Florida makes quarantine optional for exposed students

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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – A day after taking office, Florida’s new surgeon general on Wednesday signed new protocols allowing parents to decide whether their children should quarantine their children or stay in school if they are asymptomatic after being exposed to a test person. positive for COVID-19.

The new guidelines signed by Dr Joseph Ladapo also changed the state’s ban on school mask warrants, prompting an administrative judge to dismiss a lawsuit against the old rule that had been filed by various school boards.

In terms of quarantine rules, Ladapo has eliminated previous warrants requiring students to quarantine themselves for at least four days off campus if they have been exposed. Under the new guidelines, students who have been exposed can continue to visit campus, “without restrictions or disparate treatment,” provided they are asymptomatic. They can also quarantine, but no longer than seven days, provided they don’t get sick.

“Quarantining healthy students is incredibly damaging to their academic advancement,” Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference in Kissimmee on Wednesday. “It is also disruptive for families. We will take a symptom-based approach.”

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says infected people can spread the virus from two days before showing symptoms. The CDC recommends that a student be quarantined for 14 days if not vaccinated. They can shorten the quarantine to seven days by being negative, according to the CDC.

The president of a statewide teachers’ union said school districts need all the tools they need to keep children safe.

“Limiting the options of districts and preventing them from following CDC guidelines is not in the best interests of the health of our students, employees or families,” said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association.

DeSantis appointed Ladapo to the post on Tuesday. Ladapo, who was previously a doctor at UCLA and a health policy researcher, shares the governor’s approach to handling the coronavirus pandemic. Like DeSantis, Ladapo said he does not believe in school closings, lockdowns or vaccination warrants.

The DeSantis administration has opposed the mask and vaccine warrants, fought local school boards over their efforts to force students to wear masks in schools, and defended the use of monoclonal antibodies as a treatment for those who get sick with COVID-19.

Unchanged from previous rules, students infected with the virus must either self-quarantine for 10 days, test negative and be asymptomatic before returning to campus or offer a doctor’s note authorizing them.

As in previous guidelines, schools can require masks as long as students can opt out, although the new rules add wording that this is “at the sole discretion of the parent or legal guardian.”

School officials in Alachua, Broward, Leon and Miami-Dade and Orange counties recently challenged the state’s ban on mask warrants. But the Florida Department of Health argued that its new rule should lead to the dismissal of the lawsuit that targeted the old rule. An administrative law judge agreed on Wednesday, saying no decision on the rule’s validity could be made since it had been repealed.

Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent Dr Carlee Simon called the Health Ministry rule changes “dishonest.”

“Essentially, the state is responding to the legal challenges of its rules by repealing them and creating new ones, with limited public notice,” Simon said in a statement.