Starting Monday, Jan. 31, in accordance with shifts in policy by the Florida Department of Health to focus on “high-risk congregate settings” (considered by the country to be “Nursing homes, correctional facilities, and homeless shelters”), Hillsborough County Public Schools are changing their protocol in notifying students and parents of exposure.

Previously, this took place through phone calls delivered to the homes of students notifying them or their parents of possible close exposure to students who tested positive, as well as emails sent home daily updating on the presence of coronavirus cases in the school.

Now however, the school’s administration will be delivering exposure risk via “class-level notifications” to students, meaning that in lieu of individualized calls home to parents regarding exposure, the entire class population where a positive case arose will be notified as such.

The reason for the change lies in the definition and jurisdiction of “high-risk congregate settings”, as mentioned prior. While this does include nursing homes, correctional facilities and homeless shelters, it does not include public or private schools. This means that the district is losing its partnership with the Hillsborough Department of Health, which used to aid in contact tracing and notification of possible exposures or positive cases. Without this partnership, the district’s capacity for notification and tracking of health risks due to coronavirus are greatly reduced; resulting in the replacement of individual call notification to class-level notification.

In an email detailing the causes and implications of this change, superintendent Addison Davis reflected on the county’s partnership with the Department. “We are grateful for our partnership​s with the Department of Health-Hillsborough and our ​local health professionals. ​Parents can support schools and our entire community by keeping ​symptomatic students at home. This will greatly reduce ​the spread and impact of COVID-19”.

No change has been made in risk management procedures, and all previous measures taken by the county are still in effect. However, the only mandatory rules are enforcement of seating charts, social distancing, cleaning procedures and the provision of PPE, whereas protocol on what to do if a student tests positive (keeping symptomatic or exposed students home, use of vaccines, and quarantine/social isolation periods) still fall under the discretion of parents and at most the recommendation of the district.

The district advises families to stay safe, keep symptomatic students home, and follow the HCPS COVID Dashboard for detailed updates on case counts.