DISTINCTIVE SCHOOLS

Welcome back and thank you for being part of the Distinctive Schools family. We are writing to provide information about the COVID-19 safety protocols at Distinctive Schools campuses for the 22-23 school year. While COVID is still affecting our communities, we are encouraged by significant advances in vaccinations and safety guidelines that have provided new opportunities for this school year.

From Community Care to a leading Test to Stay option at all of our campuses, Distinctive Schools has led the way to keep students safely in school and learning together as often as possible. With new guidelines from the CDC and the Chicago Department of Public Health, along with widespread access to vaccinations for everyone ages 6 months and older, we are committed to providing a safe, enriching and in-person school experience for our students. This year, we continue to focus on student achievement and remind ourselves that COVID mitigations, safety, mental health and all of our work around social and emotional learning for the past three years have set us up to continue stable and confident plans, all in service of strong teaching and learning. We have worked hard to prepare modified updates below to keep everyone safe and learning.

2022-23 UPDATES:

In this section you will find...

COVID TESTING INFORMATION
MASKS
CONTACT TRACING
REMOTE LEARNING
WHAT TO DO IF YOUR CHILD HAS SYMPTOMS

COVID TESTING

CHICAGO:
We will continue to offer weekly PCR screening tests for all interested students through our partnership with SHIELD Illinois and Zebra Health at each campus where at least 50 participants register for testing.

Every student who wants to participate in testing must complete a testing consent form. Please register your student and provide consent using this form . Please complete a separate form for each child you plan to register.

To avoid disrupting student’s learning, our schools will use a home testing program, also called unobserved testing. Registered students will receive a set of four saliva PCR test kits each month. Once a week, students will complete one test kit at home and return the sample to school to be processed. More information about the SHIELD Illinois Unobserved Testing Program and how you will help your child complete the test can be found here.

Testing is scheduled to begin in late September. Additional information on the testing process will be provided to registered families in September.

MICHIGAN:
Routine COVID testing is no longer funded in Michigan and will not be provided at Distinctive Schools campuses. We are awaiting further information from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services about access to free home test kits for interested students and families. We will provide an update if test kits become available.

MASKS

Masking is optional at all Distinctive Schools campuses, though is strongly recommended when COVID community levels are high. We will continue to promote and expect a mask friendly environment across all of our campuses. However, masks continue to be temporarily required in the following cases:

Upon return from isolation or quarantine
When someone is a close contact to a positive case
If experiencing symptoms
When three or more cases have been identified within a group
Other situations as recommended by the local health department

CONTACT TRACING

Distinctive Schools will continue to investigate COVID-19 cases and provide information to close contacts on next steps to prevent the spread of the virus within school communities.

K-8 schools will use “group” contact tracing. This means that if one student in a room tests positive, everyone in the classroom is identified as a close contact.
In grades 9-12, individual close contacts will be identified based on proximity to the positive individual in the classroom.

REMOTE LEARNING

Students on COVID-19 isolation due to a positive COVID test will be able to learn from home. Students will have access to devices and assignments for asynchronous remote learning. This year, close contacts will be able to remain in school as long as they remain symptom-free and wear a mask for 10 days following their exposure.

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR CHILD HAS COVID SYMPTOMS

Students who are sick should stay home. If your child leaves school or is absent due to illness and is experiencing any COVID symptoms, a negative COVID test is required before returning to school. Results from home test kits are now accepted. To verify test results, please submit a photo of the test strip with the key from the test kit, along with the student’s name and the date the test was taken.

In addition to a negative test, students must be fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of medication and must have improving symptoms before returning to school. Students experiencing COVID-like symptoms may be temporarily required to wear a mask.

VACCINATION INFORMATION

Experts continue to share that vaccinations and boosters for COVID-19 are the best way to protect our school communities. We strongly encourage everyone ages 6 months and older to receive a COVID vaccination and remain up-to-date with boosters as soon as they are eligible. Vaccines are safe, free, and effective. Find a vaccine near you at: https://www.vaccines.gov/.

Please verify your child’s current vaccination status including a copy of their vaccination card, if applicable, using this form. If your child’s vaccination status changes at any time this year, please notify the school. Up-to-date information on vaccine status helps us provide resources such as on-site vaccine clinics and plan for COVID mitigations.

VACCINE QUICK FACTS:

Vaccinating children against COVID-19 can help protect them from dangerous variants, hospitalization, or developing long-term COVID-19 symptoms.
If children are vaccinated against COVID-19, they can focus on their learning and reap the rewards of in-person learning experience.
Long-standing scientific evidence shows that other vaccines protect children against dangerous viruses and diseases, just as the COVID-19 vaccines do.
Vaccinating children against COVID-19 can in turn help protect the people around them who are at high risk of having severe effects from COVID-19, whether family members, classmates, teachers, or people in their communities.
The Pfizer emergency use authorization for 5- to 11- year-olds is an important milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic, one that will enable us to protect a larger segment of our population.

SCHEDULE A VACCINE AT A PHARMACY:

Walgreens: Register online or call your local Walgreens or 1-800-WALGREENS (1-800-925-4733).
CVS: Register online or call your local CVS or 1-800-679-9691.
Walmart: Call 833-886-0023, Option 1.
Costco Pharmacies: Register online for an appointment or call a pharmacy directly.

On-Demand Webinar

We asked our partners at the Angel Harvey Family Health Center (The Infant Welfare Society of Chicago) to help us understand why the Covid-19 vaccine is important and necessary. Please watch this webinar featuring a Q&A session with Dr. Portela, a Board Certified Pediatrician from the Angel Harvey Family Health Center, led by Scott Frauenheim, CEO of Distinctive Schools – and if you’re interested in scheduling a vaccine, you can find a vaccination site near you at https://www.vaccines.gov

*To turn on subtitles in another language:
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What happens when a positive case is reported?

1. Contact Tracing
When we are notified of a positive case, our team - including school leaders, school nurses, and other trained staff - begin contact tracing to identify and quarantine close contacts who may have been exposed to the positive individual. Contact tracing reviews a person’s activities at school within the 48 hours before they developed symptoms, or before they tested positive if they did not have any symptoms. Contact tracing involves speaking with positive individuals, teachers, and school staff, as well as reviewing resources like seating charts.

2. Notifications
We notify our community of positive cases as soon as possible. We are typically able to notify close contacts and our community the same day we learn of the positive case, though contact tracing can sometimes take longer. If your child was a close contact or in the classroom of a positive case, you would receive a communication notifying you.

3. Health Department Partnership
Every case reported in our schools is also reported to the local health department. We follow all local health department guidance when responding to positive cases and discuss reports with local officials regularly.