Charlotte County Schools sending kids with COVID-like symptoms home as part of reopening plan

Charlotte County schools have started sending kids home for exhibiting COVID-like symptoms, no matter how minor.

The first week of in-person classes was meant to bring normalcy back to students’ lives, but for Liberty Elementary fourth grader Madison and Port Charlotte tenth grader Logan, the first day of school went well.

“The first day went great. Second day, I thought it was going great,” said their mom, Erin Harrington. “I got a call from the school nurse telling me that Madison had an upset stomach and because of that was excluded from school for the next 14 days along with her sister.”

According to Charlotte County’s reopening plan, that’s how things are going to be for a while.

Any student with COVID-like symptoms, no matter how minor, will be required to self-quarantine for two weeks or until a doctor clears the student with a doctor’s note.

The rules also apply to any siblings living under the same roof, the district says.

“They finally got a little bit of normalcy in their life and then it was kind of just ripped away from them,” Harrington said. 

Erin said her daughter wasn’t sick, it was just first week jitters causing her upset stomach.

“I feel like kids are going to be scared to speak up if they are not feeling well,” she said.

With so many new policies in place for this new school year, Harrington just wishes the district would’ve done a better job notifying parents of all the changes.

“I feel like this information needs to actually be sent home to parents,” she said.

Parents are also supposed to screen their children for COVID-19 symptoms before sending them to school each day.