Dear SSCPS Families,
 
Yesterday we sent an email to our school community to introduce all families to the new weekly COVID-19 testing program which will begin on March 15. The program is free and voluntary. Pooled testing of students and staff is intended to help us lower the risk of disease in our school by finding positive cases of COVID-19 quickly. This program will also help identify positive cases in people who do not show any symptoms. Testing will allow us to continue in-person learning while making everyone feel safer when in-person. 
 
We hope that you will participate by signing a consent form for your student. The higher the percentage of participation, the safer school will be. Below please find additional information and the Registration link. 
 
Registration link:
https://app.beacontesting.com/register/with-code?code=WPWCQJ
 
Please follow the link below for additional information on registering your student through the Project Beacon website.   We have also included a link to FAQ’s about pool testing. 
https://help.beacontesting.com/article/83-registration-guide-for-parents
 https://help.beacontesting.com/article/86-faq-for-parents-k-12-pooled-testing
 
What is the COVID-19 pooled testing program?

• Participating students will be tested for COVID-19 once a week by our nurses in the SSCPS Health Office
• The test is performed at school
• COVID-19 pooled testing is quick, easy, and it does not hurt. It is a nasal test that gently swabs the lower inner nostril, and most students will be able to swab themselves. 
• We will accommodate all students' needs to help them feel comfortable during the test.
• The test is free. You do not need to pay for the test or have insurance to get the test.
• The optional program begins on March 15, 2021

How can my student participate in the program?
To participate in the testing program, please sign a consent form for your students. You only need to sign up once for the weekly testing. This form gives us permission to share student information with the technology platform we use to track testing. Student information will only be shared with the Department of Public Health and other departments if a student tests positive in an individual test. Please sign up electronically by using the registration link above.  If you need assistance with the link, please call the SSCPS Health Office. 
 
The program is voluntary. Students are not required to participate in the program. If you do not consent to participate, your student can still come to school. We strongly encourage all students to participate to help us reduce the spread of COVID-19. 
 
How does it work?
The type of testing we are using is called "pooled testing." Pooled testing makes it easier and faster to find individuals who might have COVID-19. Here is how it works:

• Participating students are testing individually once a week with a nasal swab. Most students will be able to swab themselves.
• Immediately following, up to ten swabs will be placed in the same tube, creating a group of swabs called a "pool." The pool is sent to a lab where the whole pool is tested for COVID-19 at one time.
• If the pool test comes back negative, all students in the pool are COVID-negative. No further action is necessary.
• If the pool test comes back positive, it means that at least one person in the pool is COVID-positive. In this case, all students in that pool will return to school the next morning for an individual follow-up test. 
• Individual follow-up tests will be done with BinaxNOW which produce results in 15 minutes. If the individual follow-up test comes back negative, the student returns to school as normal. If the individual follow-up test comes back positive, we will work with families to make arrangements to have the student quarantine and get connected to care. The local board of health may also reach out to start the contact tracing process

 
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of the SSCPS Health Office nurses:
 
Susan Dupras, RN [email protected]
Darcie Edwards, RN [email protected]
Barbara Folan, RN [email protected]
Jaime Kjelgaard, RN [email protected]


--
Alicia E. Savage
Executive Director
South Shore Charter Public School
781.982.4202 Ext. 101
www.sscps.org

Dear SSCPS Families,

We are seeking ways to bring all of our students back to school safely. We are starting a voluntary free weekly COVID-19 testing program to help keep our students, staff, and community safe and help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Regular COVID-19 testing of students and staff is intended to help us lower the risk of disease in our school by finding positive cases of COVID-19 quickly. This pooled testing program will also help identify positive cases in people who do not show any symptoms. Testing will allow us to continue in-person learning while making everyone feel safer when in-person. 

We hope that you will participate by signing a consent form for your student. The higher the percentage of participation, the safer school will be. 

What is the COVID-19 pooled testing program?

