The Texas Education Agency, responsible for public school policies, recently announced that schools do not have to report COVID cases to parents. What’s going on in your school districts? Let me know on social.
I prefer as many precautions as possible, but in case this offers some comfort, I wanted to share my health professional perspective (not at all political, just facts and processes):
Long standing state laws would likely come into play for “communicable disease reporting”. So maybe this is a separation of powers/responsibilities move, trying to give schools a break. Meaning, PHYSICIANS in Texas are still required to report communicable diseases on the state list (eg measles) to state and local health departments, who then start contact tracing.
BUT if a child does not seek medical care, their COVID diagnosis would not get reported and no tracing would occur. This is just alleviating schools of the PARENTAL reporting aspect of the responsibility, since schools likely still have to report known COVID cases to health departments. They just no longer “owe” parents and the public anything.
Coronavirus is on the Texas reportable (notifiable) conditions list. I am hoping that there is more budget available for the surge of health department (and contractors) contact tracing. Hope this helps.
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