September 21, 2020 

RE: What will we do if your child feels unwell while at school?  

Dear Parents/Guardians;  

I wanted to share with you the process we have in place for students who are at school and develop symptoms similar to those of COVID-19 or who let us know that they are not feeling well.   

This process has been developed under the guidance of our local public health unit, is reviewed regularly, and may change, based on the most up to date, evidence-based data and information.  

Process  

The classroom teacher will contact the office and the student will come down.    

The student will be escorted to the isolation room and monitored by a staff member. They will discuss how the student is feeling and gain insight as to what the student’s symptoms are.  

If the student is exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 (which in some cases can mirror other illnesses), the school will be contacting parents to come and pick up the child immediately. Parents are asked to have a plan in place in case your child needs to be picked up during the school day.  

We will be using the COVID-19 screening checklist authorized by our local public health unit. You will receive a copy of that screening checklist when you arrive to pick up your child. The back of the printed screening checklist sheet contains further instructions for you to follow.  

When you come to pick up your child, we will be speaking to you about the symptoms that we documented on the COVID-19 screening checklist and pointing you to the three options on the back of that sheet that, at this time include:  

Take your child to their health care provider for further assessment. Your child’s health care provider will assess your child and determine whether a COVID-19 test is necessary.  

Take your child directly to an assessment centre for testing.  

If you refuse options 1 and 2, then your child (and everyone in your household) needs to self-isolate for 14 days.  

As per our protocol:    

If a Health Care Professional examines your child and determines that the illness is NOT COVID-19 related, the child may return to school 24 hours after the symptoms subside. Please note that this would likely NOT be the next day of school.   

If the Health Care Professional determines that a COVID-19 test is required, follow through with their recommendation. If it is negative, the child may return to school, but if it is a positive test for COVID-19, please immediately contact the school and share this information. We will connect with our local public health unit to receive direction on our next steps.  

This is the process that we will follow to keep everyone at our school and in the greater community, safe and healthy.  

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the office. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation.  

For more information: COVID-19 FAQs  

For more information about COVID-19, visit BHNCDSB website: www.bhncdsb.ca  

For Brant/Brantford residents, visit the Brant County Health Unit website: www.bchu.org  

For Haldimand/Norfolk residents, visit the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit website: www.hnhu.org  

Sincerely,  

Lucas Boluk