COVID-19 Safety

Providing a safe and healthy learning environment for students is our highest priority. CPSD is working closely with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and monitoring reports of COVID-19. CPSD is also following the Washington State Department of Health Decision Tree in its response.

Please notify your school and keep your student home if your child is not feeling well or has tested positive for COVID-19.

Common Symptoms of COVID-19

Adults and children with COVID-19 have reported the following symptoms or combinations of symptoms, which may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus:

• Fever (≥100.4°F) or chills
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Muscle or body aches
• New loss of taste or smell
• Cough (new, changed or worsening)
• Nausea, vomiting or diarrhea
• Fatigue
• Sore throat
• Congestion or runny nose
• Headache

If your student has experienced any of the above symptoms, combinations of symptoms, or symptoms that may not be listed above, but may be related to COVID-19, please reference the Testing section below.

Exposure

The district’s COVID-19 Response Team and community relations department have partnered in delivering exposure notifications to students and staff who may have been in contact with an individual that has received a confirmed positive COVID-19 test result. This notice may come based on contact tracing or more generally because a person was in an area (e.g., on a team or in a classroom) with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Notifications may be sent regardless of the length of exposure or distance between individuals. As such, notified individuals may or may not meet the technical definition of a close contact.

Please check your Skyward Family Access account to ensure that your contact information is correct.

To protect and maintain a safe and healthy learning environment, students, families and staff, regardless of vaccination status, who are potentially exposed to COVID-19 should:

• Monitor symptoms AND
• Test as soon as possible after exposure and repeat every 24-48 hours for at least the first five days after exposure AND
• Strongly consider wearing a well-fitting mask for 10 days after exposure AND
• Test three to five days after the last date of their exposure

Exposed students and staff may continue to take part in all in-person instruction and care, including sports, performing arts and other extracurricular activities, as long as they do not have symptoms or test positive. Individuals who have been recently infected (within the past 90 days) should complete an antigen test, as PCR results may remain persistently positive even if there is not a new, active infection.

Please follow this link to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department exposure flowchart for more information about household exposures: TPCHD Recommendations for COVID Contacts.

Testing

Testing allows for the opportunity to take precautions like, isolation, in a timely manner to stop the spread of COVID-19. Timely testing of symptomatic students and staff helps reduce lost days of in-person instruction.

Onsite Testing

Pediatric Vaccine Clinic (Lakewood Towne Center)

Available on Saturdays from 12–6 p.m.
10330 59th Ave SW Suite B
Lakewood, Washington 98499

The clinic offers routine vaccines for kids 5-18 years, plus COVID-19 vaccine for all and the mpox vaccine. Services are offered through Sept. 23, 2023. 

It is recommended to get tested if you have symptoms or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. For information on where to get tested, visit Testing Information. 

Visit Testing sites in Pierce County for further information on community-based testing sites and to locate test sites.

Testing at Harry E. Lang

Testing at Harry E. Lang Stadium is no longer available.
 

At Home Testing

Free, rapid at-home COVID-19 test kits are available for Washington residents of eligible communities. To register and order free at home test kits, please visit:

Say Yes! COVID Test
COVID.gov

At-home test kits will also be available to pick up at all schools through the end of the school year. Locations providing summer school opportunities will also have at home test kits available for pick up during summer school sessions. 

Before throwing any test kits away, make sure to check online to see if your at-home test kits have an extended expiration date past the expiration date printed on the box. You can find extended expiration dates for iHealth at-home test kits here: iHealth Test Kit Expiration Dates.

Positive Test Result

While isolation for students is no longer required, keeping ill students home helps limit the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses in our schools to keep schools open, safe and healthy. It is recommended that students who test positive return to in-person learning and activities after five full days of isolation if their symptoms have improved and if they have remained fever free for the past 24 hours without the use of medication. 

Families of students who receive a positive test result for COVID-19 should submit a report to the student intake form: Student Intake Form (COVID).

  Once a report is submitted, please expect to receive return recommendations from the COVID-19 Response Team via email.

There is no longer a requirement to retest or test negative before returning, though it is highly recommended. 

Isolation

Keeping ill students home and reporting positive COVID-19 test results helps the district take the right steps to limit the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses. Students who are at school while symptomatic will be sent home.  

Consider retesting your student every 24-48 hours if they test negative after developing symptoms through at least five days after their symptoms first started.  

For more information, please visit WA State Department of Health Decision Tree.