COVID-19 Update:
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including Influenza (FLU) and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
Pasco County Schools remains committed to preventing the spread of any illness in our schools by continuing to be proactive and implementing our illness protocol. Given this guidance, Pasco County Schools has updated its health procedures to include COVID-19 in our previous respiratory virus guidance and procedures which include FLU and RSV.
Student Illness Procedure:
A student may not attend or remain in school with the following symptoms (List is not exhaustive):
- Fever (100.4 or greater)/Chills
- Sore Throat
- Repeated episodes of vomiting/diarrhea
- Severe Cold – runny nose/bad cough that prevents the child from sleeping at night or disrupts normal activities
- Has distracting pain from earache, headache, or sore throat
Students exhibiting these symptoms must be excluded from school and remain home for 24 hours AFTER the symptoms are gone without the use of over-the-counter medications to treat these symptoms.
Employee Illness Procedure:
An employee may not attend or remain in school with the following symptoms (List is not exhaustive):
- Fever (100.4 or greater)/Chills
- Sore Throat
- Repeated episodes of vomiting/diarrhea
- Severe Cold – runny nose/bad cough that prevents the employee from sleeping at night or disrupts normal activities
- Has distracting pain from earache, headache, or sore throat
Employees exhibiting these symptoms must be excluded from school and remain home for 24 hours AFTER the symptoms are gone without the use of over-the-counter medications to treat these symptoms. Employees will be required to use available sick/vacation leave for time missed from work.
Furthermore, any food service worker experiencing gastrointestinal illness such as diarrhea and/or vomiting with or without low-grade fever should be excluded from ALL food service duties until they are symptom free for at least 48 hours. Any food service worker caring for someone with gastrointestinal symptoms should be excluded until the ill person is symptom free for at least 48 hours.
Questions:
Student Questions: Contact a member of the school health team.
Employee Questions: Email Human Resources at hr@pasco.k12.fl.us.
