YADKIN COUNTY, N.C. — The Yadkin County School system will require face coverings when students return to school on Monday.
This policy will be in place for at least a week as they track each school's data, according to school board officials.
The school district said they are meeting on Monday evening to address the rising COVID-19 numbers. The superintendent stated the county could offer in-person instruction safely as they continue to follow their mitigation strategies and use good judgment. For students who show symptoms of any illness, the school urges parents to keep their children at home.
The school board said they will also be implementing two new COVID testing programs once students return. On the school district's website, they released a detailed memo about these upcoming testing programs.
Yadkin County Schools reported that the COVID numbers are high in the area, and if students are unmasked around a positive COVID case, they must quarantine under the new CDC guidance.
“COVID numbers are very high right now and the decision was made to prevent so many students from having to quarantine due to being contacts to a positive person,” school board leaders said. “Additionally, we will be collecting data at each school during the first week and will begin using the exclusion rate criteria the week of January 10th. You will remember that we began using the exclusion rate criteria to make face-covering decisions by the school rather than district-wide.”
The school district also stated they do not have any protocols such as temperature checks before students enter school facilities since they had little effect on identifying students and staff with COVID.
For more information, visit the Yadkin County School website.
