Emergency COVID-19 leave approved for vaccinated Whitley County school system staff

There is good news for teachers and staff members of the Whitley County school district if they have to quarantine this school year due to COVID-19.

During Thursday’s monthly meeting, the Whitley County Board of Education approved emergency quarantine exposure related leave for school district employees during the 2021-2022 school year.

This is provided that the employee has been vaccinated, and provides the district with written documentation from a health care provider or the entity requiring the quarantine.

This includes not only full-time employees, but also part-time employees.

Board Attorney Tim Crawford said that there is an exception written into the policy requiring vaccination if the employee has a written statement from a healthcare provider saying that they can’t get vaccinated due to a disability.

There is also an exception for an employee having a “sincerely held religious belief.”

Crawford noted that the state education commissioner was asked Thursday what the standard was for a “sincerely held religious belief,” and he replied that we would have to wait for the courts to tell us that.

The new policy will keep employees, who are forced to quarantine due to COVID-19, from having to use their own sick or personal days.

“It helps our teachers out. That is the good thing about our emergency quarantine days,” Superintendent John Siler noted.

Under the terms of the new policy, school officials can ask employees to get retested for COVID-19 at the district’s expense in order to see whether they can return to work sooner. No test can occur sooner than the earliest date recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or the Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH).

The measure is a mandate from the Kentucky Department of Education. No one is quite sure how many emergency quarantine leave days that employees could get.

Siler noted that the Kentucky Education Commissioner was asked that during a webinar Thursday and commented that this is something that we will find out.

While the measure is a mandate from the state, there was no funding provided to help pay for it.

Siler said that the district will probably have to tap into some of its federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to help pay for this.

Board Chairwoman Brenda Hill said that she feels there needs to be a state law requiring that funding be provided to pay for state mandates.

Some Kentucky school districts are seeing large numbers of teachers and students being forced to quarantine.

Crawford noted that one small independent school district, which he is familiar with, had infections in 100 students and staff during the first week of school. “Another large district in Kentucky had 1,000,” Crawford added.

Siler said Warren County had 700 last Thursday and Friday.