BUFFALO (WBEN) - As positive COVID-19 tests have been reported in various school districts including Lackawanna, Clarence and Amherst, Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul spoke about the state's Report Card System, which requires districts to report virus information into a portal.
"We're ready to start analyzing the data that's coming forth from the various school districts to make sure that it's out there for parents," said Hochul. "This is not just a first week of school question, it's going to continue. Parents are going to want to know the infection rate of the area, what's going on in the school, how many live cases do they have, how they're being addressed, how many students are in quarantine, so this data will be provided to parents so they can in real time understand what is happening at their child's school."
As of Tuesday evening, the portal shows a single case in both Lackawanna and Amherst Middle Schools, but Hochul said that they're still in the early stages of gathering data.
"We don't have all the data; right now, it's anecdotal - we're hearing a case here, a case there," she said. "I'm on a call regularly with all of the county leaders from Western New York, asking what's going on their school districts - we're keeping a good handle on this."
An off-campus case was reported by Hamburg High School, as the infected individual was not at school while contagious. Superintendent Michael Cornell explained the Report Card System on the district's end, emphasizing that districts do not provide on-site testing.
"What we're inputting is when we have confirmation of a positive test from a student or a member of our staff," he began. "That information might come to us from the employee, it might come to us directly from the Erie County Department of Health, it may come to us from a student's family, but it's got to be written confirmation of a positive lab result of a COVID test."
When asked about his thoughts the reporting duty falling on the shoulders of individual school districts, Cornell essentially said that they've got to do what they've got to do.
"Is it something that we didn't have to do before? Sure - but, I'm not going to sit here as a superintendent and complain about it," said Cornell. "I'm happy that our schools are open, I'm happy that kids are coming to school, and if that's what we have to do to stay open safely, then that's what we're going to do."