• Participating students will be tested for COVID-19 once a week by our nurses in the SSCPS Health Office
• The test is performed at school
• COVID-19 pooled testing is quick, easy, and it does not hurt. It is a nasal test that gently swabs the lower inner nostril, and most students will be able to swab themselves. 
• We will accommodate all students' needs to help them feel comfortable during the test
• The test is free. You do not need to pay for the test or have insurance to get the test.
• The optional program begins on March 15, 2021

How can my student participate in the program?
To participate in the testing program, please sign a consent form for your students. You only need to sign up once for the weekly testing. This form gives us permission to share student information with the technology platform we use to track testing. Student information will only be shared with the Department of Public Health and other departments if a student tests positive in an individual test. Please sign up electronically by checking your email for a link which will be sent out under separate cover. If you need assistance with the link, please call the SSCPS Health Office. 

The program is voluntary. Students are not required to participate in the program. If you do not consent to participate, your student can still come to school. We strongly encourage all students to participate to help us reduce the spread of COVID-19. 

How does it work?
The type of testing we are using is called "pooled testing." Pooled testing makes it easier and faster to find individuals who might have COVID-19. Here is how it works:

• Participating students are testing individually once a week with a nasal swab. Most students will be able to swab themselves.
• Immediately following, ten swabs will be placed in the same tube, creating a group of swabs called a "pool." The pool is sent to a lab where the whole pool is tested for COVID-19 at one time.
• If the pool test comes back negative, all students in the pool are COVID-negative. No further action is necessary.
• If the pool test comes back positive, it means that at least one person in the pool is COVID-positive. In this case, all students in that pool will return to school the next morning for an individual follow-up test. 
• Individual follow-up tests will be done with BinaxNOW which produce results in 15 minutes. If the individual follow-up test comes back negative, the student returns to school as normal. If the individual follow-up test comes back positive, we will work with families to make arrangements to have the student quarantine and get connected to care. The local board of health may also reach out to start the contact tracing process.

​
Learn more about the SSCPS COVID-19 Testing Program on the SSCPS Health Office website.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of the SSCPS Health Office nurses:

Susan Dupras, RN [email protected]
Darcie Edwards, RN [email protected]
Barbara Folan, RN [email protected]
Jaime Kjelgaard, RN [email protected]

--
Alicia E. Savage
Executive Director
South Shore Charter Public School
781.982.4202 Ext. 101
www.sscps.org

Dear SSCPS Families,

Thank you for your continued partnership during this unprecedented school year. In an effort to  prevent the spread of COVID-19, we have been working closely with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) to offer free rapid COVID-19 testing for symptomatic staff and students participating in any type of in-person instruction.

The purpose of this letter is to ask your permission to test your child should he or she develop symptoms at school.  While we have asked all students and staff who are sick to stay home, there may be members of our school community who first present symptoms while in school. Being able to test your child at school will not only expedite results and therefore help you determine next steps to protect your student and your family, but also provide some peace of mind that a test is available and can be delivered by a nurse if the need arises. The Rapid Antigen COVID-19 Diagnostic Test is FDA approved and delivers results in 15 minutes.  Our school nursing staff has been thoroughly trained on how to administer the test using a nasal swab. The decision to administer the test will be made by the school nurse.

If your child develops symptoms at school, you will be called immediately. You will be asked over the phone if you would like to have a Rapid Antigen COVID-19 Diagnostic Test done. This test will only be administered when you arrive at the school to pick up your student. When you arrive you will call the front desk and let them know you are here. The nurse will then come out in full PPE (mask, gown, gloves, face shield) with your student. You will be directed to pull into a designated spot. At this time the student will sit inside the car, if younger they may sit on your lap. You will be asked to put the car window down. The test will be administered by placing a cotton swab into each nostril about 1 inch and moved in a circular motion. Then the cotton swab will be brought inside where the rapid testing will be completed. At this time you are allowed to start driving home. The test takes 15 minutes to get a result. You will then be notified of the results by telephone and given instructions on further quarantine/isolation guidelines.

