Jan. 3, 2022
Dear Superintendents and School Leaders,

I am writing with updates since my last message.

Quarantine and Isolation Update
As I shared yesterday, there are some outstanding questions regarding if the revised California Department of Public Health (CDPH) guidance on isolation and quarantine time frames applies to schools and workplaces.

The state Safe Schools for All team has clarified that because Executive Order N-84-20 is still active, the updated CDPH isolation and quarantine guidance trumps the Cal/OSHA emergency temporary standards, unless local public health has something more restrictive in place.

Locally, the County of San Diego public health order will be revised to defer to the CDPH guidance for schools. We are updating the decision trees based on the CDPH guidance on isolation and quarantine. The guidance on isolation will apply to students and employees, while the guidance on quarantine will only apply to employees. For quarantine of students, CDPH is still referring schools to the K-12 schools guidance, which has not been updated.

Until the decision trees are updated, we continue to recommend school leaders follow the guidance in the current decision trees.

Bob Mueller, the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) assistant incident commander for COVID-19 response, will be reviewing the upcoming decision tree changes at the County of San Diego’s K-12 education sector telebriefing tomorrow at 10 a.m. We encourage you or a designee to participate in the telebriefing to learn about the changes.

Pfizer Booster Eligibility Expanded
This morning, the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization for children 12 and up to get a third dose of the vaccine made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech. It is expected that later this week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will expand its recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine booster shot to now include everyone age 12 and older.

Regulators also shortened by a month the amount of time that anyone 12 and older should wait between second and third doses, allowing them to seek booster shots five months after second injections.

The SDCOE Communications team has updated its template letter in English and Spanish to address the new guidance. Please do not use this letter to communicate until after the CDC has taken action.

At-Home Test Kits
SDCOE has yet to receive at-home COVID-19 test kits for distribution to the county’s districts and charter schools. We will notify school leaders as soon as we have received the test kits in order to coordinate pickup dates.

Sincerely,
Paul

Dr. Paul Gothold
San Diego County Superintendent of Schools
phone: 858-295-6641