Dear Heilicher Parents,
Thank you so much to the many parents who attended the parent forum last Tuesday. For those who were unable to attend, the recording is here.
In order to make a transition back to in-person school as seamless as possible, we are unrolling a new reporting system for student and staff COVID diagnosis and exposure, symptom reporting, non-illness related absences, and travel.
First, we are asking all parents (in-person and TDLP) to sign a Heilicher Health Covenant. This short document, which outlines the commitments that we are asking all families to make in order to enhance the safety of the school community, is linked here. To agree to the Covenant, please click here. You can also find the Covenant, and the form signifying your agreement to its terms, on the landing page of the new site described below.
Previously, we asked all parents to fill out a daily health screening for each of their children through Sycamore before sending them into the school building. We found this was a passable system for us, but not comprehensive or universally-used enough to meet all of our needs. Additionally, there was potential for ambiguity around the appropriate information pathways when an illness or COVID exposure, or even a planned late arrival, took place.
This new reporting system, linked here, provides a "one stop shop" for parents to report any issues that may impact their child's in-person attendance at school. Specifically, the site provides easy-to-complete Google forms for parents to fill out pertaining to: -
COVID diagnosis (student or family member)
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COVID exposure (student or family member)
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Symptom reporting (even if unrelated to COVID)
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Non-illness related absences, including late drop-off and early pick-up
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Travel or household contact with out-of-town guests
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A link to communicate directly with the Heilicher nurse's office
This site will be permanently housed as a link on the landing page of Sycamore. Simply log in to Sycamore as you would to access your student's report card or view family directory information, and you will see a link to the site in the lower right corner of the page in the Links section of the Featured box. For those of you who use the Sycamore app, you will find a link to the site as the "Top Story" on the homepage. We will also include a link to the site weekly in Roar, as another mechanism for parents to locate it easily.
There is no longer a need for families to fill out a health screening form daily if there are no illnesses, exposures, symptoms, absences or travel to report. The flip side, however, is that we are asking parents to use this site to communicate immediately - including on weekends (other than Shabbat) and during school breaks and distance learning weeks - if any of these circumstances arise. All form results will go directly to Katie Ruff, our School Nurse, who will be in touch with you as soon as possible, ideally by the following morning, to confirm whether your child (and their siblings) can attend school or not, and what next steps she recommends. After filling out a form and reporting any type of illness, exposure, symptoms, or travel, we ask that you keep all of your children home from school until hearing from Katie.
This new system will work very well when every parent at the school uses it to communicate with Heilicher. Emails should only (and always) be sent to a teacher or advisor about academic issues, not about any planned or unplanned absences. We will ensure that every email regarding an absence is reported to your child's teachers. We ask that TDLP families use this system, too, so that we can track all student absences and be aware of community COVID exposure or illness.
Please direct questions regarding the form and reporting process to Diane Greenberger (dgreenberger@hmjds.org). Any health-related questions can be directed to Katie Ruff, using the link to her email on the site (nurse@hmjds.org).
Thank you so much for your partnership.
Best,
Yoni
