Phoenix school district to quarantine COVID-exposed students

PHOENIX – Deer Valley Unified School District has told parents that students who test positive for COVID-19 or have been in close contact with someone who has will be required to quarantine starting Monday.

The Phoenix district said in a letter sent Sunday “We have also had parents knowingly send their children to school when sick.”

School has been in session for two weeks and in that time 150 students and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 and over 2,000 students were identified as having been in close contact with infected people, district leaders said in the letter.

“Last week, Maricopa County Department of Public Health revised their quarantine measures in order to respond to this increase. Effective Monday, Aug. 16, all student quarantines will be required per this recent MCDPH mandate,” according to the letter.

“If your child is identified as a close contact and you receive the MCDPH quarantine letter, DVUSD is required by law to not permit the student on campus during the duration of the quarantine period. MCDPH requires public schools to deliver this letter to parents, and DVUSD will utilize the Blackboard communication tool to deliver it. ”

District leaders went on to say the county health department does allow for exceptions for students who are identified as a close contact to return to school without being quarantined, but that parents should know the provisions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and county:

• Fully vaccinated students were not subject to quarantine.
• When a student who tests positive for COVID-19 is wearing a mask during the infectious period, other students who were exposed and also wearing a mask consistently and correctly are not subject to quarantine. This means that the student who tested positive and the identified close contact would both need to have been wearing a mask.
• Students who have already tested positive for COVID-19 within 90 days of being identified as a close contact are not subject to quarantine.

In July, Gov. Doug Ducey’s office warned two school districts against quarantining unvaccinated students who may have been exposed to COVID-19.

Ducey’s office informed the Peoria Unified School and Tucson Catalina Foothills School districts in a letter that their plans to require a 10-day isolation period for unvaccinated students “did not comply with state law,” were discriminatory and the policy “must be rescinded immediately.”

Follow @KTAR923