Fowlerville Community Schools will not require students exposed to a positive case of COVID-19 to quarantine, the district announced on Tuesday.
The new policy will allow students in all grades, who remain asymptomatic, to continue their in-person education, despite a possible exposure.
The unanimous vote by the school board will extend the coverage of the pilot program, which included only students in grades 7-12 to begin.
According to WXYZ, the vote to end the required quarantine followed a study by local health officials.
“The Livingston County Health Department tracked when people got sick from close contacts in schools. It found the secondary attack rate ranged from 1.6% – 2.2% when contact tracing impacted everyone within six feet. Last month, it reduced the radius to three feet and the secondary attack rate ranged from 1.9% – 2.8%.”
While members of the school district recognize that community spread would remain, officials point to relatively low transmission numbers coming directly from school contact.
“We all realize here in Fowlerville that COVID is real, that kids get sick, and that’s a problem. And sometimes there are lingering effects of that. But they really have listened, I think, to parents and folks in the health department, and what our local data has suggested in terms of the fact the majority of students, all grades- the majority don’t get COVID when they are a close contact. So if you are healthy, no one in your home has COVID, you haven’t been exposed to it other than in school, the risk in school is just low. And so, I think, because of that, they determined it would work for them as well,” Superintendent Wayne Roedel told WHMI.
Other superintendents in the area are considering similar measures.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
