Schools and Colleges Information & Guidance

Each school district in Dutchess County has submitted a re-opening safety plan to New York State. Visit your school district’s website for specific details on your district’s requirements and safety measures. 

The following is a list of guidance and resources shared with all school districts in Dutchess County to aid in their re-opening planning:

State

• New York State Department of Health – Interim Guidance for Schools
• New York State Department of Health Pre-K to Grade 12 COVID-19 Toolkit - Decision Making Flowcharts
• New York State Education Department – Reopening Guidance
• CDC/EPA Cleaning & Disinfecting Guidance

County

• Dutchess County DBCH Memo on CDC's Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools and Related Guidance
• Dutchess County DBCH Guidance for Schools in Designating Contacts
• Dutchess County DBCH Contact Tracing Procedure for Dutchess County Schools
• Dutchess County DBCH COVID-19 Testing Procedure for Dutchess County Schools (updated 8/20/20)
• Dutchess County DBCH School Closure Guidance 
• Dutchess County School Nurse Frequently Asked Questions
• Dutchess County School Nurse Training Overview Notes

Testing for Schools

Dutchess County has embarked on a four-pronged approach to support the testing needs of local schools as part of their re-opening process:

1. An online testing site resource guide to connect residents with testing locations, 
2. Preferred student and staff testing, including rapid testing at Pulse MD locations through a preferred virtual scheduling queue, 
3. Evaluating the creation of a supply chain to make rapid test kits available* for schools to purchase, and 
4. Exploring experimental sample pooling, or pool testing, to help increase testing capacity. 

*At this time, there is limited availability for rapid test kits throughout the state and region, however testing capacity and efficacy is expected to improve in the coming months as Pulse MD expands onsite rapid tests through improved technology.

School Districts are required to report daily data on the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 to the State’s Department of Health. You can view these reports on the New York State School COVID Report Card.
 

The State issued guidance for in-person higher education (.pdf) in June and several local institutions have allowed students to begin returning to campus for the Fall semester. The State continues to monitor colleges closely, including launching a new SUNY COVID-19 Dashboard, which includes Dutchess Community College. Many other local colleges have also published online dashboards to monitor student and staff case numbers and testing.

Each college has submitted a plan to the State for re-opening that accounts for, at minimum:

1. Repopulation of the campus
2. Monitoring health conditions
3. Containment of potential transmission of the virus, and
4. Shut-down of in-person operations on campus in the event of widespread COVID-19 transmission.

Detailed re-opening plans are available on each college’s website.