Schools K-12

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) K-12 school page addresses the need for schools, local health departments, and healthcare providers to work together to support the goal of all students returning to school safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To ensure that ADPH county health departments are providing consistent and up-to-date information to local schools, this page provides resources and forms necessary for reporting.

School Guidance

In response to feedback from education partners, CDC has been working with education partners to develop infection prevention and control guidance for schools, which will include information on infection spread and prevention strategies across a number of pathogens that can affect school settings (e.g., norovirus, flu, strep pharyngitis). This guidance will align with the updated CDC - Respiratory Virus Guidance and other disease-specific guidance and include considerations for children with special health care needs. We anticipate this guidance being released prior to the 2024-2025 school year.

Monitoring & Reporting COVID-19 in Schools

• School nurses should continue to report school COVID-19 outbreaks and outbreaks of any kind using the REPORT Card for Reportable Diseases/Conditions and selecting Outbreak as the Reportable Disease/Health Condition.
• For COVID-19 and other respiratory disease outbreaks, we recommend using the following definition:
  • 20% absenteeism across the entire school due to COVID-19
    
    

***Please remember this applies only to COVID-19 and not to other communicable diseases.***