Policies & Procedures

Attendance

Your child must be in school every day of their assigned Group Days unless you are keeping your child home due to illness.  We must, by Federal Education Law, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), track all student attendance and chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is when a child is absent more than 10% of instructional days.  To ensure your child has every opportunity for learning, please bring them to school after, or before, all appointments.  If your child is staying home due to illness, please contact the main office [(718) 589-8200] to let us know.  If you must pick up your child for an emergency or early pick-up, please contact the main office prior to coming to the school.

Parent Engagement

We value our parents and families, and we look forward to collaborating with you this year as we work together to make decisions to maximize student engagement and learning.  We are working with our Parent, Student, Teacher Association (PSTA) to create a “classroom” for parents to meet, ask questions, and voice concerns.  We will also be holding IEP conferences, student conferences and parent conferences through virtual meetings as the needs arise.

School Uniforms

JHS 98 is a uniform school.  We are transitioning to new colors this year that the students voted on.  We are also working on rebranding, changing from the Eagle/Hawk to the Dragon.  We ask, at this time, that students wear the uniform of a Royal Blue shirt and blue, tan or black pants/skirt.  The logo does not have to be on the shirt, but students are welcome to wear uniform shirts they have already purchased.  Students may NOT wear ripped jeans, shorts, or sweat pants to school.  If students wear “hoodies,” they will be asked to remove the hood while in class.  When we return to school, we will send out information with regard to purchasing uniforms. 

Safety Protocols

We will be adhering to new social distancing guidelines, as we all have since March.  Being in school and making it a warm and welcoming place to learn is a priority, and ensuring the safety of students, staff and families is our TOP priority.  To help with this, please pay attention to the following as you enter the building:

  • Main Entrance: We will continue to use ONLY the main entrance for arrivals and dismissals at this time.  We share this space with 2 high schools; 1 will use the same entrance but 30 minutes after our school day begins.  The other high school will use Entrance 4, separate from us.  Note that staff and students have time periods to enter for each school and there is no space or time for students to gather before or after school.  
  • Daily Screenings: We ask that parents conduct screenings at home and if your child is not feeling well, please keep your child home.  We will be taking random temperatures of students as they enter or throughout the day.  If, during the day, a student feels ill or exhibits symptoms, we have the doctor from Montefiore to consult with.  The student will be escorted to our isolation room (Room 107).  If a student has permission, they child may be sent home (permission slips will be sent home when school opens).  If not, the student MUST be picked up by an adult.
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) & Safety Protocols:
    • Face Coverings: Students must wear a face covering at all times while in the building except when eating or drinking.  Your child needs to come to school with a face covering as we will only have a limited amount of disposable face coverings available in the school.
    • Hand Washing: We have increased the number of hand sanitizers throughout the school for easy access to use hand sanitizer or wash hands throughout the day.
    • Social Distancing:  All individuals in the school need to remain 6 feet apart.  Classrooms have been set up with limited desks to ensure space between students.  Staircases will be used and labeled for up and down to ensure limited students in the stairwells, and physical education (Health and Wellness) classes are limited to low impact exercises only.
  • Breakfast and Lunch: All meals will be served in the classrooms.  Breakfast is Grab and Go and available to students as they enter the building to go to class.  There is no early entrance for meals; the cafeteria is closed.  For students working remotely, meals are also available for them via the outside entrance to the cafeteria.  Students will milk served with meals but we encourage you to send them with bottled water as water fountains may be shut off for safety reasons.  We still ask that students NOT bring soda, glass bottled drinks, gum or candy to school.
  • Visitors: In the past we have maintained an open-door policy and welcomed all.  However, to ensure safety for students, families and visitors, we are asking that ALL visitors make an appointment.  We will gladly hold virtual meetings using Zoom or Google Meets.  We ask that all visitors share results from the Department of Education’s online health screening, adhere to the social distancing when in the building, wear a face covering, and come directly to the main office to sign-in upon entering the building.

Health & Wellness FAQ

  1. What if a child in the class gets ill? Montefiore, our in-school clinic, will be open and the doctor will be responsible for overseeing the ill student.  Room 107 is our isolation class, which is large enough to have 6 students in there at one time and someone overseeing the students from a safe distance.
  2. If the child has a fever, what happens? We will be contacting the family to see if the child can be released to the family.
  3. What happens if several children in one class become ill? The class will be asked to stay home and quarantine for 14 days.  This may also result in the school being closed (but no one is giving a definitive response to this, yet).
  4. If the number gets too high, will the school close? Yes, information on ill staff and students will be shared with the District Office daily.  Right now they are saying "several" but if there is more than one case in the school, and the staff or students are in different classrooms, "learning will continue remotely and the school building will close for at least 24 hours while NYC Test + Trace and NYC Health investigate.  Depending on the outcome of the investigation, affected classrooms or the whole building will remain closed for 14 days for quarantine." 
  5. What if a child shows up without a mask? We will have a limited number of masks to share with students and try to ensure that everyone has a mask.
  6. If a student or teacher is feeling sick, they are required to stay home and, if their symptoms are consistent with COVID-19, are asked to get tested.