’s January 4th guidelines for isolation and quarantine in COVID-19 cases. New York’s full interim guidance can be found online at: https://on.ny.gov/3HFu50Z
KEY POINTS:
- Most isolations (you’re positive) and quarantines (you’re exposed) are decreasing to five days, as of today. You must be asymptomatic/feeling better on Day 5 to release. If you are currently in isolation/quarantine, keep your original end date set by Warren County unless they contact you.
- When your isolation/quarantine is up, you are required to wear a tight-fitting mask for an additional five days.
- There are some exceptions to the five-day isolation/quarantine, so be sure to speak directly with Warren County about their directive for your situation. For example, someone who cannot tolerate a tight-fitting mask must stay in isolation/quarantine for 10 days, not 5.
- The new calculation for your “Day 0” is the first day you began having symptoms. If you are asymptomatic positive, it is the day you tested positive.
- Booster doses are now required to be considered completely vaccinated, for all eligible people age 12 and up. This will affect exposure quarantines!
- Scenario #1: You were in close contact with a positive person. You are over age 12 and are not fully vaccinated, OR you are fully vaccinated but not yet boosted. You must quarantine for 5 days and wear a tight-fitting mask for an additional 5 days. Try to get tested on Day 5.
- Scenario #2: You were in close contact with a positive person. You are over age 12 and fully vaccinated and boosted (with the booster at least 2 weeks before the first date of exposure), OR not yet eligible for a booster. You do not need to quarantine, but should wear a tight-fitting mask for 10 days. Try to get tested on Day 5.
- Boosters are approved for children age 12 and up, by both the CDC and NYSDOH.
- Booster appointments are available at Aviation Mall every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
- The booster must be five months or more from your second vaccine date.
- Bottom line: If you’re eligible but choose not to get boosted, you will be subject to exposure quarantines.
- If you use a rapid test kit at home (free test kits at all Stewart’s Shops), make sure you call Warren County at 518-761-6580 to report a positive.
- If your child tests positive (through a home test, weekly athlete testing at school, a community clinic such as WellNow, etc.), please be sure to follow up with your own pediatrician/health care provider and get clearance to return to all regular activities.
Your continued patience, vigilance, and understanding are appreciated! We are GF Nation STRONG!
Weekly Staff and Athlete Testing
- For the winter sports season, 2021-22, student-athletes on the Basketball, Cheerleading, Wrestling, Swimming/Diving, and Ice Hockey teams will be required to have a weekly COVID-19 test at school. Testing details will be provided directly to athletes and families. Athletes on the Alpine Ski, Nordic Ski, and Bowling teams will not be required to test.
Beginning in January of 2022, the district will be switching to a new type of COVID-19 screening FOR EMPLOYEES called “pool testing.” This procedure involves a self-administered saliva swab that is sealed inside a tube and shipped to a laboratory for PCR coronavirus testing, which is a higher-level test than our current nasal swab rapid tests. The laboratory (in our case, Quadrant Biosciences) takes multiple individuals’ swabs and “pools” them together to test the group for COVID-19. If the group comes back positive, then each individual’s swab is re-tested to determine which individual is the positive.
Our reasons for switching tests include the higher degree of accuracy with PCR testing, the ease of self-swabbing at the point of testing, and our partnership with Warren County Health Services to supply these test kits. As you may already know, we receive all our testing kits for free from WCHS, and they are no longer able to get as many nasal-swab rapid tests as we need.
This switch requires every testing employee to register online in order to process the tests, and for you to receive your results. Please register at www.Clarifi-COVID-19.com or at GFSD employee testing on 12/14 or 12/21. Chromebooks will be provided to register.
Quadrant Pool Testing will begin after the holiday break for non-vaccinated staff. You will be able to be tested at your own building. Maintenance, custodial and food service employees will be assigned to the buildings they work in or the HS/MS. A time frame will be established for the testing to occur, and you will need to attend your scheduled test.
To register you will need:
- Your insurance card – the screening is FREE.
- If your pool screening comes back positive, then a retest (called a REFLEX Test) is necessary to determine which individual within the pool sample is positive. The second REFLEX test would be covered by insurance. This is why you need your insurance information for registration.
- Your name should be entered as it appears on your insurance card…no nicknames.
- Phone numbers should be entered as ONLY the 10 digit #, no 1’s and no -’s.
