As Schools Reopen, A New Tool Tracks Coronavirus Cases As They Emerge : Shots - Health News : NPR

As Schools Reopen, A New Tool Tracks Coronavirus Cases As They Emerge : Shots - Health News : NPR

How Many Coronavirus Cases Are Happening In Schools? This Tracker Keeps Count

Teacher Alisha Morris created an interactive tracker of coronavirus in schools, current through Aug. 23, including this map, created by another volunteer. The National Education Association will now take on updates to the database.

US schools tracker/Screenshot by NPR

Looking for a snapshot of coronavirus outbreaks in U.S. schools? The National Education Association has just launched a tracker of cases in public K-12 schools.

The tracker is broken down by state and shows schools and counties with known cases and suspected cases and deaths, as well as whether those infected were students or staff. It also includes links to the local news reports so users know where the virus data comes from.

The NEA tracker builds on the volunteer efforts of a Kansas theater teacher Alisha Morris. In early August, just ahead of the new school year, Morris was looking for data about coronavirus cases in U.S. schools. She could find local news reports about positive cases at individual schools across the country but nothing that gave her a cohesive picture of how the virus was spreading in schools.

So Morris built it herself.

She started with a simple Internet search.

"I put in the words 'school, positive' " she tells NPR's Morning Edition. "I clicked on the news tab and would search the articles from the past week or the past 24 hours and then I would input those articles into my spreadsheet."

Kansas high school theater teacher Alisha Morris created a database of coronavirus outbreaks in U.S. schools.

Alisha Morris

Morris started building a database on Aug. 6. She looked for news reports going back to July 1, since some schools had begun holding practices for fall sports or opening for administrative activities early in the summer.

Even with schools in only a few states back in session by early August, she had no trouble finding reports of coronavirus cases. Morris quickly logged cases at over 700 schools.

"I started feeling sort of shocked by what I was seeing and how many cases were already popping up in opening schools," she says. "That's when I decided that I should share it with some personal colleagues in Kansas and my district board of education. And their reactions are what really prompted me to share it on a wider scale with other CONTINUE READING: As Schools Reopen, A New Tool Tracks Coronavirus Cases As They Emerge : Shots - Health News : NPR