Dear AbilityPath Family,

I hope you are staying safe and healthy. With COVID- 19 cases continuing to increase throughout the entire state, San Mateo County and Santa Clara County have implemented more strict policies for health screenings and travel. We recognize that there is a lot of new information and that the guidance is rapidly changing. We are working diligently to ensure our protocols remain aligned with the latest recommendations from local, state, and federal health authorities, ensuring the health and safety of all of those in our community.

Below are a few updates to the health guidelines:

• The temperature threshold for a fever has been lowered to 100° F. This means that during the daily health screening if an individual’s temperature reads at or above 100° F, they will not be allowed to attend our programs and they will be asked to return home; in addition, they may be advised to be tested for COVID before returning to program.
• In Santa Clara County, there is now a mandatory 10-day self-quarantine if you travel more than 150 miles from the county. We are asking all families, children and adults who attend our programs in both San Mateo and Santa Clara County and staff providing in-person services to let us know if they plan to travel outside of the allowable area, and then to stay home for 10 days after returning.

As part of California’s efforts to contain and reduce the spread of COVID-19, on December 7 Governor Newsom launched a new Exposure Notification APP that can alert people who may have been exposed to someone who is positive for the virus. AbilityPath strongly encourages you to use this app to protect yourselves, your co-workers, and your families. The APP is built on the Exposure Notification technology developed by Apple and Google, which was designed to provide these alerts while protecting your privacy. By using this technology to help protect our work place and our homes, we are working to break the chain of transmission and accelerate the path to recovery.  Below are the links to download the APP:

• Android devices:  Download CA Notify here
• iOS/Apple devices iPhone: Turn on Exposure Notifications in your iPhone settings

At AbilityPath, we are focused on maintaining our programs for the families, adults and children we serve, ensuring they are offered in a safe manner that is in compliance with guidelines provided by our public health officials. We have implemented the following:

• We will continue to provide free, regularly scheduled COVID testing for staff who are providing in-person services.
• We are temporarily curtailing all in-person therapy sessions and early assessments.
• We are temporarily suspending all in-person classes at our Learning Links locations and virtual programming is being offered.
• We will only provide limited, emergency in-person support for participants in our adult services programs.

We are grateful to all of our staff for their hard work, commitment, and dedication during these turbulent times.  We will continue to provide you with updates about the latest measures we are taking to manage the health and safety our programs during the pandemic.

Bryan Neider
CEO