Newmarket parents sending their kids back to school Monday will not get the same level of information about cases at their schools, but data specialists are trying to fill that gap.
Sudbury-based biostatistician Ryan Imgrund — formerly a York Region teacher— has launched a tool for parents with mapping company ESRI Canada to report about symptomatic kids in Ontario ahead of the return to school Jan. 17, with a map breaking down the rate of crowdsourced reports by postal code.
Imgrund said with the province scaling back COVID-19 reporting in schools, he hopes the daily data can help inform parents.
“We’ve got no picture from our current government of what schools will look like, nor will we be getting a picture,” Imgrund said. “I’m hoping that parents go here to see what their school situation is like, but also go here to report symptoms as well. The more symptoms that are reported, the more accurate it would be.”
The province and public health units have said COVID-19 reporting in schools will work differently than before Christmas. With omicron spreading rapidly, public health is stepping back from monitoring COVID in schools. The province has also said parents would only get informed if the absenteeism rate reaches 30 per cent or higher, as opposed to if there is a case in their child's cohort, garnering some concern for parents.
The province has said it is taking measures to improve safety at schools and will provide rapid tests for symptomatic students and staff.
"With these measures in place, including new testing options and expanded access to vaccination, and continuous improvement to ventilation, the Ontario government is supporting access to in-person learning with greater stability for students and families," the Ministry of Education said in a news release.
The tool could be impacted by different regions making more use of it than others, Imgrund said, adding it should be more reliable for places closer together, with the map breaking things down by postal codes.
Besides that, Imgrund’s website also includes a risk-analysis tool to gauge how likely you might encounter COVID-19 depending on a gathering size, which he said parents could also use.
He said he expects lunchtime and bus rides to be the particular points of transmission.
“That’s where those other safety measures coming into play,” he said, “making lunchtime and transportation to and from school as safe as possible.”
Although York Region’s COVID-19 dashboard may no longer report on schools, it is still tracking cases in the region, with adjustments expected to come. The region is also asking people to voluntarily submit rapid antigen test results to add to its data collection, with PCR testing now more restricted by the province.
Imgrund said he hopes the tools on his website can help parents make decisions on whether to send their kids to school.
“It’s got really interesting interpretations of the data that is out there. It accounts for the fact the government is not releasing everything,” Imgrund said.
