Schools open before Labor Day break with varying plans
The seven public school systems in Shelby County opened in one way or another before the Labor Day weekend with plans that vary to some degree.
And the guidance from state education officials for the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on education has changed leading up to the opening this past week of Shelby County Schools, the largest school system in the state.
The Tennessee Department of Education has set up a dashboard of school districts that reports COVID cases within the districts and in specific schools.
The start of the school year in Shelby County is the main topic of discussion on Behind The Headlines on WKNO Channel 10. The discussion features Laura Faith Kebede of Chalkbeat Tennessee and Toby Sells of The Memphis Flyer in a reporters’ roundtable.
The show was recorded the same day that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and state Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn talked in Nashville about the start of an unprecedented school year across the state.
“It’s uncharted territory,” Lee said. “Most states are still grappling with this. We think we have developed a tool that will be very valuable to understanding not only how many cases are in a school, but how it affects absenteeism.”
Lee said previously the decision about releasing information on confirmed COVID cases in schools would have to strike a balance with federal regulations on the privacy of health information and the need of parents to know in deciding on in-person or online learning plans.
SCS is all online at least for now. The suburban school systems each offer online learning as an option.
Schwinn said the discussions involved attorneys for the state and for federal health agencies.
Schools with fewer than 50 students do not report their COVID data to the state department of education. A school with fewer than five cases is listed on the state’s online dashboard without a specific number of confirmed cases attached to its entry.
The district and school-by-school data tracks the number of cases from the previous week and the week before.
The information is updated every Friday with information from local public school districts.
The reporting comes as the state Health Department has changed some of the metrics for its overall reporting of figures from the pandemic. The new numbers and the way that data is displayed puts more emphasis on current cases and how the number of cases currently measures up against the previous week.
“Behind the Headlines” is hosted by Eric Barnes of The Daily Memphian. It airs on WKNO Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 8:30 a.m. It can also be seen on The Behind The Headlines Podcast.
The discussion of education in a pandemic marks the 10th anniversary of the program.
Listen to the podcast or watch this week’s episode at the top of the page.
Produced by Natalie Van Gundy
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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