With the arrival of cold and flu season comes a lot of confusion for parents who kids come down with the sniffles or a sore throat.
Lambton-Kent District School Board Director of Education John Howitt says parents should follow the advice of the province’s revised online screening tool, which can be found on each school’s website.
“If that parent did the pre-screening tool in the morning, it would give them either a green checkmark to attend or a red X,” Howitt says. “They need to following the pre-screening tool, answer the questions accurately, and do what that final screen says, whether it’s a green checkmark or a red X.”
The main guidelines for allowing a student to return to school are having 24 hours without symptoms, a note or confirmation from a family physician that symptoms are not COVID-related, or a negative COVID test.
However, a number of parents have expressed concerns over mixed messaging about symptoms and what it takes to have kids return to school safely.
“One of the big challenges we’re facing, both local public health as well as the school boards, on the new school screener, there is reference on the last page if you get the big red X it says you can return when symptoms start to reduce, which is contrary to the message we’ve been given,” Howitt says. “So that I think might be where some of the confusion is coming.”
Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Colby says schools don’t require a physical doctor’s note to have a child return to school, but an assurance from a parent or caregiver that they’ve consulted with a health care practitioner saying any symptoms aren’t COVID related should be enough.