Ouray School started the school year with mask requirements for all staff and students with the primary objectives of reducing the spread of COVID-19 and eliminating class or school quarantines. With regional schools sending large numbers of students home, mask requirements reduce quarantine risk for typical classroom settings.
School Guidance from CDPHE and CDE provide three options for reducing and avoiding quarantines.
- Universal masking for vaccinated and unvaccinated students;
- Student and staff vaccination rates (at least one dose) of 80% or greater; or
- Weekly serial COVID testing for unvaccinated individuals of more than 70%.
CDPE recently revised school recommendations and stated, "If at least 80% of individuals age 12 and older within a school community have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, no one, including unvaccinated individuals, needs to quarantine following a typical classroom exposure to a case."
School staff acquired the vaccination status of eligible students enrolled at the school with access to the state immunization database. They found that 83.3 percent of all high school students and 87% of staff and students combined are vaccinated.
Effective Monday, September 20, 2021, masks will be optional for high school staff and students in classrooms. All staff and students must have a mask and wear them properly in halls, common spaces, and in congregate settings.
See more information on vaccination rates on the school's COVID-19 page.
https://www.ourayschool.org/apps/pages/covid-19
Source: Ouray School COVID-19 page