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ALBANY — The new system for all state public school districts to report COVID-19 testing and positive results seems to be adding confusion to who has what and where they are.
Friday morning’s check of the school COVID-19 Report Card showed two cases in School 7 in Dunkirk, which the district’s superintendent said were reported in error, but Superintendent Michael Mansfield later clarified the two positive cases were not pupils who were currently physically attending the school.
However, the state report card did not show the positive case at Sinclairville Elementary School, which Cassadaga Valley School Superintendent Chuck Leichner reported to the public through a statement on the district’s website Thursday. The student who tested positive was also not physically attending the school.
There are, according to Chautauqua County Public Health Director Christine Schuyler, several issues with the state report card.
“I think there are probably several issues,” Schuyler said. “It’s brand new, it’s very complicated and it did not come with a lot of instructions from the state.”
Any changes to the report card system must come from the state, which is the only agency that can edit or remove error reports from the cards, she said.
Late Thursday, the state added a rule that all reporting schools must verify their information with the county before posting to the repart card, Schuyler said.
“This is not a tool for the County Health Department, this is a tool for the public I would say,” Schuyler said, explaining the county is already monitoring the situation.
Various news organizations have reported problems with the timeliness of the reporting and also accuracy issues.
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