We had a positive case at DC's private school and they were trying to balance privacy vs sharing info. Although the name of the positive case was never disclosed, all the students were able to figure it out quickly. Then there was speculation and gossip. It would have been better if the schools were just open about it because at least everyone would get facts rather than hearsay. It would have been helpful for the parent body to know if the positive student got it from outside sports, or from a sibling at another school, or from a sleepover, or a party, or from traveling to a hotspot state etc.. I would like to learn from experience, but the background situation was not shared at all.
What has your experience been like with how your school handled the positive case notification.
I do have to say that our school did the best job they could under the circumstances to communicate with us.
I wish schools would share at least whether it is teachers or students and which cohort if a split-day program. I don't really need anything beyond that.
This isn't up to schools. It's private medical information and cannot be publicly disclosed. Full stop. They don't disclose who has strep, lice, the flu, etc.
Yes, I agree. But if they don't share the names, they absolutely have the ability to say "a family contracted Covid by attending an indoor Halloween party." The problem is that these things happen, the party contracting Covid lies about their behavior, and the school generally is not in a position to know the source.
@anonymous yes the school just knows there was a positive test, unless a family tells them more. it's not the school's job to infer or investigate how it was contracted. It is the schools right to enforce their safety guidelines
Our school has just mentioned the grade and whether it was caught by the weekly testing the school does, or from an outside test.
Most people don't know how they got it. The virus is literally everywhere and it's not visible. I don't think that type of information is a realistic expectation, especially since our country doesn't have robust tracking resources. All they can tell you is that someone in X grade got it. Beyond that, there isn't much more to tell.