Stavem: COVID cases in school district will be reported to parents, though not regularly to public

Sioux Falls School District superintendent Jane Stavem says the district will not be regularly reporting the number of COVID-19 cases within its schools to the broader community unless necessary. 

That data will be kept track of internally, she said. 

Stavem made the announcement during a media briefing Monday afternoon before an expected school board meeting. She spoke about how the district would handle attendance for fine arts and athletic events during the coronavirus pandemic.

Students return to school Aug. 27. 

More:Masks, building maintenance, back-up plans: What to know about returning to school in Sioux Falls

"We have protocols we're going to follow from the (state) department of health," Stavem said when asked how the public would be notified about whether a student on a team tests positive. 

The district's health services director, Molly Satter, will work closely with the state health department to follow those guidelines, Stavem said.

Watching absences, broader community picture

Right now, there is no threshold system to determine when the district may need to consider closing a campus or going to one of the hybrid learning models mentioned in its Return to Learn plan earlier this month, but it's about balancing what's reasonable, she said. 

"Can we reasonably keep going because we have enough staff to continue having school? Or are there too many absences and the inability to hold school because of absences?" Stavem said. "That's one big things right there, you know? Do we have the people that we need to keep operating?"

More:Sioux Falls public schools plan to allow spectators on limited basis

From there, the district will look at the broader community picture, because how the pandemic plays out within the next month or even two months is unknown, she said. There's no hard and fast mathematical formula right now, she added.

Parents will be notified, though the broader public and media will not. The district will monitor cases similar to how it monitors influenza cases within schools and report if there's an outbreak to the community. But the district won't be providing daily case number updates similar to that of the state health department. 

By law, the district must report infectious diseases to the state health department and communicate directly to those who have been exposed. Positive cases are reported to the public by the state health department, the district said in a statement clarifying the matter Tuesday. 

Here's a look at the district's protocol if a person gets sick on campus, according to the district's Return to Learn plan, which outlines how the district will operate in-person classes during the pandemic:

• If someone falls ill at school, they will be assigned to a pre-designated, but visibly monitored isolation space. 
• Partitions or curtains may be added to separate anyone infected if socially distancing by 6 feet isn't manageable. 
• The school nurse and other staff will use PPE while caring for the sick, and symptomatic students and staff must wear PPE when in the isolation area. 
• If someone is sent to a healthcare provider, emergency room or 911 is called, the school will notify those agencies of any COVID-19 symptoms in advance. Sick students must be picked up as soon as possible and won't be sent home on a bus, the handbook states. 
• Custodians will clean the isolation area as needed, while the district's health service department works with the state health department on contact tracing and notifying any close contacts or other student and staff groups.

More:How will schools navigate positive COVID cases? That could depend on flu season.

The district will report by letter to an entire school, including family and staff, when a positive case is confirmed at that building, the district stated. 

Students and staff who are suspected as close contacts will receive a separate letter from SFSD and a phone call from the SD Department of Health who conducts contact tracing investigations, the statement read. 

The district will also be working to inform parents about changes to athletic and fine arts event attendance based on guidance from health experts and elements like community transmission, school officials said. 

Stavem cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, as privacy considerations for why the district would keep the information internal. 

However, neither of those laws protect a district from releasing data to the general public. 

More:Coronavirus cases increase by 58 in South Dakota, no new deaths reported

"This is all new, and we're going to see what this looks like as we get started," Stavem said. "Then if we have to adjust from there, we will. But we're really depending on that partnership with our local healthcare authorities."

Clarification:We have updated this story to reflect that while the media and broader public won't be notified of positive cases within schools by the district, parents will be.