On September 16, Klein ISD released a dashboard to help track COVID-19 within the district. Klein ISD joins many school districts across the greater Houston area in providing a COVID-19 tracking tool to parents, students, and staff.
While it is not required for school districts to release such a tool, Yvonne Clark, Director of Health Services for Klein ISD, says a dashboard is of utmost importance.

“When local news stations report positive case rates, they often include the Houston Health Department and the whole of Harris County,” Clark said. “This [data from the Houston Health Department] does not provide an accurate representation of our Klein ISD community specifically. The new dashboard clearly communicates to the community the active number of positive COVID-19 cases on our campuses.”

Ms. Clark defined what the district constitutes as an active case.

“The Klein ISD Dashboard lists positive, lab-confirmed COVID cases amongst Klein On-Campus students and staff,” she said. “Students who are in Klein Online are not designated as active cases for reporting methods.”

Ms. Clark also shared how a case is removed from the Dashboard.

“Every day at 6 PM, the Dashboard gets updated, and when a person who had previously tested positive [for COVID-19] retests as negative, they are removed from the tally,” Clark said.

Many students, like senior Sumera Siddiqi, feel the new tool will allow for some personal reflection.

“I think [the Dashboard] will open people’s eyes to the severity of the virus,” Siddiqi said. “When someone halfway across the world gets COVID, you don’t quite understand the impact it has…but when a classmate or teacher you know has it, you see firsthand all the suffering and trauma the virus can bring.”

The Dashboard can be found at https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/4158bcda-2db5-44ba-af71-469c40a6f282/page/2l4fB