Student and School Safety

Tulsa Public Schools has COVID-19 safety protocols in place at all of our school buildings and district sites. Our practices include a self-administered health questionnaire, temperature screening at the door, and requiring face coverings in all common areas and/or in the presence of other people. We are asking everyone in the Tulsa Public Schools community to practice safe distancing and to stay home if they are experiencing symptoms. Our weekly COVID-19 Case Count includes three measures: reports of potential exposure, reports of confirmed cases, and “close contacts” traced by staff.

Click here to view the weekly case count. Click here for Spanish.

Based on our continued work with public health and medical professionals and on the most recent CDC guidance, masks will no longer be required for fully vaccinated adults and students. 

We recommend and encourage students and team members who have not been fully vaccinated to continue to wear masks indoors at all times and outdoors when around other people. 

Click here for information about vaccination services.

We will focus on conditions in our district.

• We have a set of early warning indicators in our district, and we look to these first to begin assessing conditions.
• Our Rapid Testing Pilot supplements these early indicators, and will help us preemptively identify possible exposures.

We have partnered with the Tulsa Health Department and other researchers to create a data-driven process to assess COVID health conditions for Tulsa Public Schools.

• Early Warning Indicators at TPS Schools
  • These data will help us to monitor conditions that are more localized and specific to our context. These data will help us to be more sensitive to conditions within schools to know if cases are higher or lower than overall county averages. These metrics are:
    • Tulsa Public Schools rapid testing results
    • New case rates for team members and students (TPS contact tracing)
• Foundational School System Metrics
  • These internal data measure our ability to appropriately respond to early warning indicators and enact the necessary safety precautions at our schools. These metrics are
    • Availability of necessary PPE
    • Rates of quarantine
    • Staffing capacity
• Foundational Health Care Metrics
  • These core metrics will help us understand overall rates of community spread. These data will help us to assess overall risk and changes in our greater community that may necessitate a change in our response. The core metrics are:
    • 7-day rolling average of new cases in Tulsa Public Schools boundary (calculated from public data).
    • 7-day rolling average of new cases in Tulsa County

In addition to the above metrics, we will consider variables such as active case rates by zip code, hospitalization rates, test positivity rates, and other data as advised by medical experts and best available research.

The three categories of metrics will be monitored weekly, and if a foundational health care metric hits threshold, or we detect an early warning from one of our indicators, evaluation and discussion.

The frequency of monitoring will increase when metrics are close to thresholds, and or early warning indicators at one or multiple schools are changing.

The approach for weekly assessment anchors on the following:

• Stability of trend creates more stability for our system. We are using multiple weeks trend data minimize abrupt shifts for our students, families, and teachers.
• Triangulation of data brings greater confidence and accuracy. We are assessing Tulsa Public Schools boundary area data and early warning indicators (e.g. rapid testing and 5-17 age group data), Tulsa County data, and then state of Oklahoma data.
• Using additional variables allow us to see the system-as-a-whole. We also monitor active cases, PPE availability, staffing capacity, and hospitalization rates.

Once a full evaluation is triggered based on meeting a threshold condition, we will recommend one of four types of potential actions based on our assessment of the data:

• No changes necessary at this time.
  • Based on current health and systems data, no changes will be made.
• Additional monitoring and through increased, targeted testing.
  • Rapid testing efforts will be scaled up and/or targeted towards particular schools to ensure that potential cases are caught earlier, before widespread exposure or outbreak. Data will be re-examined for the following week.
• Suspend in-person activity at a specific school or multiple schools.
  • If it is necessary to suspend in-person activity at a school, students, families, and staff will be notified shortly after a decision is made. Notices will be sent by 5 a.m. day of, 10 p.m. day before, or 2 p.m. for mid-day.
• Change the default mode of instruction for the entire district.
  • After a full discussion and evaluation is triggered, a formal recommendation will be provided to the Board of Education reporting the suggested default mode of instruction. In emergency situations, the superintendent has the authority to execute individual school or district-wide closures as appropriate.

We will continue to leverage our COVID Exposure Protocol and Contact Tracing to trigger site specific actions to minimize exposure.

Based on our continued work with public health and medical professionals and on the most recent CDC guidance, masks will no longer be required for fully vaccinated adults and students. 

We recommend and encourage students and team members who have not been fully vaccinated to continue to wear masks indoors at all times and outdoors when around other people. 

Click here for information about vaccination services.

