What Is “Learn to Return” COVID Program in Area Schools?

Have you heard of the Learn to Return program for students in Washington state?

NEW PROGRAM ALLOWS FOR VOLUNTARY TESTING VS QUARANTINE

During his press conference Wednesday, Gov. Inslee referenced a program called Learn to Return.  Like a lot of folks, we were not familiar with it.

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As parents with a child in the Kennewick School District, information was sent out via email in Nov. and December, but we must have missed it.

In Kennewick, they're calling it the Test to Stay Program. According to KSD:

Kennewick School District is offering a voluntary COVID-19 Test To Stay program in our schools that requires parent/legal guardian consent for students under the age of 18. The Test To Stay program is for non-symptomatic students who are identified as a close contact of an individual at school or a school-related event who tests positive for COVID-19. Once parent/legal guardian consent is submitted, it is valid for the entire school year. 

Previously, non-symptomatic students designated as close contacts were required to quarantine at home. The goal of the program is to allow students who are identified as close contacts to remain in school as long as they are symptom free and test negative for COVID-19.

According to the DOH, close contact is defined as anyone who has spent 15 minutes or more around a 'sick' person in a 24-hour period within six feet of that person. For K-12 that distance margin is 3 feet.

According to KSD:

"The district is partnering with the DOH's Learn To Return (L2R) program, which removes barriers for students to access testing, and has been approved by the Benton-Franklin Health District to follow the Test To Stay protocol."

It's interesting, we try to read all the emails we get from KSD and our daughter's school (Highlands MS), must have missed those. But our kid hasn't said anything about it, and prior to Inslee mentioning it, we and most of our friends had not either.