The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) and Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) recently updated its policies regarding how to respond to cases of COVID-19 within the state's schools.

Highlights of these updates include moving from mandatory, 10-day quarantines for all COVID-positive students and unvaccinated students who are close contacts of COVID-positive students, to a policy called "monitor to stay," which will allow unvaccinated students who are close contacts to remain in school so long as they do not develop symptoms.

This approach has already been adopted in Bristol Warren, but other communities, such as Barrington, have resisted this approach and continued with mandatory, 10-day quarantines.

In this poll, we ask whether you think:

• The state's new approach is a wise adjustment that will prevent healthy students from being forced into long quarantines and enable more students to remain in school.

OR

• The new approach is a dangerous backtrack that will put more students and school personnel at risk during a time of rising infection numbers.

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