JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Saying health officials cannot keep up with contact tracing, Duval County Public Schools on Friday announced it’s pivoting to new ways to inform parents about cases of COVID-19 in elementary schools.
In a blog post, the school district said it’s introducing two strategies to keep parents of elementary students in the know: sending letters home when there’s a positive case in a classroom, and shifting classes to online learning if there are two or more cases in a class within a seven-day window.
The new strategies will take effect on or before Wednesday, the district said. They will remain in place through mid-September, at which point the district will take stock of whether the health department can assist with efforts to perform contact tracing.
“These steps are necessary because the Department of Health has not been able to keep pace with the contact tracing case load since school began,” the post said. “Under state law, The Florida Department of Health has the responsibility to confirm the positive case, conduct the contact tracing and case investigation, and notify families who are impacted.”
If a classroom is moved to online learning, the district expects it’ll last for two to seven days.
Right after the announcement was made, News4Jax spoke with Alyssa Key. She’s a parent of elementary school children and the founder of a local online support group for parents called “Momtourage.” More than 3,500 moms are members of the group and according to Key, all the moms are concerned about protecting their children from COVID-19. Key says this new plan may not be enough to protect children from a COVID outbreak.
“It seems a little concerning that it’s going to take two students in order for them to issue any kind of stay-at-home mandate. Probably an unpopular opinion but it seems that if one child in a class comes down with COVID and letters are sent home, parents should have the option to go online right away. But, it also seems it should be mandatory,” she said.
Key says this is yet another example of why children who are too young to get vaccinated need to wear masks in school to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The school district said it is taking these steps in elementary schools their students, many of whom are under the age of 12, are currently ineligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
The decision was announced the same day Florida surpassed 3 million COVID-19 cases. Of the 150,118 new cases reported in the past week, 20,331 were among children under 12.
The district has reported 589 presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 since the school year began, which have resulted in 189 student and adult quarantines for students and staff who have been in close contact with infected individuals.
According to the blog post, the health department has told the district that it has assigned more personnel to school cases, but it’s been unable to keep up with the number of cases reported in a timely manner due to “rapid spreading nature” of the delta variant.
Due to the high-level of transmission in Jacksonville, the district recommends parents take these steps to protect their families:
- Be extra attentive to symptoms of COVID-19 in your child. These symptoms may include fever, cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing, vomiting, diarrhea, new loss of taste or smell, fatigue, and headache. If you do see any signs of these symptoms, we recommend that your child stay home from school and seek testing and medical attention immediately.
- Wear a face covering when in the presence of others at school or elsewhere.
- Avoid close contact with others when possible, especially with friends and family at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
- Remind your child to wash their hands and use available hand sanitizer frequently.
- If you and your child (age 12 and over) have not been vaccinated, please consider doing so as soon as possible. See www.duvalschools.org/vax for COVID-19 vaccine event information.