January 21, 2021

Westchester County Department of Health has issued new guidance related to quarantining in schools. This guidance, which can be viewed here in full, both reduced the length of the quarantine period (following an exposure in school) and adjusted the parameters that determine how many people must quarantine. 

Previously, the DOH was typically quarantining a full classroom if a single individual within the classroom tested positive. Now, they are asking that we determine who has been within six feet of the positive individual for a cumulative period of ten minutes or more. Please know that we will make every effort to follow the new guidance. We anticipate that it will be more challenging in some settings than in others. For example, in an elementary classroom where the same group of students and teachers are together for an entire day, and where some degree of movement is an important part of the day, it will be more difficult to make the determination. In cases where we cannot be certain about proximity, we will err on the side of caution. 

On the whole, however, moving forward we do expect to see a reduction in the numbers that are required to quarantine.