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School Board approves masking opt-out option
The Roanoke County School Board has decided, beginning Feb. 14, that parents may elect to opt-out their students from the requirement to wear masks while in school.
Please be reminded that masks are still required by federal regulation on all school buses. Students who return from a 5-day isolation or quarantine period will be required to wear a mask for days 6-10, including during recess, athletics and/or extracurricular activities.
Schools have sent an email directly to parents with a link to an opt-out form. This form only needs to be completed by parents wishing to opt-out their child from the requirement to wear a mask while in school. Please complete a separate form for each child. Parents should contact their child's school for the link to the opt-out form if needed.
We also remind parents to review the daily health checklist before sending their children to school and we strongly urge parents to keep children home if they are showing any COVID-19 symptoms
We also want to update you on some changes to contact tracing in our schools. The Va. Department of Health has revised their contact tracing guidance. We will no longer be contract tracing every positive case and will, instead, be focusing on potential outbreaks and cases in high-risk settings. We will continue to report all positive cases on our COVID-19 Dashboard. Isolation and quarantine guidelines have not changed, and we remind parents that those students who are up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations do not need to quarantine if they are considered a close contact with someone with COVID-19 and remain asymptomatic. For more information, please see our Return to School Health Plan.