- For Example: 5187921212
On the day of your test:
- DO NOT brush your teeth or use mouthwash 1 hour before testing
- DO NOT eat or drink anything (including mints, gum or lozenges) within 30 minutes of testing
- DO NOT smoke or use smokeless tobacco products (chewing tobacco, vapes, e-cigs) within 30 minutes of testing
On-Site Vaccine Clinics
As announced last week by the state and local departments of health, COVID-19 booster doses are now required to be considered completely vaccinated, for all eligible people age 12 and up.
Your child’s booster status now determines whether or not they quarantine after close exposure to a COVID-positive person. (See details here.)
To help families stay healthy and keep their normal routines, we are hosting a child vaccine/booster clinic in the Glens Falls Middle School cafeteria this Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, from 3-5:30 p.m.
Warren Co. Health Services nurses will be on hand to give first-dose Pfizer COVID vaccinations (for ages 5-11, and 12+), along with Pfizer booster vaccinations for anyone age 12 and up.
Sign up for the 1st dose of Pfizer for 5-11 year-olds:
https://apps2.health.ny.gov/
Sign up for the 1st dose of Pfizer for ages 12 yrs. and up:
https://apps2.health.ny.gov/
Sign up for the Pfizer booster for ages 12 and up (has to be 5 months after their 2nd dose of Pfizer):
https://apps2.health.ny.gov/doh2/applinks/cdmspr/2/counties?DateID=D512EB8B066902F8E0530A6C7C15AA2B
This clinic is for any interested faculty, staff, parent, or student. PLEASE CONSIDER GETTING VACCINATED AND BOOSTED IF YOU OR YOUR CHILD ARE ELIGIBLE. A parent must accompany their child to the vaccine clinic.
Every family member receiving the vaccine should report to the back cafeteria door of the Middle School (Door L) at your appointment time on Wednesday, January 12th.
Together, we are #GFNationStrong!
Two special Pfizer booster clinics are now open to parents and families of students! Nurses will be in the Glens Falls Middle School cafeteria, giving Pfizer COVID boosters to any interested faculty, staff, parent, or family member.
To get your Pfizer booster (third shot), you MUST:
- Be an 18+ worker in healthcare settings, grocery stores, manufacturing plants, food/agriculture service, public transit systems, daycares, or in another CDC-eligible group
- Have gotten the PFIZER series of vaccines 6+ months ago
- Bring your paper vaccine card with you to the clinic
These boosters remain only for Pfizer recipients, because NYS still needs to give prescribing orders to local Departments of Health before they can give Moderna or “mix and match” Pfizer booster shots.
BOOSTER DOSE Pfizer on Friday, Oct. 22, 2021 (GFSD EMPLOYEES/FAMILIES):
https://apps2.health.ny.gov/
BOOSTER DOSE Pfizer on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021 (GFSD EMPLOYEES/FAMILIES):
https://apps2.health.ny.gov/
Still need to get your first dose of the COVID vaccine? We have the single-dose Johnson and Johnson/Janssen vaccine available on Tuesday, Oct. 26th. Sign up here:
https://apps2.health.ny.gov/
October 1, 2021: Did you get the PFIZER vaccine? Then you can get a booster this Tuesday at the Middle School!
Warren County Health Services just got the go-ahead to administer third-dose COVID vaccines to CDC-eligible groups … and are bringing their first on-site booster clinic to us!
On Tuesday, October 5th, nurses will be in the Glens Falls Middle School cafeteria from 3-4 p.m., giving one-dose J&J/Janssen and Pfizer COVID vaccinations to any interested faculty, staff, parent, or student over age 12.
To get your booster (third shot), you MUST:
-
Be a GFSD faculty or staff member
-
Have gotten the PFIZER series of vaccines 6+ months ago
-
Bring your paper vaccine card with you on Tuesday
Sign up for the BOOSTER DOSE Pfizer vaccine using this link (ONLY for GFSD EMPLOYEES):
https://apps2.health.ny.gov/
Still need to get your first dose of the COVID vaccine? We have those options available on Tuesday as well…
Sign up for the single-dose Johnson and Johnson/Janssen vaccine using this link (age 18+):
https://apps2.health.ny.gov/
Sign up for the FIRST DOSE Pfizer vaccine using this link (age 12+):
https://apps2.health.ny.gov/
You should report to the back cafeteria door of the Middle School (Door L) at your appointment time on October 5th.
Together, we are #GFNationStrong!
