"This is a danger to our community." Parents and teachers want to know about coronavirus outbreaks in schools, but some districts are hiding information about cases, stoking fear and anger. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/22/us/school-reopenings-coronavirus-reporting.html

Parents I spoke to said they were told to keep quiet about positive cases and class quarantines. Some teachers are afraid of losing their jobs if they disclose their positive test result. Districts & states often cite privacy laws to conceal outbreaks, but others are transparent.

Colorado & North Carolina report which schools have had positive cases, but Tennessee cancelled plans to report the number of cases linked to schools. A Florida teachers’ union sued the Orange County school district after it refused to disclose virus-linked schools & worksites.

Parents say transparency is critical for keeping school districts accountable on virus exposure in schools. “We need to know that there was a Covid case and what steps the school is taking to ensure they don’t have an outbreak," a parent in Orange County, Fla., told me.

Officials often cite federal privacy to justify concealing virus cases in schools. But neither HIPAA or FERPA bars public schools from releasing information about cases as long as they do not provide personal details about those who are infected.

In Georgia, the Camden County school district won't confirm a single case, even though parents, students and teachers have been quietly told to quarantine. “We’re safer if we know what’s going on, but their pan answer is, ‘We can neither confirm or deny,'" a parent told me.

The Camden deputy superintendent warned educators to keep quiet about Covid-19 cases : “Staff who test positive are not to notify any other staff members, parents of their students or any other person/entity that they may have exposed them,” he wrote in a confidential email.

Parents & teachers are frightened and angry. Entire classes have quarantined, but the school hasn't publicly said a word. “They’ve been very hush-hush,” a parent told me. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/22/us/school-reopenings-coronavirus-reporting.html