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. 2023 Dec 26;12(Supplement_2):S3-S8.
doi: 10.1093/jpids/piad091.

Leveraging School Infection Data to Address Community COVID-19 Data Gaps

Eba Moreda  1 , Hedille Al-Dhalimy  1 , Mary Ha  1 , Ezeji Nwanaji-Enwerem  1 , Anh Nguyen  1 , Keshiyena Pieters  1 , M Alan Brookhart  2 , Jesse Hickerson  1 , Daniel K Benjamin Jr  1   3 , Kanecia O Zimmerman  1   3 , Angelique E Boutzoukas  1   3
Affiliations

Leveraging School Infection Data to Address Community COVID-19 Data Gaps

Eba Moreda et al. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. .

Abstract

Background: At-home COVID-19 tests became available in the USA in April 2021 with widespread use by January 2022; however, the lack of infrastructure to report test results to public health agencies created a gap in public health data. Kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) schools often tracked COVID-19 cases among students and staff; leveraging school data may have helped bridge data gaps.

Methods: We examined infection rates reported by school districts to ABC Science Collaborative with corresponding community rates from March 15, 2021 to June 3, 2022. We computed weekly ratios of community-to-district-reported rates (reporting ratios) across 3 study periods (spring 2021, fall 2021, and spring 2022) and estimated the difference and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in the average reporting ratio between study periods.

Results: In spring 2021, before approval or widespread use of at-home testing, the community-reported infection rate was higher than the school-reported infection rate (reporting ratio: 1.40). In fall 2021 and spring 2022, as at-home testing rapidly increased, school-reported rates were higher than community-reported rates (reporting ratios: 0.82 and 0.66). Average reporting ratios decreased between spring 2021 and fall 2021 (-0.58, 95% CI -0.84, -0.32) and spring 2021 and spring 2022 (-0.73, 95% CI -0.96, -0.48); there was no significant change between fall 2021 and spring 2022 (-0.15, 95% CI -0.36, 0.06).

Conclusions: At-home COVID-19 testing resulted in significant data gaps; K-12 data could have supplemented community data. In future public health emergencies, reporting of school data could minimize data gaps, but requires additional resources including funding to track infections and standardized data reporting methods.

Keywords: COVID-19 transmission; K-12 school districts; pediatrics; COVID-19 in schools and the community.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Weekly average school district reported and corresponding community COVID-19 infection rates. Blue dots represent weekly average school district-reported rates per 100 000 district population (students and staff) across reporting districts for that week. Red dots show the average community rates per 100 000 population for counties that reporting districts belonged to, obtained from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Community Levels by County dashboard. COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Change in average COVID-19 reporting ratios over time (March 15, 2021 to June 3, 2022). Dots represents the average reporting ratio for each week of the study period. Triangles represents the average reporting ratio across all weeks. The reporting ratio is equal to the community-reported rate of COVID-19 infections in the counties that participating districts belonged to (per 100 000 county population) divided by the school district-reported rate of COVID-19 infections (per 100 000 student and staff population). COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019.
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