State releases numbers showing low Texas public school infection rates, but the data is limited

Need to stay updated on coronavirus news in Texas? Our evening roundup will help you stay on top of the day's latest updates. Sign up here.

More than 2,300 of Texas public school students who have returned to school in person since the beginning of this academic year — about 0.21% — have reported testing positive for COVID-19, according to a dashboard the state released Thursday in a first effort to publicly track the way the pandemic is impacting public schools.

The Texas Department of State Health Services and Texas Education Agency are expected to begin releasing the weekly number of coronavirus cases in each school district starting next Wednesday.

Of about 5.5 million public school students in Texas, 1,101,065 have returned to school in person or are participating in activities on campus grounds. At least 2,344 of those have reported testing positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday, according to the dashboard.

The data also shows that 2,175 school employees who have come back to school in person reported testing positive for COVID-19. Texas has not tabulated the total number of employees who have returned to schools in person. It is less than 800,078, the total number employed by public schools, including teachers, contractors and support staff.

"It's been amazing to see how sophisticated and robust everybody's efforts are to keep their staff safe, to keep their students safe and to prevent their schools from being a location of viral spread," Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said on a call to superintendents Thursday. "It's clear that in many circumstances, the level of investment in safety is significant."

School administrators must now fill out forms each week reporting any new COVID-19 cases their schools were notified of the previous week, whether the cases were contracted on or off campus, and whether the entire campus closed as a result. The reports must include any student, teacher or staff member who participates in any on-campus activity and has been confirmed to have a COVID-19 infection.

The total number of infections school districts are reporting is likely an undercount. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 40% of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic, and children are tested at lower rates. The state is relying on staff and students voluntarily reporting positive tests to the schools, which then report those totals to the state. Neither the federal nor state government requires or recommends universal testing in schools, in part because large-scale testing is still not feasible. Many of Texas' biggest districts will not require testing of anyone at any point.

State guidelines say schools must instruct individuals who know or suspect they have COVID-19 to stay at home through the 14-day incubation period. But they can return to campus without being tested if they show improvement.

With the virus still spreading quickly in many Texas communities, experts have been saying for weeks it was not a matter of whether infections would appear in schools, but when. Many districts will not be able to keep the virus off their campuses; their challenge is to keep the inevitable cases from sparking outbreaks.

Cases have popped up all over the state since schools began opening in person last month, forcing students and staff in Central, North, and South Texas to stay home in case they were exposed. Mount Vernon ISD, a small district 100 miles northeast of Dallas, had to temporarily close this week after cases began to rise. And other districts have taken steps like canceling sports games.

Experts have emphasized that releasing public data is critical for families — as well as political leaders — to assess the risks and rewards of sending students back to school. More than 10% of students were not engaged with virtual learning this spring, according to state data, and many students rely on their schools for access to food and medical care.

Texas teachers have also piloted their own effort to track COVID-19 cases in schools. The Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers set up a website that shows the safety reports and infections school employees have reported in their own schools. AFT leaders said they do their best to verify reports they receive but acknowledged the website may contain errors or duplicates, meaning it is also not an accurate picture of COVID-19 in Texas schools.

Research indicates that children are less likely than adults to suffer severe symptoms of the coronavirus, though children with preexisting conditions like asthma or diabetes may be more vulnerable. And children can play a role in transmitting the virus to their teachers, parents and grandparents, though scientists are still studying to what extent.

New data from the CDC this week indicated that of 391,814 known infections in the U.S. of people under 21 from February to July, just 121 died. But the racial disparities were stark: 74% of the children who died were Hispanic or Black — numbers far higher than their representation in the population.

In Texas, 53% of public school students are Hispanic, and 13% are Black.

Disclosure: Texas AFT has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Correction: This story misspelled the name of a federal agency. It is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.