The Utah Department of Health recommends a layered prevention approach consistent with the Utah COVID-19 Disease Plan and CDC school guidelines to minimize the impact of COVID-19 exposures and outbreaks in school settings and maximize opportunities for children to participate in in-school learning and extracurricular activities.

COVID-19 can severely disrupt learning, school attendance, and involvement in extracurricular activities. Children can and do get COVID-19 and are at risk for severe illness from the virus. Even with mild illness, children can spread the virus to other people. This is why using layered prevention strategies in schools are so important.

Local health departments and local education agencies (LEAs) are reviewing the following recommendations to create layered prevention strategies so children can return safely to full-time, in-person school. Local health departments and LEAs will work together, using local data, to identify which recommended quarantine and protective measures to use to protect the health of K-12 students and school staff in their area. School administrators will watch the data on what is happening in their local areas as they work to keep children in schools as safely as possible.

Parents and school staff who have questions about how COVID-19 will be handled in their school or at extracurricular activities should contact their local health department or school for more information.