COVID-19 Information and Resources

"We are concurrently revising our COVID-19 guidance for school and child care settings, including quarantine guidance, to recommend that while COVID-19 positive and symptomatic children should be excluded, exposed children should no longer be required to
stay home, regardless of mask usage. Moreover, when there is a positive case, parents should be given information around exposure to COVID-19 in order to make their own informed decisions regarding risk. To that end, while we acknowledge that some parents
may want their child to continue to wear a cloth face covering for reasons that make sense for their family or that child's individual health condition, we urge schools and child care settings to provide parents and students with the option to make their own decision about
mask usage."

Thus, effective immediately, schools and early childhood centers may make wearing masks optional for all students with a couple of important caveats:

• Any COVID positive or symptomatic child should stay home 10 days after symptoms start and 24 hours with no fever and improved symptoms OR 10 days after positive test (if no symptoms).
• There is no longer automatic quarantining.  Parents of exposed students do, however, (regardless of mask usage) need to be notified when their child has been exposed to COVID in an early childhood or school setting.   This will allow parents to make their own decisions regarding whether to send their children to daycare or school.  Thus, schools will need to continue to do contact tracing and communication with parents.  
• Students should be allowed to wear masks, if that is the parents' desire.

Attached is a Common Child Illnesses and Exclusion document from the IDPH that all are encouraged to read.

Xavier's Return to Learn Letter to Parents

Iowa Crisis Chat

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Archdiocese of Dubuque

Iowa Department of Education: Resources to Support Learning

Magnus Health

Video from Joe Beckman

Covid-19 K12 Counseling