LM Feb.2021_lo

5 Key Components of a COVID Screening Tool

Story submitted by CrisisGo

To foster student learning and social-emotional well- being, many states, including Illinois, have encouraged in- person learning. As schools across the country are gradually returning to school, many are finding the transition more onerous than expected. Staff, parents and students are all looking to find ways to keep each other safe from this virus. A health screening program makes it simpler to keep students and employees safe, track potential outbreaks and report and escalate any cases and outbreaks to local and state health officials. With high and middle school students now moving to in-person learning, technology can greatly reduce the pains associated with contact tracing. To maximize efficacy and adoption, any screening tool needs 5 things: Precertification—to assess which students are cleared to go to school and track trends. 1

Entry Management through Scanning—to keep sick kids at home and admit healthy kids into school. Contact Tracing—to limit the spread after potential exposure through reliable data from the SIS and other scanning methods that can quickly generate a report on points of contact. Cohort Management/hybrid scheduling—to easily accommodate the different scheduling and instruction needs of your schools. Multilingual Components—to communicate effectively with stakeholders and ensure everyone, from staff to parents, know what they need to for pandemic safety. Many school districts throughout Illinois have been able to safely bring students back to the classroom using each of these 5 components. Here are 2 examples: 2 3 4 5

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LM February 2021