Protocols meant to protect children from COVID-19 are being put to the test in one Middlesex County community as several students are forced to quarantine.

Students from several East Brunswick schools were told to stay home after being exposed to the virus. Superintendent Victor Valeski wouldn’t say how many students were impacted.

So far, no students have tested positive for coronavirus. The group of students has close contact with someone who did test positive for COVID-19.

“We identified the students quickly. We got them out of the buildings [Wednesday]. They would have typically been in the buildings today,” Valeski says.

But the students did attend school on Tuesday. Valeski says that the “close contact” incidents stem from two separate social events over the Labor Day weekend.

Valeski says that the key is that families reported incidents as soon as they knew something.

“You need to let us know quickly, because our success in remaining open is really dependent on getting that information and reacting to it very quickly,” he says.

The East Brunswick School District is going with hybrid model of in-school and remote learning. The hope is to bring even more students back to class when it is safe. Valeski says that close calls are going to happen.

“I came into this expecting that every day was a potential day that someone would revel something,” he says.

The superintendent says that he is not trying to incite fear, but instead show transparency. The students in quarantine will have to learn from home for two weeks and wait to be cleared by a doctor.

A student at the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools – also in East Brunswick – did test positive for COVID-19. The school is not part of the East Brunswick School District.

A notice sent home to parents states that the school will be going all-virtual for two weeks after a freshman tested positive and was in school on Friday.

The protocol would be to trace close contacts of the student, but the email sent to parents says that it is too difficult, so everyone will stay home for now.