By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Starting this week, the number of positive COVID-19 cases among K-12 students and staff will be showing up on the state’s dashboard.
On Tuesday, the Wood County Health Department will report local school cases to the Ohio Department of Health. And on Thursday, the state will start publishing them on coronavirus.ohio.gov.
“Schools will give daily updates as they have possible cases,” said Alex Aspacher, community outreach coordinator with the Wood County Health Department. “Then we will compile it and send a report to the Ohio Department of Health.”
Earlier this month, the state ordered that all K-12 schools must maintain a system for parents to report positive cases of COVID-19. Schools can use an existing attendance line, and must monitor it on a daily basis.
The hope is that prompt reporting of cases will allow for timely contact tracing – to prevent further transmission of COVID-19.
As of last week, parents of students along with school staff who have tested positive for COVID-19 were encouraged to notify their schools within 24 hours after being diagnosed.
Each school district is required to name a COVID-19 coordinator to report information to the Wood County Health Department.
Within 24 hours of becoming aware of a student, teacher, staff member or coach testing positive, schools are required to notify parents of students and share as much information as possible without disclosing protected health information. The requirements are:
- Written notification of a positive case will be sent to the parents of all students who share a classroom space or have participated in a school activity during the COVID-19 infectious period of a student, teacher, staff member or coach.
- Written notification will also be provided to all parents or guardians of students at the school building notifying them of a positive test result.
- Schools may use notification templates available on the coronavirus.ohio.gov website.
- School districts are encouraged to use website dashboards to inform the school community of the number of COVID-19 cases and number of students and staff isolated or quarantined, if known.
Also within 24 hours of becoming aware of a student, teacher, staff member, or coach who tests positive, each school must report the cases to their local health department.
Starting this week, local health departments will report the number of new and cumulative positive tests in each school district for the previous reporting week to the Ohio Department of Health every Tuesday.
Then the Ohio Department of Health will publish weekly and cumulative case data by school district including a breakdown by students and staff every Thursday. This information will be published on coronavirus.ohio.gov.
Aspacher cautioned that the numbers of positive COVID cases may not add up since in some situations students may be counted twice – such as if they attend Penta and their home district.
The purpose of the reporting isn’t to look at overall numbers, but rather to prevent further spread.
“We’re focused on the impact to others,” Aspacher said.
And he stressed that it may take a few weeks until the reporting system works smoothly.
“This is new for everybody,” Aspacher said.
