Schools & Education
The County Office of Education and County Public Health Department continue to work with schools, other programs serving children and youth, and families to keep our schools safe for in-person learning and continued operation of programs serving children and youth in El Dorado County.
State of California Safe Schools for All Hub
California's Safe Schools for All Plan provides the support and accountability to establish a clear path to minimize in-school transmissions and enable, first, a phased return to in-person instruction, and then ongoing safe in-person instruction.The Safe Schools For All Hub consolidates key resources and information related to COVID-19 and schools. New resources will be added to the Hub on a routine basis.
The most up to date guidance, key resources and information can be found on the CDPH Safe Schools For All Hub.
Public Health Guidance for K-12 Schools & Child Care Settings to Support Safe In-Person Services and Mitigate the Spread of Communicable Diseases, 2023-2024 School Year
This guidance is intended to support safe, in-person learning and care in K-12 schools, child care, and related settings by mitigating the spread of communicable diseases. The guidance builds upon a multi-layer strategy used to manage COVID-19 and serves as a general prevention framework to reduce the spread of multiple types of infections, including COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and norovirus. Strategies are guided by the principle that safe, in-person learning, and care are critical to the well-being and development of children.
This guidance provides considerations for various settings where children spend time, including but not limited to the following:
- Licensed child care centers and family child care homes
- Licensed-exempt child care providers
- Early childhood education sites, including preschools
- K-12 schools (public and private)
- Before/after-school programs
- Summer school/intersession programs
For ease of reference, these settings are collectively referred to as “schools and child care" throughout this document.
Additionally, many of the strategies used to reduce transmission of infections can also protect against harmful enviromental effects. California school administrators and child care providers should consider the approaches described below as potential methods to protect children and staff from allergens, pollutants, wildfire smoke, and other external causes of illness and disease.
Definition of an Outbreak of COVID-19 in the Education Program
This outbreak definition is used to determine when LHDs should report a COVID-19 outbreak to CDPH for surveillance purposes. Outbreak consists of:
- At least three COVID-19 cases* within a 7-day period among people who are epidemiologically linked† in the setting, and are not known to be close contacts‡ of each other in any other case investigation, OR
- For large settings (a facility or workplace with >100 persons present in the setting), particularly during high levels of community transmission, LHDs may determine that a higher proportion (at least 5%) of cases within a 7-day period may be sufficient for defining an outbreak, even in the absence of identifiable epidemiological linkages.
Reporting an Outbreak of COVID-19 in the Education Program
AB 86 required COVID-19 case reporting by K-12 schools. This requirement within AB86 has ended as of June 30, 2022. Since this date, El Dorado County Public Health no longer requires individual COVID-19 case reporting from K-12 schools.
However, reporting to El Dorado County Public Health of escalating COVID-19 situations or outbreaks via the Intake Form on the School Portal for Outbreak Tracking (SPOT) is still required.
Complete an intake form (instructions below) to report any Outbreaks in an Education Program.
Instructions for Filling out the Education Portal:
Please complete this SPOT Intake Form and submit information of the Oubtreak.
Resources for Parents
Safe Schools Parent Page (available in English & Spanish)
We understand the very real concerns parents may have about sending their children back to school for full in-person instruction after over a year of pandemic challenges. The Safe Schools Parent Page explains the steps that schools are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This page provides parents with information about the school safety measures that protect the health and wellbeing of students while they are on campus, and the valuable role that in-person learning plays for children's social and emotional development.