Pasco County School District continues to follow guidelines set forth by the Center for Disease Control and the Florida Department of Health. Students and/or parents and guardians are expected to monitor their child daily for signs of infectious diseases, including COVID-19, influenza, respiratory viruses, and gastrointestinal infections using the 2023-2024 Student Screener. An individual exhibiting symptoms should stay home and consider getting tested for COVID-19, when appropriate. Similarly, staff and visitors need to continue to monitor themselves for signs of illness or infection and follow the school’s procedure for communicating an illness.  Employees and visitors screeners can be found on our COVID-19 Screeners page.

Pasco County Schools remain committed to preventing the spread of any illness in our schools by continuing the following strategies:

• Encouraging students and staff to stay home when ill.
• Encouraging students and staff to continue appropriate hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette.
• We are maintaining daily cleaning and disinfection of high-touch surface areas.
• Continuing collaboration with the Pasco Department of Health in monitoring for school-associated outbreaks of COVID-19 and following their guidance should an outbreak occur.
• A face mask is not required and wearing one remains an individual’s choice.

Student is Symptomatic or Fails Screener – Vaccinated or Unvaccinated:

Attendance:

• Isolate as directed by the 2023-2024 Student Screener

o While awaiting COVID test results, the student must be kept home until results are available. If the test result is negative, then the student/staff can return to school if 24 hours fever free without the use of fever-reducing medications and other symptoms have improved.

Positive Student - Symptomatic or Asymptomatic – Vaccinated or Unvaccinated:

Attendance :

• Notify a member of the school team about the COVID-19 positive test result.
• Student cannot attend school or a school sponsored activity until:

o 5 days after date the positive test was administered or 5 days after the symptoms first appeared (whichever occurred first) AND fever-free for at least 24 hours (without taking fever reducing medications) AND other symptoms improved (cough, shortness of breath). OR

o Provide a negative FDA approved COVID-19 test and is asymptomatic.

o Student receives written permission from a medical provider and is fever-free for at least 24 hours (without the use of fever reducing medications) and improvement in other symptoms.