Responding to Cases and Suspected Cases
The Bellevue School District has established closure protocols in accordance with guidelines from the Washington State Department of Health. When a positive case of COVID-19 is discovered in the school setting, BSD alerts Public Health – Seattle & King County and trained district staff members conduct contact tracing. Read more about BSD contact tracing on our website.
Members of the school learning community will be notified when someone who tested positive for COVID-19 was in person in a school setting during their infectious period.
Class Quarantine Protocols:
Elementary
If a person tests positive for COVID-19 in the school building, trained staff will lead contact tracing. All close contacts of someone who tests positive with COVID-19 will be informed and sent home to quarantine for 14 days.
If two people in your student’s assigned class group test positive for COVID-19 within a two-week period, this class group would quarantine at home and return to remote instruction for a two-week period.
Secondary
If a person tests positive for COVID-19 in the school building, trained staff will lead contact tracing. All close contacts of someone who tests positive with COVID-19 will be informed and sent home to quarantine for 14 days.
School Closure Protocols:
The BSD COVID-19 Coordinator will consult with Public Health – Seattle & King County to determine when schools need to close for quarantine, using guidance from the Washington State Department of Health. They will review data including number of outbreaks in the school, the number of cases in the building, if the number of cases is increasing quickly, etc.
What is an ‘outbreak’ of COVID-19?
An outbreak is defined by the Washington State Department of Health as two or more laboratory positive (PCR or antigen) COVID-19 cases among students or staff within a 14-day period. The people who tested positive do not share a household and were not close contacts of each other in another setting.
Contact Tracing
When a positive case of COVID-19 is discovered in the school setting, trained BSD staff will conduct contact tracing within the school community.
How do staff conduct contact tracing?
Contact tracing within BSD involves speaking with the person who tested positive for COVID-19 about who they were in contact with while they were in our buildings or participating in in-person activities during their infectious period. For students who test positive who are unable to describe who they were in contact with, contact tracers work with school staff who supervise the student to determine close contacts.
Contact tracers will call all BSD staff and students who were close contacts to let them know they were in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, and advise them to quarantine at home and away from others for 14 days.
BSD staff will make every effort to get in touch with all close contacts within 48-72 hours after we are alerted there was a positive case of COVID. By answering the phone when we call, you can help us conduct contact tracing more quickly.
Who do we notify when someone tests positive for COVID-19?
Members of the school learning community will be notified when someone who tested positive for COVID-19 was in person in a school setting during their infectious period.
We update the COVID-19 Schools Dashboard at least weekly with the number of COVID-19 infections and close contacts in each school location over the last 14 days.
BSD also alerts Public Health – Seattle & King County about each positive case and close contact. Our staff discusses the contact tracing, mitigating measures, and reviews decision-making with the public health team. Public Health – Seattle & King County contact tracers also contact the BSD COVID-19 Coordinator when they find a case of COVID in our school community who was participating in in-person learning or activities so we can conduct contact tracing in the school.
For more information about contact tracing, please visit the Public Health – Seattle & King County contact tracing website.
What does “close contact” mean?
Close contact generally means being within 6 feet for a combined total of 15 minutes or more within a 24-hour period.
What is the “infectious period?”
The infectious period (or ‘contagious period’) starts two days before the start of symptoms, or two days before a positive test for someone who does not have symptoms. It lasts until 10 days after the start of symptoms, or 10 days after the positive test for someone who does not have symptoms.
What can I do?
It is important for everyone to answer the call if BSD staff reach out while conducting the contact tracing.