Dear Superintendents,
Staff COVID-19 Testing Program Overview
Surveillance testing will be an opt-in protocol and would extend to all school staff, including volunteers. The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) will ask that 20% of the staff members be tested at least once every two weeks and each sample should include a representation from a range of staff roles. The individuals selected should be rotated every two weeks to get nearly 100% of the staff within 10 weeks. The test will detect current COVID-19 infection. Anyone with a COVID-19 infection within the previous
three months should not participate. Staff cannot be required to participate. Both negative and positive results will be reported by the WDH and staff that test positive will be required to follow the existing state protocols for quarantine and contact tracing.
The goal of this effort is to detect infected individuals who don’t have symptoms, or before they develop symptoms. This would allow public health officials to intervene. The WDH will work with school districts directly if movement between tiers is necessary based on testing results. There is no cost to school districts or staff for participation. The current goal of the WDH is to determine the interest of the school districts, as they try to define contracts for the tests.
Rural Career and Technical Education Event:
At 4 p.m. MDT on August 25, the Rural Tech Project is hosting a virtual panel of experts to discuss community engagement and coalition building. The panel will share how Rural Tech Project entrants can approach building and maintaining partnerships among schools, school districts, and community organizations. They will also explore topics ranging from assessing community needs to creating structures and systems for sustainable partnerships.
New National Resources as Schools Reopen:
Fact Sheet – Supporting Safe School Reopenings
School Reopening Recommendations
CDC Guidance on Face Coverings for K-12
Content and Performance Standards
Content Standards are the content and skills students are expected to know and be able to do by the end-of-grade or gradeband.
Performance Standards are the standards all students are expected to learn and be assessed on
through the district assessment system. They specify the specific degree of understanding or
demonstration of the knowledge and/or skill for a particular content standard. Districts give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate proficiency and provide appropriate supports for student success.
Standards work in Wyoming is ramping up. Here’s a (very) brief primer of the upcoming work:
- Public input opportunities for Computer Science Performance Standards memo and press release.
- Educator input surveys for Science and PE Performance Standards and Performance Level Descriptors (PLDs) memo.
- Call for Health Content and Performance Standards Review and Development Committee memo. Committee members include educators, parents, practitioners, business and industry.
Memos to be released today:
