DENVER — Colorado’s health department stopped publicly sharing data on COVID-19 outbreaks at K-12 schools this week, roughly a month before many students and teachers return to the classroom.
The move, which caught at least some metro-area districts by surprise, is part of a broader rollback in what outbreak data will be posted online every Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which said it is seeking to “normalize” the process of COVID-19 reporting and treat it as the agency does other illnesses, such as the flu.
The health agency said schools still should notify families of any outbreaks that arise, but representatives for state and local teachers unions expressed concerns over whether the lack of publicly accessible data could hamper districts’ efforts to respond quickly to a surge in coronavirus cases — or even parents’ ability to judge whether they want their children to wear masks at school.
