COVID-19 Guidelines
Villa Maria Academy Lower School is dedicated to maintaining the health and safety of our students. This page will serve as a resource for reducing the spread of illness and infection, especially during cold and flu season.
As of March 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated their recommendations for preventing the spread of COVID-19. These recommendations are now consistent with the guidelines for preventing the spread of other respiratory viruses such as influenza (flu) and RSV. You can view the updated guidelines on the CDC Website using this link.
We invite you to view our updated policy for respiratory viruses below:
- Students should stay home and away from others if they have respiratory virus symptoms that aren’t better explained by another cause. These symptoms can include fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose, and headache, among others.
- If someone at home is sick or has been diagnosed with a respiratory virus but the student is asymptomatic, they may attend school. However, we ask that they take additional precautions to reduce the risk of infection and stay home if they begin experiencing any symptoms. *
*Additional precautions include wearing a mask in school, following strict hand hygiene, and maintaining physical distance from others when possible.
- Students can return to school when, for at least 24 hours, they meet the following criteria:
- Their symptoms are getting better overall
- They have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication).
- When students return to school, we recommend that they take additional precautions over the next 5 days, including following strict hand hygiene, wearing a mask, and physical distancing when possible.
We encourage you to review the following webpages for additional guidelines on when students should be kept home from school:
References:
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Respiratory Virus Guidance.”, 1 Mar. 2024, www.cdc.gov/respiratoryviruses/guidance/?CDC_AAref_Val=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Frespiratory-viruses%2Fguidance%2Frespiratory-virus-guidance.html.