Weekly COVID-19 Update
October 15, 2021

The Harrison Central School District will provide parents, faculty and staff with a weekly update that includes timely information and important reminders.  This week's COVID-19 update includes information on the following topics:

• COVID-19 Cases & Quarantines

• Changes to Bus Quarantines

• COVID-19 Testing: Please provide consent and help keep schools open!

Changes to Bus Quarantines

The rules for quarantining students riding the bus are dictated by the Westchester County Department of Health (WCDOH). WCDOH requires unvaccinated students (masked or unmasked) within 6 feet of a positive student for more than 15 minutes to be quarantined (please complete this survey to inform the District if your child is vaccinated to eliminate the need to quarantine). The District utilizes bus video to determine which students need to quarante; however, the difficulty of seeing students’ faces when masked, students changing seats on the bus, and irregular student ridership from day to day make it inefficient to quickly identify students using video.

In order to more effectively and efficiently identify students who require quarantining due to exposure on the bus, each student will be assigned a seat on the bus.  Assigned seating will reduce the number of students who are required to quarantine.

• We are implementing three different seating plans for elementary, middle and high school students for daily bus rides to expedite and limit the number of students quarantined.

• Siblings will be permitted to sit together on the bus.

• We recognize that sitting with friends on the bus is important to students. Our plans account for student well-being and developmentally appropriate expectations.

• The District will continue to review the bus video and students' vaccinations status following a report of a positive case.

• Students who are vaccinated and/or have had COVID-19 in the past 90 days will be excluded from quarantine. Please share the vaccination status of your children so that they can be immediately removed from the quarantine list.  

• Please remind your children to sit in their assigned seats each day they ride the bus. 

 

COVID-19 Testing: Please provide consent to keep schools open!

The District is asking parents to provide consent for  ALL vaccinated and unvaccinated students to participate in Harrison's COVID-19 testing program, which will test a representative sample of students weekly using a non-invasive PCR saliva test. Testing a representative sample of students each week will limit the spread of COVID-19 and ensure schools remain open for in-person instruction.  To learn more about the District's COVID-19 testing program, CLICK HERE.

Parents must give consent in order for their children to participate in this COVID-19 testing program, even if they have provided consent to participate in COVID-19 testing in the past.  Parents who have not provided consent will receive an email reminder from “C-19 Safety First'' (do_not_reply@mapterial.com) with an invitation to login and provide consent for COVID-19 testing.  Parents with more than one child will receive separate emails to provide consent for each child.  Please be assured that your child(ren)’s information is safeguarded in compliance with the New York State Department of Health Privacy Protection Act, all federal, state, and local HIPAA data privacy and data security standards. 

Each week, a representative sample of the students who have provided consent will be identified to participate in testing that week.  The non-invasive PCR saliva test kits will be sent home to be completed in the morning and then returned to school.  Parents will receive the results by email within 24-48 hours.  The graphic below explains the simple step-by-step instructions: