Ella--I hope everyone in your daughter's school stays healthy! If it helps, the 2 kids sick in your DD's classroom sound more like they have flu or a virus than Covid-19. Kids who get it tend to have very mild symptoms, which is why they're being under-tested and under-diagnosed.
I live in a Virginia suburb of Washington, DC. We have a few diagnosed cases, but I'm sure there are a decent number more that have gone undiagnosed. Our K-12 teachers are about to get trained in distance education in case we need to close schools, and if things go the way I suspect they will I hope they make that call sooner rather than later. We're not there yet. DH works in downtown DC and takes the train to work. I also hope they close his office soon, since his work situation makes me pretty nervous right now. I'm not really worried about my immediate family--none of us are in high risk categories, and if (when?) we catch it we should be fine. But I have a student whose mother is being treated for cancer and a few of my coworkers are in high risk groups; I'm worried about being exposed and then passing it to any of them. My sister and her family live in Westchester County. They know people who are quarantined. They don't have the details yet, but they got an email today about school closing for 2 days and possibly longer. I hope it isn't due to positive tests in their schools.
I think the reason for the panic and concern is that the death rates are significantly higher than with flu. With the flu, 0.1% of people who catch it die. With Covid-19, it's at least 1%. I was reading that the WHO's report says that people over 80 who catch it have a higher than 20% mortality rate, and people of all ages with various chronic conditions have death rates of 8-13% depending on what the comorbid condition is. The numbers seem low since there are so many fewer cases of corona virus compared to flu, but when this hits vulnerable people it hits them hard!
(And now I'll get off my soapbox, LOL. I work in education now, but I have a Master's in Public Health. I worked in chronic disease prevention and health education, not anything to do with infectious diseases or pandemics, but I've still been following the news pretty closely lately.)