New Health Guidelines for Term 4

March 28, 2021

Dear DCPS Community, 

This week, DC Health released a revised set of COVID-19 guidelines for schools in alignment with updated school operations guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Accordingly, DC Public Schools (DCPS) will adopt some of these changes, and they will go into effect at the start of Term 4 next month. 

Specifically, we are revising DCPS’ COVID-19 safety and operations in the following areas: social distancing and cohort size, athletics and performing arts, and quarantine protocols. Maintaining a healthy and safe learning environment for our students and staff remains our top priority. DCPS' layered mitigation strategy includes mandatory face masks for anyone in a school building, more frequent cleaning, and HVAC enhancements to increase fresh air infiltration, as well as the availability of COVID-19 vaccine for all staff and partners and regular asymptomatic testing for students, staff, and partners. With these precautions in place, we can safely apply these new guidelines for schools from DC Health. 

We thank everyone for their support in helping our school communities stay safe for in-person learning and doing your part to protect yourself and others from COVID-19. 

Health & Safety Updates for Term 4 (April 19 – June 24) 

Review these updates in detail online at https://dcpsreopenstrong.com/schedule/term4/. 

What does this mean for students and staff in Term 4? 

These updates will go into effect in Term 4, which starts for students on April 19. Schools will have flexibility to implement in-person learning expansion plans during the first three weeks of the new term. Depending on the size of a school building’s classrooms, cohorts could range from their current size to around 24 students. Look out for more information from your school in early April.  

In a year of so much change, Term 4 is about ensuring high student engagement with their teachers and maintaining consistency in their learning, and the ability to welcome more students back to the classroom is aligned to this. 

Sincerely, 

Lewis D. Ferebee, Ed.D.  
Chancellor, DC Public Schools