Until Nov. 4, the state Dept. of Secondary Education website had showed zero Covid-19 cases in Arlington.
Arlington Covid-19 cases, tracked since March, are finally being reflected at the state Department of Secondary Education (DESE) website, spurred by a resident who brought issue to YourArlington’s attention.
In addition, the top town health official has provided a breakdown of cases in the up-to-19 age category, in response to the resident’s query. The town will continue to report as it has been while considering a possible change later.
“Wondering if you have looked into the reporting from Arlington School districts to Mass. DOE?” asked the resident, who does not want to be identified, on Oct. 30. “When you look at the site, they have 0 cases for Arlington from Sept. 30 through Oct. 14 for staff or children, which we know is not accurate.” The state site link is here >> (see tab no. 2)
The resident also asked whether the daily chart of Covid cases reported by the town — see that link here >> — could further break down the zero-to-19 age category.
Evaluating a tip
Any news tip needs vetting, so the website reached out to those in a position to explain.
Superintendent Kathleen Bodie was asked Nov. 1, whether her administration had been reporting Covid-19 cases to the state education site in the light of numbers for Arlington, posted every Thursday, showing up as zero.
Based on news reporting, Bodie was told, the public knows that Arlington reported positive Covid cases about Sept. 16, Oct. 14 and 18. But, for example, tab 2 on Oct. 14 shows Arlington had 0. So did links for other weeks this fall.
A number of reasons are possible. She was asked whether the district is not reporting, whether it is reporting incorrectly, whether the state is reporting incorrectly or whether the reporting has not yet caught up with reality.
On Nov. 1, Bodie vowed to check. She wrote: “DESE should be able to get the number of positive cases from DPH’s database,” referring to the state Department of Public Health. See its weekly reports >>
‘Rectified reporting protocal’
The next day, she responded: “I was faulty in my understanding that DESE was getting this data from the state data bank. I have rectified our reporting protocol and have designated someone to do the ongoing reporting.
“Arlington’s past and current data will be updated today [Nov. 2]. I do not know whether this data is available immediately to the public or what the lag time might be, but they will have our data today.”
A check of DESE’s Covid-19 report for Nov. 4 showed a listing under Arlington for one staff member and no students testing positive between Oct. 29 and Nov. 4
Her response continued: “As you are aware, positive cases have been reported to respective school communities and has resulted with some classrooms and middle school learning communities needing to learn remotely for 14 days. In the case of Peirce, the entire school needed to be remote for 14 days. We will continue these notifications.
“Thanks for bringing this to my attention.”
0-to-19 category
In a related matter, YourArlington’s tipster also said parents were concerned about the daily listing of town Covid cases as have a 0-to-19 category, which they believed should be broken down.
Christine Bongiorno, director of town Health and Human Services, was asked about this. She responded Oct. 30: “… [T]he way our data are posted mirrors the state categories. We have been discussing internally the possibility of further breaking out the 0-19 category, because I agree that the 0-19 category is too broad and doesn’t help our community understand how the virus is impacting different school age populations. I will bring this up again with our team and will determine the simplest way for us to get that info out.”
In a follow-up Nov. 5, she wrote: “I pulled the age 0-19 data from Sept. 1 through today at 11 a.m. This data set does not include any cases that came in after 11 a.m. today.”
Between Sept. 7 through Oct. 26, there were 22 cases among town residents up to 19 years old. She broke those numbers in this chart:
| Age range | Arlington cases |
|---|---|
| 0-4 | 3 |
| 5-10 | 2 |
| 11-13 | 3 |
| 14-19 | 14 |
She wrote that she “tried to break these ages out to show general ages for school levels. Please keep in mind, not all of these cases are students in Arlington Public Schools, so these numbers will not match APS reporting.”
“In the meantime, we are planning to continue reporting our data sets to match the state data.”
Baker urges reopening
On Friday, Nov. 6, Gov. Baker urged schools to reopen classrooms — even in communities, such as Boston, where coronavirus cases have been surging — and issued a new set of rules that strongly discourages remote learning.
Under the new state rules, districts should close schools or classrooms only as a “last resort” — when there is evidence of transmission or in communities where Covid-19 positivity rates are exceptionally high, BostonGlobe.com reported.
Chelsea, Lawrence and Revere have positivity rates that are high enough to rely exclusively on remote learning, according to state officials.
Currently, more than half of the state’s 950,000 public school students are doing all their learning from home, while many of the remaining students are receiving instruction at home part time.
Oct. 20, 2020: School update: No positive Covid cases Oct. 19
Sept. 20, 2020: Peirce reopens fully remote after Covid-19 staff case
October-November, 2020: Ongoing record of town Covid-19 cases, deaths
This news summary was published Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020.
