COVID-19 is surging in Arizona schools, but parents are left in the dark
A patchwork of outbreak and quarantine notifications from school districts has sown confusion among families about the scope of on-campus exposure. And while districts report infection data to county health officials, who in turn submit it to the state, that information is seldom relayed back to the public in an accessible, thorough way, an AZCIR analysis has found.
Just 30% of Arizona’s 215 traditional school districts provide public-facing dashboards that track outbreaks by school, according to AZCIR’s review of their websites. Of the state’s 15 county health departments, only Pima County publicly monitors active COVID-19 cases by district.
The state, meanwhile, does not specifically show where school- and day care-based outbreaks are occurring. It offers only county-level totals and a running tally of infections among Arizonans 19 and under.
The lack of public disclosures detailing how the virus is affecting Arizona schools comes at a time when the rate of COVID-19 transmission among children is poised to surpass that of older age groups for the first time, research conducted by the University of Arizona’s Dr. Joe Gerald shows. . .
> A 2020 emergency measure from the Department of Health Services requires Arizona schools and child care establishments to report COVID-19 outbreaks to local county health departments within 24 hours
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Most don’t, with the exception of Pima and Maricopa counties. Pima alone pinpoints where outbreaks are occurring; Maricopa County reports only numbers of active and resolved school outbreaks. . .
> The resulting confusion is palpable on social media platforms, where parents have flocked in an attempt to piece together how the virus is hitting their kids’ classrooms, bus routes and after-school programs. Many have uploaded alerts from schools or reported outbreaks, seeking to compare notes.
“There is a covid outbreak at Franklin Elementary East campus,” one Mesa Public Schools parent posted on Twitter on Aug. 13. “How many other @mpsaz elementary schools are experiencing outbreaks?”. . .
> Queen Creek dad John Flowers, for instance, used Chandler Unified School District data to calculate that about 2% of the student and staff population at his sons’ high school, Casteel, had been infected with COVID-19 during the first month of school.
He said he suspects the total is higher given the number of students not in class. . .
Frustration over the lack of comprehensive outbreak information comes on top of ongoing tensions related to a law signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in June that prohibits school districts from requiring masks.
Though the law doesn’t take effect until Sept. 29 — assuming a pending lawsuit seeking to block it does not succeed — the majority of school districts in the state have opted not to mandate face coverings.
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