LAUSD To Have ‘In-School Quarantine’ For Unvaccinated Students Who Test Positive For COVID

When the new semester starts on January 11, unvaccinated LAUSD students may experience “in-school quarantine” if they test positive for COVID-19.

Under this “modified quarantine” students may continue attending classes, so long as they are not feeling symptoms, are distant from other classmates and keep their masks on.

If a student does experience COVID-19 symptoms, they will be required to quarantine from home.

Those students who test positive will also be required to test twice a week while under the modified quarantine.

The quarantine would mean “more students will be able to stay in school after an exposure,” according to the LAUSD superintendent’s report.

“Now schools have a new option, called “modified quarantine” which would allow children to continue in-person instruction during regular school hours, while under the Health Officer Quarantine orders,” Los Angeles Public Health said about its modified quarantine option. “This new option is based on a review of information collected by Public Health during the first month of school which showed that very few children in quarantine end up having COVID-19.”

This was part of a slew of COVID-19 regulation modifications set by LAUSD on Tuesday.

Under the new regulations, vaccinated students will no longer have to a baseline COVID-19, nor take weekly tests.

The current LAUSD regulations require all students, regardless of vaccination status, to submit weekly COVID-19 tests in order to attend school on-campus.

The district’s outdoor masking regulations can be removed if the given school is 85% vaccinated. Indoor masking will remain regardless of vaccination status.

As of now, all LAUSD students ages 12 and up are required to be vaccinated, with the deadline for a second dose set for Dec. 19, to be uploaded to the district’s “Daily Pass” by Jan. 10.

While the FDA has not given full approval of a COVID-19 vaccine to be used on children ages 12-15, LAUSD set its own vaccine mandate that is stricter than that of the state. Vaccines have also not been given full approval for ages 5-11, although they are authorized to be administered on a voluntary basis.

Teachers and employees had until Monday to be fully vaccinated in order to work on campus, with 99% of them reportedly meeting the deadline.

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