COVID-19 vaccines not required for Charleston Co. School District students

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Students in the Charleston County School District are heading back to the classroom today and officials say their health is a top priority.

With COVID-19 and monkeypox surfacing, parents may be wondering what their child’s school is planning to do to keep them safe.

Ellen Nitz, Charleston County School District Director of Nursing Services, says if your child isn’t feeling well stop and think if it might be COVID-19.

Now, this won’t be enough to determine if it is, but therefore CCSD is giving out at-home test kits for families.

Nitz says to keep any positive cases out of the schools they need parents to test kids at the first sign of sickness and report any positive cases. If your child does test positive the isolation period is five days with the first sign of symptoms being day zero. Your child can then return to school on days six through 10 wearing a mask.

CCSD is following the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Controls guidelines for schools regarding COVID. So, for example, DHEC might recommend isolating a whole class or monitoring a situation further.

“What it states is if there are 20% of positive cases within a classroom or group then at that point we would then look and see exactly what we were dealing with,” Nitz says.

COVID Vaccines are not required, but DHEC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend eligible students get vaccinated and boosted.

Nitz encourages good hand hygiene by using hand gels in schools, soap and water, and as much social distancing as they can.

There are select required vaccines students need to attend school and CCSD is working to provide resources for families who may not have access to them.

Parents can stop by their child’s school anytime throughout the year to pick up at-home test kits and masks will be available on campus for students who choose to wear them.

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