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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.

In order 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.

What's New?

Updated CDC Guidance

On January 6, 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated guidance for K-12 schools to align with the updated quarantine and isolation guidance.

Isolation is used to separate people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 from those without COVID-19. Quarantine is a strategy used to prevent transmission of COVID-19 by keeping people who have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 apart from others. CDC continues to recommend universal indoor masking by all students (ages 2 years and older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

Students, teachers, and staff who come into close contact with someone with COVID-19 should quarantine for at least 5 days after their last close contact with someone with COVID-19 if they are in one of the following groups:

  • Ages 18 years or older and completed the primary series of recommended vaccine more than 6 months ago but have not received a recommended booster shot.
  • Those who have received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine (completing the primary series) over 2 months ago and have not received a recommended booster shot.
  • Those who are not fully vaccinated or have not completed a primary vaccine series.

All students, teachers, and staff who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 should wear a well-fitting mask around others for 10 days from the date of the last close contact with someone with COVID-19 and watch for symptoms of COVID-19. They should also get tested at least 5 days after having close contact with someone with COVID-19. If they test positive or develop COVID-19 symptoms, they should follow recommendations for isolation. Isolation recommendations include:

  • Students, teachers, and staff who have presumed or confirmed COVID-19 or are showing symptoms of COVID-19 should isolate regardless of vaccination status. Isolation is used to separate people with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 from those without COVID-19. People who are in isolation should stay home until it’s safe for them to be around others.
    • CDC recommends ending isolation based on timing after symptom onset or positive test result (if asymptomatic).
      Students, teachers, and staff can end isolation after 5 full days since symptom onset if they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and their other symptoms have improved.
    • Students, teachers, and staff should continue to wear a mask around others at home and in public for 5 additional days (day 6 through day 10) after the end of their 5-day isolation.
  • If they continue to have fever or their other symptoms have not improved after 5 days of isolation, they should stay in isolation until they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and their other symptoms have improved. Contact a healthcare provider with questions.
  • Day 0 is the day symptoms began or the day the person took a test that had a positive result. Day 1 is the day after symptoms began or, if a person does not have symptoms, the day after the person tested positive (use the date the test was collected).

CDC also recommends that students, teachers, and staff who are asked to quarantine should not go to school or school events in-person during their quarantine period unless they are participating in a school sponsored “test-to-stay” program.

Students, teachers, and staff who have presumed or confirmed COVID-19 or are showing symptoms of COVID-19 should stay home and isolate away from other people for at least 5 full days. People with COVID-19 who have symptoms can end isolation after 5 full days only if they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and if other symptoms have improved. Students, teachers, and staff with COVID-19 should wear a well-fitting mask when around others at home and in public for an additional 5 days after the end of their isolation.

Updated CDC Web Content:

Screening Testing to Promptly Identify Cases, Clusters, and Outbreaks

School testing gives communities, schools, and families added assurance that schools can open and remain open safely for all students. By identifying infections early, before symptoms appear, testing helps keep COVID-19 transmission low and students in school for in-person learning, sports, and extracurricular activities. The UAB School of Public Health is currently collaborating with the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Alabama State Department of Education to offer voluntary asymptomatic COVID-19 testing in Alabama K-12 schools to students, faculty, and staff. For more information, please contact the Program’s Director Beth Johns at covidALK12@uab.edu or visit COVID Testing in Alabama K12 Schools.

Resources

Frequently Asked Questions from Parents

If a person develops symptoms after testing positive, the 5-day isolation period should start over from the day of onset of symptoms.
Follow the advice of your healthcare provider, as guidance depends on the clinical situation. In general, if your child has been exposed to COVID-19, and has symptoms but has a negative test, it is still safer for your child to isolate for five days, be fever free for 24 hours without fever medication, and have improving symptoms before returning to school wearing a mask.
ADPH has received questions from providers for guidance for doctors' offices on the use of results from testing performed within the home using home test kits to allow a return or continuation of children in schools. ADPH will not be providing a form for the purposes of allowing students to return to the classroom based on the results of a home COVID-19 tests. We do not recommend that the home test kits be utilized for this purpose.
Persons who have had COVID-19 disease can still be reinfected a few months or later after disease, especially with the emergence of variants. COVID-19 vaccine further strengthens the immune response and helps the immune system fight off infection and keeps people from severe disease and out of hospitals.
Day zero is the day the person tests positive or first has COVID-19 symptoms and day 1 is the first day after the beginning of symptoms or, if asymptomatic, the specimen was collected.

It is very important that persons who have COVID-19 isolate for a minimum of 5 days away from members of their household, use a separate bathroom, not prepare food, use disposable utensils, and wear a well-fitting mask if they have to go into common areas of the house. After this 5 days, persons should still do all they can to reduce contact for the remaining five days, including continuing to wear a mask, even in the house.

