WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Health Care District of Palm Beach County said its school health staff of more than 200 registered nurses returned to schools this week.
This comes after more than 140 school nurses were furloughed in Palm Beach County earlier this summer when it was announced that the school year would begin virtually for all students.
ESE students returned to campuses on Wednesday of this week and the rest of the student body choosing in-person learning will return on Monday.
School nurses will be on the front lines working with the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County to evaluate students with symptoms to determine if they need COVID-19 testing.
School health clinics will have isolation areas to separate students with suspected cases until their parents can pick them up from school.
Dr. Alina Alonso, Palm Beach County's health director, said contact tracing will be very important as cases pop up. She said the goal is to minimize the number of people out on quarantine.
"We don't want to put out your entire class," Alonso told school board members during Wednesday's meeting. "We want to do this surgically and precisely. We're going to ask, 'Was the mask put on? Was the child wearing the mask the entire time? Was the teacher who may become positive, was she wearing the mask the entire time?'"
Alonso also said it's not going to be left to the schools to decide.
"It's not going to be left up to the principal or left up to anyone else," she added. "We're not going to be closing down schools and we're not going to be closing down classes, OK? We're going to try to do it precisely, based on the contact that has existed."
She said as flu season approaches, the reality is many kids will be sent home because the symptoms are so similar.
Dr. Alonso said the goal would be to have rapid COVID-19 testing available on school campuses, but that is not available and feasible on the school level at this time according to the superintendent.
"Ideally, we would be able to have rapid testing, which is now available, in the nurse's hands," Alonso said. "So that nurse, when the child comes with the coughing or maybe a fever, we could test that child, call the parent, get permission to test, test that child and say he's positive or he's negative. If he's negative, he's still gonna have to go home because he still has the fever. Then we're gonna have to do -- we will instruct the parents and we will instruct the school and do everything we need to do in terms of the way we do contact tracing."
Superintendent Dr. Donald Fennoy said the district is developing a COVID-19 dashboard that will allow parents to go online and track the coronavirus cases at their children's schools.