September 7th, 2021

To Ian Hoffman of Humboldt County Department of Public Health:

We are aware that every public school district and charter school in Humboldt is required to report to County Department of Public Health immediately every time there is a positive COVID-19 case involving school students and staff, along with how many people were potentially exposed by that person. This data, that is already being collected and every public school is legally required to submit using the SPOT system, isn’t perfect, but it’s the most accurate local data regarding COVID-19 in our schools. 

Right now this data is not being shared. That needs to change immediately. Sharing the countywide numbers would be a good place to start. If the numbers get large, they can be reported by school regions (Southern Humboldt, Eel River Valley, Eureka/Central Humboldt, Northern Humboldt, and Klamath-Trinity). 

We need to know this information so that parents/caregivers can make informed decisions about the risks of in person learning and so school staff can make informed decisions around their health. 

We request two sections be added to the county COVID-19 dashboard to be updated weekly, effective immediately. They correlate directly to the data that’s already being collected:

1) Number of Humboldt TK-12 in-person school students/staff who test positive for COVID-19 

2) Estimated number of school exposures (aka # of students and/or staff who have potentially been exposed to a person at school who then tests positive for Covid-19)

This current situation is so much bigger than individual schools or classrooms. Every school is required to be fully open right now. They don’t have a choice. Some schools have more resources than others (nothing new), but almost all schools are short staffed and overworked trying to keep kids safe. It’s an impossible feat to keep students and staff truly safe during in person learning given that COVID-19 is endemic (to use your word) in our county right now, but our schools are doing everything they can to mitigate risk. 

We implore you to exercise transparency with this information as an urgent matter of public health and safety. This information is not school or individual specific so there is no HIPPA concern in sharing it. If the county dashboard can report 8 positive cases from Orick, it can certainly report on this. 

How dangerous is it to send a child to in-person school? We don’t know. We need data to assess that, data that is not currently being shared. 

Thank you for your immediate action on this matter.