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Return to School - January 3, 2022

Saturday, January 1, 2022

Dear GGUSD Families,

 

We trust that you have all had a rewarding break and look forward to seeing all GGUSD students when schools reopen on January 3rd!
 
In an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19 across school campuses, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced that it will provide free at-home COVID-19 antigen tests to all students as they return to school from winter break. Currently the test kit distribution timeline remains uncertain.  The Orange County Department of Education has not yet received the test kits from CDPH. Once received at the county, they will work to distribute the tests to Orange County school districts. Given that the tests have not yet been received by the county, it is not be possible to distribute to students to test prior to returning to school on Monday, January 3rd.
 
We anticipate that we will receive the test kits in the next week or two and will provide them to students as quickly as possible.  We expect to receive testing kits for each TK-12 GGUSD student; each kit includes two tests that can be taken at home and provides results in 30 minutes. While state health officials have said there is no statewide testing mandate, families are encouraged to test students once the kits have been provided and again five days later. As we know more, we will provide additional details
 
This is an added layer of protection to help keep our schools safe due to the recent nationwide surge of the Omicron variant. The state has developed flyers in English and Spanish that explain when to test your child and what steps to take if you get a positive test result. More information can be found on the CDPH website.
 
As a reminder, If your child has COVID-19 symptoms, tests positive or is a close contact to a person at home who tests positive, please continue to keep your child home from school until his/her isolation or quarantine period has been completed. According to current guidance (which may change given recent guidance announced by the CDC), children who test positive or are a close contact to someone with COVID-19 should remain home for 10 days and students with symptoms should get tested for COVID-19 and return to school following guidance included in the Symptom Decision Tree.

Thank you for doing your part to keep our schools safe and Happy New Year!