Less Than Half A Percent Of Students Back In Texas Public Schools Have Tested Positive For Coronavirus
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Less than half-a-percent of Texas students who have returned to campus have tested positive for COVID-19, according to data released Thursday by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Out of an estimated 1.1 million students who have returned to campus, 2,344 have tested positive for the virus.
That works out to 1 in every 470 students.
The total count of on-campus teacher and staff COVID-19 cases is 2,175.
On Thursday, the Texas Department of State Health Services for the first time released the statewide number of COVID-19 cases reported by Texas public schools.
Public schools are required to report all COVID-19 cases weekly to the Texas Education Agency.
Next week the state will released updated school case numbers broken down by school district but not down to individual campus.
All school districts must notify parents of students who come in close contact with an infected person but schools are not required to tell parents of every student on a campus.
While state guidelines say schools must notify "families of all students in a school if a test-confirmed COVID-19 case is identified," Dallas ISD and Fort Worth ISD only plan to notify families of students who came in close contact.
Most of the other large North Texas districts say they will notify all parents of a school every time there's a confirmed case.
DISD and FWISD said privacy concerns are among the reasons for their decision.