Again, for the 2024-25 school year, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is emphasizing a “routine disease control model” for addressing the impact of COVID-19 on schools. Such a model focuses more on response to clusters of cases, outbreaks, and evidence of ongoing transmission in schools and less on individual case investigation, contact tracing, and quarantining of staff and students following school exposures. A routine disease control model for COVID-19 more closely aligns COVID-19 efforts with public health response strategies used for other infectious diseases (influenza, norovirus, step, etc.) in schools.
Please consult your Local Public Health Agency for additional guidance and local health requirements.
COVID-19 Disease Control Strategies:
- Staying home when sick
- Testing when symptomatic
- Monitoring for increases in illness and absenteeism
- Working with/ local public health
Routine disease control strategies:
- Emphasize to the school community that they should stay home when sick, using Colorado’s "How Sick Is Too Sick" guidance.
- Continue to encourage vaccination of staff and students.
- Follow isolation requirements for students and staff who are ill or have tested positive for COVID-19.
- Continue to recommend transmission prevention strategies, including testing and masking for staff and students following illness and exposure.
- Continue to support regular mask use by staff and students, even when not required by local public health orders. CDC continues to recommend universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status and at all transmission levels.
- Respond to clusters of cases (including increases in respiratory illness) and confirmed outbreaks as described below.
- Continue to report identified cases and outbreaks to public health as required by Colorado Statute and Regulation (6 CCR 1009-1).
- In lieu of individual case investigation and contact tracing, new cluster or outbreak detection strategies should be implemented, including public health reporting of school absenteeism data and participation in wastewater surveillance. CDPHE is exploring funding mechanisms to support this work.
Strategies not continued in the routine disease control model (unless a cluster or outbreak is detected):
- Individual case investigation and contact tracing.
- Quarantine of students and staff with school-associated exposures.* Given the much greater risk of household exposures than non-household exposures, schools should continue to follow quarantine guidance for students and staff who report household exposures.