CHICAGO — On his second day as Chicago Public Schools CEO, Pedro Martinez promised transparency in the way the district publicly reports student and staff member COVID-19 cases.
“On our website, we will be reporting out cases daily. We will be more complete. We will not only just show active cases, we’ll show quarantine. Please give us some grace. Because it is daily, that means there will be some cleanup of data,” Martinez said at a Sept. 30 news conference with city public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
CPS came under fire last week when it was revealed that the district had quietly changed the method it presents COVID-19 data on its public dashboard to only show closed cases at individual schools instead of all reported cases of COVID-19 among staff and students, as the district had done since September. The backlash grew as CPS continued to experience an omicron-fueled surge in infections, with 660 adult cases and a record 2,200 student cases reported districtwide last week.
