Thirty schools and five colleges and universities have reported small outbreaks this month, with many of them coming in the past week, as students return to classrooms.  

Across the K-12 institutions, 95 students and 55 staff members have contracted the virus, up from 18 and 14, respectively, a week ago, according to data published by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. All of the outbreaks are relatively small, especially when compared to the state’s prisons or long-term care facilities. 

Of the 30 school outbreaks that have been identified this month, 20 were added to the list of outbreaks in the past week. Roughly half of the January outbreaks are in the Denver metro area, though none in Denver Public Schools itself, which is still phasing students back into classrooms. 

There have been six outbreaks in Douglas County schools this month, along with five in both Jefferson and El Paso counties, and four in Arapahoe County. 

Of the new outbreaks among K-12 schools, the largest is at Eaglecrest High School within Cherry Creek School District. Fifteen students and three staff members there have been infected. Meeker High School is close behind with 14 students and three staff members. After that, none have higher than 10 cases, and many number below a half-dozen.

The outbreaks come as teachers are promised more priority within the state’s vaccine priority list. They’re part of the latter half of the top phase, but they share that space with many other essential workers, as well as those over the age of 64. When the vaccine priority list was first revealed last month, various teacher organizations asked that educators get increased preference, particularly because Gov. Jared Polis has emphasized the importance for in-person learning.

State officials said earlier this week that teachers would be part of the next wave of distribution, which is set to begin roughly by March 1, after the state has finished the bulk of its 70-and-older population. 

Two weeks after teachers get vaccinated with their second dose, Polis said, they will not need to quarantine, as has been the case up until now. Officials said last semester that while schools weren’t super-spreaders themselves, they were profoundly affected by the rampant transmission within the broader community. As a result, teachers were having to quarantine in such numbers that it was impacting schools’ daily operations. It became serious enough that DPS administrators said they would begin working shifts at schools to help alleviate the pressure.

As for higher education, the five January outbreaks are dwarfed by clusters tied to Colorado’s largest universities last fall, though the University of Colorado, among others, has not brought its students back to campus.

The new outbreaks amount to 66 students and 15 staffers, plus nine cases classified as residents. Colorado Northwestern Community College has 32 cases, as does Ravencrest Bible School in Estes Park.

The Colorado School of Mines has nine cases across two halls, Bradford and Spruce. The other two schools – the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Colorado – both have outbreaks within their football teams.