JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Last Monday was the first day Tina Gordon’s child returned to school.
“Later on in the week my son let me know that child that sits next to him at lunch is out for the rest of the week," said Gordon, whose child goes to W.D. Hartley Elementary.
After Gordon heard the news from her son. She was worried.
“We tried to contact the teachers and the school to see if the child was out because of COVID-19 but because of policy issues no one could disclose," said Gordon.
Gordon says she was told if her son had close contact the Florida Department of Health would be in touch to let them know to quarantine but that response wasn’t enough for Gordon.
“I was able to directly reach out to that family and the father confirmed that they were out with COVID-19 and we still didn’t receive a notification from the Florida Department of Health," said Gordon.
Gordan says it was finally time to take matters into her own hands.
“I'm incredibly frustrated with the process. We’ve been told that part of mitigating COVID-19 is ensuring that close contacts are quarantined in a timely manner to reduce spread," said Gordon.
So, she created a Facebook group to let parents at Hartley Elementary self-report their students' positive cases.
“What grade it is, what the classroom is so other parents can figure out if their [children] are in close contact and quarantine and do testing on their own," said Gordon.
The St. Johns County School District understands the parents' frustration but they say they are continuing to work quickly to ensure the parents are notified when there’s a COVID case at the school.
“We really rely on the department of health to help us to make sure we’re as accurate as possible. There is a delay because we are working through their agency and we have to go through our class list," said Kyle Dressback, associate superintendent for student support services at St. Johns County School District.