Schools and Child Care COVID-19
Best Practice Recommendations and Case Reporting

On this page:
Reporting cases of COVID-19
Operational guidelines for schools child care, youth programs, and camps
Managing cases and exposures

Reporting cases of COVID-19

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has made changes to COVID-19 reporting for Minnesota pre-K through grade 12 schools and child care settings as of Aug. 1, 2023.

• Certified child care centers, licensed child care centers, and licensed family child cares are no longer required to report cases of COVID-19 as of August 1. If you have questions about respiratory illness in your facility, please email health.schools.covid19@state.mn.us.
• Pre-K through grade 12 schools: Use the Respiratory Illness and Gastrointestinal Illness Outbreak Reporting to report a respiratory illness outbreak including COVID-19 when 10% of your student enrollment is absent with respiratory illness on a given day. If you have questions about this system, email health.schools.covid19@state.mn.us.
  • Respiratory Illness Outbreak and Gastrointestinal Illness (GI) Outbreak Reporting for K-12 Schools (PDF)
    Overview of the new reporting system, combined illness reporting, and when to report.
  • For respiratory illness, submit one report when you reach the 10% student threshold. You do not need to submit a new report for at least two weeks (14 days) after the initial report. For GI illness, submit one report each time the GI illness exceeds your established baseline. For more information and answers to other frequently asked questions, please see our FAQ document Respiratory Illness and Gastrointestinal Illness (GI) Outbreak Reporting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Operational guidance for schools, child care, youth programs, and camps

MDH recommends that schools, child care, youth programs, and camps implement a core set of infectious disease prevention strategies as part of their normal operations and layer additional prevention strategies specific to COVID-19 to the extent possible in response to changing local situations, including periods of increased community health impacts from COVID-19. This guidance can also help prevent the spread of other infectious diseases and support healthy learning environments for all.

• CDC: Preventing Spread of Infections in K-12 Schools
  New guidance that consolidates and simplifies previous recommendations intended specifically for K-12 school settings.
• Infectious diseases in childcare settings and schools manual
  Hennepin County infectious disease manual that includes parent fact sheets intended for parents/guardians of childcare and school-aged children. Refer to section 6 for communicable disease fact sheets, including COVID-19.

Managing cases and exposures

Schools, child care, youth programs, and camps are strongly encouraged to develop policies and protocols around reporting of positive cases, management of case follow-up, and notification of exposed persons in alignment with public health guidance. Schools, child care, youth programs, and camps should implement these strategies to the extent possible while also considering educational needs, the social and emotional well-being of children, and the importance of children's access to learning and care.

While the CDC no longer recommends quarantine (staying home) after an exposure to someone with COVID-19, it is still recommended that people take precautions, such as wearing masks, physical distancing, and/or testing when around other people indoors, regardless of vaccination status or if they have had a previous infection.

• CDC: Preventing Spread of Respiratory Viruses When You’re Sick