Oregon parents plan how they’ll bring their college kids home for holidays

Click here for updates on this story

    BEAVERTON, Ore. (KPTV) — Governors Kate Brown, Jay Inslee and Gavin Newsom announced a new travel advisory Friday. The advisory recommends anyone traveling to the West Coast states to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving.

This comes just two weeks before Thanksgiving and state officials are discouraging big celebrations with family and friends this year. But what about families with college students who need to come home?

One Beaverton mom has a plan in place to make this happen safely.

Before they carve the turkey and sit down for dinner, Terri Strauss has to get her three daughters home from college in the middle of a pandemic.

“Our oldest is a senior at Linfield and then we have twin daughters. One is going to Marquette University in Wisconsin and the other is going to the University of Oregon,” Strauss said.

With college students traveling home for the holidays, the Oregon Health Authority’s Dean Sidelinger offered up some advice.

“It’s important for students, before they come home, they should try and limit their activities as much as possible, try not to socialize as much,” Sidelinger said. “We don’t want to take the virus from one part of our state and spread it to other communities in our state, or other states.”

Luckily for Strauss, she had a plan before this advisory was announced. She said it’s going to take a plane, train and a car to get all three of her daughters back to Beaverton for the holidays.

“The plan is to stagger them one by one. They’ll get tested on their way home or after they get home and then they’ll be quarantined in our basement. We’re fortunate to have a bedroom and bathroom down there to keep them away from us until their test results come back,” Strauss said.

Strauss said they’ve been taking the COVID-19 prevention measures very seriously this year, so they plan to have an intimate Thanksgiving.

“We’re just going to keep it to our family. Normally we have extended family but I don’t want to be a thanksgiving statistic so we’re having our own quiet Thanksgiving,” Strauss said.

Strauss said each of her daughters’ schools will provide remote learning through at least January, which means they can all quarantine together before they go back to school.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.