Fayette schools suspends COVID temperature checks for students entering buildings, buses

Fayette County Public Schools on Thursday is discontinuing daily temperature checks of all students entering school buildings or school buses.

Experts from the Lexington-Fayette Health Department are in agreement with the change that state officials made last week regarding COVID-19 checks, Acting Fayette Superintendent Marlene Helm said Tuesday night.

“Today’s meeting with our partners from the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department revealed continued good news with low numbers of community spread, and a 7-day average of new cases of just 25,” Helm told families in a message. “The doctors advised us that any uptick caused by spring break travel or gatherings would not be visible for roughly 10 days to two weeks. We remain hopeful that our community followed best practices and everyone remains healthy.”

District officials want families to monitor their children for signs of illness, including a fever. Children exhibiting a fever should be kept at home, not given fever-reducing medication and sent to school.

“We will still take the temperatures of students who experience illness while at school,” Helm said. “If a student begins displaying symptoms of COVID-19, we also have the option of offering rapid testing for families who want that opportunity. Tests are administered only with parent or guardian permission, and only in the presence of an adult designated by the family.”

The total amount the district has spent on temperature screening is $656,950.42, most of which is reimbursable with federal funding, said district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall.

Deffendall said while the guidance around temperature screening has changed for students, the district guidelines still include temperature screening for employees.

The district faces intermittent challenges with bus driver staffing, with a handful of routes canceled or delayed.

Greater numbers of people are now fully vaccinated, and it’s especially encouraging that vaccines are now available to everyone 16 years of age and older, Helm said.

University of Kentucky spokesman Jay Blanton said UK has provided more than 17,000 vaccine doses for school employees overall, starting with a universe of about 8,000 public and 1,000 private school employees in Fayette County.

Small numbers of school employees have come in for vaccines from other counties.

“The numbers of school employees has dropped significantly from when we started K-12 vaccinations in earnest in mid-January, which could mean that UK has provided the bulk of teachers who wanted them with both first and second doses,” Blanton said.

This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 8:25 PM.