Marin Public Health has confirmed that schools may remain open under the Stay at Home Order. RUSD is scheduled to transition to Phase 3 on Monday, January 11^th. This means that Phase 2 will no longer be a learning phase for our students. If Public Health makes changes in guidelines that would require school campuses to close or revert to smaller cohorts, then we would revert back to Phases 1 or 2.

The Regional Stay At Home Order (effective Dec 8 - Jan 4) will be in effect for 3 weeks beginning December 8, 2020, and instructs Californians to stay at home as much as possible to limit the mixing with other households that can lead to COVID-19 spread. It allows access to (and travel for) critical services and allows outdoor activities to preserve Californians’ physical and mental health. This limited closure is intended to help stop the surge and prevent overwhelming regional ICU capacity. Schools that are currently open may remain open during this order.

Yes, all RUSD students in grades K-8 will be in a distance learning schedule from November 30 - December 4 and January 5 - January 8.  There will be no school on January 4 as it is a Staff Development day.

Reed, Bel Aire and Del Mar are prepared to transition to Phase 3 on Monday, January 11th, if public health guidelines permit.

Marin County Public Health continues to work in close partnership with Marin County Office of Education and leaders of public, private, parochial and independent schools to prepare for and facilitate the eventual reopening of K-12 schools for in-person instruction.

Visit Marin Public Health's Schools Page for more information.

No, schools that have successfully implemented the protocols outlined within the COVID-19 School Site-Specific Protection Plan (SSSPP) and have already opened for in-person instruction are not required to increase testing cadence on campuses under the updated CDPH Guidelines. Weekly testing for students is currently a requirement of a grant opportunity offered to districts to help them open school campuses. RUSD has already opened campuses so this requirement does not apply to our district. Any school currently open is subject to the minimum testing requirement standards established by Cal/OSHA. RUSD has the resources to test staff monthly, and/or weekly if desired by the employee.

Yes, the Stay Home Order permits nannies and babysitters caring for a child in the child’s own home to continue working. According to Marin Public Health, the current Stay Home Order allows “Home service workers to keep providing services in homes if they are essential to health, safety, sanitation, necessary to the operation of the home or otherwise allowed under the current Order. This includes plumbers, electricians, exterminators, and other services needed to maintain a safe and sanitary home. Home construction and repair work is also allowed, as is home-based care for children, adults, seniors, and pets.” View more Health Orders FAQs from Marin Public Health here.

Yes. In order to shorten the duration of a quarantine, a negative COVID-19 test is only valid if taken 5 days after the last date of exposure, contact, mixing, travel, etc. because the virus may not be detected prior to that time. It is also important that the test is a PCR nasal swab test as it is the most reliable form of testing. The T-PCR rapid saliva test is not accepted as it is a less reliable test.

RUSD follows Marin Public Health guidance to ensure a safe return to schools for our entire community. Under the current Stay Home Order, Marin Public Heath has added specific language to the Decision Tree for Schools – Stay at Home that states, “Anyone who has engaged in a high-risk activity (e.g., any mixing of households, non-essential travel) should monitor for symptoms for 14 days; if any symptoms develop, they should self-isolate immediately. They must quarantine for 10 days after engaging in a high-risk activity. Quarantine may be discontinued after 7 days if they test negative on Day 5 or later and remain asymptomatic.”

• Reed – Isabelle Moattar at imoattar@reedschools.org and/or call 415.435.7840 x1002  
• Bel Aire – Lora Nazarian at lnazarian@reedschools.org and/or call 415.559.8112 
• Del Mar – Laura Kristy at lkristy@reedschools.org and/or call 415.435.1468 ext. 0

RUSD is offering COVID-19 testing on campus the week following Winter Break. However, with the increase in testing volume in Marin County and the state, RUSD cannot guarantee when test results will be available. Curative is offering additional community testing during the break for families to get tested earlier. RUSD will expect families to be at home during distance learning for the full week following Winter Break. If a family has traveled during this time, they must quarantine for 10 days or 7 days with proof of a negative COVID-19 (RT-PCR) test on Day 5 or later and remain asymptomatic in order to attend school. Please see public health guidelines Decision Tree for Schools – Stay at Home.

Please refer to the Decision Tree (Stay at Home) to determine when your student must stay home from school due to illness.

