As of Saturday, March 12, mask mandates were lifted across Washington state. Simultaneously, schools face new guidelines, released by the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) that went into effect at the same time.

These guidelines also extend to childcare providers, early learning, youth development and daycare programs.

As has been the practice of Vashon Island School District throughout the pandemic, the district will fully adopt and follow the new requirements, said Superintendent Slade McSheehy.

The DOH document, which is 19 pages in length and was released on Monday, March 7, outlines required measures and “additional options and considerations” for schools and providers in mitigating COVID-19. However, the additional options are not requirements.

Under the new DOH guidelines, students, children and staff who have symptoms of COVID-19 are required to stay home and should get tested or see a health care provider, and also follow the return to school protocol put in place by the DOH accordingly.

Those children or staff who have tested positive for COVID are also required to isolate, regardless of their vaccination status. After five full days of isolation, individuals may return if symptoms have improved or they are asymptomatic and they do not have a fever for the last 24 hours without using fever-reducing medication.

If returning to school or care after day five of isolation, an individual is strongly recommended (but not required) to wear a mask or face shield with a drape of their isolation period, or test negative with an antigen or at-home test any day after day five. Testing beyond day 10 is not needed.

Schools and providers must also directly notify any student who has been identified as immunocompromised, medically fragile or at high risk of severe COVID-19 of potential exposure.

Additionally, schools and providers must have a process in place to notify students, families and staff when cases or outbreaks occur.

At Vashon Island School District (VISD), notifications will be sent out to everyone in a classroom if a positive case arises, said McSheehy.

In situations regarding clusters and outbreaks in schools, DOH also calls for “…coordination with local public health, enhanced mitigation efforts including some of the strategies outlined in Section 2 should be considered, and may be required to prevent disease transmission.”

According to McSheehy, in the event of a cluster or an outbreak, the district “…will continue with our current practice of working with our local health jurisdiction, PHSKC [Public Health Seattle King County], to determine next steps.”

VISD’s online COVID dashboard will also “continue to be updated on the same schedule,” he said, in an email to The Beachcomber.

Exposed students and staff can continue to take part in all in-person instruction and activities, provided that they are not symptomatic.

Schools are required to ensure access to “timely diagnostic testing for students and staff with symptoms or who were potentially exposed and want to test.”

VISD’s COVID-19 testing site remains open, said McSheehy.

DOH also outlines suggestions to schools and providers on “optional strategies for layered protection,” which includes information on a variety of topics such as physical distancing, ventilation, screening testing and more.

On Vashon, many practices that were put into place to control COVID spread are not going away. At the high school, students will still have two lunch periods. At McMurray Middle School, the way students enter and exit the building will remain the same. Students at Chautauqua Elementary School will still have lunch and activities outside as much as possible.

Though not required by DOH, McSheehy also stated that there will be “very similar” physical distancing practices throughout VISD as well.

“We’ve continued to match our moves according to Public Health Seattle King County and Department of Health,” said McSheehy during Thursday’s board meeting. “We know that folks are in different places with different health concerns in their families. We are very much taking a place where we are respectful of everybody.”