COVID-19 Protocols

• Masking is a choice on all AACS campuses and on AACS buses and vans.
  • If the new CDC COVID-19 community spread levels in Anne Arundel County move into the high range or if a campus , families, faculty, and staff will be notified when to resume wearing masks indoors.
• If a community member tests positive for COVID-19, s/he must wear a mask on campus on  days 6 through 10 post-symptom onset/or COVID-19 confirmation. 

• Members of our school community may choose to mask regardless of the COVID-19 community spread level.

Based on guidance from the CDC and other national public health organizations, universal contact tracing is no longer needed in schools.

• AACS principals will email parents/guardians when there is a positive case within a K-12 cohort/classroom.
• AACS will continue to follow existing procedures for reporting communicable diseases (COMAR 10.06.01) and notify the local health department when an on-campus community member has tested positive for COVID-19.

•  AACS community members with COVID-19 confirmed cases must isolate at home for five days and be fever-free with no symptoms for 24 hours before returning to school/work. 
• A negative test result is not required but recommended to return to school after five days at home and symptom-free for at least 24 hours. 
• When an AACS community member returns to campus after a 5-day quarantine, s/he is required to wear a mask indoors except when eating from day 6 to day 10.
• Faculty, staff, and students with COVID-19 symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should follow CDC guidelines for isolation and quarantine. 

COHORT/CLASSROOM
three or more COVID-19 cases among students/teachers/staff in a specified group with onsets (or, if asymptomatic, collection dates) within 14 days and who are epidemiologically linked in the school setting but not household contacts (AAC DOH, 3.8.22)

CAMPUS-WIDE
Five or more cohorts/classrooms with cases from separate households that meet  the classroom/cohort outbreak definition that occurs within 14 days;  OR

5% or more unrelated students/teachers/staff have confirmed COVID 19 within a 14 day period [minimum of 10 unrelated  students/teachers/staff]. (AAC DOH, 3.8.22)

NOTE
If any campus reaches the threshold of 5 percent positivity rate or more in any 7 days, that campus will be mask-required regardless of the community spread level until the 7-day number falls below 5 percent. (2021-2022 AACS Opening Plan, 8.2021, updated March 2022)

• Masks are optional on all AACS buses and vans based on the CDC public and private school transportation updated guidelines. (CDC, 2.25.22) 
  • CDC COVID-19 Transportation Update
• However if a campus or schoolwide mask requirement is reinstated, masks will be required on AACS buses/vans. (2021-2022 AACS Opening Plan)