If your student or household member was exposed to COVID-19, they must stay at home and quarantine for 14 days after their last contact with the COVID positive person. Your student(s) should be tested for COVID-19 five to seven days after their last exposure. Students must complete a 14-day quarantine and may not return to school even if they test negative for COVID-19. Contact your healthcare provider to review isolation and quarantine orders. If your student develops symptoms during quarantine, they may not return to school until 10 days after their symptoms first appeared and their symptoms have been improving and they have been fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications.

There will not be a policy for student testing requirements, but RUSD has contracted with PMH Laboratories to do COVID-19 testing on our campuses on specified dates. The RUSD COVID-19 Student and Family Handbook and the Test or 10 Guidelines will also help address questions related to illness and school protocols. As a practice, all RUSD students in grades K-8 will be in a distance learning schedule the week following Thanksgiving and Winter Break. This practice is in place so that if families have traveled, they will return home prior to distance learning and will take advantage of COVID-19 testing.

RUSD is working with Curative which provides a staff only rapid testing solution in collaboration with MCOE and Marin Public Health.  In addition, we have contracted testing services from PMH Laboratory to perform our COVID-19 testing on site for families. If a student needs to be tested, and PMH is not scheduled to be on our campus, additional testing resources are available through Marin County Public Health and private medical facilities.

Yes, although RUSD offices will be closed over the holiday break, we ask that families email your school office and principal if your student tests positive for COVID-19. If there are any positive cases, we need to inform families in the cohort that they will shift to distance learning rather than report to school after the break. Updated information will be shared broadly upon return to school if there are new positive COVID-19 cases to report.

Follow the guidance of your doctor which may be specific to your individual health needs. In general, if you have symptoms, stay at home until you are fever free for at least 24 hours (without the aid of fever reducing medication) and 10 days after your symptoms have resolved. **This guidance is for school staff and students, general population would need to be fever free for 24 hours and have improving symptoms**

Visit Marin Health and Human Service's FAQ – Schools & Education for more information.

Cold, influenza and COVID-19 symptoms can be similar. Regardless, keeping the child home that is showing symptoms is a good way to reduce the spread of colds and flu within schools. Marin Health and Human Service's Student and Family Handbook (Stay at Home) is a useful tool to reference for any questions.

As for others in your household, if your child is showing symptoms, it is important to evaluate your child’s symptoms and possible exposures to COVID-19 when deciding whether other children in your household should stay home.  Marin Public Health has developed a decision tree (Stay at Home) to guide parents, based on whether the child has a fever or if the child was exposed to someone with COVID-19.

Visit Marin Health and Human Service's FAQ – Schools & Education for more information.

Each person on campus, whether student, staff, administrative, maintenance, etc, is required to wear a face covering. 

A “Face Covering” means a covering made of cloth, fabric, or other soft or permeable material, without holes, that covers only the nose and mouth and surrounding areas of the lower face.  Face coverings should have two layers of fabric, but it does not need to be a medical-grade mask.  

Face shields are acceptable when used with a face covering underneath OR the face covering includes a facial drape, such as the Humanity Shield. 

Any mask that incorporates a one-way valve (typically a raised plastic cylinder about the size of a quarter on the front or side of the mask) that is designed to facilitate easy exhaling is not an acceptable face covering under Marin County’s and the State of California’s face covering order.  A mask with a valve should not be used to comply with the Order’s requirements.  Valves of that type permit droplet release from the mask, putting others nearby at risk.

Visit Marin Health and Human Service's FAQ – Schools & Education for more information.

If a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19, the following things should occur:

• Information is reported to school administration.
• The person either stays home or will be sent home to isolate per Public Health Guidance.
• Families and household members of the student/staff are quarantined and should pursue testing through their health care provider, local community clinic, or Marin Public Health.
• Student families and Staff of the affected cohort are notified by either a phone call or letter.
• The respective student/staff member’s classroom is closed for 14 days from the last known exposure. However, the rest of the school remains OPEN.

For more detailed information, visit https://bit.ly/ExposureProtocols and review the Student & Family Handbook on COVID-19 safety (Stay at Home)

Visit Marin Health and Human Service's FAQ – Schools & Education for more information.

At Reed and Bel Aire the Test or 10 Learning Support Plan is designed for students that need to stay home due to illness or quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure. If students need to stay home because they have traveled in the past 10 days, or mixed with other households, they will still have access to the learning-support-plan provided by their teacher which will include grade-level skill practice and classroom-specific assignments. Individual Zoom sessions with the teacher will be reserved for students that have followed the requirements of the Stay Home Order.

