ABS is committed to the health and safety of our staff, clients, and their families.

Our clinic follows all CDC and IDPH safety and cleaning guidelines, as well as the Chicago travel order. All missed sessions due to quarantine, travel or illness should be replaced with a telehealth or parent coaching session whenever possible.

Clinic Regulations (per CDC):
• PPE requirements for staff (eg: masks, face shields, gloves, desk barriers)
• Temperature checks/reporting for families
• Health screenings
• Hand washing
• Social distancing
• Sanitization of all surfaces and equipment

Social Distancing:
• Your child will be escorted to and from the back entrance of the building directly to the treatment room. Stay in your car near the back door and text/call your therapist when you get there.
• All sessions will be 1:1 with limited to no contact with anyone besides the treating therapist (unless session is a scheduled small group).
• No siblings allowed in the clinic and parents are encouraged to wait in the car.
• Our waiting room will be closed and all three clinic entrances will be used for social distancing.
• All efforts will be made to maintain a distance of 6’ from other staff at the clinic.

Other Health Precautions:
• All staff are required to use a mask when with clients (the speech pathologist may briefly remove their mask when facilitating/modeling a motor movement or speech sound).
• If a parent needs to come into the clinic, a mask (or face covering) brought from home will be required.
• Children over the age of 2 are encouraged to wear a mask brought from home (as tolerated). (https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/masks-and-children-during-covid-19/)
• Upon arrival into the clinic your child and the therapist will wash hands (or use hand sanitizer) for 20 seconds.
• All equipment used/touched within the session will be sanitized.

Attendance:
• Upon arrival to the parking lot, your therapist will screen you and your child with the following information:
1. Has your child or anyone in your household experienced symptoms of COVID-19 or any illness in the past 72 hours.
2. Has your child or anyone in your household been exposed to anyone with COVID-19 in the past 14 days.
3. A forehead temperature screening (or temperature home check with verbal report, TBD) will be required for anyone entering the clinic.
The below guidelines apply to clients who can properly mask throughout their clinic session.

Travel Policy:
• After travel, unvaccinated individuals returning from a high-risk (“orange”) state should:
• Get tested with a viral test 3-5 days after travel AND stay home and self-quarantine for a full 7 days.
• Even if you test negative, stay home and self-quarantine for the full 5 days.
• If your test is positive, isolate yourself to protect others from getting infected.
• If you don’t get tested, stay home and self-quarantine for 10 days after travel.
• At this time, vaccinated individuals do not require quarantine or testing after any domestic or international travel.
• State risks change weekly and may be checked HERE: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/covid-19/home/emergency-travel-order.html

Quarantine after Exposure:
• Unvaccinated clients, or those that have not had a vaccine or booster in the last 6 months, must quarantine for 5 days after exposure to COVID and mask for an additional 5 days. Testing is encouraged on day 5. Telehealth sessions should be scheduled during quarantine.
• Vaccinated people who can properly mask do not need to quarantine after exposure. A COVID test is recommended 3 days after exposure.

Illness:
• If your child has any symptoms of illness, please speak to your pediatrician.
• If the pediatrician recommends a covid test, sessions will be telehealth until the results are back. if negative, you may return for in clinic sessions per our regular sick policy (below)
• If the pediatrician says it’s something else that’s not contagious- (allergies, migraine, food poisoning, etc)- you may be seen in person for sessions.
• Regular sick policy: If there is another diagnosis (cold, strep, flu, etc)- you can come back when your child is fever free for 24 hours and is feeling better.
• If your child has covid: they may return for in person sessions after:
• 10 days since symptoms first appeared and
• 24 hours with no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and
• Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving
• If an ill family member living in same the household interacts with an unvaccinated client receiving clinic services, COVID exposure should be assumed unless a negative covid test or differential diagnosis is given.

[Updated 1/3/2022]