BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge school system says it will not adopt an optional rule introduced by state education officials that would allow parents to keep their kids in school even if they were potentially exposed to COVID.

The parish superintendent said in a letter to staff Thursday that the school district would not use the "parent choice" option announced by the Louisiana Department of Education on Wednesday. The updated guidance, which is optional for all public K-12 schools, would allow parents to keep "close contact" students in school instead of forcing them to quarantine. 

The school system's current rules say Pre-K students must quarantine for 14 days after close contact. K-12 students must self-isolate for 10 days and monitor for symptoms for an additional four days.

Read the full letter from the superintendent here

The Ascension and Livingston Parish school districts said they would adopt the parent choice option.

WBRZ has asked other capital area school districts whether they plan to adopt the guidelines and is awaiting responses.