Waukesha County

Safe Schools in Waukesha County

Waukesha County Public Health continues to recommend that schools and districts include CDC Best Practices, recommendations by DHS, and DPI for stopping the spread of COVID-19 as they plan their mitigation strategies for the 2021/22 school year. Waukesha County area schools and districts successfully navigated the 2020/21 school year by implementing strategies that best served their students, staff, and communities. Moving forward, these strategies and policies may vary from school to school as each student body and school community may have different needs, vaccination rates, and other variable factors. Ultimately each school or respective school district has the ability to act in its own best interest to keep their students safe. Waukesha County Public Health recommends that all eligible people be vaccinated.   

Contact tracing continues to be an important tool to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in the community. This practice identifies and notifies individuals at higher risk of developing COVID-19 after an exposure so they are able to monitor their own health and take appropriate actions. Anyone who has a known exposure to COVID-19, and is not fully vaccinated and boosted if applicable, should follow recommendations to stay home during the likely period they would develop disease, monitor for symptoms and test to identify asymptomatic disease spread.

Waukesha County Public Health encourages all schools to utilize this process as it will help to reduce the spread within schools. Public Health continues to work closely with our education partners to help manage these contact exposures and recommend best practices.

 

  • Get Vaccinated: Protect yourself and your family from communicable respiratory illness by getting vaccinated.
  • Protect the Vulnerable: Older adults and those with underlying medical conditions are at a higher risk for severe illness.
  • Stay Home If You Are Sick: Leaving home when you are sick increases the risk of exposing others to illness.
  • Practice Social Distancing: Respiratory illness spreads in close contact. Keep at least 6' (2 arm lengths) of distance from others when in public and avoid large gatherings..
  • Follow CDC Best Practices: Follow CDC best practices for safety and hygiene including hand-washing recommendations and sanitization guidelines.

 

General Statement Regarding Mitigation Efforts in Schools   Waukesha County Public Health continues to recommend that schools and districts include CDC Best Practices, recommendations by DHS, and DPI for stopping the spread of COVID-19 as they plan their mitigation strategies for the 2021/22 school year. Waukesha County area schools and districts successfully navigated the 2020/21 school year by implementing strategies that best served their students, staff, and communities. Moving forward, these strategies and policies may vary from school to school as each student body and school community may have different needs, vaccination rates, and other variable factors. Ultimately each school or respective school district has the ability to act in its own best interest to keep their students safe. Waukesha County Public Health recommends that all eligible people be vaccinated.   

 

Waukesha County Public Health continues to recommend CDC, AAP, DPI, and DHS best practices to stop the spread of COVID-19 virus our community, as we did throughout the 2020/21 academic year. These best practices highlight that layered health and safety practices are key to maintaining low transmission rates in schools and keeping students safe in the classroom.
*As always, if you are sick you should stay home. If you have tested positive for COVID-19, to protect the health of others isolate yourself from other people until 10 days after your illness started and 24 hours fever free and improvement of symptoms (or 10 days after your positive test if you do not have symptoms).

Background: In preparation for the 2020/21 school year, Waukesha County worked collaboratively with area schools and districts to develop safety practices that schools agreed to operationalize in the classroom.Evidence shows that schools that follow layered prevention strategies are less likely to see COVID-19 spread in their buildings.  With this information in mind, Waukesha County Public Health revised its quarantine recommendations in the spring of 2021, specifically for schools with layered health and safety practices already in place. This change in quarantine guidance was supported by local data and outcomes; CDC, DHS, and AAP national guidance; and vetted data from numerous peer-reviewed studies.Since the end of the 2020/21 school year, some schools and school districts have determined that they will not continue  to layer prevention strategies during the 2021/22 school year  Individual school district boards are the governing entity for their own districts and they determine operating procedures related to COVID-19 mitigation.  Waukesha County will continue to recommend that schools follow the advice and guidelines of America’s leading health experts when making school-related decisions.


Decisions to operationalize CDC, DHS, DPI and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations are made by each respective school board. Each school and district in the County will be conducting school in the way they determine is best to educate their own students and keep them safe. The County has not issued, nor does it intend to issue, any orders to require either in-person or virtual learning, or any other mandates. Those decisions can and should be made at the school district level.    
Waukesha County Public Health recommends that Schools or Districts have access to testing and consider working with DHS to become COVID-19 testing sites.   
  
Waukesha County Public Health continues to recommend that individuals who participate in or attend youth sports consider CDC Best Practices and WIAA best practices for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 during youth sports activities.   
Questions? - Contact us at [email protected] 

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