NH Tracks

From MSN:

“NH Schools Receive More COVID-19 Guidance — And A Data Dashboard”

New Hampshire schools will be getting more COVID-19 guidance and tools from the state to coordinate potential infection clusters or outbreaks as well as a new data dashboard, 230,000 cloth coverings, and free food for students, too. During a press conference Tuesday, Gov. Chris Sununu and state health officials unveiled a few school updates and announcements in an effort to keep children safe and fed during reopenings. One of the highlights of the press conference was a New Hampshire COVID-19 school data dashboard, the fifth tab on the state's second data dashboard, which will be a go-to point for information about incidents in K-12 public schools, nonpublic and charter schools, and colleges and universities. The governor commended the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services for getting the dashboard up and running "very quickly." Another 230,000 cloth face coverings were also arriving soon from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and will be distributed to schools for students in need as well as teachers and administrators. Sununu said 100,000 masks were already distributed to schools by the New Hampshire National Guard. In a statement sent during the press conference, Frank Edelblut, the commissioner for the New Hampshire Department of Education, said educational leaders had raised the issue of "securing adequate supplies of PPE" as "a top concern." The masks, he said, "will be targeted to students in need at schools providing in-person instruction" and would offer "important layers of protection that make it possible for our students to return to school safely, along with hygiene, social distancing, and other recommended practices."

The state also received a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture allowing all students in New Hampshire to receive free meals at no charge, for the time being. Sununu called the waiver "a great thing," it provided the state flexibility, and allowed students in need to be fed. Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state's epidemiologist, said new guidance documents were being provided to schools to assist them during the coming weeks as to how and why to make decisions to move between learning models such as fully remote learning, hybrid, or completely in-school — based on the level of infection with the student or community populations. The data will track community transmission by city and town as well as county and then also have metrics to assess the impact of transmission. The numbers will be the same that health officials share, in many ways, during the press conferences and media alerts — including polymerase chain reaction test positivity rates, hospitalizations, and other factors in 14-day segments. Chan said the state had the ability to monitor school absenteeism at school, too. "This is a system that has been in place since around 2009," Chan said. "We will continue to monitor this throughout the school season and monitor that data, and give it back to school systems." Another data and guidance level, too, will be based on staffing in schools, and rate their impact to safely conduct educational operations, he said. It goes beyond just the community; the ratings will be county-wide to guide actions at the local level — since so many communities and counties were connected by business, long-term care facilities, and other entities. Chan said the plan may be adjusted and officials will work with schools to make sure guidance is workable — but it is not meant direct schools what to do. Those decisions will be made at the local level. But the guidance and data will be helpful to schools, Chan believed. The governor also said he was also happy to hear that the Crotched Mountain School would be remaining open despite ongoing financial issues while tackling the new coronavirus outbreak. Chan said New Hampshire's new coronavirus numbers continue to be low but globally, 25.5 million people have been infected with the virus and 6 million patients have been identified in the United States. "New Hampshire numbers continue to do well," he said. Another 23 cases were announced in the state Tuesday bringing the number to just under 7,300 accumulatively. One new person has been hospitalized, too, Chan said. 

^ There was a lot more in this article not relating to tracking Covid-19 in schools and so I left it out (you can read the whole thing with the link below.) I am curious to know if any other US States have a similar School Tracker and if they do which ones. ^

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/nh-schools-receive-more-covid-19-guidance-and-a-data-dashboard/ar-BB18BUQZ