What are the rules if your child is sent home from school to self-isolate?

Numbers of local school children are being sent home to self isolate after coming in contact with someone who has a positive lateral flow test. The rules on what families can and can’t do seem to be causing some confusion, particularly as some schools seem to be taking different action to others.

In local school parenting groups the following questions are being asked by confused parents;

Do the whole family need to isolate now?

Do i need to get my other child from school?

How long do they need to isolate ?

Can i still go to work ?

Here are the Covid rules of what you need to do if you find yourself in this situation.

If your child is the one who has tested positive then he or she must isolate for 10 days, along with the rest of the family, and alert your childcare setting or school to the positive test.

If your child’s bubble is affected then he or she needs to self-isolate at home for 10 days. This means not leaving the house, except to go in the garden, and not meeting up with anyone from another household. No other members of the household have to isolate unless your child then gets symptoms themself. That means that any siblings can still go to school.

While parents with younger children will effectively be isolating – to stay with their child – those with older children, who are capable of looking after themselves, can carry on as usual, that means you can go to work ( sorry about that) and carry on following the rules on social distancing and hygiene.

The Goverment website says, “Self-isolation means staying at home and not going outside your home at any time. If you live with other people, they do not need to self-isolate, but they should avoid contact with you as far as possible and follow advice on hygiene.If you go on to develop symptoms, anyone you live with must then self-isolate and you must report your symptoms and get tested.”

“It is crucial that you complete your self-isolation period if you’ve been identified as a contact, even if you get a negative test result. This is because you may have the virus, but it cannot yet be detected by a test, so you could unknowingly spread the virus if you leave the house. Other members of your household, however, do not need to remain in self-isolation.”