Hello from the Coonley Safety Committee!

As a committee we are composed of teachers, staff, administrators, and our school engineer. We meet once a month to discuss our safety plan, updates, and any concerns that may come up due to COVID-19. Through collaboration, openness, and always keeping solutions at the forefront, we are continuously working hard to ensure the safety of our students and staff while in school. As a committee, we know this has helped keep our students and staff safe.

​Thank you!

The Coonley Safety Committee
Reporting Positive Cases
  • Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should isolate for 5 days and learn from home. Cases should be reported to cps.edu/covidresults and emailed to Ms. McLinden (semclinden@cps.edu). Be sure to enter your child's student ID correct when completing the self-report. If it is entered incorrectly, we will not receive the information from the self-report.
  • For students who test positive and must isolate, remote instruction will begin on the second school day from notification (i.e. If reported on Monday, remote learning will begin on Wednesday). 25% of total instructional minutes for the day will be synchronous (i.e. Live on Google Meets). 

Weekly In School Testing
  • CPS will continue to provide in-school COVID-19 surveillance testing through our partners at Thermo Fisher.  
  • Anyone who wants to enroll in testing this year will need to fill out an updated consent form — regardless of whether or not individuals participated in weekly testing last year. That updated consent form can be accessed here.
  • Consent forms from last school year or this summer will not be valid for the 2022–23 school year. However, once a student or staff member has consented this year, that consent will remain in place until they leave CPS. 
  • If you already registered your child for testing and would now like them to NOT participate, you can opt out of testing by doing the following:
    • Email readycheckgo@color.com with subject line "Testing Opt Out"
    • Include in the body of the email: Student First Name, Last Name, DOB, School Name and Parent First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone Number

Close Contacts/Contact Tracing
  • CPS will doing “Group” Contact Tracing in elementary school, which means if one student in a classroom tests positive, every individual in that classroom will be identified as a close contact. 
  • Close contacts are no longer required to learn or work from home for five days, but will be required to wear a mask in school for 10 days following exposure. Close contacts are also strongly encouraged to test three and five days after exposure. Rapid take-home tests will be provided for close contacts.

Masks
  • Masks are optional in all CPS buildings. Please discuss with your student your family preference if they should wear a mask or not.
  • Masks will be required in certain situations for CPS students and staff:
    • On days 6-10 after testing positive for COVID-19
    • If someone is exposed to COVID-19
    • If there is a positive case identified in an elementary school classroom
    • At the direction of the Chicago Department of Public Health.
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​COVID-19 Vaccine
  • Vaccination is still the most important way to protect yourself from severe illness, and CPS will continue to offer vaccine events throughout the city to help families and staff get vaccinated. Vaccines are safe, effective, free, and widely available to all Chicagoans over six months of age.
  • Student vaccination records will be entered into the student’s profile in Aspen, where they can be stored safely and used to inform the contact tracing and quarantining process. To submit a copy of your child’s vaccination card, you may:
    • E-mail a copy of the card to Nurse Annie Kulik (akulik@cps.edu) and Nurse Cathy Lehner (calehner@cps.edu)
    • Send a copy to school with your child. They should give it to their homeroom teacher. Their homeroom teacher will secure the copy in a folder and give it to our School Clerk or School Nurse as quickly and safely as possible to ensure safe storage until it can be entered.​
  • If your child has received their booster shot, this record should also be emailed to Nurse Annie & Nurse Cathy.
  • ​​All district employees, vendors and Level 1 volunteers are required to be fully vaccinated.

Care Room
  • The following symptoms are considered COVID-like and require exclusion if not attributed to a documented underlying condition:
    • ​​Fever (100.4°F or higher)
    • New onset of moderate to severe headache
    • Shortness of breath
    • New cough
    • Sore throat
    • Nausea or vomiting
    • Diarrhea
    • New loss of sense of taste or smell
    • Fatigue from unknown cause
    • Muscle or body aches from unknown cause
  • Vaccination status does not impact those experiencing COVID-like symptoms. Those experiencing COVID-like symptoms must stay home and get tested regardless of vaccination status. All students with COVID-like symptoms will be brought to the Care Room. Parents will be contacted and thee student must be picked up immediately and should isolate until they are diagnostically tested.
  • To return to school: 
    • The parent/guardian must provide written documentation from the medical provider, submitted to the school upon the student's return indicating that the student has been cleared to return to school. 
    • Students and staff returning to school after experiencing COVID-like symptoms but being diagnosed with a non-COVID illness must meet the criteria for returning to school for the illness with which they have been diagnosed.  At a minimum, the individual must be fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and have had no diarrhea or vomiting in the previous 24 ho
    • If the student is diagnosed with COVID, standard public health guidance specified by CDPH regarding return to school applies. The positive case should be reported at cps.edu/covidresults