COVID-19: Guelph public school board charting student and staff absence rates
Global News
Guelph's public school board has begun a pilot project that will chart school absence rates among staff and students.
With the return to in-person learning, Guelph’s public school board has begun a pilot project to collect and publish school absence rates among staff and students. The Upper Grand District School Board said the data is meant to provide a sense of the impact of COVID-19 on schools now that positive cases will no longer be reported by public health.
The province recently announced that local health units will no longer be reporting positive cases or conducting tracing for positive cases related to staff and students in schools.
“As a result, schools will no longer be providing notification when there is a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19,” the board said on its website.
The daily absence tracking pilot graph was launched this week, with students returning to the classroom. It is available on the board’s website.
The graph has a column that shows the total number of students enrolled in in-person learning at each school along with staff, including teachers, educational assistants, administration and support staff who are assigned to that site.
The other column shows absences compared to the average. This includes all students who are absent and have not reported a non-COVID reason for their absence. It also includes staff who are off for COVID related reasons.
The board said the average absence rate was calculated for each school based on attendance data from September 2021 to December 2021.