MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 2022

Dear NCSU Staff and Families,

Thank you for your patience as we continue to navigate our evolving COVID context. As we know, the Agency of Education has been working on new guidance around COVID protocols over the past week. We received that updated guidance on Friday and are now passing that information on to staff and families. We plan to make a number of changes to our current protocols beginning on Monday, January 24.

As you will see from the COVID-19 Advisory Memorandum provided by the Agency of Education and Department of Health, we will implement a substantial change in protocols related to contact tracing and isolation and quarantine for those who test positive or are close contacts. Key points:

1. Schools will no longer conduct contact tracing to identify specific close contacts.

2. Schools will inform parents of larger cohorts of students when their students are considered “presumptive contacts.”

3. Schools will no longer conduct Test to Stay at the school and parents will be given home test kits to test their student, depending on the vaccination status of their child. Please review the Test at Home protocols.

4. Schools will be able to test staff and students at school if they are symptomatic while at school.

We recognize this is a substantial change from our current practice. We will continue with contact tracing and Test to Stay through this week as we await delivery of take-home test kits. We encourage staff and families to review the information provided today in anticipation of the changes that will go into effect on Monday, January 24. We will provide additional information and further clarifications later this week as we lead up to our change in approach.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to your school principal or nurse if you have questions.

Be well and be warm!

John

John A. Castle

NCSU Superintendent of Schools