All employees in educational settings are required to be fully vaccinated or have a medical or religious exemption per Governor's proclamation 21-14.3.

Students, children, and staff who have symptoms of COVID-19, are required to stay home and should get tested and/or see a health care provider and follow the return to work/care/school protocol accordingly (see At-Home Isolation Protocol and Returning to School or a Program section). See also the What to do if a Person is Symptomatic flowchart as a reference.

 
Any student, child, or staff member who tests positive for COVID-19 is required to isolate at home following current guidelines from DOH (see At-Home Isolation Protocol and Returning to School or a Program section) and the CDC. This isolation guidance applies regardless of vaccination status. 

A student, child, or staff who tests positive for COVID-19 is required to isolate, regardless of vaccination status.

The individual may return to school/care after 5 full days of isolation if: 

• Their symptoms have improved or they are asymptomatic, AND
• They have been without a fever for the past 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications.

If returning to school/care after day 5, the individual:

• Is strongly recommended to wear a well-fitted mask or face shield with a drape during the days 6-10 of their isolation period, OR
• Test negative with an antigen or at-home test any day after day 5. Testing beyond day 10 is not necessary.

If the individual is not able to wear a well-fitted mask or face shield with a drape, AND does not test negative, they should continue isolating through day 10.

See also the What to do if a Person is Asymptomatic flowchart for reference.

Any student, child, or staff who reports or exhibits COVID-19-like symptoms is required to be immediately isolated from others, sent home, and referred to diagnostic testing as soon as feasible, regardless of vaccination status. While waiting to leave the school or program, the individual with symptoms is required to be isolated in a designated isolation space. They are required to wear a well-fitting face mask, if tolerated and age appropriate. Anyone providing care or evaluation to the isolated individual is required to wear appropriate PPE.

Masks are required by all children, staff, and visitors aged 2 years and older in the nurse/health room and in the isolation room as these are considered health care settings. Staff may require a certain level of respiratory protection when working with individuals in isolation who are known or suspected to have COVID-19. Refer to L&I’s Coronavirus Facial Covering and Mask Requirements for additional details. 

The designated isolation space for individuals with COVID-19-like symptoms is required to be separated from the space used for those requiring general first aid or medicine distribution in a school setting, or from shared space with other children in a child care/early learning setting. For schools, if the nurse’s office has an exam room designed with a negative air flow and directly exhausted air, this room should be given priority as an isolation space. If this is not available, the isolation space would ideally be a room with a door that can close and a window that can be opened to improve ventilation. A properly sized HEPA air filter could be used to increase filtration. See DOH ventilation guidance for more information.  

If no appropriate indoor space is available (e.g., already occupied) and the student or child can be supervised and made comfortable, an outdoor setting is an acceptable emergency alternative if weather and privacy permit.

Staff are required to be notified of exposure following the requirements in WAC 296-62-600. See the L&I guidance document Questions and Answers: Reporting and Notification Requirements of HELSA and PPE Usage. 

In addition, schools and providers are required to directly notify any student who has been identified as immunocompromised, medically fragile, or otherwise high risk for severe COVID-19 potential exposure. Notification should be provided to all employees and high risk individuals, irrespective of their vaccination status or recent infection within the past 90 days. 

For the rest of the general school and youth-serving population, schools and providers are required to have a process in place to inform students, children, families, and staff when there are cases or outbreaks in the school. Use communications in a language that families can understand. Always and when resources are limited, concentrate notification efforts to inform medically fragile students, children, families, and staff, including any others at high risk. 

Below are options for keeping families informed of cases and outbreaks:

• Weekly newsletters or online dashboards of cases or outbreaks.
• Notification (e.g., by email or messaging system) of "groups" rather than individual "close contacts." These groups could include classmates, teammates, grade levels, cohorts, bus riders or others.
• Group notifications may also be appropriate in times of a cluster or outbreak.
• There may be instances where individual contact tracing may be required (e.g., during an outbreak). Consult with your LHJ.

Regardless of vaccination status, students, children and staff who were potentially exposed to COVID-19 should be encouraged to:

• Monitor for symptoms, AND
• Consider wearing a well-fitted mask (if age appropriate) for 10 days after the last date of exposure, especially during activities like high-risk indoor sports, performing arts, etc., AND
• Get tested 3-5 days after their last exposure. Molecular (PCR/NAAT), antigen and at-home tests are acceptable. If they test positive, they must isolate. [For individuals who have been recently infected (within the past 90 days), antigen testing should be performed as PCR results may remain persistently positive and not be indicative of a new, active infection.

Exposed students, children, and staff may continue to take part in all in-person instruction and care, including sports, performing arts, and other extracurricular activities, as long as they are not symptomatic. If an exposed student, child, or staff develops symptoms, they are required to immediately isolate at home and follow the protocols outlined in the Exclusion of People with Symptoms of COVID-19 section.

K-12 schools are required to ensure access to timely diagnostic testing for students and staff with symptoms or who were potentially exposed and want to test. This can be done at the school, at a centralized site for the district, and/or in partnership with a trusted and accessible community-based testing provider and local public health. Timely testing of symptomatic students and staff helps reduce days of in-person instruction lost. Additionally, symptomatic individuals with negative COVID-19 test results may be able to return to school earlier. Molecular (PCR/NAAT), point of care (POC) antigen, and at-home tests are acceptable.

DOH’s Learn to Return testing program is available to help K-12 schools meet diagnostic testing requirements. Schools or districts that would like more information about COVID-19 testing programs should contact schools@healthcommonsproject.org. See the DOH Testing in Schools page for more information. 

Schools and providers play an important role in identifying COVID-19 cases and limiting the spread of COVID-19. All cases of COVID-19 in schools and provider facilities are required to be reported to LHJs/DOH in accordance with LHJ/DOH guidance and Washington State law (WAC 246-101). All outbreaks of COVID-19 are required to be reported to the LHJ/licensor (WAC 246-101). COVID-19 test results should be reported to DOH in accordance with guidance available at the Reporting COVID-19 Test Results webpage. In addition, schools, providers, and the general public are required to cooperate with public health authorities in the investigation of cases and outbreaks that may be associated with the school or provider (WAC 246-101).

Employers are required to notify L&I about outbreaks of 10 or more staff members at a facility. See the L&I guidance document Questions and Answers: Reporting and Notification Requirements of HELSA and PPE Usage. 

Clusters and outbreaks represent situations in a school or provider setting where, in coordination with local public health, enhanced mitigation efforts including some of the strategies outlined in Section 2 should be considered, and may be required, to prevent disease transmission.