BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - The New York State School COVID Report Card website is down. It's being updated to simplify reporting requirements for schools. So far, three weeks after the return of in-person learning, there is no state information on Covid transmission in schools, a key metric in understanding statewide context.
What are the numbers of local students being placed in quarantine? "We have no idea," said Tarja Parssinen, with WNY Education Alliance. "Unfortunately, transparency is a problem and has always been a problem. The state Covid dashboard is mysteriously down and inaccessible at the moment."
Governor Kathy Hochul has promised transparency with Covid data, but has yet to post Covid cases in school, or details on breakthrough cases by county.
WNY Education Alliance has created a sharable database. "We've been in contact with every School Superintendent in Erie County public schools and we've started collecting this data on a weekly basis," said Parssinen. "Right now we have three or four schools contributing. We hope more will sign on so we can share this and we can see exactly how many students are affected."
Parssinen says the information is widely available in other states. "People can look and say we know for example that 1300 kids are in quarantine. But here, we have no idea," she said.
Experts have suggested that lack of statewide COVID-19 data on breakthrough cases, as well as delays in disclosing information about school transmission, is fueling misinformation and confusion.
Erie County's Covid quarantine policy says if there are two or more cases in a classroom during a 10-day period, all unvaccinated individuals in the class will quarantine for 10 days from their last exposure to the positive COVID-19 case, regardless if masks were worn.
Parssinen believes it's too restrictive and will result in healthy kids missing out on valuable school time. WNY Education Alliance wants the county to adopt a "Test to Stay" option, using rapid testing, that several states have implemented.
The Erie County Department of Health has released data on Covid transmission in school, but not on the number of students being quarantined due to exposure.
ECDOH spokesperson Kara Kane could not provide the exact number of Erie County students currently in quarantine, but she did provide this response on school transmission rates:
"What I can confirm is that the number of cases managed by our office of epidemiology's school team is at a much higher level that it was this time last year, though not to the level we saw during previous surges in COVID-19 cases.
On data for the week ending September 18, Kane released the following:
COVID-19 cases under 18 years of age have increased over the past four weeks from 163 COVID-19 cases for the week ending August 28 to 356 cases for last week. Cases in that age group increased 42% from the 250 cases recorded for the week ending September 11.
Significantly, the 5-10-year-old age group increased by 76% from the previous week, from 86 COVID-19 cases to 151 cases. This age group is not currently eligible for vaccination and remains a highly vulnerable population. Compare that increase of 76% to the overall increase in COVID-19 cases in Erie County last week, which was 8.5%.
Similar increases among school-age children and adolescents are being seen in other parts of the country, especially in areas with lower vaccination rates and where non-pharmaceutical preventive measures like masks are not followed. Quarantine, vaccination, and those NPIs (Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions) are tools that we are recommending for all settings to reduce the COVID-19 disease burden in Erie County.
