Camp AOS Safety Protocols

Pre-screening for COVID-19 risk factors beyond fever will require significant parent and family accountability. Participation in our Safety App by AUXS is required for all families.

Each morning, prior to arriving on campus or entering the carpool line, parents must complete a daily COVID-19 health pre-screening form for their child(ren) using the Safety App by AUXS. The form consists of a list of COVID-19 symptoms and a field to report your child’s current temperature. (This information is being monitored daily by our Nurse’s office.) Once the form is submitted, the parent will immediately receive a notification either allowing them to proceed to campus or requiring the student to stay home. Should the child be required to stay home, one of our nurses will follow up with the parent to determine the next step.

Families will be required to present the “green pass” each day as their child(ren) unload from the vehicle. Families will not be allowed to enter campus without presenting the “green pass.” Failing to complete this pre-screening may lead to a student being ineligible for on-campus instruction.

Any absence from camp associated with illness and/or symptoms of COVID-19 must be reported on the Safety App by AUXS. This will allow our COVID-19 Response Team to follow-up with parents.

How Do I Get Set-up with the Safety App by AUXS?

1. Before Camp AOS begins, parents will receive an email from the Safety App by AUXS with a parent username and password.

2. Please follow the instructions in the Safety App by AUXS email and set-up your account.

Refer to this Quick Reference Guide for assistance and practice using Safety App by AUXS before your child’s first day of camp.

We will require frequent hand washing. 

We have installed sanitizing stations around campus and will require their use throughout the camp day.

Should a camper display possible COVID-19 symptoms whil on cam pus, we will immediately call their parents and expect them to be immediately picked up. Siblings of symptomatic children will also be sent home, even if the sibling is asymptomatic. Asymptomatic siblings may return to campus as soon as the following day, but only if their symptomatic sibling has received a negative PCR test results. 

Per CDC recommendations, any person exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms will be assumed to have COVID-19 unless they receive a negative PCR test. People exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms will be required to either present a negative PCR test result or complete 10 days of isolation in order to return to campus. Under no circumstances will any person be allowed to return to campus with a fever. Students must always be fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication before returning, regardless of test results. If the 24th hour post-fever falls during a camp day, please wait until the following camp day before your child returns. 

Any absence from camp associated with illness and/or symptoms of COVID-19 must be reported on the Safety App by AUXS. This will allow our COVID-19 Response Team to follow up with parents.

People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported - ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Symptoms may appear 2-4 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:

• Fever or chills

• Cough

• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

• Fatigue

• Muscle or body aches

• Headache

• New loss of taste or smell

• Sore throat

• Congestion or runny nose

• Nausea or vomiting

• Diarrhea

We will require a negative PCR test result before returning to camp for any person who is symptomatic. Additionally, we require that anyone who is symptomatic and tests positive for COVID-19 follow the following CDC guidelines in order to return to camp.

Tested positive and had symptoms: 

• At least 10 days since symptoms first appeared, and

• At least 24 hours with no fever without fever-reducing medication, and

• Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving* 

• Complete 10-day isolation** since the positive test or first sign of symptoms

*Loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery and need not delay the end of isolation 

**Isolation is used to separate people infected with COVID-19 from those who are not infected. At home, anyone sick or infected should separate from others, stay in a specific “sick room” or area, and use a separate bathroom. 

Tested positive but had no symptoms:

• Isolate* for 10 days after the date you had your positive test

**Isolation is used to separate people infected with COVID-19 from those who are not infected. At home, anyone sick or infected should separate from others, stay in a specific “sick room” or area, and use a separate bathroom. 

If you develop symptoms after testing positive, follow the guidance above for symptomatic cases.

Getting testing again for COVID-19

If you have recovered from your symptoms after testing positive for COVID-19, you may continue to test positive for three months or more without being contagious to others. For this reason, you should be tested only if you develop new symptoms of possible COVID-19. Getting tested again should be discussed with your healthcare provider, especially if you have been in close contact with another person who has tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 14 days.

If you have symptoms and test positive for COVID-19, follow the guidance above for “I think or know I had COVID, and I had symptoms.” Your doctor may work with an infectious disease expert at your local health department to determine when you can be around others.

AOS created a COVID-19 Response Team to quickly engage the situation from all angles if a COVID-19 case is suspected or confirmed in our community. This team is led by Emily Benton and includes members of the Administration Team and our school nurses. To prepare for this role, Emily trained in contract tracing and studied every appropriate agency’s guidelines. Any time a case is suspected or confirmed, this team will assemble in order to effectively determine the proper contract tracing, facility sanitization, and community communication that needs to occur.

All children and adults who have been in close contact with an individual who tests positive will be asked to quarantine at home for 14 days. While the CDC has recently released options to reduce quarantine for individuals who are close contacts, our 14-day quarantine policy remains unchanged as it continues to be their recommendation. Exceptions to the 14-day quarantine based on personal health history are listed below:  

• Children and adults who have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 are not required to quarantine if they have been fully vaccinated (i.e., ≥2 weeks following receipt of the second dose in a 2-dose series, or ≥2 weeks following receipt of one dose of a single-dose vaccine) against the disease within the last three months and show no symptoms.

