The Elmbrook School District in Brookfield, Wisconsin, is reporting that 1 staff member and 3 students have tested positive for COVID-19 since the school year started. Those numbers are as of Sept. 11, 2020. See more Elmbrook Schools COVID-19 numbers below.
We contacted the superintendent to get information on COVID-19 in the district. Superintendent Mark Hansen stressed that the Elmbrook School district has deployed “incredible mitigation strategies,” that include reducing travel and “cohorting kids in tight bubbles.” The cohorts reduce the breadth of spread if there is a positive case. He praised kids and families for their positive response to these measures.
Waukesha County reported 7 active child cases in the school district’s boundaries. This figure includes more than Elmbrook School District numbers; it may include children who are schooled at home, are in private schools, or are not school age.
Here are the numbers for Elmbrook as of Sept. 11.
Elmbrook Schools COVID-19 Numbers
The Elmbrook School District COVID-19 dashboard gives the following data specific to students and staff in the district:
Elmbrook reports:
1 staff positive case
3 staff quarantined
3 student positive cases
45 students quarantined
.05 classes quarantined
Hansen, the superintendent with the Elmbrook School District, told Wisconsin Right Now that his district works “with the Waukesha County Health Office.” If an adult or student in the district tests positive, there’s a mandatory quarantine by public health order, he said. School-age children’s parents get a letter.
“It tells you that you have to quarantine for 10 days plus be 24 hours fever free,” Hansen said. A “disease investigation” commences, and people are asked “where were you in the last 48 hours?”
That information is turned over to contact tracers, and “they figure out what other people were exposed,” he said.
In a week after a positive case, “We will know if we’re going to nail this or if it will go sideways,” he said.
We asked Waukesha County’s Health Department to break down the active child cases by school and they wrote us this back, “Waukesha County’s COVID-19 dashboard currently provides cases of school-aged individuals and the geographic boundaries of the school district they live in. The information is provided at this level in order to preserve Protected Health Information (PHI), as regulated by HIPAA. PHI is any health information that could be used to identify an individual.”
Elizabeth Tomev, Director of Communications for the state Department of Public Instruction, told Wisconsin Right Now that DPI “does not track the number of COVID-19 positive tests among students and staff. A principal, teacher, or school nurse per state statute must report a case of a communicable disease to local public health officials.”
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