COVID-19 Response

Yes. Students and employees will be required to participate in on-campus surveillance testing every Wednesday. Testing will be provided by CIC Health in partnership with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The testing will be anterior nasal testing. Since testing is required, all families will need to complete the online consent form through CIC Health for each child. Consent forms are due by September 1. Complete the consent form here.

Students and adults will wear masks indoors (regardless of vaccination status) but can remove masks when eating or drinking if they are in an approved location. Teachers are required to monitor and enforce mask wearing. Signage throughout the buildings will remind students and adults about safe behaviors including the importance of wearing masks.

Medical grade or double-layer masks are required for individuals wearing masks. Families will need to experiment with a mask that fits well and is comfortable for their child. This includes making sure the straps do not irritate the child’s ears and that the mask does not ride up while the child is talking. In the weeks prior to school, we recommend that you have your child practice wearing and not touching the mask. Masks required to be worn must fully cover the nose and mouth. Students should bring two masks to school each day. Should students forget their masks or if masks become wet or damaged, the school will make masks available as needed. Consistent with CDC guidance, face shields are not suitable protection in lieu of a mask.

Families will be required to make daily health attestations for their children using the MyMedBot app. You will receive a notification to download the app prior to the start of school. This app will send notifications to your phone each morning before the start of school asking pertinent questions related to the health of your children and family and whether or not it is safe to come to school that day. Please understand that your child cannot attend school for the day or board the bus in the morning until this attestation is complete. All Shore employees will also make daily health attestations.

During the first week of school we will focus on educating, practicing, and reinforcing safe behaviors in school to help students understand what compliance looks like and make students comfortable with the new environment. Here is a short video your student can watch about handwashing.

If an individual receives a positive result from Shore’s testing program but remains asymptomatic without a known exposure, we will allow retesting as an option to return to school. It is important to note that an individual must have two subsequent negative COVID-19 PCR tests, 24 hours apart, in order to negate the original positive test result.

While social distancing is no longer required by the state, students will be encouraged to distance especially when eating and drinking.

We are lucky to have dedicated, single-use bathrooms for our Lower School classrooms. Restrooms will be cleaned nightly and will be disinfected periodically during the day.

Teachers will develop routines to ensure students wash their hands or use hand sanitizer upon arrival to campus, after using the restroom, after playing outside and returning to the classroom, before and after eating, and after coughing or sneezing. Hand sanitizer stations will be available in classrooms and by frequently touched surfaces.

Yes. Our goal is to get students outdoors as much as possible. We will apply stringent health and safety measures to all aspects of our physical education program as defined by state guidelines.

Yes. Families can help support increased time outdoors by sending children to school with rain coats, additional layers, and flexible footwear.

Shore employees will be required to do a daily health attestation in order to report to work. High-risk employees will be accommodated. All adults on campus will wear masks at all times.

Yes, all employees will receive training before the start of the school year.

Shore will follow the guidelines set by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. These protocols may change based on CDC updated guidelines.

Bus transportation will be available for athletics and for the ride to and from school. Students will remain masked at all times while on the bus.

Specific guidelines for pick-up and drop-off will be sent to all families prior to the start of school. All students will be expected to arrive wearing a mask. Students will go directly to classrooms. Families of early elementary students are welcome to park and drop off their children. We ask that no families park during pick-up.

The Shore Dining Hall and Servery will be open this year! We have built the daily schedule to accommodate three lunch periods in order to have the dining room at 50% capacity at all times. It is our intention to do assigned seating to limit exposure in the event of a positive case. All adults not supervising students will be required to eat in another location.

We anticipate having all of these events in a mixture of in-person and virtual formats. In some cases, virtual delivery allows us to limit the size of indoor gathering; in others, it increases accessibility for working and single parent households.

Visitors are welcome to campus for scheduled appointments and events only. All visitors must be masked indoors regardless of vaccination status.

The school will be cleaned on a daily schedule. Frequently-touched surfaces will be disinfected multiple times throughout the day.

The virus that causes COVID-19 can be killed with the right products. The EPA has compiled a list of disinfectant products that can be used against COVID-19, including ready-to-use sprays, concentrates, and wipes. Each product has been shown to be effective against viruses that are harder to kill than viruses like the one that causes COVID-19. Shore will use cleaning products approved by the EPA and on List N. Shore is also using electrostatic disinfectant equipment as a supplement to standard cleaning regimens and solutions.

Teachers will be trained to keep all classroom doors and windows open whenever possible, so it is important that children are appropriately dressed.

The ventilation system will be set to push fresh air in at all times. Fresh air will remain more important than heating and cooling. Ventilation systems will have COVID-19 approved filters installed and routinely checked and maintained.