5,600-PLUS CPS STUDENTS ORDERED TO QUARANTINE IN TWO WEEKS OF SCHOOL YEAR
By the end of the second week of the school year, more than 5,600 Chicago Public Schools students had been directed to quarantine because of potential in-school exposure to COVID-19, according to new data made public Tuesday.
In addition, a Southwest Side charter school has closed down for three weeks after three COVID-19 cases were reported at the school.
Those in quarantine represent about 2% of the 290,000 students at non-charter schools, yet they’re almost double the number of students the district had previously identified that have been exposed to the virus.
Last week, CPS updated its online COVID-19 tracker to show 2,941 students had been found to be in close contact to an infected person since the first day of classes Aug. 30.
But it wasn’t clear exactly how many students were in isolation because only unvaccinated children are required to isolate this year, and CPS officials didn’t list that figure online or respond to requests to provide a specific number.
Though the district’s published data shows about 3,000 students as close contacts in the first two weeks, there were 5,665 students and 98 staff members who had been ordered to quarantine as of Saturday, according to data CPS officials shared with the Chicago Teachers Union in bargaining Tuesday.
It’s possible some of those students who have been directed to quarantine were only temporarily in isolation.
A CPS spokeswoman didn’t respond to questions about the data.
Acero campus closed
Meanwhile, Acero Schools, one of Chicago Public Schools’ largest charter operators, confirmed it closed its Zizumbo campus in the Archer Heights community Tuesday to meet the terms of its reopening agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union.
“Because there is no clear indication of the origin of the confirmed cases and because the number of cases affects three individuals or more within three or more classrooms over a 14-day period, we are following the recommendation by the Chicago Department of Public Health to temporarily close school for two weeks in order to prevent further spread within the community,” school administrators wrote in an email to families Monday evening.
Zizumbo is on the first floor of its building, which houses Acero Torres elementary school on the second floor and Acero Garcia high school on the third floor.
An Acero spokesperson said the other two schools won’t revert to remote learning because each one has its own entrance, and administrators were confident their mitigation protocols would prevent other infections throughout the building. Zizumbo enrolls 570 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, the vast majority of whom are not yet eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.