Careers
March 12, 2022
On March 10, 2022, the Director of the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) officially took action to rescind the September 3, 2020 Director’s Order Requiring Reporting and Notification Regarding Covid-19 Cases in K-12 Schools effective at 12:01 p.m. on Thursday, March 10, 2022. As a result, schools now only must report positive results for tests performed by the school. More specifically, schools no longer are required to do the following:
- Maintain a Covid reporting system for parents to report positive Covid-19 cases.
- Have a designated district Covid-19 coordinator.
- Notify parents of positive Covid-19 cases among staff, students, or coaches.
- Report positive cases of Covid-19 to the local health department, unless the school tests the student for Covid-19 and the result is positive.
Schools are encouraged to continue to work with local departments of health to monitor community spread and continue to emphasize mitigation strategies to reduce transmission of infectious diseases. Schools also are encouraged to consider layered prevention strategies, including masking and physical distancing if rates of community spread begin to increase in their area. Although the reporting standards have been rescinded, the quarantine and isolation measures set forth in the Mask to Stay, Test to Play protocols remain in effect. Walter Haverfield attorneys are available should you have questions about the legal implications of these changes or implementation of other Covid-19 mitigation strategies in your District.
Megan Greulich is a partner at Walter Haverfield who focuses her practice on education law and labor and employment law. She can be reached at mgreulich@walterhav.com or at 614-246-2263.