9-21-2020 12:21am

How Many COVID-19 Cases Have Been Reported In Your Child's School?

Rick Amburgey Neighbor

Starting Sept. 15, school districts are required to report COVID-19 cases. They are required to report both new and cumulative cases. The data reported there is not the most current data. According to the data provided on the state website, there have not been any student or staff cases in Carlisle, Kings, Lebanon or Little Miami. The state data shows that there have been 11 student cases reported in Mason. It also shows that there have been two student cases and two staff cases reported in Springboro.

I think it is important for parents and even community members to have the most current data available about the cases in the school. As a journalist, I like to think that I am pretty good at researching information. I have been looking at the district data in recent weeks to report on the COVID-19 cases in the local school districts. I wanted to do something that shows how to access their data because it isn't located on the homepage in most cases.

I have found that most districts are doing a good job of providing information to the public. I also like that some of the districts include the number of people who have been quarantined in the district. It does not mean that a student or staff member has COVID-19 just because they have been quarantined. It does mean there is some risk. Some people who have been quarantined have come into contact with someone who has tested positive. Others have been quarantined because they have traveled recently or they are waiting for the results of a COVID-19 test. The state data does not include the number of people who have been quarantined in each school.

As you look at the data, it is important to remember that new cases do not mean school districts are not trying to limit spread. From what I am aware, local districts have done a good job of enforcing mask wearing and social distancing at the schools. It is extremely difficult for districts to completely eliminate COVID-19 in the schools. It is important that school officials are taking precautions to prevent the spread as much as possible. It is also very important that they are responding to new cases and potential cases in the correct way.

Carlisle: Carlisle Local Schools has posted a lot of information about COVID-19 including back to school information. They also have links to health orders. I am not saying that they don't have specific numbers on a dashboard, but I haven't been able to find it on the district website. They have posted community notifications. The most recent community notification was to inform parents that there was "at least one" student at Carlisle Elementary who was confirmed to be positive for COVID-19. The notification was sent out, posted on the website and link was also posted on Twitter. Read Carlisle's most recent community notificationhere. I would like to be able to see specific numbers and also know how many, if any, had been quarantined in the district.

Franklin: Franklin does a good job of posting data for the most recent week. I think it was easy to locate because there is a COVID-19 page under Health Services, which is located in departments on the homepage. For the week of Sept. 14-Sept. 18, there were no students or staff members who were reported to have new cases of COVID-19. There were also two staff members and 36 students quarantined. The only schools with staff members quarantined were Franklin High School and William C. Schenck Elementary School. There was at least one student quarantined at every school in the district. You can access Franklin's most recent data here.

Springboro: Springboro also does a very good job of reporting their most recent data. There is also a lot of information on their site about COVID-19. I think the information is easy to locate. There is a page for COVID-19 updates under Student Health Services, which is listed under departments on the homepage. For the week of Sept. 14-Sept. 18, there were six student cases reported at Springboro High School and one case reported at Springboro Junior High School. There were no positive cases among staff members reported last week. There were 86 student quarantines at Springboro High School, 17 student quarantines at Springboro Junior High School, and two student quarantines at Springboro Intermediate School. There were four staff quarantines, all of which were listed as Operations/Service. You can access Springboro's most recent data here.

Lebanon: It is very easy to find Lebanon's data. It is listed on their homepage. It is one of five slides that rotate. It is also posted on their Twitter account. As I write this on Sunday night, Lebanon's data is the oldest of any district in the county that is posting their data. Lebanon also doesn't report how many of the cases or quarantines are students and how many are staff members. I think this is important information for parents to know. Lebanon still has data posted from the week of Sept. 6-Sept. 12. At that time, there were no cases reported and 10 quarantines. There is some information about Lebanon's reopening plan for Fall 2020 here.

Mason: It is very easy to find Mason's data. It can be accessed by clicking COVID-19 Headquarters from the homepage. From there, there is a link to get to the data. I like that Mason is keeping the data from past weeks posted there. The most recent data was also posted on the district's Twitter page. For the week of Sept. 14-Sept. 18, there was one staff case at Mason Early Childhood Center and one staff case at Mason Intermediate School. There were five student cases, all of which were at Mason High School. There was one staff quarantine at Mason High School. There were 141 student quarantines at Mason High School, five student quarantines at Mason Middle School, three student quarantines at Mason Intermediate School, one student quarantine at Mason Elementary School and seven student quarantines at Mason Early Childhood Center. You can view Mason's most recent data here.

Kings: It is very easy to find COVID-19 data for the Kings Local School District. It is one of three rotating slides on the homepage. The information was also posted on Twitter. The district also has the slide still posted from the previous week. For the week of Sept. 12-Sept. 18, one student case at Kings High School and no staff cases. There were nine student quarantines at Kings High School and two student quarantines at J.F. Burns Elementary School. There were two staff quarantines at Kings High School and one staff quarantine at South Lebanon Elementary School. The district's detailed reopening plan is available here.

Little Miami: I was unable to find any data about the number of cases or quarantines on the district's website. The website does say that parents will be notified by a call or communication from the health department or the school. The website does have a lot of important information about COVID-19, including the return after illness plan. It can be found here.

Moving Forward: I completely understand why the state data doesn't reflect the most recent data. It takes longer for it to get sent to the state and posted there than for each district to post their own information. While it is great for the state to make the information for school districts available, I would advise parents to look at data on the district website as long as it is the most recent information. I like the state reporting system because it lists cumulative data. I would love to see districts to start reporting cumulative numbers in addition to reporting the numbers for the most recent week. I would like to see all districts make the information available on their district homepage so it is easy for everyone to find. I encourage the district who are currently not reporting COVID-19 data on the district website to begin putting it there for the community.