COVID-19 sends 31 students home

Posted on September 25, 2020

Five weeks into the 2020-21 school year, the Taylor County School District has announced its first quarantine of a large group of students due to COVID-19.

Some 31 students from Taylor County Elementary School (TCES) are currently quarantined under a recommendation from the Florida Department of Health in Taylor County (DOH).

As of Wednesday, the school had one student who tested positive for COVID, one staff member quarantined and 31 students quarantined.

The TCES administrative team issued the following statement on social media: “In an effort to remain transparent with our community members, we would like to share that we recently had to quarantine our first group of students at Taylor County Elementary School.

“This decision came under the recommendation of the Taylor County Health Department. As a school, we are doing everything we can to keep our students separated and socially distanced in order to cut down on the number of students who come in contact with one another while at school.

“We realize that our students have lives outside of school and participate in activities and programs away from school. With each event or program our students attend there will be different contacts involved.

“Continued partnership between the school, the DOH and our after-school community programs to ensure for the safety of our children will remain our number one priority,” the statement continued.

“Moving forward our school will continue doing everything in our ability to serve the educational needs of our students while they are home on quarantine. If you have any questions, please feel free to call the school and ask to speak to one of our administrators.”

These are the largest numbers of quarantined students seen within the district since school began in late August.

Taylor County Primary School (TCPS) also posted its highest number of quarantined students, with 16 reported as of Wednesday.

The primary school also had one positive student case and three quarantined staff members.

Due to state and federal mandates, the schools and district cannot release any information regarding what grade or class the quarantines impact.

There are not cases reported for the district office, Taylor Alternative School or Steinhatchee School.

One quarantined student was reported for the Taylor County Middle School.

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