Greenville County Schools is asking both Gov. Henry McMaster and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to rethink the amount of time students are required to quarantine under state-mandated COVID-19 guidelines.
During a called meeting held Jan. 27, school board members approved via roll call vote a letter from board chairman Roger Meek to McMaster and DHEC Chairman Mark Elam spelling out the district’s concerns with close-contact quarantine rules for students.
“We believe that the implementation of the current DHEC exclusion list for COVID-19 continues to negatively impact the well-being of our students emotionally, socially and academically,” Meek wrote.
Under the guidelines, unvaccinated teachers who haven’t tested positive for COVID-19 within 90 days of the close-contact event must wear a mask, take a COVID test the fifth day after the close-contact event, and wear a mask through day 10. Vaccinated teachers or those who have had COVID-19 within 90 days of the close-contact event are exempt from the day five testing requirement.
For students, the rules are more complicated: Those 18 and older who are fully vaccinated can return to campus after a close-contact event as long as they wear a mask and remain asymptomatic for 10 days. Those 17 and younger who are at least partially vaccinated or have proof of COVID infection within 90 days of the close-contact event can return to campus as long as they wear a mask and remain asymptomatic for 10 days.
Unvaccinated students and those who haven’t had COVID-19 within 90 days of the close-contact event are required to stay home for five days.
And, for some board members, it’s too much to ask.
“I want all our kids back in school, because they’re missing valuable instruction time,” said board member Michelle Goodwin-Calwile.
The letter called on the governor and DHEC to address the amount of time students have been staying home, given that, between Aug. 17 and Jan. 15, 34,432 district students and 1,178 staff members have been quarantined and only 2,230 students and 417 staff members tested positive for COVID-19.
