Current COVID-19 Protocols

Vaccines are the best defense we have in ensuring that our students and teachers have a completely uninterrupted school year. ESD encourages in the strongest possible terms that all eligible community members receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible.

If your child is fully vaccinated, please send their vaccine information to your division’s nurse, Lower School Nurse Carla Thomas, and Middle and Upper School Nurse Marcia Biggs, so that we can keep track of community vaccination rates. This data will help inform our decision process moving forward. A more fully vaccinated school population may allow us to lift restrictions sooner.

Sent via email to all current parents, faculty, and staff.

Many thanks for the patience and cooperation our community has shown throughout the pandemic. We are happy to have returned to mostly normal operations this year and are pleased to announce that beginning Monday, November 1, we will take another step in easing our pandemic-related health practices.

We have made the decision to use these updated protocols for the following reasons:

• The four metrics referenced in my communications at the beginning of school have returned to near July levels — the point at which we relaxed protocols in the summer.
• All of our seventh through twelfth graders and employees have had ample opportunity to be vaccinated, and we are hopeful that our younger students will soon have the chance as well.
• Vaccines are not available yet to our youngest students. Data show that the Delta variant is more transmissible to unvaccinated children than the COVID variants prevalent last summer.
• COVID-19 transmission appears to be very low within our school activity, particularly in the older grades.
• Our dining commons has an extremely effective air circulation and disinfectant system.

Beginning Monday, November 1, we will implement the following policies by division:

Upper School

• All students should bring a mask to school each day.
• Masking is recommended but not required while engaged in school activities.
• Lunch dividers will be removed in the dining commons; however, seating will remain limited to six students at a table.
• Congregational singing during daily worship will remain suspended.
• At their discretion, teachers may require that a student wear a mask when working with them in a tutoring or other one-on-one situation.

Middle School

• All students should continue to bring a mask to school each day.
• For seventh and eighth graders: masking is recommended but not required while engaged in school activities.
• For fifth and sixth graders: masking will remain required in all indoor spaces and in buses, except when in physical education classes.
• Chapel seating will be temporarily changed to space fifth and sixth graders from seventh and eighth graders.
• Congregational singing during daily worship will remain suspended.
• Lunch dividers will be removed in the dining commons; however, seating will be limited to six students at a table.
• At their discretion, seventh- and eighth-grade teachers may require that a student wear a mask when working with them in a tutoring or other one-on-one situation.

Lower School

• Masks will remain required for all students in indoor spaces, except for physical education classes.
• Congregational singing will be allowed in All Saints Chapel (with masks).
• Lunch dividers will be removed in the dining commons; however, seating will be limited to six students at a table.

After our younger students have had ample opportunity to receive the soon-to-be-approved vaccine for 5-12 years olds, we anticipate moving to lifting masking requirements for them as well. We hope this can happen by the time we return to campus in January.

Everyone — volunteers, parents, employees, and guests — should abide by the masking requirement in the division or grade level in which they are working or visiting. This includes abiding by an employee’s request to mask during a parent/teacher meeting. The masking requirement also remains in effect for parents attending daily worship in the lower or middle school.

The choice to wear a mask for seventh through twelfth graders and the employees who work with them may differ. In keeping with ESD’s Code of Conduct, we ask that everyone be respectful of the decisions made by those around them and engage in no judgmental behavior regarding others’ choices.

We will suspend the use of the daily Ascend health screening application until further notice. Please keep the link; depending on how conditions develop, we may reinstate it later in the year.

It is still imperative for all students and employees to do a health check each morning before coming to school. Those experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19 should stay home, inform the appropriate school nurse, and contact their physician.

Should your student be sent home during the school day with new or unexpected symptoms, they might be required to provide a negative PCR test and/or a doctor's note before returning to school.

Any community member who tests positive for COVID-19 must report their positive result to the appropriate school nurse, quarantine for at least ten days, and be fever-free for 24 hours before returning to school. The school will conduct a contact-tracing interview with the person to determine who has been in close social contact with the individual. 

Possible exemptions from quarantine include the following:

•    proof of complete vaccination on file prior to being asked to quarantine
•    current positive antibody test on file prior to being asked to quarantine (valid for 90 days from the date of collection) 
•    proof of COVID-19 illness within the previous 3 months prior to being asked to quarantine

At this time, we are not planning to quarantine entire classrooms, teams, or ensembles. The year will begin with traditional class sections in each grade - no cohorts. Should local conditions change, these protocols will be reconsidered. However, the school will inform all people who share an activity (class, practice, rehearsal) with the positive case that someone they share an activity with has tested positive for COVID-19. Those who share the activity will be asked to monitor their symptoms closely and be extra cautious about staying home if they are experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms. Those who are determined to be close contacts, but are exempt will be asked to get a PCR test 3-5 days after exposure. Those who are determined to be close contacts and are not exempt will be required to quarantine for 7 days (returning to school on day 8) and present negative PCR test results on or after day 5.  A negative PCR test result must be on file prior to returning to in person activities.

We will also continue to update the community on cases through the COVID dashboard on our website.

A remote learning option will be offered to any student who will miss school because they are COVID-positive or are quarantined because of close contact with a COVID-positive individual. Remote learning platforms will vary by division; please contact your division head for details. Otherwise, all students will be expected to participate in person.

We are excited to welcome parents back to campus. Like students and employees, all parents must wear a mask while indoors at ESD, regardless of vaccination status.

For the time being, parents should limit their campus visits to:
1) back to school events and activities
2) scheduled group performances and games
3) meetings with school employees
4) limited volunteer duties

Other than in the Eagles Nest and during the Lower School’s Eagle Camps and new student orientations, which we feel are limited and controlled environments, we ask that parents not interact with students indoors - in the classrooms, dining commons, or study commons - while on campus. For now, we are requesting that parents who come to campus for a meeting or other approved activity depart campus as soon as their appointment or business has concluded.

Health and safety education and training for all faculty, staff, students, and parents will continue as needed.

• Lunch service and seating has been adjusted to ensure safety.
• Outdoor tents will be available for music and band classes to consider reduction of transmission via droplet spread and for outdoor socialization.
• Enhanced cleaning and sanitizing will continue per CDC recommendations.
• Frequent handwashing is strongly recommended and encouraged.

At the current time, we are not anticipating an interruption in athletics, arts, and club activities.

• Before and after school programs, including Kids On Campus, are scheduled to operate as normal. 
• The protocols released July 13, 2021, for ESD-sponsored athletics remain.
  • Student-athletes who test positive for COVID-19 will be required to complete a return to play protocol per athletics.

Overnight trips

• All participants (chaperones and students alike) will be tested in the ESD health clinic the day of any overnight trip with a rapid antigen test, regardless of CDC vaccination status or prior antibody test submission.

Chaplains and counselors are available for support to our community members in person or virtually as needed. Please reach out.

• In person, Daily Chapel will resume for all divisions; masks will be required during chapel.

• Eucharist will also resume with serving bread only and being dispensed by vaccinated individuals. 

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