This California Department of Public Health memo provides up-to-date guidance to California’s schools on mitigating COVID-19 while learning in person. It describes mitigation strategies, as well as considerations for student mental and behavioral health, students with disabilities and other health needs, higher-risk activities, large events, visitors to schools, and boarding schools.
- Tools & School Guidance
This guidance from the state of California recommends a new group-tracing approach to replace contact tracing. The group-tracing approach allows for a quicker and broader response to cases identified in school settings, and involves notifying groups of students who spent more than 15 minutes with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 during their period of infectiousness. It also addresses implementing test-to-stay approaches for all exposed students. The website also contains a link to a sample notification letter that schools can adapt for their own use.
- Tools & School Guidance
This California Department of Public Health publication lays out steps that event operators can take to protect attendees from COVID transmission during large events. Specific guidance for k–12 school events, such as assemblies and dances, includes splitting events by cohort (e.g., grade level) when possible, hosting events outdoors (and, in particular, serving any food and beverages outdoors), and considering a pre-event testing requirement for attendees.
- Tools & School Guidance
This website consolidates existing guidance; provides resources on funding, mitigation, and transparency; and explains the science behind the state’s reopening plan.
- Tools & School Guidance
Through this website, schools districts can apply to the California K-12 School Rapid Antigen Testing Program, which provides free testing supplies, training, and software to schools to support COVID-19 testing.
- Tools & School Guidance
This website includes free, evidence-based video and print resources to teach children mental health and coping skills to address a range of challenges, including stress from isolation, personal trauma, and learning challenges brought on by COVID-19. English- and Spanish-language resources address topics such as understanding feelings and thoughts, relaxation skills, managing intense emotions, and mindfulness.
- Virtual Training
This COVID-19 data dashboard, updated daily, includes information on the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths at the county level. It also compares these numbers between vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
- Data
This study of seven California school districts identifies several themes and practices that aided their pandemic response. As the pandemic wore on, districts’ initial efforts expanded to address student and staff mental health, student engagement in online learning, adjustments of grading and graduation policies, and targeted services for students with high needs. Districts described proactive and consistent communication, efforts to build close ties with their local communities, and relationships within the district office and with County Offices of Education as among those that were particularly helpful.
- Research
This resource includes video resources, developed in partnership with UCSF and UCLA, that will help schools implement safety guidance.
- Virtual Training
California encourages parents to test their children for COVID-19 as they return to school from break and to share the test results with their local health department. This website contains resources for parents, including a fact sheet with steps they should follow to conduct at-home COVID-19 testing as well as social media images and messages in English and Spanish for districts and schools to share.
- Tools & School Guidance