What Students, Families Need To Know Now About Back-To-School

MADISON, CT —Madison Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Craig Cooke provided an important update for students and families about what to expect when school reopens for the fall semester on Aug. 30, including updates on masks mandated indoors but not outdoors, relaxed cohorting, new quarantine rules including loosening student-to-student contact to three feet rather than six feet, no remote learning, sharing vaccination statuses, and more.

Masks and COVID Protocols

In accordance with the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), American Academy of Pediatrics, and Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), and in compliance with Governor Lamont’s Executive Order 13A (which requires masks in schools through September 30, 2021) Madison Public Schools will start the year off by requiring masks for all students, staff and visitors in indoor settings.

Our goal is to offer a full year of in-person instruction to all our students. Wearing masks at the start of the school year is an important step to ensure we can offer that full year in-person instruction. This decision will be reviewed frequently. It is our hope that we progress to more relaxed mask policies later in the 2021-2022 school year.

I understand that not all families will be happy with this decision. I assure you that this decision is not made lightly and that we understand mask wearing in schools is not without its drawbacks. Masks will also be required on school buses in compliance with CT State law. At this time, masks are not required when students are outdoors. This includes outdoor physical education, recess and playing sports. CIAC has released separate sports guidance which we will comply with and which will be communicated later this week to our student athletes.

We plan to return to a more normal operation of school this year. Cohorting - which kept students in smaller groups last school year - will not be occurring as strictly. Students will change classrooms and interact with students throughout the building, including at recess. Students across the district will be able to eat in the cafeteria (not 5 days a week in all schools) and go through the lunch line.

Quarantining

There have been significant changes to the quarantining guidelines for 2021-2022. First of all, students and staff who have been vaccinated are not required to quarantine unless they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19. An additional change is that when students are masked, student to student contact is now measured at 3 feet of distance (previously 6 feet of distance) for quarantining. This should greatly reduce our need to quarantine students. Staff to students remains at 6 feet.

Remote Learning

Students in Madison will not have the option for remote learning unless the student is quarantined by the district. Students quarantined by the district are able receive credit for the day by participating remotely.

District Remote Learning/Snow Days

I know it seems early to discuss snow days but I did want to share that for the 2021-2022 school year, school districts will not have the ability to count distance learning days towards the 180 school day requirement. Madison Public Schools has 183 student days which would allow for up to 3 days to be utilized as distance learning days. We would most likely look to balance these throughout the year. For example, we may use one distance learning day on an occasion when there might be two days of inclimate weather back to back so we minimize disruptions to the educational process.

Vaccine Reminder

If your student(s) are fully vaccinated, we ask that you share that information with your school nurse. Proof of vaccination should be submitted to your medical provider to be added to the student’s official immunization record. Once that has been completed, the pediatrician can then forward the updated immunization record to our health offices.
If you are experiencing difficulties sharing this information through your pediatrician, we ask that you share directly with the school nurse. Knowing our students’ vaccination status will be helpful to our nurses as we return to school.

Technology in the Classroom

We have worked hard to upgrade technology in the classrooms and available to students. Thanks to the support of the school budget and state grants, we anticipate being able to outfit most classrooms in Madison with Promethean Boards during this school year. However due to significant supply chain issues and high demand, we have not progressed as quickly this summer as planned. We have a large number of Promethean Boards on order dating back to the Spring. We expect them this Fall and would have them installed after school hours as soon as possible.