Teachers say delays in contact tracing have them returning to class despite known coronavirus exposure

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Teachers are worried about a delay in contact tracing that some say has them returning to work even after being exposed to COVID-19.

Some teachers said they have been notified by the department of health up to one week after a known exposure.

“There are so many cases, and we have only so many people who work at the health department that can keep up with all this, and we only have so many people staffed at our schools,” said Shannon Russell-Hinds, an 11th-grade English teacher.

Russell-Hinds said she understands what may be causing the delays in contact tracing, but the situation still is unacceptable.

“I had a friend the other day who took the initiative to contact the health department herself because she had been contacted by the parent of a student who tested positive,” Russell-Hinds said.

It then took six days for that teacher to receive a letter from the department of health advising her to quarantine.

Action News Jax asked Superintendent Diana Greene if she is concerned about the delay.

“We’re always concerned on the length of time because [of] our goal. [As] doon as we get that information we give it to the department of health and the department of health really works very hard with our team to do contact tracing,” Greene said.

To speed up reporting, the school district decided to change how it reports new cases on its own district dashboard.

“We now report on our dashboard as soon as we get that information,” Greene said. “[It] used to be we waited until the department of health accepted the information.”

However, principals still are not allowed to identify individuals who have been infected because of privacy laws.

According to Greene, a high school quarantined about 60 students this week. An elementary school class and an entire soccer team also were placed on quarantine.

“The district is very proactive in quarantine. In classes those are just things that aren’t reported anymore,” Greene said.

A school district spokesperson said Stanton College Preparatory, First Coast High School and Baldwin Middle-Senior High School recently had groups of students quarantined.

Some teachers told Action News Jax they also were prohibited from sharing their own positive COVID-19 diagnosis with students and parents.

“If a teacher wants to share, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it has been known to impact the contact tracing, and that’s the issue,” Greene said.

It is unclear how a teacher divulging their own diagnosis affects contact tracing, but Greene did not elaborate.

Russell-Hinds said students’ parents and guardians can be very helpful by being transparent.

“We really rely very heavily, as teachers, [on] parents to let us know when they know,” she said.

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