After a special meeting on Tuesday, the Derby school board decided to remove the close contact tracing protocols, while also updating isolation procedures.

Nurse Christy Higginbotham deals with Covid-19 cases every day and believes that it’s too much to ask for schools to have close contact. 

“I think it’s going to be controversial no matter which side of the issue you’re on,” Higginbotham said. “However, we had over close to 150 positive cases last week and it’s looking similar this week. That volume is impossible to trace.”

Following the change in regulations, close contact letters will no longer be sent home.

Quarantine protocol will not change, however.

“We were quarantining kids, but it was all dependent on vaccination status and exposure and things like that,” Higginbotham. “There were a lot of factors.”

The board voted with an 8-0 decision.