Here’s how parents can find COVID case data for Columbus area school districts
Now that the new school year has started in the Chattahoochee Valley, and the coronavirus pandemic is surging with the highly contagious delta variant, how will parents and residents know the level of COVID-19 cases in local schools?
Last school year, some districts in the Columbus area issued weekly news releases with the data. Others posted the statistics online or made them available only when requested.
The Ledger-Enquirer compiled the data into an online dashboard, updated weekly, and will do it again this school year.
Here’s what we know about how and when local school officials plan to inform the public about their weekly numbers of reported COVID infections and quarantines during 2021-22.
Muscogee County
Last school year, the Muscogee County School District announced its weekly COVID data in a news release on Fridays to local media. The information also was posted on its website and Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Kathleen Dickinson, MCSD executive assistant to the chief information officer, said she expects the district will follow the same process this school year.
Harris County
Even before this school year started, the Harris County School District resumed releasing a weekly COVID-19 report on Tuesdays.
HCSD already sent to local media and posted on its website and Facebook page COVID-19 reports Aug. 4 and Aug. 11. District spokeswoman Rachel Crumbley said, despite classes not being in session, people still were reporting cases to HCSD by phone, email or the self-reporting system online during the summer break.
From Aug. 3-9, HCSD received reports of 36 active COVID cases (28 students, eight employees) and 168 close-contact cases (166 students, two employees). Those numbers increased from the previous week, when HCSD received reports of 25 active COVD cases (16 students, nine employees) and 29 close-contact cases (21 students, eight employees).
Aligning with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HCSD defines close contact as being within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes from 48 hours before illness onset (or two days before a positive test for asymptomatic patients) until the patient is isolated.
HCSD doesn’t require close-contact individuals to quarantine unless they have coronavirus symptoms.
Chattahoochee County
The Chattahoochee County School District plans to post its weekly COVID-19 report on its website each Friday, no later than 5 p.m., said ChattCo superintendent Kristie Brooks.
Phenix City
Last school year, Phenix City Schools didn’t make its COVID-19 data publicly available in a news release or on its website, but PCS superintendent Randy Wilkes provided the L-E access to the cloud-based spreadsheet to report the school system’s weekly coronavirus data. Wilkes said he hasn’t decided the process for this school year.
Wilkes did, however, email the L-E a snapshot of a spreadsheet that shows, as of Aug. 9, Phenix City Schools received during the previous week reports of 15 new COVID-19 cases (nine students, six employees) and 22 people (18 students and four employees) who tested positive and are in the 14-day isolation period.
The superintendent had that data even before the new school year started because, just like in Harris County, PCS continued to receive reports of student and employee COVID cases during the summer break, Wilkes said.
The number of students and employees in quarantine because of close contact with an infected person wasn’t available.
Russell County
The Russell County School District plans to continue posting its weekly COVID-19 data on its website, starting after Labor Day, said RCSD community education director Paula Thompson.
Lee County
No official from Lee County Schools replied to the L-E’s query for this story before publication.
