Orange County Public Schools superintendent responds to claims of lack of COVID-19 transparency

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — This year, Orange County Public Schools is tracking both academic progress and COVID-19 cases.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health reported 54 students and staff tested positive for COVID-19. The cases are linked to 34 schools – eight of which asked 199 people to quarantine.

Read: Orange County health department told to stop releasing school COVID-19 case numbers, health officer says

For days, the teachers union accused the district of not listing all schools with cases, saying the district wasn’t being transparent enough.

But Superintendent Dr. Barbara Jenkins disagrees.

“If we were trying to hide something we wouldn’t be announcing 199 individuals in quarantine. We wouldn’t be giving lists of schools that have quarantine,” she said.

Jenkins said the district does not report possible cases, like when a teacher or student reports having COVID but it is not confirmed by the health department.

Read: Orange County couple arrested after posting videos of child abuse on social media, deputies say

“The issue is, if we tried to make sure we were on top of every single case when it’s first reported versus when it’s confirmed positive, versus when the Department of Health confirms it lab positive confirmation, we’d do nothing more than that all day,” Jenkins said.

OCPS does get a daily update on confirmed cases from the Department of Health, but it’s not reported daily because the district doesn’t have a daily cut-off time. The district now plans to update the community every Tuesday and Friday, but impacted families will receive immediate notice.

Read: 20 DeLand High School football players quarantining after assistant coach tests positive for COVID-19