Tulsa Public Schools worked over the summer and during distance learning to implement safety practices for when students returned in-person. These practices included:

• Ventilation: Improved air filtration and/or ventilation systems at each school to minimize the potential airborne transmission of the virus in schools.
• Sanitizing High-touch Surfaces: Custodians are focused on cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces and objects: tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, toilets, sinks, handrails, and water bottle filling stations.
• Enhanced Personal Hygiene: All schools and buildings have adequate handwashing stations and hand sanitizer dispensers, disinfectant cleaner and wipes in the classrooms. 
• Intensified Cleaning Techniques: Custodians use handheld electrostatic sprayers and Biospray tanks to increase effectiveness and efficiency in disinfecting procedures. 

Rapid testing screening support

The Tulsa Health Department (THD) and Tulsa Public Schools plan to launch a pilot COVID-19 rapid testing program at schools in November 2020.

• Goals are to reduce infection rates, keep educators in the classroom and guide the district’s decisions to manage in-person instruction in the healthiest and safest way possible.
• Providing the necessary testing will allow district and health department officials to preemptively identify possible exposures.

These testing capabilities will be a valuable resource to help the district safely reopen schools and keep them open to in person instruction.

Approach

• Screen teachers and school-based support professionals
• Rotate testing by groups of schools (potentially feeder patterns)
• Will leverage Abbott Rapid Antigen Point of Care Test or BD* Veritor System + PCR** (24 hour results) based on availability

• Students and children 18 and younger will continue to receive meals free of charge for the remainder of the school year.
• Elementary students will eat pre-packaged meals in classrooms
• Secondary students will eat grab & go meals in designated areas (with safe distancing).
• Remote Learning and Virtual Learning Academy students and families can pick up breakfast, lunch and supper daily at any school location.

EDUCATIONAL SPACES

• Avoid use of shared supplies.
• Provide hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes adjacent to shared equipment and copiers.
• Additional resources for every Special Education classrooms

VENTILATION

• Improved air filtration and/or ventilation strategies at each school to minimize the potential airborne transmission of the virus include a combination of window ventilation and Merv 13 filtration
  • Inspect and repair windows in all classrooms to insure at least one is operable in all rooms where possible
  • Completed inspection and evaluation of  every HVAC unit
  • Installed MERV13 filters in HVAC in every building
  • Install filter sensors on all capable systems
• The district is also investing on expanding EMS demand response system to install “on demand” systems for automated forced air (in schools with EMS). 
  • Upgrade newer HVAC units (2009 forward) with energy management systems tied into the outside air damper.
  • Replace aging HVAC systems, pre 2009, with entirely new units, EMS, and “on demand”.

RESTROOMS & DRINKING FOUNTAINS  

• Limit the number of students in the restrooms at the same time
• Increase frequency of cleaning and disinfecting surfaces
• Drinking fountains - CDC encourages staff and students to bring their own water to minimize use and touching of water fountains - not all schools have the water bottle fill stations.

RECESS AND USAGE OF OUTDOOR SPACES

• Staggered times for groups of outdoor play
• Limit the use of shared toys
• Wash/sanitize hands before and after playground/outdoor space usage
• Teaching and enforcing basic hygiene practices
• Disinfect playground hand rails and high touch areas between groups of students.

Transportation

• Provide hand sanitizer for students and bus drivers.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces on each bus daily using electrostatic sprayers.
• Keep windows open as much as possible for fresh air flow.

• Based on our continued work with public health and medical professionals and on the most recent CDC guidance, masks will no longer be required for fully vaccinated adults and students.

• We recommend and encourage students and team members who have not been fully vaccinated to continue to wear masks indoors at all times and outdoors when around other people.

• We have completed a meticulous review of the new guidance for school operations during COVID from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Education. 
• The research upon which the CDC based their feedback is the same body of growing research our team has been using throughout the pandemic to guide our preparations. 
• Tulsa Public Schools meets or exceeds the new CDC standard in most areas. Examples include:
  • Installing advanced filtration and air scrubber systems that far exceed CDC standards;
  • Launching systematic health screening protocols for the adults in our system;
  • Installing hand-washing and sanitation stations and health and safety signage in all our buildings;
  • Establishing rigorous contact tracing and notification protocols to help minimize spread within and outside of the Tulsa Public Schools community; and
  • Offering ON-SITE rapid testing as a screening mechanism as part of our return to in-person learning. We are the only district in the state providing this additional mitigation measure on-site.