Argonne ES Covid-19: Health & Safety

How Do We Prevent Infection?

  • Get vaccinated if eligible. Anyone 6 months old and over is eligible. 
  • Testing and staying home when feeling sick.
  • Wear a mask (recommended, not required) and wash your hands.
  • Improve indoor air quality and maximize fresh air by going outdoors as much as possible.
  • ​All SFUSD staff will need to be vaccinated unless they qualify for an exception. 

Covid-19 Protocols

COVID-19 Testing

  • SFUSD continues to offer multiple testing options for staff and families.
  • All students are strongly encouraged to register for a Color self-swab account in order to readily access testing as needed - register HERE.
  • SF Testing Options (for non-SFUSD people)


Students and Staff Who Test Positive for COVID-19

  1. Isolate at home immediately.
  2. Notify the SFUSD COVID Support Hotline at 415-660-9850 or covidreporting@sfusd.edu - they will receive a Positive Memo, which details testing, isolation, masking, and other requirements to return to school.
  3. Email your teacher and the front office at sch435@sfusd.edu


Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19 can return after 5 days of isolation (previously 10 days) if:

  • They no longer have a fever in the last 24 hours without fever-reducing medication, AND
  • Their symptoms are getting better, AND
  • They have a negative test collected on or after day 5 (both PCR/NAAT/molecular and antigen tests are acceptable)
  • As part of the updated recommendations for isolation, these individuals must wear masks while around others, indoors and outdoors, for a total of 10 days

Daily Health Screening for Students

Questions to ask your student at home:

  1. Is your child feeling ill or had any of the following symptoms that are new or different from usual?
  2. Has your child tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 10 days?
  3. If your child is unvaccinated, have they been in close contact with anyone with COVID-19 within the past 10-14 days?

✔  If NO to all questions: your child may go to school.

✘  If YES to any question: your child must stay home.

Covid-19 Symptoms

  • Fever of at least 100.4ºF/38ºC or higher
  • Chills
  • Cough
  • Headache
  • Sore throat
  • Loss of taste or smell
  • Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing
  • Nausea, vomiting or diarrhea
  • Feeling unusually weak or fatigued
  • Muscle aches

Close Contact & Group Tracing Protocol

Close Contacts

  • Close contacts are defined as those who may have spent at least 15 minutes in the same indoor space as someone who tested positive for COVID-19, while that person was contagious. 
  • People are not considered close contacts simply because they were in the same group or cohort.
  • If the program cannot determine this or does not know, the person should not be considered a close contact.   
  • People are not considered close contacts simply because they were in the same classroom.

Group Tracing

  • SFUSD will inform staff and students through a Group Tracing Memo if one or more people report testing positive for COVID-19 at our school.
  • The Memo includes instructions on steps that staff and families should take as closed contacts.
  • Under group tracing, regardless of vaccination status, students and staff may remain in school unless they develop symptoms or test positive for COVID-19.
  • ​If they develop symptoms, they should notify their school sites and follow protocols for testing in order to return to school.
  • It is recommended, but not required, that students and staff who receive the Group Tracing Memo get tested for COVID-19 three to five days after the exposure, or right away if they start to show symptoms. Molecular (PCR) or antigen tests, including over the counter home tests, are acceptable. If they have had COVID-19 in the last 90 days, antigen testing is recommended over molecular (PCR) tests.
  • Students and staff should consider taking another test one week after the last test they took if they receive more than one Group Tracing Memo in a week.

What if it's raining or the air quality is poor?

  • Lunch, recess and PE are normally held outdoors, so we will implement alternate locations (MPR, Classrooms, Library)
  • We will follow SFUSD guidance

This page was last updated on November 16, 2022