NASHVILLE, Tenn. — During Thursday’s press conference, Gov. Bill Lee spoke about a number of things, including a distribution plan for coronavirus vaccines, changes in data of students who test positive for the virus and changes to the number of COVID-19 cases by county.
One of the topics discussed was the reporting of cases in public schools after Gov. Lee said the state would not collect that data.
He said his administration was asking for federal guidance about what could be disclosed without violating student privacy laws.
“We think we have developed a tool that will be very important for understanding, not only how many cases exist in a school, but how this affects attendance,” Gov. Lee said.
Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn said her department has created a dashboard on its website where people can find information about COVID-19 cases in public schools.
The dashboard will provide information about new cases in students and staff at the district and individual level, with some exceptions.
“To ensure those protections exist, schools with fewer than 50 students will not be reported in the dashboard. Schools with fewer than five positive students or employee COVID-19 cases will be listed without a specific number,” Schwinn said.
Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said the department has made a change to how it counts active cases. Instead of assuming that cases are active for 21 days, the department is switching to a 14-day limit.
In addition, Piercey says 1,700 cases had been mismatched to the wrong zip code and the case-count was readjusted to each county.
“When we went back and looked at those by the address and the street address itself — or through contact tracing — we recognized that some of those were put into the wrong county assignment,” Piercey said.
Around two dozen counties will see their numbers rise or fall because of that change.
Finally, Commissioner Danielle Barnes with the Department of Human Services addressed a plan to ensure students who are learning remotely from home or in-person get the benefits of school provided meals with an EBT card.
“Our hope is that we get a student who wants a benefit, [we] can sent them to the school where they were last enrolled and the family can then to to the school, pick up the card if they need them,” Barnes said.
Gov. Lee said he has also been in contact with the White House regarding the possible coronavirus vaccine distribution plan. He said it could happen as early as November.
However, he said that date was not set in stone.
