NOLA-PS Updated School Community on COVID-19 Guidance for the New School Year

(New Orleans – August 13, 2021) — Masks, vaccines, and tracking the data… works, that's the message NOLA-Public Schools (NOLA-PS) conveyed to the community this afternoon.

Similar to last school year, families, teachers, staff, and the community are coming together to help protect our students to help ensure they have a great school year by taking advantage of the District's ongoing access to mobile vaccinations, enforcing masking and social distancing, and providing regular testing to its school community. All of these safety measures will help keep our schools safe and continue to ensure our schools remain one of the safest places for our students.

Many of our families have had questions surrounding distance learning options, and Superintendent Dr. Henderson, Lewis, Jr. explained it's not an option NOLA-PS is requiring schools to have this year.

"Schools can make accommodations for individual students with medical needs," said Superintendent Dr. Henderson, Lewis, Jr. "Families, along with their physician, can apply for distance learning with an eligibility form directly to their school. In addition, schools have the flexibility to provide distance learning to meet their campuses' needs, such as in the case of large quarantines. We urge parents who have concerns to reach out directly to their schools for more information."

NOLA-PS is committed to protecting the health and safety of all our students. So, along with the Louisiana Department of Health, the City of New Orleans Health Department, and our medical advisors, we will continue to monitor the data. On Monday, the District's COVID Tracker reported 116 positive cases among students and staff, leading to 638 quarantines.

"More than half of these active cases are from individuals who told their schools about their status before they ever set foot in a classroom. We applaud that transparency and honesty," said NOLA-PS Chief Operations Officer Tiffany Delcour. "We also know that the best place to stop the spread of COVID-19 is before it even reaches our schools' front door. That is happening and we want it to keep happening."

Thanks to the vaccine, our community of schools respond differently when they identify a positive case of COVID-19. Unvaccinated students and adults will need to quarantine for 14 days. Vaccinated individuals will not need to quarantine, but if they're a close contact, they must undergo regular testing.

If a vaccinated person tests positive for COVID, they will be treated as a positive case. They will need to self-isolate, and close-contact tracing will take place at the school level, just as it has since the pandemic started.

All in all, NOLA-PS believes our community of schools is in a much better position to handle this pandemic, thanks to the vaccine, and ultimately help keep our children safe.

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About NOLA Public Schools: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district's administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 76 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr.

For more information, visit www.nolapublicschools.com. For updates, follow NOLA Public Schools on Facebook @NOLAPublicSchools, Instagram @nolaps and Twitter @NOLAPSchools.