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100s of public school students contracted COVID-19. Do parents know everything they need to know?

School districts, Florida Department of Health provide numbers per school, but no details.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Hundreds of students in area schools have tested positive for COVID-19 since August, prompting parents to ask questions about who has the virus and whether or not their child was exposed. In most cases, they can’t get the answer they are seeking.

School districts will tell parents if they know their child was around someone with COVID-19, but won’t identify the positive cases because of medical privacy rules.

So students can’t just focus on getting good grades, they have to do what they can to avoid getting exposed to the virus.

The Duval County Public Schools and other counties offer online dashboards showing the number of cases at each school.

Duval County shows that between students and staff, some schools have had a dozen or more cases, including 58 at Fletcher High School, 26 at Sandalwood High School, 22 at Atlantic Coast High School and 15 at First Coast High School.

There have been 36 students and six staff members in the Clay County school district test positive, according to its website.

The Department of Health data shows different numbers at some schools. The numbers represent a small percentage of the tens of thousands of children attending school in each county.

Parents will not know if the student got COVID from school or out of school activities. Local school districts said the Florida Department of Health conducts all contact tracing and notifies individuals if they need to quarantine.

One parent posted on Facebook: “I think that knowing the grade level of the student and what grade level staff interacts with would be more helpful.”

Another posted: “Yes, I agree we are all in this together and we should definitely know as much info as possible.”

Some parents have opted to keep their children in remote education, but the vast majority are back in the classroom.

Duval CountyClay County
In the classroom80,78031,986
Remote learning27,203 (Duval HomeRoom)6,632 (OneClay)
Virtual school1,4811,480
Blended learning1,307

About the Author
Jenese Harris headshot

Veteran journalist and Emmy Award winning anchor

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