A day after a top official in Gov. Bill Lee’s administration said Tennessee plans to withhold the number of COVID-19 cases in schools from the public, a spokesperson said the information will not even be collected by the state.
When Lee announced guidance for school reopenings on Tuesday, state Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey said Tennessee had no plans to provide the public with data on the number of coronavirus cases and deaths at schools as many return to in-person classes.
Instead, Piercey said such data sharing would be left up to individual school districts.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the state health department elaborated on the commissioner’s comments, saying patient privacy continues to be a priority.
“At this time we do not plan to ask school districts to submit formal reports to us about COVID-19 cases, and do not plan to systematically release school-specific information on cases among students and/or staff members,” spokesperson Shelley Walker said.
Walker said the department will encourage school districts to track COVID-19 cases in an effort to “best understand the burden of disease in their jurisdiction and take appropriate steps to mitigate further spread of illness.”
But Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said the state’s approach is inadequate.
“Whether it’s the Department of Health or the Department of Education, some state agency needs to be paying attention and keeping track of COVID-19 spread in the schools,” she said, noting public school operations are highly regulated.
“It would seem irresponsible for the state to just look the other way and not track that data.”
The Tennessee Department of Education also said it will not be collecting any data regarding cases, citing federal privacy laws.
“Local school districts must maintain compliance with all state and federal privacy laws, including, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) with regard to any records they maintain regarding cases of COVID-19,” an education department spokesperson said in an email.
State has faced past criticism over data collection, release
The issue over COVID-19 data collection and schools comes months after the Tennessee Department of Health twice faced criticism for initially refusing to release certain information.
Days after Tennessee reported its first case of the virus in March, state officials said they would not publicly share county-by-county data. Instead officials said Tennessee would only identify where new cases occurred by each of the state’s three grand divisions.
After facing criticism, the state reversed course and began sharing county-level data.
In April, state officials began to share data it had collected highlighting the number of cases of the virus at long-term care facilities. Prior to the reversal, the health department cited the need to protect patient privacy.
The same reasoning was recently used by Lee’s office when it refused to tell The Tennessean how many employees in the executive branch, including the governor’s staff, had tested positive for COVID-19. The legislative branch has released a total number of people that have tested positive.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.