As updates continue to develop with state and local health officials, please check our COVID-19 Information and Resources page for current information.
The faith formation and academic education of your children, as well as concern for their physical and emotional well-being, are at the heart of what our Catholic schools provide. A strength of Catholic education throughout its history has been the bonds established between teachers and students in our classrooms. These are not merely classes and grade levels; these are interactive faith communities.
Due to the fortitude and adaptability of our Catholic school administrators, teachers, staff and families, we remained connected with our students and upheld our high standards of learning when in-class learning was suspended last spring.
Read our press release about the first day of school here.
General Health Protocols Questions and Answers
- Face coverings are required for all faculty, staff, students and visitors at all times when inside school buildings and outdoors when a distance of six feet cannot be maintained.
- At the discretion of the supervising teacher, students may be permitted to remove their face coverings for limited periods of time when appropriate physical distancing (students being at least six feet apart) is in place.
- Developmentally appropriate or medically necessary accommodations can be made as needed and approved by the school principal.
- Most diocesan Catholic schools applied for the Intent to Vary, which means that each school submitted an application to maintain a physical distance between three and six feet in classrooms to the local health department and the Virginia Council for Private Education (VCPE). The distance between students could be as few as three feet apart when space is limited; however, a six-foot distance will be maintained wherever possible.
- All of our 23 schools are different, so the day-to-day operations at each location may not look alike. However, all of our schools will be following the same core guidance and directives provided by the Office of Catholic Schools in coordination with state and health official guidelines.
- Each school will have a screening protocol in place. All students, faculty, staff, volunteers and visitors will be screened by having their temperature checked at the start of the day.
- Faculty, staff and volunteers will also answer health screening questions. Every school will have a designated isolation area where anyone with a temperature above the 100.4 threshold can wait until they are able to leave.
- Parents are the first "eyes" to determine monitoring of health and symptoms. They are asked to support the overall community's ongoing efforts of health and safety for all.
- If you or your child (or children) feel ill or are showing signs of a fever, gastrointestinal issues, rashes and/or severe cough in combination with other symptoms, please stay home for the well-being of all in your community.
- Yes. While home is the first line of defense, two lines of safeguarding will help to catch issues that may not be caught in the first screening.
- Faculty/staff or students who become sick with COVID-19 symptoms, test positive for COVID-19 or come into contact with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 should not come to school and should notify school administrators immediately.
- School administrators will follow confidentiality protocol to notify the appropriate local officials, the diocesan Office of Preparation, the superintendent of schools and the director of the Office of Human Resources. Each school will have a plan for tracing contact and maintaining confidentiality while notifying anyone who may have been exposed.
Our “Why” for Reopening
- We believe the faith formation and academic education of your children, as well as concern for their physical and emotional well-being, are at the heart of what our Catholic schools provide.
- We believe our schools – within a safe and welcoming environment for all – are a nurturing community that, in partnership with parents, provide faith formation that connects our students with one another and their teachers to meet the spiritual and academic needs that a daily faith-based Catholic education offers.
- We believe that everyday community encounter provides the foundation and emphasis for self-discipline and moral development to prepare students as productive and future leaders.
- We believe our students succeed through the spiritual growth instilled in their care and commitment of service to others through Jesus’ teachings and through Catholic values taught in school through everyday encounter with one another.
