In anticipation of students returning to campuses Sept. 8, Katy ISD has launched a dashboard which allows parents and students to see how many cases are active at each campus and the status of each campus as a result of any relevant COVID-19 cases.

“We want our parents to be in a position to make timely and informed decisions about their child’s schooling, health and well-being as we continue to navigate through this pandemic,” said Katy ISD Technology Director of Business Intelligence Jamey Hynds.  “The COVID-19 Case Dashboard is easy to navigate and is updated every night to provide parents the most up to date information,” added Hynds.

The Texas Education Agency had recently directed school districts across the state to submit weekly reports of positive COVID-19 cases. KISD built the case dashboard in addition to preparing for that reporting requirement to keep parents and staff informed, a press release from the district said.

Thus far, the dashboard is reporting 25 active cases of COVID-19 (as Sept. 2) through the portal. Seven of those cases are students registered for face-to-face classes that begin Tuesday, two are Katy Virtual Academy students and 16 are staff. Students that have been affected by the virus have not been at school to contaminate campuses and the district has previously indicated that each campus is sanitized thoroughly each day to ensure it remains sanitary.

Each campus has a condition stage identified through the portal with stages 1-5 defined:

• A five rating meaning the campus is in a prevention mode,
• A four rating indicates a mitigation mode with one or more cases of COVID-19 at that facility,
• A three indicates the campus has modified operations by taking measures such as closing a particular portion of campus such as a classroom.
• A two indicates that 10% of the facility’s occupancy has been determined to be COVID-19 positive and has been closed.
• A one indicates that confirmed COVID-19 cases are at 10% or more of the occupancy of 10 facilities or that a directive from an overseeing entity such as the city or state has shut down all district campuses.

“We want to be transparent with all the information that we have, so the COVID-19 dashboard shows the most up-to-date, self-reported cases of COVID-19 by campus and for the entire district,” Hynds said in a video briefing released by the district.