AUSTIN (WBAP/KLIF) – The Texas Education Agency is promising transparency in its efforts surrounding COVID-19 statistics.
In collaboration with the TEA, the Texas Department of State Health Services posted this week on the DSHS website the statewide number of cases of COVID-19 reported by Texas public schools. According to the dashboard, the reported count of on-campus student cases of COVID-19 in the state’s public schools is 2,344 out of an estimated 1.1 million students who have been on campus for instruction or activities since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. The total count of on-campus staff cases during the same period is 2,175.
The number of student and staff COVID-19 cases in Texas public schools will be updated each week, according to the TEA. Beginning next week, it will include data by school district.
TEA will link to the data from TEA’s COVID-19 website.
“TEA previously directed all school districts to submit information about COVID-19 cases going back to the start of the school year,” the agency said in a statement released on Thursday. “Information is submitted via an online form each Monday by those school systems that were notified in the previous week that a student, teacher, or staff member who participates in any on-campus activity has tested positive for a current COVID-19 infection.”
The agency said that school districts and other local authorities will continue to be relied on as the best source of the most current and specific information about cases in their schools.
The reported data is meant to provide an overview of the burden of disease in Texas schools over time and inform public policy decisions about COVID-19. Reporting the information to the state does not replace the legal requirement that schools notify public health officials in their area of all cases.
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