News Release
Aug. 20, 2020
The Texas Education Agency (TEA)
in collaboration with the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) today
announced a new system to monitor and report confirmed COVID-19 cases in public
schools across Texas. School systems report COVID-19 cases to DSHS, and
DSHS will publicly report data on COVID-19 cases and outbreaks in schools
starting in September.
Data on the number of cases
in schools is of paramount interest to parents, students, teachers, staff,
public health experts, policymakers, and the larger community. This information
will be submitted to DSHS any time there is a positive case in a campus
community. TEA is collaborating
with superintendents on the reporting process and will finalize it in the
coming days. As a result, it’s important to note that this data collection
effort will be updated based on the input received from Texas school districts.
Having this knowledge and being
able to publicly share the accumulated case totals from schools in a single
place covering the entire state of Texas will help us to
further support the health and safety of all Texans.
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