How to Track COVID-19 Outbreaks in Local Schools
Schools are reopening and at least some of them will inevitably close again as COVID-19 outbreaks are detected among students and staff. There is no federal outbreak tracking system in schools, but the National Education Association collects news and lists them by school district.
The work was started by Kansas educator Alisha Morris, and the NEA has taken it upon itself to maintain it as a large, validated national database. But he still relies on educators and other volunteers to report COVID cases as well as safety concerns in US elementary schools.
Cases and outbreaks are confirmed by verification of media reports. The tracker has a link for submitting case reports and another one for health and safety issues. Concerns are treated as confidential and you can file them anonymously. Morris recommends that in the absence of information, people send hints to local media outlets that can investigate further.
Click on status reports and you will see a list of outbreaks by school district with links to media reports for more information. This is not a full-featured tracker, and the organizers emphasize that it is incomplete, but it is a phenomenal amount of work and can be useful if you are trying to find out if your school has had an outbreak.
It is a shame that we do not have an organized and well-funded national effort to accurately track school cases; Since the federal government’s response to COVID-19 has been sluggish, states are struggling to do whatever they can – and what they have political support for – and often not that much. Therefore, we applaud NEA and their volunteers for breaking through the slack and doing the next best thing. Check out your state reports here .