Dear Parents and Guardians,

The purpose of this communication is to provide you with important updates regarding changes to the Daily COVID-19 Health Screening Survey criteria to attend school and new isolation requirements for household members.

These updates impact all TCS students and staff, and are at the direction of the Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health as the province responds to COVID-19 variants of concern.

Change to Daily COVID-19 Health Screening Survey

As the School has required since September, students and school staff are expected to complete the Daily COVID-19 Health Screening Survey prior to arriving at the School (day students) or prior to leaving their dorm room (boarding students). Students use the REACH app to complete the daily health survey and are required to show the green “badge” daily upon entry to the School.

The Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health has now directed that school staff and students with any single new or worsening symptom of COVID-19 must stay home until:

• They receive a negative COVID-19 test result, or
• They receive an alternative diagnosis by a health care professional, or
• It has been 10 days since their symptom onset, and they are feeling better.

To be clear, if your child is experiencing a single new or worsening symptom per the Daily COVID-19 Health Screening Survey, they must stay at home (day student) or, if boarding, stay in their room and contact the TCS Health Centre (jkedwell@tcs.on.ca) for further direction.

Parents of day students are reminded to contact the school attendance office to notify the School of your child’s absence. Day families should talk with a doctor/health care provider to get advice or an assessment, including if your child needs a COVID-19 test. If you think your child has a cold or the flu, the province advises that you talk with a doctor or get tested as symptoms are similar to COVID-19. Day families are asked to notify the TCS Health Centre (jkedwell@tcs.on.ca) of outcomes prior to their child’s return to School.

Any boarding student reporting one or more symptom(s) will be assessed by the TCS Health Centre staff and their parents/guardian will be contacted. The TCS Heath Centre will also contact the parents/guardian of the roommate of a symptomatic student.

Self-Isolation requirement for household contacts of symptomatic individuals

In response to COVID-19 variants of concern, public health will now direct all household contacts of symptomatic individuals to self-isolate. For boarding students, “household contacts” would include their roommate.

This is a significant change and means that any asymptomatic student that has symptomatic household members (e.g. siblings, parents/guardians, roommate) will not be permitted to attend school. In the case of a day student, the student would remain at home; in the case of a boarding student, the student would remain at the TCS Health Centre until such time that they are able to return to residence, or go into the care of their parent/guardian.

All asymptomatic household contacts of symptomatic individuals are required to isolate until the symptomatic household member:

• receives a negative COVID-19 test result, or
• receives an alternative diagnosis by a health care professional.

If the symptomatic individual tests positive, or is not tested and does not receive an alternative diagnosis from a health care professional, the symptomatic individual must isolate (including from household members) for 10 days from symptom onset, and all household contacts must isolate until 14 days from their last contact with the symptomatic individual.

Honest Self-Assessment

With impacts of reporting symptoms resulting in school absences and required doctor/health care professional assessment, some students may be reluctant to honestly report symptoms to their parents, the TCS health centre, and on the Daily COVID-19 Health Screening Survey. Respectfully, we ask that parents discuss the importance of honest reporting of symptoms in aid of mitigating spread of the virus. Please be reminded that students feeling well enough, are able to remotely bridge into their classes.

Protecting the health of our community and supporting provincial and public health practices is a shared responsibility. For more information about symptoms of COVID-19 and Ontario’s efforts to “Stop the Spread” please click here.

Thank you for your continued support as we collectively commit to abide by these latest directives.

Sincerely,

Stuart Grainger
Headmaster