COVID School Rules Update

The rules regarding Covid-19 are ever-changing. With the changing rules comes confusion among teachers, parents, and their children. But with new rules and regulations implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we may be seeing a return to normalcy sooner rather than later.

The new rules state that students may unmask when outside and playing on the playground. Contact tracing has also been eliminated. Unless students have symptoms or test positive, they can stay in school.

“I think anytime we can get students in seats in school, it’s going to have a positive effect on the students,” said Robin Pinto, a first-grade teacher. “I believe that we’re following the rules and everybody’s being safe. We’re keeping things clean, and I believe that kids need to be in school.”

If teachers test positive for Covid-19, they may no longer be able to use Covid sick days. Instead, depending on where they contracted the virus, they may have to use their regular sick days.

If a student who has Covid-19 comes into contact with a teacher, then the teacher may use Covid sick days. But if the virus is contracted from outside of the workplace, the teachers are out of luck.

“My own husband just got Covid, and thankfully I didn’t get it,” says Crystal Guerrero, a first-grade teacher. “If I had, my sick days currently under the new rule, wouldn’t be covered. I feel like it’s not fair, because it’s not our fault that this pandemic is happening.”

Despite some pushback about this rule, most are just happy that things are going back to the way they used to be.

“That is the hope,” says Dos Palos Elementary principal Alec Grijalva. “We are seeing other states moving in that direction and we hope that we are heading there, too. All we can do is hope.”