Le Bonheur provides COVID-19 guidance to schools
Hospital addresses isolation protocol
To localize guidance for school reopening during COVID-19, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital has published its own set of guidelines.
The guidelines, published Friday, were developed by a task force of local medical professionals over the last three weeks, Dr. Jon Mccullers, pediatrician-in-chief at Le Bonheur, said Thursday at a news conference. Mccullers is also a department chair and professor at University of Tennessee Health Science Center and has advised the university and Memphis and Shelby County leaders throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 21-page report addresses reopening across four areas, including communication to schools and parents, written policies around COVID-19 for schools, infection prevention and children themselves, particularly those who have additional medical or learning needs.
The full report can be found at www.lebonheur.org/coronavirus.
Mccullers said Thursday that the guidance was “in concert” with guidelines from the Shelby County Health Department.
The guidance published by Le Bonheur’s task force covers many of the same topics as guidance published by national organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. But the document to schools offers localized specifications, including detailed charts for nurses about how to respond to potential cases of COVID-19.
Found on Le Bonheur’s website, the guidance includes information for the following topics:
Entering school and screening Sick children or staff members Protection for school nurses, educators and staff members
Masks and social distancing Protocol for ill child or adult in school
Process to handle a COVID-19 case in school
Protocol for isolation and return to school for cases and contacts
School sports
School supplies and communal equipment (including balls, jump ropes and playground equipment)
Participation in band, orchestra or choir
Hand hygiene
Riding the bus
Eating at school
Appropriate restroom etiquette Influenza vaccine Recommendations for policies and procedures for children with special medical, educational and behavioral needs
Additionally, the document’s guidance asks schools to work in conjunction with the health department in contact tracing efforts within schools.
A standard 6 feet of social distancing in the classroom matches the 6 feet that is used in determining close contacts: People who are within 6 feet of an individual with COVID-19 for longer than 15 minutes are considered “close contacts” that should quarantine due to potential exposure.
The guidance also calls for masks to be worn daily and “as much as possible” by students and staff, “with the exception of individuals who have a medical exemption for masking for behavioral or medical reasons.”
Influenza vaccines for all children are also strongly recommended by the task force.
The vaccine would reduce transmission of the flu and keep more children in school, but also “make identification of COVID easier clinically, and reduce demand for testing.”
The guidelines recommend schools consider administration of the vaccine in schools.
“We anticipate that we’ll be updating the written guidance as we learn,” Mccullers said.
“I think there’s a lot we’re going to learn from the front-line teachers, from the administrators of how we’re going to have to evolve and maybe change some of those guidelines.”