Public school virus cases to be reported

State government officials plan to track and publicly report confirmed cases of COVID-19 tied to public schools, the Texas Education Agency and Department of State Health Services announced Thursday.

In a joint statement, the two agencies said they are developing a reporting system for school districts that will allow the Department of State Health Services to publish information on cases and outbreaks beginning sometime in September.

“Data on the number of cases in schools is of paramount interest to parents, students, teachers, staff, public health experts, policymakers and the larger community,” the agencies said in their statement. “This information will be submitted to DSHS any time there is a positive case in a campus community.”

State officials did not specify what data they will publish, including whether they will name specific schools with confirmed on-campus cases. In Michigan, state health leaders drew some criticism this week after posting the number of confirmed schoolbased cases on a regional basis, but not identifying campuses.

“TEA is collaborating with superintendents on the reporting process and will finalize it in the coming days,” the statement read.

The announcement comes as a small percentage of Texas public school districts begin resuming some in-person classes to start the 2020-21 academic year.

Boerne Independent School District opened its campuses last week and reported a COVID-19 case associated with Champion High School two days later. The district now publishes a running tally of cases on its website, without specifying if the individuals are students, teachrers or staff.

Many Bexar County school districts are starting the year with remote learning for all students. Some have confirmed cases among their employees, but not all of them put that information on their websites. North East ISD, for example, said Wednesday that eight employees at five schools have been asked to quarantine after testing positive for the virus in the past two weeks, but it has not published this online.

Among Houston’s larger school districts, only Humble ISD has formally started face-to-face classes, welcoming back some students with disabilities Monday.

Calls for increased tracking of school-based cases of potential COVID-19 exposure have increased as districts across the country that resumed face-toface instruction started reporting potential outbreaks.

In dozens of districts, a smattering of schools have briefly closed or a small percentage of children are in quarantine after a student or staff member tested positive for COVID-19.