If the test results are positive:

• This is a presumed positive test result
• Helps you and us to start contact tracing/notification immediately
• 14 days of quarantine is necessary to return to school 

If the test results are negative:

• Your student will remain out of school until a negative PCR test is obtained 
• 10 days of quarantine is complete
• ​Have a doctor note clearing them for school due to another diagnoses

The SSCPS Health Office will report all test results to DPH and positive test results to DESE’s Rapid Response Help Unit.
This is a voluntary program and you can enter at any time. To give permission for your student to participate in the Rapid Antigen COVID-19 Diagnostic Test, including permitting the school to share the test result information with the Department of Public Health and Project Beacon (a third party non-profit organization contracted to compile consent for testing and to share test results), please follow the directions you will receive from Project Beacon after creating an account by using the following link:   
 https://app.beacontesting.com/register/with-code?code=EKMBEX
A paper permission form may be requested if you cannot access the online site.
​
At South Shore Charter Public School, we are extremely grateful to our committed staff and families that continue to show great flexibility and resilience as we navigate through this school year. It takes all of us working together to contain the spread of this virus.  
If you have questions regarding the Rapid Antigen COVID-19 Diagnostic Test, please reach out to one of the nurses in the SSCPS Health Office

Thank you,
Susan Dupras, RN [email protected]
Darcie Edwards, RN [email protected]
Barbara Folan, RN [email protected]
Jaime Kjelgaard, RN [email protected]
--
Alicia E. Savage
Executive Director
South Shore Charter Public School
781.982.4202 Ext. 101
www.sscps.org

If your child has received the flu vaccine or other vaccines, please send a copy to the appropriate health office. Forms can be mailed, faxed or emailed to the appropriate nurse. 

High school: [email protected] or [email protected]
K-8 school: [email protected] or [email protected]

Please remember to check your child for COVID-19 symptoms including temperature before arriving at school or getting on the bus. If your child is absent with symptoms or has been tested , even if negative you must notify the health office before your child returns to school.

Please use the attendance email ([email protected]) to report a student absence even if your child is not ill but will be working remotely that day. If it is not reported you will receive a phone call from the school regarding the your child's absence.

Thank you,
Susan Dupras R.N. x182
Darcie Edwards R.N. x104
Barbara Folan R.N. x104
Fax # 781-982-4201

Good afternoon. It has come to the attention of the school that a student has tested positive for COVID-19. The student has not been in school during the believed  infectious period. However, we are notifying all SSCPS families in case anyone in your family starts to display symptoms of COVID-19. Those symptoms include:

• Fever (100.0° Fahrenheit or higher), chills, or shaking chills
• Cough (not due to other know cause, such as chronic cough
  
• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
  
• New loss of taste or smell
  
• Sore throat
  
• Headache, when in combination with other symptoms
  
• Muscle aches or body aches
  
• Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
  
• Fatigue, when in combination with other symptoms
  
• Nasal congestion or runny nose (not due to other known causes, such as allergies) when in combination with other symptoms

Though we cannot provide specific information about our school community member who tested positive, your child was not a close contact in our school environment.  The Massachusetts Department of Public Health defines close contact as:

• Being within 6 feet of a COVID-19 case (someone who has tested positive) for 10-15 minutes. Close contact can occur while caring for, living with, visiting, or sharing a healthcare waiting area or room with a COVID-19 case while the case was symptomatic or within 2 days before symptom onset, or
  
• Having direct contact with infectious secretions of a COVID-19 case (e.g. being coughed on) while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment. 

Our first priority is to keep our school community safe. In response to this situation, our Health Office has followed all local Public Health, MDPH, and DESE guidelines and protocols. Because the school has transitioned to full remote learning for most of our student population, there is no additional action required at this time. However, should additional communication  become necessary,  we will share that with you. 
Please do not hesitate to contact the Health  Office with any health questions you may have. 
Sincerely,
Susan Dupras [email protected]

SSCPS now has an email for use when your child will be absent.  This email address should be used for both In-Person and Remote students.  The email is sent to the Health Office as well as both Front Desks.  

Email: [email protected]

Please include the following information: 

• Your student's name and grade
• Reason for Absence
• Contact phone number

 If the absence is due to illness the nurse will call you back and ask you questions about symptoms. 

COVID-19 Check 
Please remember to  check your child for COVID-19 symptoms including temperature before arriving at school or getting on the bus. If your child is absent with symptoms or has been tested , even if negative you must notify the health office before your child returns to school. Please use the attendance email that is found on the SSCPS website to report a student absence even if your child is not ill  but will be working remotely that day .   If it is not reported you will receive a phone call from the school regarding the your child's  absence.

Thank you,
Susan Dupras R.N.       x182
Darcie Edwards R.N.    x104
Barbara Folan R.N.       x104