All Schools

• Closely monitor, adjust, and follow cohort size guidelines provided by CDE, CDPH, and Santa Clara County Public Health and Education Office for both general and special education.
• Interactions between cohorts, including interactions between staff assigned to different cohorts.
• Assign students who live together or carpool together to the same cohort, if possible.
• Avoid moving students from one cohort to another, unless needed for a child's overall safety and wellness.
• Keep cohorts separate from one another for special activities such as art, music, and exercise; stagger outside time and other activities so that no two cohorts are in the same place at the same time.
• Provide one-to-one specialized services to students by a support service provider that is not part of the child's cohort. Specialized service includes, but is not limited to, occupational therapy services, speech and language services, and other medical, behavioral services, or educational support services as part of a targeted intervention strategy.
• Provide services consistent with the industry guidance for limited services.

• Avoid changing staff assignments to the extent practicable.
• Allow substitute providers, covering for short‐term staff absences, who must work only with one cohort of children per day.
• Conduct meetings among the staff from different cohorts remotely, outdoors, or in a large room, wearing cloth face coverings, while maintaining physical distancing to the greatest extent possible from other providers.
• Promote outdoor meetings and meetings in large rooms with windows open, over meetings in small rooms with windows closed.

The ESD Instruction Plan strives to deliver equitable, accessible, high-quality education by laying the foundation through multiple options that incorporate online learning into the traditional learning model while respecting physical distancing guidelines. In an effort to create and support student engagement:

• Provide all students with devices and wifi access to ensure accessibility to the instruction.
• Provide teachers with training and professional development in pedagogy, as well as online and blended learning.
• Provide academic accommodations for students impacted by COVID-19.
• Provide targeted support as needed, for students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, English Learners, Foster/Homeless youth, and other vulnerable student groups.
• Establish procedures to re-engage students who are absent for more than 60 percent of instruction per week.
• Physical Distancing - When creating a cohort and planning a student event on campus, plan to limit the number of people in all campus spaces to the number that can be reasonably accommodated while maintaining distance between individuals. As recommended by the CDC, create smaller student/ educator cohorts to minimize the mixing of student groups throughout the day. Minimize the movement of students, educators, and staff as much as possible.
• Determine student and staff capacity of each school, which to the greatest extent possible. Follow CDC recommendations to provide virtual activities instead of field trips and intergroup events.

• Determine maximum capacity for students of each classroom.
• Position teacher and staff desks at least six feet away from students.
• Face student desks in the same direction, and not facing each other, maximizing the space between each desk.
• Utilize other campus spaces for instructional activities (e.g., gyms, cafeterias, outdoors) as classrooms, as needed.
• Arrange developmentally appropriate activities for smaller group activities and rearrange furniture and play spaces to maintain separation, when possible.
• Maintain physical distancing objectives as students move between classrooms.
• Students may bring only school essentials items to campus securely in a backpack/bag. Essentials items may include a reusable water bottle.
• Keep student belongings separate so that students do not come into contact with other students' belongings and elementary may use hooks for backpacks outside of the classrooms if available.
• Reduce the amount of furniture and equipment in the classroom to facilitate distancing and to reduce frequently touched surfaces.
• Place markings on classroom floors to facilitate physical distancing.
• Provide hand sanitizer to students and staff in office spaces and classrooms.

Image: Classroom with physical distancing markers and distanced desks

• Adults must wear a face covering at all times while on campus, except while eating or drinking.
• Staff excluded from this requirement are those that require respiratory protection according to Cal/OSHA standards.
• Staff who are unable to wear a face covering for medical reasons shall not be assigned duties that require close contact with students.
• Students (transitional kindergarten through 8th grade) are required to wear face coverings including:
  • While arriving and departing from the school campus;
  • In any area inside and outside of the classroom (except when eating, drinking, or engaging in physical activity); and
  • While waiting for or riding on a school bus.

• The District will provide staff information and guidance on the use of gloves, drapes and alternative face coverings.
• Provide masks for staff and students in an amount sufficient to meet the site's needs.
• Provide face shields for technicians, educators, and paraprofessionals, if needed.
• Provide gloves in an amount sufficient to meet the site's needs including nitrile gloves.
• Provide smocks to wear over clothes for staff in an amount sufficient to meet the site's needs.
• Provide hand sanitizer in office spaces, applicable entry points, and in classrooms.

• Limit access to campus for parents and other visitors.
• Ensure external community organizations that use the facilities also follow the school's health and safety plans and CDPH guidance.
• Review facility use agreements and communicate common facility protocols for all users of the facility.
• Remove or suspend use of share tables and self-service buffets for food and condiments.
• For providing off-site meals, offer grab-and-go student meals for consumption at home, including drive-through, delivery, or curbside pick-up options.
• Stagger and limit restroom usage to specific cohort use as much as practicable.
• Place physical distancing markings outside of restrooms to facilitate physical social distancing.
• Limit congregate activities in hallways as much as possible.
• Clean and disinfect playground structures at elementary sites daily.
• Physical distancing reminder signage has been placed at various locations throughout campus including bike cages.

• Staff must wear face covering, gloves, single-use aprons (or cloth aprons washed daily).
• Promote fresh, healthy meals that are individually boxed, using pre-portioned and pre-wrapped produce when available.
• Use disposable paper goods for meal service.
• Reorganize work stations for proper physical distancing during meal preparation and meal service.
• Adjust employee shifts to minimize the number of staff in the kitchen.
• Limit physical interaction during meal preparation and meal service (e.g., serve meals in classrooms, increase meal service access points, stagger cafeteria use).
• Suspend the use of shared tables and self-service buffets for food and condiments.
• Install physical barriers, such as sneeze guards and partitions, at point of sale, and other areas where maintaining a physical distance is difficult.
• With an approved National School Lunch Program waiver, offer meal delivery for students quarantined or in a home-based cohort. Consideration on a case by case basis. Require students to sanitize hands before meal service/distribution .
• Students will throw all food and utensils in the trash after eating.
• Sharing food is not permitted.
• Serve meals outdoors.
• Sanitize the pin pad/keypad between uses.
• Physical distancing through increased spacing, small groups, and limited mixing between groups.
• Stagger meal times to allow for cleaning between meal services and to serve students in smaller groups.
• Maximize spacing between groups or tables by increasing table spacing, removing tables, marking tables as closed, or providing a physical barrier between tables.
• Provide physical guides, such as tape on floors or sidewalks and signage on walls, to minimize close contacts while waiting in lines and/or for seating.