FORT WAYNE, Ind. (ADAMS) – Another Indiana school district is ending its contact tracing program.
This week, Southwest Allen County Schools decided they will no longer track each coronavirus case and warn students who may have been exposed.
Indiana allows schools to alert parents on a class-by-class basis, as opposed to a kid-by-kid basis.
SACS will also end quarantines for kids who have been in close contact with positive students.
School Board President Brad Mills says they are making the changes to keep kids in class as much as they can.
The district released, in part, this message to families:
Southwest Allen County Schools’ (SACS) Board of School Trustees voted 5-0 to discontinue universal contact tracing across the district requiring our schools to investigate each coronavirus positive case.
The Indiana Department of Health has stated, “While universal case investigation and contact tracing during the initial phase of the pandemic was justified, as the phases of the pandemic evolve, public health experts agree this degree of response is no longer optimal.” The decision to end contact tracing will begin Wednesday, February 16. SACS’ staff will no longer notify families of students who may have had a close contact with the virus through classroom or extracurricular settings.
SACS will continue our current practice of reporting all COVID-19 cases to the Indiana Department of Health and the Allen County Department of Health daily. Parents/caregivers are asked to continue to follow the district’s outline for reporting a student’s positive case and to continue to isolate for five days.
