Milford School Officials Contemplate New COVID-19 Guidance

MILFORD, CT — Milford school officials are reviewing new COVID-19 state guidance ahead of the school year. The information was released Tuesday.

School officials are combing through the new guidance and will update the school community after they've had a chance to digest the recommendations, Superintendent Anna Cutaia said in an letter to the community.

The guidance — released by the departments of public health and education — focus on a new strategy called "test, mask go."

The new optional strategy centers on at-home COVID-19 tests for students. Students who have minor cold-like symptoms and no known COVID-19 exposure can go to school if they test negative for COVID-19. Students should test each day they remain symptomatic and should wear a mask until symptoms resolve. All of this is optional for school districts and is simply guidance from the state.

Below is the full text of the letter:

Dear Members of the Milford Public Schools Community,

I hope this letter finds you enjoying a wonderful summer. We have been very busy here in the Milford Public Schools with curriculum work, construction projects, and all the preparations needed to safely return to school.

Clearly, one of our top priorities is defining our plan for a safe return to school, as related to the current COVID-19 environment. The CT Department of Public Health and the CT State Department of Education issued their updated COVID-19 School Guidance, 2022-23 yesterday and we are carefully going through the information included in that document now. We will provide additional information to everyone in the MPS community once we have had a chance to digest the information in yesterday’s advisory. Stay tuned.

As you know, our approach to maintaining a healthy, safe, and secure environment in our schools is designed to be multi-layered and comprehensive. We will continue to apply this approach as we plan for our return to school.