TOPEKA – Friday, Governor Laura Kelly announced a new public dashboard tracking rates of COVID-19 disease and vaccinations in Kansas school districts on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) COVID-19 Resource Center.
“This dashboard will provide transparent, frequently updated information to help local health officials and school districts make informed, data-driven decisions to control the spread of COVID-19 among our students,” said Governor Kelly. “My administration will continue working with our local partners and encouraging vaccinations among all eligible Kansans to beat this virus once and for all.”
This dashboard includes all cases of COVID-19 among school-aged children (ages 5-17 years) during the last 14 days and does not necessarily indicate where a student was exposed or that transmission occurred in the school setting.
The dashboard also tracks the cumulative COVID-19 vaccination rates among school-aged children (ages 5-17) by school district. Cases and vaccinations among school-aged children are aggregated to school district boundaries by the home address of individual cases. The data does not reflect exceptions for students who do not attend their assigned school district.
“Sharing this information in an easy-to-understand format will help parents and families understand the risks for COVID-19 in their own school district, empowering them to make the best choices to keep their kids safe in school by wearing a mask, getting tested regularly, and getting vaccinated if eligible,” said Dr. Stephanie Kuhlmann, the Safer Classrooms Workgroup co-chair.
“With so much misinformation being shared about COVID-19, this school dashboard provides a simple tool to help school districts keep track of what is happening locally and across the state,” said Dr. Jennifer Bacani-McKenney, co-chair of the Safer Classrooms Workgroup. “We will continue supporting our teachers and School Boards by providing timely, fact-based data so they can set strong policies to protect their kids, teachers, and staff.”
Data will be updated on the dashboard every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Data displayed represents the last 14 days.
To view the new dashboard, go to https://kshealthdata.kdhe.ks.gov/t/BEPHI_COVID-19/views/COVID-19SchoolDistrictDashboard/Home?%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&%3Aembed=y
What it shows
The data shows about 1% of area school-aged children (ages 5-17) are presumed to have COVID-19.
Here is some information from the dashboard:
Great Bend USD 428 has 26 presumed student cases out of 2,920 students (0.89%). The number of presumed students vaccinated is 264, or 9.0%
Ellinwood USD 355, five cases out of 500 students, 1%; 36 students (7.2%) are vaccinated
Hoisington USD 431, seven cases out of 758 students, 0.92%; 37 students (4.9%) are vaccinated
Central Plains USD 112, two cases out of 461 students, 0.43%; 50 students (10.9%) are vaccinated
Otis-Bison USD 403, four cases out of 242 students, 1.65%; six students (2.5%) are vaccinated
Fort Larned USD 495, seven cases out of 841 students, 0.83%; 85 students (10.1%) are vaccinated
Pawnee Heights USD 496 zero cases out of 142 students; eight students (5.6%) are vaccinated
Other statistics
As of 9 a.m. Friday, Kansas has had 411,302 COVID-19 cases over the duration of the pandemic, resulting in 13,930 hospitalizations and 6,068 statewide deaths. There were 2,368 new cases, 124 new hospitalizations and 17 new deaths reported since Wednesday.
There were no new deaths reported in area counties.
Area totals
Total cases for area counties as of 9 a.m. Friday:
• Barton 3,544 (+51 since Wednesday)
• Ellsworth 1,340 (+1)
• Pawnee 1,333 (+11)
• Rice 1,386 (+13)
• Rush 490 (+0)
• Russell 1,022 (+7)
• Stafford 525 (+2)
County rankings
Out of 105 Kansas counties, Barton County was 89th on Friday for the Kansas County COVID rankings. Pawnee County was 38th in the rankings. The 1st place ranking is the county at lowest risk and 105th is the county at highest risk for COVID-19.