Persons exposed to COVID-19 in a household should be tested 5 days after exposure, even without symptoms. If persons exposed to COVID-19 in a household become symptomatic, they should be tested as soon as practical. If contact with the infected person cannot be broken (separate bedroom, living quarters, bathroom, consistent and correct mask wearing), quarantine for the contacts continues for 5 days after the last exposure, starting on Day 6 after the infected person’s symptoms began or positive test.

Household contacts of COVID-19 should stay at home for at least 5 days, stay away from the ill person completely (broken contact), and be tested after 5 days if they remain asymptomatic. If the contact develops symptoms at any time during the quarantine, the person should be tested as soon as possible. Refer to question "How do I handle ongoing household exposure?" above.
When persons who have had COVID-19 return to school after 5 days of isolation or quarantine, they should still wear well fitting masks, keep hands clean, and distance to the extent possible. During lunch and snack, persons should remove their mask only when eating, sanitize hands, distance to the extent possible, and resume wearing their mask after eating. Sanitizing hands before removing masks, prior to putting masks back on, and after putting masks back on are important measures to further reduce any potential transmission of the virus.
CDC and ADPH recommend school wide masking for all students, teachers, and staff to reduce transmission of COVID-19. Persons returning from COVID-19 shortened isolation or quarantine must wear masks for 10 days after the onset of symptoms and/or positive test or last exposure to a case.
A lot of discussion about types of masks is ongoing, especially with the more transmissible Omicron variant. N-95 masks remain the most effective mask at reducing transmission of respiratory droplets. However, N-95 still needs to be properly fitted, and not all persons can comfortably wear N-95 for extended periods of time. Other options are K-N95 which are similar but have different industry standards for filtration. Surgical masks are a very good option due to layers and better filtering. Fit can be improved by wearing a cloth mask over it. CDC has not changed mask guidance, at this time, and continues to allow a well fitted mask of tightly woven breathable material, such as cotton fabric, consistently and correctly worn over the nose and mouth. For additional information, visit Your Guide to Masks | CDC.
For the purposes of boosters and adherence to quarantine, CDC has stated that, when persons receive the booster dose, they are considered to have been boosted that same day. CDC data that tracked Pfizer vaccine trial participants for 100 days after their boosters suggests that positive effects of the shot may start as soon as seven days after getting boosted.
With the emergence of Omicron, the incubation period for COVID-19 appears to be shorter, around 3-5 days after exposure, but at least a third of people may remain contagious up to 10 days. This is why CDC recommends mask use for 10 days, even with shortened isolation or quarantine. Keep in mind that immunosuppressed persons may shed virus longer and should follow longer isolation. See Ending Isolation and Precautions for People with COVID-19: Interim Guidance.
For purposes of school classrooms and students in those classrooms, exposure of less than three feet for fifteen minutes or more, cumulative in 24 hours, is considered a contact. At this time, the three feet and fifteen-minute rule does not apply to staff, teachers, or students in settings outside the classroom such as on buses or in lunchrooms.
Studies after the emergence of Omicron indicate that persons who are exposed are more likely to develop COVID-19 within about 5 days after exposure. CDC made changes in recommendations based upon these studies and to allow for asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic persons to return to school or work sooner if persons could follow preventive measures, including correct and consistent mask usage.
Many studies and information about hospitalizations indicate that vaccinated and boosted persons are less likely to have severe illness, be hospitalized, and die from COVID-19. Among other benefits of the vaccine, having your child vaccinated against COVID-19 reduces the risk of your child developing COVID-19 by 90%.
COVID-19 is more contagious and deadly than influenza in children. While it is uncommon for children to die from either influenza or COVID-19, during this past year, no child in Alabama died from influenza, while, at least 16 children in Alabama have died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic COVID-19, especially the Omicron variant, can cause severe disease in children. In the second week of January, over 60 children are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Alabama. At least 129 children in Alabama have developed Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome of Childhood (MIS-C). a severe illness requiring hospitalization. It is important to reduce the risk of children developing communicable diseases, including influenza and COVID-19, as previously healthy children can become very ill, require hospitalizations, and die from both these illnesses.
No one wants to spread illness to others and cause people to be sick. As with other communicable diseases, there are certain measures that need to be taken to prevent others from catching the illness. Information to reduce COVID-19 disease is provided to keep all people as safe as possible from being sick.
If an athlete has moderate to severe COVID-19 illness, it is very important to consult with the athlete’s healthcare provider prior to return to play. While athletes can follow the five-day isolation, shorter isolation is for persons who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and improving by the fifth day of illness. Shortened isolation requires that all persons, including athletes, continue to consistently and correctly mask for 10 days after onset of symptoms and/or positive test.





Page last updated: January 20, 2022

SEE ALSO

COVID-19 Vaccine

NEED SOME HELP?

Having trouble finding what you are looking for? Use our A to Z Index or Contact Us.