At Del Mar students who need to stay home will join their grade-level cohort that is assigned to distance learning for the week.

Yes, if someone in your household has tested positive for COVID-19, but your child(ren) tested negative, your child(ren) must still stay home and quarantine for 14 days before they can return to school.

If your child’s cohort was exposed to COVID-19 through a respective student/staff member, and is required to quarantine for 14 days, then that child must quarantine in the home for the full 14 days, even if he/she tests negative for COVID-19. However, if you have other children in the household and you are able to keep them separate from the quarantined child, then your other children may continue to attend school. According to Marin Public Health, only the affected student/staff member’s classroom is closed for 14 days from the last known exposure. The rest of the school remains OPEN.

The Learning Support Plan outlines the support students will receive when they must stay home from school due to illness or quarantine. If your child will be absent from school, please notify the school as well as your teacher, so that you may receive the appropriate weekly schedule for your child.

Visit Marin Health and Human Service's School Status Dashboard that tracks the reopening status of schools in Marin County. Icons on the map represent elementary, middle, and high schools, including public, private, independent, and parochial schools.

• Green icons represent schools that have reopened to in-person instruction (at least 10% of a school's enrollment has returned to in-person instruction)
  
• Grey icons represent schools that offer remote/virtual learning only.

Visit Marin Health and Human Service's FAQ – Schools & Education for more information.

Marin Public health has discouraged travel during this holiday period.  However, if individuals do travel outside of the Bay Area, public health states that upon your return you should limit contact with others and self-quarantine for 10 days.  It is also advised to get tested for COVID-19, 5-7 days after your return and receive a negative test result to return to schools.  As a protocol, RUSD has instituted distance learning for the week following Thanksgiving and Winter break, as well as provided on-campus testing, to help ensure families follow the proper health and safety protocols to keep our community safe.

The Learning Support Plan outlines the support students will receive when they must stay home from school due to the Decision Tree (Stay at Home).

Instructional practices differ when teaching for distance vs. in-person learning and a blended approach hinders the teacher’s ability to use the best tool for the learning experience when being split between two pedagogies. For more information, please review the Superintendent’s Letter – November 13.

Asynchronous instruction primarily comes in the form of teacher-created videos, podcasts or recordings in learning apps. Asynchronous instruction provides a reliable, equitable student experience, while also avoiding lost instruction time caused by environmental and technological issues (slow wifi or other technical issues, interrupting siblings or classmates, the need for parental assistance at a specific time, etc.).

Benefits of Asynchronous instruction:

• Each student can watch at a time and location that is most conducive to their individual learning 
• Each student can adjust the speed of content to match their needs (pause and rewind) to avoid missed learning and ensure comprehension 
• Each student can reference the content when needed to clarify questions and strengthen learning 
• Each student can experience the lesson at their own pace, without classmate interruptions (no classroom management or repetition of content when it is not needed)

Synchronous learning primarily comes in the form of live streaming class instruction or meetings, using Google Meets, which may include the full-class, small group or one-on-one meetings, and office hours. Synchronous platforms provide the social connection and real-time feedback necessary to ensure student well-being, engagement, and support.

Benefits of Synchronous instruction:

• Each student can interact with beloved teachers and classmates, providing a valuable social-emotional connection
• Each student can ask questions in real-time to clarify assignments and instruction
• Each student can collaborate with other students, learning how to communicate and listen in an online environment

Tents are available for teachers to use throughout the day at their discretion.  Some teachers use outdoor spaces more frequently than others, so it is important for all students to dress in warm layers.  Please remember that windows are also opened to increase ventilation in the classroom.

Students may store their backpacks in their classroom. If students have other items, such as a skateboard which they ride to school, they should check with their teacher to identify a designated place for these items.

No, the Yellow Bus program is on temporary hold. Keeping our cohorts from mixing, combined with implementing staggered start and end times at schools to prevent large group gatherings, has created additional challenges when considering potential bus schedules. We will continue to discuss the possibility of reinstating this program as we move into the coming months. We understand that pausing our bus service has created a hardship for families and appreciate your patience.

The RUSD Tech team has compiled a series of FAQs to assist with tech troubleshooting. [http://rusd.tech/faq/]