COLORADO, USA — The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) on Wednesday released new guidance for detecting, reporting and responding to cases and outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools and child care settings.
The guidelines come after CDPHE gathered input from stakeholders on how to make the guidance as helpful as possible for the start of the school year.
The department had input from school districts, school nurses, teachers union representatives, local public health agencies and counties.
> The video above discusses cohorting and how it will be helpful for schools this fall.
New tools that can help parents, students, teachers, staff and schools determine who needs to stay home from school are part of the guidelines.
They include:
A home checklist for parents and school staff. This will help parents and staff determine if they or their child should go to school.
A screening tool to determine who needs to be sent home from school if they get sick. This will provide direction for teachers and staff who encounter a student or other teacher/staff member who appears sick at school.
A tool to determine how long a person needs to stay home after staying or going home sick. This will provide information about when a person with COVID-19 symptoms can return to school depending on the level of transmission in the school’s community.
A tool to determine if classmates or cohort members or close contacts of a sick person need to stay home. This will help schools determine when cohorts or classes must quarantine due to likely exposure to COVID-19
This case and outbreak guidance, in addition to the school opening guidance, CDE’s toolkit for the 2020-21 school year, and guidance from local public health agencies will provide districts with the information they need to start the school year in a way that makes sense for their local communities.
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