JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval County Public Schools officials say the Duval County health department hasn't been able to keep up with the pace of COVID-19 contact tracing since school started last week. Now, the district is launching new mitigation strategies at elementary schools to compensate.
On Friday afternoon, the district released two new policies that will go into effect by Wednesday.
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First, the district said if a case impacts an elementary school, families of classmates will receive a letter informing them of the case. The letter will not be a "quarantine or 'stay-at-home' order" but will let families be aware of the increased possibility a student might have been in close contact with someone who presumably tested positive for COVID-19.
Second, if an elementary school has two or more COVID-19 cases within a seven-day period, it will switch to an online format. The number of days online will depend on the situation.
"These steps are necessary because the Department of Health has not been able to keep pace with the contact tracing case load since school began," the district said in a statement on its website. "Under state law, The Florida Department of Health has the responsibility to confirm the positive case, conduct the contact tracing and case investigation, and notify families who are impacted."
Duval seems to have lower quarantine numbers so far
Across Florida, school districts are releasing data about hundreds if not thousands of students being told to quarantine because of COVID-19 exposure on campus. But in Duval, those numbers are seemingly lower.
Within the first week of school, Duval Schools reported 82 COVID-19 cases among students and faculty. In response, a total of 43 students were told to quarantine that week — a confusing number at a glance since it didn't even account for one-to-one quarantining based on the number of students and faculty infected.
A district spokesperson said that number did not include the number of students and faculty who tested positive and were told to stay home; only the people contact traced in relation to those cases. Still, an exact number or methodology has not been provided to the Times-Union.
To date, Duval Schools has reported 492 COVID-19 cases on its dashboard. But the district said those cases have resulted in a total of "only 189 student and adult quarantines."
"The Department has informed the district that it has assigned additional personnel to school cases, but the rapid spreading nature of the COVID-19 Delta variant currently exceeds the department’s capability to respond to all school cases within a meaningful timeframe," the district said.
The Times-Union reached out to the Duval County health department for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Parents, teachers and faculty in Jacksonville say they've been concerned that the contact tracing isn't being completed fast enough to let families know whether someone has potentially been exposed.
The district said its new strategies will be in place through mid-Septemeber and then the health department's capability to support contact tracing will be "re-evaluated."
Regarding why the changes are only going into place at the elementary school level, district officials say it's because elementary schools represent the largest population of students ineligible for vaccination.
According to district data, over half of the coronavirus cases within Duval Schools are impacting elementary schools.
Officials are encouraging older students to get vaccinated.
Saturday, the district will host a vaccine clinic for families at Atlantic Coast High School (9735 R.G. Skinner Parkway 32256) from 9 a.m. to noon.
Emily Bloch is an education reporter for The Florida Times-Union. Follow her on Twitter or email her.
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