By Julian Bayan

On September 19, Granada Hills Charter (GHC) Administrative Director Julia Howelman announced a significant change to its COVID-19 absence policy, highlighting a shift in the way GHC approaches COVID-related absences.

Prior to the policy shift, students were required to isolate for five days if they tested positive for COVID-19, with all five days counted as excused absences.

In the weekly GHC newsletter email, Howelman stated that GHC will no longer record COVID-19 absences separately from normal absences, and will instead be counted towards the 15-day drop-fail policy, where 15 or more absences in one course will result in a student being dropped from that class.

The change was announced six months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adjusted its own recommendations, stating that people were no longer required to quarantine for five days back in March 2024.

By updating the absence policy, GHC is more aligned and up-to-date overall with public health guidelines, such as the recommendations provided by the CDC.

“In September, the nurse worked with the county to let us know that there’s no need to quarantine for five days, so we’ve merged it with regular absences,” Howelman said. “We’re also treating COVID-19 just like the flu, but we would still like to know if students have COVID-19 in case any clusters arise so we can report it to the county.”

COVID-19 cases have been significantly lower than they were when school reopened, whilst vaccination rates have become much higher. 

Although the illness is still present, it has been deemed to be no longer a serious risk. Under these circumstances, the GHC administration moved forward with updating the policy. 

“We’re trying to be sensitive to the changes, especially last spring, and this year we decided to move forward with the recommendation to not have the need for quarantine,” Howelman said.

By altering the COVID-19 absence policy, missed days because of testing positive for the virus will be treated in the same vein as the flu or a doctor’s appointment.