• Children and adults who have come in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, have tested positive themselves within the past 3 months and have recovered, do not have to quarantine or get tested again as long as they do not develop new symptoms. If a student's primary classroom cohort is quarantined due to a positive case, the exempted student will still be required to participate in Hearts & Minds at Home with their cohort.

Close contact is currently defined as the following:

• Having any physical contact

• Staying within 6 feet of someone for a total of 15 minutes or more, regardless of mask usage

• They sneezed, coughed, or somehow got respiratory droplets on you

AOS will also ask people to complete a 14-day quarantine if anyone has attended an event where another guest was later known to have tested positive. Because contact tracing is especially challenging for any kind of gathering, the school will approach these situations very conservatively in an effort to keep our students, families, faculty and staff safe.

We will closely examine the details surrounding every suspected and confirmed case and reserve the right to ask any student or staff/faculty member to quarantine regardless of whether they fit the definition of close contact outlined here. The details of every case can be complicated and many factors must be considered. (I.e. was the person who tested positive symptomatic? Did that person follow all safety protocols?) We will always use our best judgement to keep our community as safe as possible.

In the event that a cohort’s camproom requires disinfecting, we will notify via email only the parents of that cohort and the staff that routinely occupy the space. Please note that we will not notify parents when the symptomatic student or sibling(s) are cleared to return.

In the event that we have a positive case within the camp community, the entire camp will be notified via email. Anyone required to quarantine will be alerted via email and phone call.

All identities of symptomatic students and their siblings will be kept confidential. Names of individuals who test positive for COVID-19 will also be kept confidential.

If your child has been in contact with a positive case of COVID-19 while at camp, our contact tracer will reach out to that family to provide instructions on quarantine or isolation. These will be determined on a case-by-case basis by the contact tracer’s regulations on what is considered a “contact” (as defined by the CDC) and the length of quarantine or isolation for the child who was in contact with the positive case. We are required to report all positive cases and close contact information to the City of Houston Health Department. If your child has been deemed a close contact of a positive case on campus, please expect a phone call from the City of Houston for their contact tracing purposes.

If your child displays any potential COVID-19 symptoms during their time at Camp AOS, we have detailed the pathways you can follow for your child to return to camp. You may find those details here.

We encourage every Camp AOS community member to get vaccinated as they are eligible. We do not currently have a plan to require the COVID-19 vaccine for campers or adults.

All campers and staff should continue to take their temperature at home and complete the AUXS App every morning before arriving at camp. Temperatures will no longer be taken when campers and staff arrive.

• A full-time day porter will sanitize commonly-touched areas throughout the campus, multiple times per day.
• All classrooms will be adequately equipped with disinfectant wipes for teachers to use throughout the day to spot clean surfaces as needed.
• Hospital-grade cleansers will be used every night in all classrooms, restrooms, offices, and other common spaces.
• Disinfecting foggers will be used to spot treat areas where suspected illness has occurred.

Camp staff will enforce social distancing practices in hallways, and signs are posted throughout the building detailing social distancing expectations.

We have created an additional room in our nurse’s clinic to allow for two separate areas. In one room, nurses will tend to minor cuts and bruises, etc. The other room will serve as a quarantine room for any camper exhibiting potential COVID-19 symptoms.

Routine standard cleaning will be conducted after a camper is seen in the clinic. We will disinfect the nurse’s clinic immediately if a camper with potential COVID-19 symptoms visits the clinic.

Only campus visitors with set appointments are invited on to campus. We are currently unable to support any major Camp AOS events.

Water fountains will be turned off, but bottle filling stations will remain on.

We are lucky to have modern buildings with well-maintained HVAC units. We worked with an HVAC consultant to ensure our system is optimized for maximum airflow. In addition to upgrading the type of air filter we use for all of our buildings, we made a significant investment in technology to help reduce the likelihood of certain pathogens, like viruses, spreading on our campus.

We installed an air purification system in our HVAC system that is designed to reduce the amount of pathogens (including COVID-19) in the air. The system is a Global Plasma Solutions Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization system. It produces an electronic plasma field in the air ducts of the HVAC system, which ionizes the air particles. This breaks down pathogens and aggregates tiny particles in the air so that they will be trapped by our filtering system. This system has been installed in all buildings on campus. Not only will it help reduce the COVID-19 virus in the air, but it will also help reduce cold and flu pathogens. For those campers and staff with allergies, the system will also clean the air of allergens, odors, and VOCs in the air. This system will provide a healthier air supply for everyone in all buildings on campus.

All classroom doors throughout the building will be propped open throughout the day to increase air circulation throughout the building.

Morning Carpool

• Arrive between 8:50-9:00 AM if possible. This will cause a shorter wait for you, and it will help us prevent congestion at the end of our carpool window.  

• Students should NOT exit the car until a faculty member is standing at the car. This person will view your child’s “green” AUXS pass. 

• Parents should never drive off until the faculty member gives the “all clear” 

Afternoon carpool

• Make sure your child knows who is going to pick him/her up every day before coming to school.