Approach

On March 14, Governor Kemp issued Executive Order No 03.14.20.01 declaring a Public Health State of Emergency due to the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus. For the safety and protection of children and their families across the state, Governor Kemp, in collaboration with the GA Department of Public Health and GA Department of Education, closed public school buildings for in-person instruction through the rest of the 2019-2020 school year. Since then, Governor Kemp has implemented a phased approach to slowly lift restrictions in Georgia while combating COVID-19, protecting Georgians and working together to recover the economy.

On June 1, the Georgia Department of Education and the Georgia Department of Public Health released Georgia’s Path to Recovery for K-12 Schools. This plan provided guidance for reopening school this fall. It was then modified and re-released on July 13th. You can access the plan here.

Governor Kemp and Georgia Superintendent Richard Woods also established K-12 Restart Working Groups designed to assist in planning for next steps and providing guidelines on six key topics for reopening schools. 

Guidance from all of the above groups has been taken into consideration for developing a custom action plan for Barrow County School System that is grounded in our mission and strategic goals. We’ve collaborated with regional school systems and received input from our School Governance Teams. BCSS task forces were also established to tackle the numerous logistical details and considerations to reopen school safely for our students and staff. A district survey was conducted the last two weeks of school to get input from parents, students and staff and those responses have influenced our planning and approach as well.

The COVID-19 virus is mostly spread by respiratory droplets released when people talk, cough, or sneeze. The virus may spread to hands from a contaminated surface and then to the nose or mouth, causing infection. That’s why personal prevention practices (such as handwashing and staying home when sick) and environmental cleaning and disinfecting are important practices. They are covered in more detail in the Section 1 above.

Any scenario in which many people gather together poses a risk for COVID-19 transmission. While children generally experience mild symptoms with COVID-19 and, to date, have not been found to contribute substantially to the spread of the virus, transmission from even those with mild or no apparent symptoms remains a risk.

Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:

This list is not all possible symptoms. Other less common symptoms have been reported including nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. While symptoms in children are similar to adults, children may have milder symptoms, such as fever, runny nose, and cough. Children with COVID-19 may not initially present with fever and cough as often as adult patients.

BCSS has adopted the CDC Foundations “Framework for Adapting Guidelines for Unique Settings” in which to evaluate each situation with groups of people. The framework takes 7 characteristics and breaks it down to determine risk level and how to modify circumstances to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Barrow County School System will operate under the spread level framework provided by the Georgia Department of Education and the Georgia Department of Public Health. The framework has three levels, tied to the degree of Covid-19 spread in the community: low, moderate or substantial.

At any given point, Barrow County as a whole will be at one of the three levels and will move up or down as directed by the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) as the spread of the virus changes.

However, this plan was modified with the release on July 13 from the Georgia Department of Education and Public Health. Now, school systems must determine which category they fall into for viral spread and take the corresponding steps and actions. The three categories are as follows:
•    Green: preventative practices
•    Yellow: enhanced mitigation measures
•    Red: temporary closure(s)
 

Based on "Georgia's Path to Recovery for K-12 Schools," the Barrow County School System has developed conditional options for returning to school for 2020-21 and for remaining open throughout the year. 

All parents, stakeholders, and staff should assume Barrow County is currently on Spread Level 2/moderate community spread and that we will hold school in-person on August 4 as originally planned.

The level of spread in the community will determine what in-person school looks like for students and staff. 

• At the lowest level of Status Green Preventive Measures, which means no to low spread of COVID-19, school will look closer to traditional school with some degree of physical distancing and virus mitigation strategies present. 
• At Status Yellow Enhanced Mitigation Measures with minimal to moderate spread of COVID-19, the system will engage more stringent viral mitigation and physical distancing practices, but otherwise continue in-person learning. 
• On Status Red Targeted Closure(s), Barrow County Schools will work with Public Health Officials to determine which classrooms, bus routes, hallways or schools/facilities will need to be closed. Any closure will last at least 14 days and school officials will work with public health to determine an appropriate time to re-open.