Nashville, TN – The Tennessee Department of Education released a dashboard reporting additional COVID-19 information at school and district levels, including numbers of new positive COVID-19 Coronavirus cases in districts and schools.
The department is requesting districts submit information on a weekly basis to report positive COVID-19 Coronavirus cases in districts and schools, as well as whether or how positive cases may impact the way teachers deliver instruction to students.
While over half of districts have submitted data for this first week of reporting, full reporting across every district is expected by September 22nd, 2020.
“Tennessee has led the way in supporting districts for a safe return to school, opening classrooms for the new school year, and now providing the public with information around how COVID-19 may be impacting their school communities through a district-populated dashboard,” said Commissioner Penny Schwinn.
“This dashboard strikes an important balance in protecting student privacy while providing parents, educators, and community members with information they need to make the best possible decisions for their families,” Schwinn stated.
Users will have two ways to access information:
- A menu view—A drop-down menu will allow users to quickly select a district of interest to reveal more information.
- A map view— An interactive map of the state of Tennessee with two views, district level and school level, will enable users to hover over their county or region and select their district or school to reveal more information.
At the district level, the dashboard will provide district-reported information on the number of new positive COVID-19 Coronavirus cases this week and the prior week amongst students and the number of new positive COVID-19 Coronavirus cases this week and the prior week amongst staff.
In addition, the dashboard will display the primary operating model for schools within the district, including the number of schools conducting in-person learning, the number of schools conducting remote learning, and the number of schools utilizing a hybrid approach for instruction, as well as the last date when the district updated its primary operating model.
Finally, the dashboard will display whether the district has adopted a critical infrastructure designation for certain workers, as well as a link to the district’s Continuous Learning Plan (CLP) which outlines how the district plans to administer remote learning.
At the school level, the dashboard will provide district-reported information on the number of new positive COVID-19 Coronavirus cases amongst students, number of new positive COVID-19 Coronavirus cases amongst staff, and whether adjustments from the district’s primary operating model have been made within the school. Students and staff listed as positive does not necessarily indicate they contracted COVID-19 Coronavirus at the school building.
The sharing of student information is stringently protected under the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and protecting personally identifiable information of our youngest Tennesseans is critically important. To ensure protections of individual privacy, schools with fewer than 50 students will not be reported in the dashboard.
For schools reporting under five positive student or employee COVID-19 Coronavirus cases, the school will be listed without a specific number of cases for the category.
During this first week of reporting, a majority of districts have submitted information for the dashboard. Over the coming weeks, the department will be working closely with districts to support their reporting and encourage them to update information on a weekly basis. Districts have received instructions for reporting this information to the department and the department will continue to provide technical assistance to districts when needed.
The dashboard can be found here: https://districtinformation.tnedu.gov/
For access to additional resources related to reopening schools, visit the Tennessee Department of Education’s Reopening webpage: https://www.tn.gov/education/health-and-safety/update-on-coronavirus/reopening-guidance.html.
