Updated 9.30.22
Please review our Covid protocols that will guide us as we return to school.
Vaccination: As you know, all students, faculty, and staff must be fully vaccinated against Covid. Boosters are highly encouraged.
Masking: Masking will be optional for all people – students, faculty/staff, and visitors – entering our buildings. The only exception is people returning to school after isolation for Covid, for whom masking is required (please see “If Students/Faculty/Staff Test Positive for Covid” below).
Testing for Covid: Anyone with Covid-like symptoms must take a rapid/antigen Covid test before coming to school. If the test is negative and you don’t feel ill, you may come to school. If the symptoms persist, please continue to test for three days. Anyone at school with Covid-like symptoms must go to the nurses’ office. Students’ parents will be called and offered the option of the nurses administering a rapid/antigen test. If parents do not want their child tested at school, they can pick up their child and administer a test at home.
No Covid testing for asymptomatic people is required (e.g., to return to school, for exposure at home or elsewhere, etc.).
If Students/Faculty/Staff Test Positive for Covid: Any student or member of the faculty/staff who tests positive for Covid must inform our nurses by emailing nurses@heschel.org. Members of our community who test positive must isolate until the end of Day Five of the virus. Students, faculty, and staff (as well as visitors) can return to our buildings on Day Six (assuming they are feeling well and, like all illnesses, have been fever free for 24 hours) and must mask until the end of Day Ten. No Covid testing is required to return to school.
Covid-Related Absences: At Heschel we believe that students who are ill should rest and get well! Our superb teachers have always – long before Covid entered our world – done an excellent job of working with our students to catch them up following absences due to illness. Any student who is feeling ill – with Covid or any other illness – should stay home, miss school, and get caught up later.
Unlike other illnesses, however, CDC and New York State guidelines still include a 5-day isolation period for Covid even if someone has no symptoms. Thus, students in Lower School, Middle School, and High School who have Covid and are not feeling ill will still have the option of Zooming into their classroom for instructional learning periods through Day Five (teachers need one day to prepare so, at the earliest, Zoom will be available on Day Two). Parents of Early Childhood students should be in touch with their child’s teachers to arrange for calls and/or Zoom visits.
While we are preserving this Zoom option for Covid (and only for Covid) in light of the on-going isolation requirement, we have learned over the past years that Zooming into classroom lessons might not be the most effective way to keep students up-to-date and connected during isolation. In Lower School, in particular, our teachers often find that sending work home and meeting more individually with students over Zoom can be a much more effective support system. We encourage parents to check in with their child’s teachers and/or advisor to make the best plan possible.