Mitigating the Spread of Infections Disease Before Students Arrive on Campus
Keep your students in the classroom, not in quarantine. With a simple questionnaire, students can self-report symptoms BEFORE they arrive on campus, mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and new outbreaks of infectious diseases like Monkey Pox.
When COVID-19 closed down the country, it caused a massive decline in enrollment across educational sectors. Students experienced life changes that put a pause on their education, like job or childcare loss. Some were unable to make the transition to remote learning due to Wifi expenses. Students, nervous about taking out loans, transitioned into the workforce to make ends meet, picking up low-skilled jobs that don’t align with their long-term goals. Career colleges are well-positioned to get these students back on track, offering training with immediate job prospects and earning potential—if they can ensure strong retention.
At its core, career education is highly hands-on. Some technical schools have successfully transitioned to hybrid learning, but future tradespeople require hands-on education. If a student has to quarantine, they’re missing out on the in-person learning component. Even if schools have online accommodations for quarantining students, not every student works well online.
If students fall behind, it can be difficult and overwhelming for them to catch up. They may begin to feel disheartened and disconnected from their education, decreasing their likelihood of continuing through their program. Because career education programs typically have more nontraditional students than other programs, administrators must also consider the financial impact of quarantine on a student supporting a family.
Student attendance and makeup time are highly regulated in all career education programs, particularly clock hour programs. Accreditors understand the impact COVID has had on students, but after over a year of the pandemic, they are less forgiving of attendance errors and low retention rates.
Between the stringent requirements placed on career education programs and the needs of nontraditional students, preventing the spread of COVID-19 BEFORE it reaches campus is the best way to ensure success for your students and school.
Don’t Let An Outbreak Cause Your Students to Fall Off Track
What are you doing to prevent infectious diseases from spreading on your campus? Temperature checks? Social distancing?
If you’re checking temperatures on campus, you’re already at risk for exposure. Students may have carpooled or taken the bus together. Then, they gather close in a temperature check line, potentially maskless depending on local/school policies, before breathing into a staff member’s face during the temperature check.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen many different comfort levels and belief systems. Some students may feel comfortable with zero regulations, while others feel more secure knowing that your school is taking some level of precaution. CourseKey’s health check allows your school to create a safe learning environment by asking students to self-report COVID-19 symptoms and exposure before they arrive on campus. Based on their answers, students will receive a green or red pass. If they receive a green pass, they are welcome to attend class. If they receive a red pass, they are asked to stay home, and administrators are alerted of their status.
It’s been over a year of the pandemic, and we’ve seen variant after variant come out more contagious than the last. Scientists agree, COVID-19 is probably not going anywhere anytime soon and overall, infectious diseases are on the rise. Many schools have brought students back on campus, but the trick is keeping them there and preventing them from falling behind by mitigating the chance of an outbreak.
Show Students and Staff Your School Cares About Their Safety
DeHart Technical School implemented CourseKey’s health check to protect its school and to remain in compliance with California’s symptom tracking law. But, according to Damon Fugett, Director of DeHart Tech, implementing the tracker had unexpected results:
“When we rolled out the health check, I had a whole bunch of students come out of the woodwork to say, ‘I really appreciate this. I like knowing that everyone here has a green pass.’ I like knowing that there was comfort in this,” said Damon.
Conducting symptom checks before students arrive on campus reduces the risk of an outbreak, gives schools better administrative oversight, and improves student and staff peace of mind. Request a demo if you’d like to learn more about how CourseKey’s health check can protect your school.
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