BATON ROUGE, La. – The Louisiana Department of Education today announced the creation of a new parent choice option for school systems to include in their quarantine determination process. If a school system decides to implement the parent choice option, mandatory quarantines for students defined as “close contact” will no longer be required. Instead, the parent or legal guardian will be immediately notified of the exposure and given the option to quarantine their child or allow them to remain in school. Additionally, at that time, parents will be given an opportunity for a no-cost COVID screening for their child.
“We can no longer ignore the unintended academic consequences of our students unnecessarily missing school,” said Dr. Cade Brumley, State Superintendent of Education. “This new, common-sense option empowers parents and local communities with the authority to make health-related decisions for their students.”
The parent choice option in no way alters the process school systems use to handle a student that tests positive for COVID. If a student develops symptoms of the virus or tests positive, the student should isolate until they have recovered and are determined to no longer be infectious.