COVID is showing up in southwest IL schools. Why aren’t districts sharing information?
Schools in the metro-east are starting up again — some remotely, some in-person and some using a combination.
At the same time, more restrictions have been placed on the region as positivity rates for COVID-19 remain high. When Illinois schools closed in March, it was to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus, not only among students, but their families and the staff.
Even though in-person learning looks very different now, with mask mandates and lower student capacities in the districts using a hybrid plan, there are still questions about whether an outbreak in a school could yield a ripple effect in the community.
Parents are watching closely to see if students or staff in their child’s school are among those infected.
And they want to be informed.
Yumi Hohm, a parent of two Highland District 5 students, said she and other parents have been doing “detective work” on Facebook to see which families in the community were posting about being quarantined.
She says they are looking for information parents should already be getting from the school district. Hohm’s own kids are taking the remote learning option through the district.
“As a citizen, you shouldn’t have to find something out for yourself during a pandemic,” Hohm said. “This is something that should be transparent and available.”
In her spare time, she said she is finding articles about confirmed cases of COVID-19 in schools and submitting them to a national database which was started by Kansas teacher Alisha Morris and later taken over by the National Education Association.
Hohm was amazed to see how much information districts outside the metro-east were sharing with families and press.
“I’m mortified the way [Highland 5 is] like, ‘there’s some staff, there’s some students,’” she said of recent communications to parents from the district.
Highland 5 has published press releases to its website in some instances of confirmed COVID-19 cases, but other districts haven’t.
Collinsville District 10 confirmed last week that it had confirmed “more than one” case. When asked by a reporter exactly how many tested positive, whether they were students or staff members, and in which of the district’s 15 buildings they were present, Public Relations Liaison Kimberly Collins said the district “won’t be sharing a tally.”
The District 10 Board of Education later changed course on its original hybrid learning plan to a remote only option to kick off the new year.
Guidance provided to schools by the Illinois State Board of Education doesn’t reveal much information about how schools should communicate cases to parents.
HIPAA is an “easy answer”
The Health Departments for both Madison and St. Clair Counties cite the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as their reasons for not sharing data about positive coronavirus cases at local schools. The Madison County Regional Office of Education also cited HIPAA in its communication policy.
HIPAA is a federal law that required national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed by healthcare providers, insurance providers and other health agencies.
But many agencies are quick to cite HIPAA because it’s a “really quick and easy answer,” said Rob Gatter, a professor of law at the Center for Health Law Studies at Saint Louis University.
That doesn’t mean he thinks they should.
“Anyone who comes into contact with private health information is much too quick to claim that HIPAA prohibits them from sharing information, when they don’t really know what HIPAA protects and doesn’t protect,” he said. “It’s because they’re nervous about sharing information — they don’t want to get in trouble.”
In Madison County, a sample letter was sent to superintendents, with the recommendation that districts follow the template when communicating to parents and staff about COVID-19 cases, Regional Superintendent Robert Werden said.
The letter, which came from the Illinois Department of Health, suggests districts say an individual or individuals at a particular school tested positive for COVID-19 without specifying how many. Most of the letter is dedicated to outline procedures and protocols to keep people safe, and to remind parents to monitor the health of their family and stay home if they develop symptoms.
“It’s pretty general,” Werden said.
Public agencies and employers can’t share specific identifying information about a person who has tested positive, such as their name or any combination of facts that may make their identities easy to conclude.
But how many people get infected in a school district or which school they may attend isn’t identifying, Gatter said, adding that when specific information isn’t available, the community often assumes the worst.
“Protecting the public from an infectious disease requires the cooperation of the public, and you can’t get the cooperation of the public if you’re not willing to be transparent,” Gatter said. “ ... We do better if we share information than if we don’t.”
Breaking out the numbers
In St. Clair County, nearly all districts started their schools years with remote lessons only. Health Department Executive Director Barb Hohlt said, through contact tracing, the health department would know internally if a “cluster” was apparent in a district. Just because a student or school staff member tests positive for coronavirus, doesn’t mean they caught it at school.
Amy Yeager, director of community health of the Madison County Health Department said it’s up to the schools to decide what they want to disclose. The county breaks out the number of cases for nursing homes, but Yeager said that was only because the residents stay there full-time — they aren’t going grocery shopping and catching coronavirus at the store.
Schools, meanwhile, are treated like any other business or organization: They can disclose what they want to, but the health department won’t compel them to.
Here are the confirmed COVID-19 cases in area districts as of Thursday:
Collinsville 10
Confirmed some employees tested positive Aug. 17.
After multiple requests, though, the district said they would not be sharing how many. The district has moved from its hybrid learning plan to remote learning, but that press release made no mention of the employees who tested positive. Instead, it cited the number of COVID-19 cases in Madison and St. Clair counties.
Freeburg High School 77
Confirmed one teacher tested positive Aug. 21.
The announcement was shared in a press release and on social media. The district moved to remote learning through Aug. 26, citing the number of teachers required to quarantine after being in close contact with the individual and the lack of substitutes.
Highland 5
Confirmed three positive cases as of Aug. 19.
On Aug. 12, the district published a press release to its website saying a staff member tested positive. Wednesday, the district confirmed two more individuals — one at Highland High School and one at Highland Middle School — also tested positive. A press release was published to its website about the case at the high school, and Superintendent Michael Sutton said an email was sent to parents about the case at the middle school. The district is continuing in-person learning.
O’Fallon High School 203
Confirmed one case before the school year started.
In early August, an individual involved with the girls cross country team tested positive, and a group of athletes who practiced with them were told to quarantine by the St. Clair County Health Department. Superintendent Darcy Benway confirmed the case, and said the district was following the health department’s guidance for communications. An email sent to families obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat said there will not be any school-wide announcement or notification of any cases, citing privacy concerns. The district is already using a remote learning plan.
Wesclin 3
Confirmed one employee tested positive.
The district said that the employee hadn’t been in any district buildings.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.