Jan. 13, 2021 – Duval County Public Schools will adjust its process for entering new potential COVID-19 cases into the case tracking dashboard beginning Jan. 13, 2021.
Cases will now be entered at the time the district becomes aware of the case and reports it to the Department of Health. Cases reported on weekends or holidays will be entered and published on the next day of district operations.
This process change will result in an abnormal number of new cases for Jan. 13 as the district enters into the dashboard all cases currently pending with the Department of Health.
By entering the cases into the dashboard at the time the district reports the case to the Department of Health, families and the community will see the cases earlier and will be aware of cases impacting members of the school community, regardless of whether the Department of Health initiates contact tracing at the school. Under Florida statute, the Department of Health is responsible for determining if contact tracing needs to occur and for conducting that case investigation.
Background: This is the second modification the district has made to its process for notifying families and the community of cases impacting schools.
At the beginning of the school year, the district entered data based on the confirmation of a case and the conclusion of a case investigation by the Department of Health. The objective in this approach was to ensure those impacted were the first to know of a case.
Because of the time required for Department of Health case investigations, the district adjusted its process in November to begin posting cases on the dashboard once the Department of Health confirmed the case and began the contact tracing and case investigation.
Also in November, to expedite the overall process, the district implemented a procedure for schools to collect and transmit test results from students and staff to verify reports of positive cases before sending the information to the Department of Health.
The district’s goal since the beginning of the school year has been to provide families with a clear understanding of how the pandemic is impacting school buildings. The district’s experience over the first half of the school year demonstrates that this new process will better enable the district to achieve that goal.
