Texas public school districts' COVID-19 data, including information for Bowie and Cass county students and staff, was released Thursday by the Texas Department of State Health Services and Texas Education Agency.
The DSHS and TEA teamed up to collect, update and communicate weekly COVID-19 data from schools starting Sept. 8, and just recently released their first batch of district-specific numbers on Sept. 24, which included statistics form districts in the Texarkana area.
The data came from reports from Texas public school districts of any staff member or student who participates in any on-campus activity who is test-confirmed to be positive for COVID-19, of which the school is notified.
This data includes new district cases reported from the week starting Sept. 14 and ending Sept. 20, as well as cumulative data from July 27 to Sept. 20.
Because enrollment varies from district to district, cumulative COVID cases must be viewed in the context of the overall student population of any given district. A large campus, for example, could have many more cases than a smaller campus, but may have a lower percentage of cases.
Bowie County districts
In Bowie County, the district with the highest first-week enrollment was the Texarkana Independent School District, at 6,714 students. This is more than 4,000 more than any other district.
- While TISD had the most cumulative student and staff cases reported in the county - 34 students and 26 staff members - they were in the lower half of the county in percentage of cases per student enrolled.
- Liberty-Eylau (enrollment of 2,194) and Redwater (enrollment of 1,119) Independent School Districts had the two lowest percentages of cases reported in the county - L-EISD with five total student cases and three staff members, and Redwater with two students.
- DeKalb ISD (enrollment of 781) and New Boston ISD (enrollment of 1,165) had the two highest percentages of cases reported per student - New Boston with 14 total students and two staff members, and DeKalb with nine students and seven staff.
-Pleasant Grove ISD (enrollment of 2,194) reported 14 total student cases and two staff members. PGISD had the highest number of cases with a reported source of infection that was off-campus, with all 16 of their cumulative cases being listed as such.
TISD reported the source of infection for all 60 of their cumulative cases as unknown.
Other Bowie County districts in the report include:
- Maud ISD, 471 enrollment; one new student case, one new staff case; five total student cases, three total staff cases.
- Red Lick ISD, enrollment not reported; one new staff case; two total student cases, one total staff case.
- Simms ISD, enrollment of 157; one new student case; one total student case, two total staff cases.
Several districts - Hooks, Hubbard, Leary and Malta - were listed as No Data Reported.
Cass County districts
The district with the highest first-week enrollment in Cass County was Atlanta ISD, at 1,810. They also had the highest number of cumulative student cases reported with 17, along with the second highest staff case count, at eight. They had the second-highest percentage of total cases per student enrolled in the county.
First was Mcleod ISD (enrollment of 413), with six total student cases and four staff members.
Hughes Springs ISD (enrollment of 1,111) had the lowest percentage of total cases per student, with only two total.
Queen City ISD (enrollment of 965) reported the highest number of cases among staff members, with 15. They had the second-highest number of cumulative student cases, with nine.
Other Cass County districts in the report were:
- Bloomburg ISD, enrollment of 239; one total student case, one total staff case.
- Linden-Kildare Consolidated ISD, enrollment not reported; two new student cases, one new staff case; four total student cases, three total staff cases.
- Avinger ISD was listed as No Data Reported.