Health Guidelines 2025–26

Some of MMS’s communicable disease policies may be more comprehensive than your student’s medical care provider shares; we are guided by Marin Health and Human Services, state licensing, and reputable medical institutions. 

Please report all communicable diseases to healthandsafety@marinmontessori.org so we 
can monitor outbreaks, share exposure notices, and guide your student’s return to school. 
Communicable Diseases Included:  Pink Eye, Strep Throat, RSV, Covid, Lice, Impetigo, Chickenpox, Fifth Disease, Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, Pinworm, Influenza, and more.

If your student has new symptoms, please stay home and rest. Contact healthandsafety@marinmontessori.org for guidance. 

Please note that you must keep your student home an additional 24 hours after the end of a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medications), vomiting, or diarrhea. Plus, the student must be able to participate in normal school activities. 

Please inform MMS of your student’s condition and symptoms, including: 

• All communicable diseases
• Fever (100.4°F/38°C or higher) or chills
• Diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting
• Cough
• Headache
• Sore throat
• Loss of taste or smell that started in the last 10 days (children may say that food “tastes bad” or “tastes funny”)
• Feeling out of breath or having a hard time breathing
• Fatigue
• Muscle aches or body aches
   

Acute Respiratory Illness (ARI) includes conditions caused by various pathogens, such as COVID-19, flu, and RSV, among many others. ARI symptoms include fever or chills, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, difficulty breathing, and body aches. Most people recover on their own without complications, but some people are at higher risk for more serious illness.

The following mitigation strategies can reduce the risk of disease transmission and severe outcomes:  

• Promoting vaccinations
• Optimizing indoor air quality
• Using face masks
• Maintaining good hygiene (hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette)
• Managing individuals with symptoms
• Cleaning and disinfecting facilities
• Encouraging testing for respiratory infections
   

• If your student has new symptoms, please stay home and rest. 
• Consider testing if your student has Acute Respiratory Illness (ARI) symptoms.
  • An ARI case is defined as a person with new onset of two or more of the following symptoms: fever or chills, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, difficulty breathing, fatigue, body aches; OR a person who has tested positive for a specific respiratory infection, such as flu or RSV.
• If your family chooses to test for Covid or another respiratory illness, please send the results to healthandsafety@marinmontessori.org
• If your family needs Covid tests, please reach out to healthandsafety@marinmontessori.org for a supply. Our last tests from the State currently expire on November 30, 2025. 

A student or Crew member who tests positive for Covid must:

• Stay home and contact healthandsafety@marinmontessori.org immediately so current guidance can be provided.
• Receive clearance from the Director of Operations and Health & Safety to return to school after a positive Covid diagnosis.

Other details:

• We prefer students to test negative before they return to school.
• Health & Safety will work with the family to gauge when the student should return.
• Per county masking guidance, infected persons must wear a mask around others for five days indoors after they return to normal activities. 
• Positive students and Crew can return to school fully masked when they are fever-free, diarrhea-free, and vomit-free for 24 hours and when their symptoms are improving, mild, or gone.
• If the student is unable or unwilling to mask while actively positive, they will be sent home. 
• Per Marin Health and Human Services:  Practice healthy habits such as covering your cough, handwashing, air ventilation, physical distancing, and testing.
• Positive students and Crew will need to eat and drink outside and stay socially distanced from other students.
• The student will mask for 5 days or can test out of masking early when:
  • They have two negative tests 24 hours apart. For example, if they test negative on Day 2 at 7:00 am and negative on Day 3 at 7:00 am, they can unmask on Day 3.

Masking will be considered for students when:

• There is a high percentage of outbreaks in a classroom. 
• Public health officials deem it appropriate.
• There is a fire smoke event, and the AQI is high.

Masking will be considered for Crew when:

• There is a high percentage of outbreaks in a classroom. 
• Public health officials deem it appropriate.
• There is a fire smoke event, and the AQI is high.
• We are concerned about the risks of shutting down classrooms due to a lack of staffing.

Other Details:

• While Covid positive, if the student is unable to regulate their mask-wearing or social distancing, they will be asked to go home.
• The county advises avoiding contact with people at higher risk for severe Covid for five days. Higher-risk individuals include the elderly, those who live in congregate care facilities, and those who have immunocompromising conditions that put them at higher risk for serious illness.

• Infants and children younger than 2 years old should not wear face masks because of the risk of suffocation.
• If a student who is under 2 years old tests positive, the student will be required to stay home until they have had two negative tests 24 hours apart.
• For example, if they test negative on Day 3 at 7:00 am and negative on Day 4 at 7:00 am, they can return to school on Day 4.
• The student must also be fever-free (without fever-reducing medication), diarrhea-free, and vomit-free for 24 hours with symptoms improving, or symptom-free. 
• The student may return to school when they are healthy and able to participate in normal day-to-day activities and testing negative. 
   

• Because all students who nap need to unmask for safety and licensing, we will ask that students who are still testing positive and nap to go home midday with the other students who are midday pickups.
• We will ask that the positive student bring their own snack and utensils from home during their positive cycle.

• If your student has a household exposure or close contact to Covid, your student may continue to come to school if they are asymptomatic.
• Please monitor symptoms for 10 days.
• If symptoms arise, please rest, and consider testing before returning to campus.
• If you or people around you have risk-factors for severe illness from respiratory viruses, taking extra precautions, including additional strategies (masks, distancing, and tests) can help to prevent illness.
• Contact healthandsafety@marinmontessori.org with any questions or if your family needs a Covid test.

• We will share that there has been an exposure in the classroom via ParentSquare. 
• If new symptoms arise, please stay home, rest and consider testing, and contact Health & Safety for further guidance.
• The guidance encourages students who are at higher risk for severe infection and students who have contact with people who are at higher risk to mask and test. 
• Any student or Crew member who wants to mask during an exposure will be given a mask without question. 
• We no longer ask for the whole classroom to mask unless there is an outbreak or the county has asked us to implement masking.

• Employees are strongly encouraged to be vaccinated and boosted.

• Vaccinations for children are strongly recommended but not required.

• Unvaccinated children may be excluded from trips run by outside organizations, depending on that organization’s policies.