ASL message will be sent by tomorrow morning, October 7th. We apologize for the late notice of this communication.
Dear TLC Families, 

We are writing to inform you that one person in The Learning Center for the Deaf Community has tested positive for COVID-19. We are complying with all local health departments and CDC guidelines. 

Out of an abundance of caution, we will be closing our Early Childhood Center (ECC) building Thursday, October 7 and Friday October 8 to allow for a deep sanitization of the building.

We will re-open ECC on Tuesday, October 12th, after the Monday holiday. We sincerely apologize for the late notice, as contact tracing took time today to confirm we had all needed information. 
 
All contact tracing has been completed and we feel confident that the tracing process was done professionally and in compliance with all health and safety protocols. As a reminder to our families: A close contact is identified as anyone who was within six (6) feet of the infected individual, indoors, for 15 minutes in a 24-hour period, up to two days prior to the positive test result.
 
If you were not contacted by us, your child has not been identified as a close contact and you are not required to quarantine.
We appreciate the support and diligence of our families in monitoring the health of each student every day. We encourage you to continue COVID-19 mitigation strategies, including staying home if feeling unwell, wearing a mask, limiting large gatherings, social distancing and handwashing. A list of symptoms for COVID-19 can be found on the CDC website. 
 
Any families with questions regarding their child(ren)’s symptoms should contact their Family’s Primary Care Provider.
 
As you may be aware, COVID-19 is spread through close person-to person contact. As a result, we ask that you please notify us if any member of your household has experienced any potential exposure risk. You can find our Student Protocols here, but please note these guidelines are changing often.
 
We also ask that you to keep your child at home if:
  • Your child is exhibiting symptoms including fever or cough;
  • Someone in your home is exhibiting symptoms; or
  • Someone in your home has been in close contact with a person who is showing signs of being sick.

If anyone is exhibiting symptoms of being sick, or has been in close contact with someone that is sick, we ask that you please notify us here to allow us to use this information to make decisions on the impact and safety of our TLC Community. We will comply with all privacy guidelines to ensure the identity of anyone that reports being ill or potentially exposed is kept confidential.  

You can find more information about how to best protect yourself and your family from COVID-19 on the Department of Public Health’s website. 
 
We continue to adhere to every safety protocol possible to avoid transmission of the virus, including our current cleaning and sanitizing schedule on campus.

We also work closely with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as all local boards of health to share with you the most up-to-date information available. We are closely monitoring and complying with the recommendations from all. We are centralizing all communication related to this issue into a single email address: healthandsafety@tlcdeaf.org. We ask that all questions, comments or concerns are directed to this email to ensure that we do not miss anyone.

Thank you for your partnership and support, the safety and health of your children is our highest priority.
Glennis Matthews
TLC Superintendent
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