5 students in quarantine in District 15
Five students in Palatine Township School District 15 are quarantining after a staff member at their school tested positive for COVID-19, district officials reported Monday.
The students attend Winston Campus Junior High School in Palatine, where one staff member tested positive and three others were placed in quarantine, according to the district's online COVID-19 dashboard, which gives daily tallies.
The students - the first to be quarantined due to exposure within the district - were informed over the weekend after the positive case was reported to the district Saturday, district spokeswoman Morgan Delack said.
A new COVID-19 case also was reported in a staff member at John G. Conyers Learning Academy in Rolling Meadows, but no students are in quarantine as a result, the dashboard shows.
The latest information was noted on the dashboard Monday because the dashboard is not updated on Saturdays or Sundays, Delack said.
Due to privacy laws, the district can't elaborate on the identities of the staff members affected, Delack said.
The district does contact tracing for each positive case, and close contacts must quarantine for 14 days from the last exposure. Delack said.
The Illinois Department of Public Health identifies as a "close contact" anyone who's been within six feet for 15 cumulative minutes during the day.
"In this instance, there were five students identified as close contacts," she said.
The district launched its COVID-19 dashboard earlier this month.
District 15 students began returning to school for in-person learning last week as part of a rolling re-entry plan.