“If our children are absent due to illness, but not due to the coronavirus, what they need to do for return to class?»: Is one of the recurring questions in parents’ chats at the beginning of the school year marked by hardships, fears and great uncertainty. And the answer, which also varies from region to region, is not always clear, in a confused picture by the inextricable intertwining and overlapping of local regulations, government emergency decrees, guidelines and interpretations of insiders and experts. The situation thus risks leading to chaos when the first seasonal ailments arrive, which according to statistics affect between 20 and 40% of the school population. In fact, the problem will not only be distinguishing the normal influences from the dreaded virus, but also apply the procedures in an unbureaucratic way, with the aim of minimizing the risk of contagion, but without paralyzing teaching activities unnecessarily.
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So how will you return to school after a no Covid disease? The old certificate after 5 days of absence, on which entire generations have grown since 1967, had been abolished in recent years in almost half of the Regions, but was then reintroduced by decree throughout the country during the most critical phase of the emergency in March. Now it goes on in no particular order, but the indications coming from the dedicated switchboards, from the school offices and from the secretariats of the institutes contacted by Courier service they are vague. “It should … maybe … in theory …” In Veneto, Liguria and Piedmont, according to widespread guidelines, it is sufficient self-certification of parents, which however presupposes the go-ahead from the pediatrician. If the school still suspects Covid symptoms, in the absence of a tampon, school leaders may feel entitled to refuse readmission. Some regions instead accept the return without a certificate and without self-declaration, focusing on “that mutual trust at the basis of the pact of co-responsibility between the educating community and the family”: this is the rule – except for sudden second thoughts – in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trentino Alto Adige, Umbria and Marche. In the other regions the old certificate is still in force after the 5 days of absence (in Lazio it had been abolished but was reinstated as a precaution), in Sicily the obligation starts from the tenth day.
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