Lower Merion Schools Limiting Virtual Learning Options Next Week

LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA — The Lower Merion School District will limit which students can learn virtually and implement new health policies when students come back to school Tuesday next week.

After the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, only students who are quarantined or in isolation due to confirmed or presumed positive cases of coronavirus will be able to learn virtually.

Students who are not quarantined or isolated and stay home will be marked absent.

Any student who is feeling ill or has symptoms listed on the district's daily screening tool should stay home and the illness should be noted in the LMSD Safe Arrival System or in the note sent into school when the child returns.

Also when students return, the district will implement new health guidelines as laid out by the Montgomery County Office of Public Health.

Those guidelines include mask mandates in all buildings and on school buses until cases and hospitalizations decrease; isolation for symptomatic students and staff; prioritizing contact tracing in areas such as cafeterias and higher risk extracurriculars; and new "Mask to Stay" and "Test to Stay" programs for students and staff.

See full details on the new health guidelines here.

These recommendations are subject to change by county health officials and will continue to be reviewed by the district.

"We fully understand that at times it has been challenging to keep up with changing guidance," said Terry Quinlan, Lead Supervisor of School Health and Student Safety. "As our medical community's knowledge and understanding of the virus has evolved, and as the pandemic has progressed, so have our mitigation strategies. We will do our best to respond to questions, incorporate MCOPH recommendations and continue to focus on providing the most positive in-person school environment possible."