It is important that parents/guardians of students, staff and visitors to schools complete the provincial COVID-19 screening tool each day before attending school.

During the month of October, the Ministry of Education completed updates to the COVID-19 school and child care screening tool.

Updates to the screening tool include:

• Symptoms – Clarifying that staff, students and children should stay home from school and child care if they are unwell, even if they do not have symptoms that are most commonly associated with COVID-19, and monitor before returning to school.
• Testing – Clarifying that rapid antigen tests are not for use on individuals with symptoms of COVID-19 or on high-risk close contacts.
• Vaccination and Immunization Status – Revisions were made to the structure of the vaccination status and COVID-19 case history question to clarify that the individual could be vaccinated or had previously tested positive within the last 90 days.
• Personal Health Information and Immunization Status – Clarifying that the purpose of asking if an individual is fully vaccinated or was previously positive with COVID-19 in the past 90 days is for providing correct isolation requirements. A reminder has been added to note that no public health information is being collected when individuals complete the screening tool.
• International Travel – the international travel question has been revised to provide better clarity about who can and cannot attend school after travelling. While unvaccinated children under the age of 12 are exempt from federal quarantine if they travelled with a fully vaccinated companion, they may not attend school or child care for 14 days upon their return. Individuals with all other quarantine exemptions (e.g., travelling for cross-border custody arrangements; travelling for medical treatment) may continue to attend school or child care.

Copies of the new school screener are available for download here.