CHOP's Revised Guidance; RTSD Accepting At-Home Test Results

Dear Radnor Staff and Families,

Our school community came together this past week to keep all our schools physically open (except for Friday’s minor snowstorm!) and class in session. Our entire staff was simply amazing working together to cover absences and support our students across the district. Likewise, the cooperation and flexibility of our students and families has been equally amazing. With all our mitigation protocols in place, we know that school is not only the safest place for our kids right now, but it is where they need to be. As long as we can staff our buildings, we will continue to keep them open. 

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), in coordination with CHOP Policy Lab, released new guidance emphasizing the importance of in-person education for our students. CHOP has adopted new guidance based on the wide availability of vaccines and the milder infections of Covid-19 in most children.

Radnor schools will follow this new guidance. In addition to following CHOP’s new guidance, we will now accept home test results for Covid. We have updated our Covid-19 Mitigation webpage with the latest information and will continue to keep the page updated in this ever-changing landscape. 

Staff and families should continue to work directly with your school principal and nurse with any questions about isolation and quarantine. We continue to allow students absent because of Covid-related issues the opportunity to Zoom in and watch classroom instruction. However, I want to emphasize when students are ill for any reason, the priority is their health. They should not feel pressure to Zoom into class. It is okay for kids to be home sick and not remoting into class. Teachers will post assignments and work with students to cover the material missed during their absence. Please continue to communicate with your principal and nurse when you have a school absence. 

As we review the cases from the week of January 3, we see some signs of hope as the number of reported cases was far less on Wednesday and Thursday than on Monday and Tuesday. Please keep in mind our reported cases are based on all cases we know about. The vast majority of our reported cases never set foot in school since parents keep symptomatic kids home and then let us know.

Have a great week and thank you for all your support. 

Sincerely,

Ken

Kenneth E. Batchelor
Superintendent of Schools