Second Health Advisory Issued For Oregon’s Schools

SALEM, Ore. – The Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Health Authority Friday issued its second health advisory for the state’s schools.

Here’s what’s advised:

1. To reduce spread and the number of students and staff excluded from school due to quarantine, each school should review their Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan (available on this webpage) to:

   a) Consider how they can implement additional layers of protection (examples include increased airflow and circulation, implementing all three COVID-19 testing programs, retraining staff on all protocols, and ensuring all staff, students and families know the COVID-19 symptoms); and
   b) Enhance implementation of current layers (examples include reviewing contact logs, class and bus seating charts, transition activities, and mealtime practices for improvement).

2. All public and private school staff should be working towards completing their vaccination series to meet the October 18 deadline for K-12 workers, in order to protect staff and students alike and help prevent additional disruptions to classroom learning as much as possible. All eligible youth and adults who come in contact with school-age children should vaccinate to reduce spread of COVID-19 in the school community and reduce the number of students and staff who need to quarantine due to exposure to COVID-19. We expect federal approval of the COVID-19 vaccine for children under 12 this fall. When the vaccine is available, families should vaccinate all eligible children to reduce spread of COVID-19 in the school community and reduce the impact of quarantine due to exposure to COVID-19.
3. Families with school-age children and educators should limit gatherings and non-essential activities with people from other households to the extent possible. If you are visiting people from another household, you should wear a mask, maintain a physical distance of 6 feet, and keep activities outdoors as much as possible.
4. To the extent possible, schools and other organizations should reduce extracurricular activities. If schools and other organizations proceed with extracurricular activities, they should consider holding them outdoors and implementing additional precautions like face coverings and physical distancing.
5. Schools should hold family events (open houses, meet the teacher nights, carnivals, fundraisers, etc.) online, rather than in-person. If events are held in-person, hold the events outside, ensure all participants wear masks, and maintain physical distancing of 6 feet to the degree possible.

This advisory will be in place until the end of October.