Position Statements

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About Position Statements

CSTE members provide valuable contributions to key public health issues that are important to their jurisdictions and impact policy and surveillance changes on a state, local, Tribal, or territorial (STLT) and national level by way of Position Statements. These documents reflect the consensus opinion of CSTE’s membership on each specific topic that may impact STLT law, rule, or regulation and are developed in close partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Quick Links

Position Statement Archive

Role of Position Statements in CSTE’s History

Position Statement Trainings - COMING SOON

Position Statement Types

Policy Position Statements: describe and recommend actions to address policy issues that could impact how states, Tribes, localities, and territories enact laws, rules, or regulations around public health.

Standardized Surveillance Case Definition Position Statements: create case definitions for diseases or conditions that can be adopted by all health departments and the CDC for use in routine public health surveillance activities. This allows for cases of specific diseases or conditions to be defined the same way nationally. These position statements may also recommend that a disease or condition be placed under national public health surveillance and thus added to the list of Nationally Notifiable Conditions (NNC) and recommend states and territories voluntarily share information on those conditions with the CDC via the Nationally Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS).

Interested in Developing and Submitting a Position Statement?

Click on the tabs to review the process.

Overview

Authors should request editable position statement templates by completing a template request form (linked below). Authors must complete the appropriate and most up-to-date template in its entirety. Submitted statements using the incorrect template will not be accepted by the National Office.
Authors and writing groups should work with subject matter experts and CSTE staff to define content for the position statement.
Authors seeking to update an existing position statement should reference previous CSTE position statements for the disease or condition and describe the proposed updates. Click here for past position statements.
Final position statements should be able to “stand alone” and contain all current information required to implement surveillance for the disease or condition.

Access Template Request Form

Position Statement Templates

Policy Position Statement Template

Statement of the problem
Statement of the desired action(s) to be taken
Public health impact
Revision history
References
Coordination
Author Information

Standardized Surveillance Case Definition Position Statement Template

Statement of the problem
Background and justification
Statement of the desired action(s) to be taken
Goals of surveillance
Recommended Data Sources and Methods for Surveillance
Criteria for case ascertainment
Case definition for case classification
Period of surveillance
Data sharing/release and print criteria
Revision history
References
Coordination
Author Information
NNC Recommendation Statement (if appropriate)
Technical Supplement (required)

Submission Instructions

All position statements must be submitted electronically to positionstatements@cste.org by the appropriate deadline. Deadlines are set in CSTE’s Policies and Procedures.

There are three mechanisms to submit a position statement for consideration by the CSTE membership and discussion at the Business Meeting: ordinary process, expedited handling, and presidential review.

Submission Mechanism	Submission Timeline	Criteria for Acceptability
Ordinary Process	13 weeks before Business Meeting	Must be sponsored by a CSTE Active Member. Must use current and appropriate position statement template.
Expedited Handling	3 weeks before Business Meeting	Time-sensitive issue Significant public health impact Draft quality is adequate Committee chair agrees to accept into Expedited Handling
Presidential Review	3 weeks–48 hours before meeting	Issue is extremely urgent and relevant (President’s discretion)
Interim Position Statement	Year-round	Time-sensitive issues arising between annual meetings may be submitted as interim position statements. These are approved by the CSTE Executive Board and its Program and Policy Committee and become official policy until ratified at the next Business Meeting.

How Position Statements are Vetted and Approved

Prior to CSTE Annual Conference	First round: Technical review by National Office staff and a select group of subject matter experts. Second round: CSTE Program and Policy Committee (i.e., Steering Committee Chairs) determine if submissions should move forward for consideration by all CSTE membership. Third round: Membership feedback on approved submissions solicited on CSTE Connect and via discussion webinars with authors.
At CSTE Annual Conference	Position statement discussions: each statement is presented by the author, discussed, and members provide feedback and language modifications for author consideration. Position statements voting sessions: each position statement is put up for at least two votes. First to approve the position statement out of the Steering Committee. Second to add the position statement to the CSTE Consent Calendar. If the statement affects the NNC List, the accompanying NNC Recommendation Statement receives two votes as well (notifiability + Consent Calendar). CSTE Business Meeting: representatives from state and territorial health agencies vote on the Steering Committee–approved statements. Once approved, all position statements become CSTE policy.
After CSTE Annual Conference	The National Office conducts a final technical review of all approved position statements. Non-substantive edits are shared with the submitting author for final sign-off. Finalized statements are posted in the Consensus Development Archive on the CSTE website. All agencies for response and information will be notified of this posting. The submitting author is responsible for tracking the position statement during the year following its adoption.