Students in Issaquah School District have voiced concern about the official data released by the district regarding case counts during the surge of Covid cases nationwide in January and February as a result of the Omicron variant.  

 The Issaquah School District (ISD) has officially reported that there have been 157 new cases of Covid in the last seven days within the district as of Feb 12 (which includes both students and staff at all locations district-wide). The 157 of the 21,113 students and staff within the district are

spread across campuses district-wide.

 According to the school district’s website, Skyline High School has 14 active cases, and Issaquah High School has nine active Covid cases, while other campuses such as Issaquah Middle School have three active cases. This count includes both students and staff. Students at these schools do not feel this was an accurate count of Covid cases on the campuses during the Omicron Surge. 

Throughout the district, many students and staff members are confused by the district’s official case count and according to students, it is visibly clear that there were fewer students on campus.

Senior Ruben Thomas had seen the lack of students in class during the surge as “there [were] half the students in math because they said they were sick.”

Surveys and polls have been shared among students at campuses in the district that report different numbers further adding to the confusion. One survey conducted by the SHS COVID-19 Census Body shared via social media among students at Skyline High School recently published their results online.

The results of the survey released on Jan 10 show that 263 students at Skyline have interacted with someone who has tested positive for Covid within the past month. According to the Issaquah School District Website, only one student and zero staff members at Skyline have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive in the last seven days. The Issaquah School District website Covid data was last updated on Feb 7, the same day this study released its report.

With over 750 submissions, the survey reached almost 30% of the entire student population at Skyline. This survey did not involve staff members and was focused on the student population.

A source familiar with the results of a Skyline National Honors Society (NHS) google survey sent out to members of NHS on Jan 12 said that almost 40% of students who completed the survey marked yes for the question asking “[have] you gotten or been exposed to covid since school started?” 

The results of this survey contradict the information shown on the Issaquah School District Website. The ISD website shows there are currently 192 cases district wide as of Feb 11. The unofficial survey conducted by NHS showed that almost 323 students have gotten or been exposed to Covid at Skyline alone. 

When talking with Skyline Covid supervisor Kamrica Ary-Turner it became evident that the website was up to date with the information provided to the school, it was rather the parents and families of students who were the reason as to why the website appeared to display incorrect numbers.

 “We’ve noticed that a lot of families don’t tell us [Skyline Administration] when they test positive,” said Ary-Turner. “So that’s why it looks really different [compared to numbers on the website] when you go into class… because we can only go off what our emails say.”

Often the administrators at Skyline are left in the dark when families do not inform the school or district of their positive test. Without information from the families and parents about their child’s absence and whether it is Covid related, the administrators are unable to “put anything in the system”, which means the website will not be up to date.

According to the Skyline Covid supervisor, it is not uncommon for the administration team at Skyline to hear that students have tested positive via messages from teachers who have received an email from the student regarding their absence. 

“It is really difficult to get communication,” said Ary-Turner. “We would get kids emailing their teachers, telling their teachers that they were out, and they had Covid.”

It is up to the parents and families of students who test positive to inform the school of their positive test so not only can the district receive accurate data to display to everyone on their website, but also so students can receive an accurate date for when they can return to campus. The administrators or attendance office must be informed about a student’s positive test so that the district supervisor can update the district website that displays the active case count of all schools.

Following the December winter break bridging the academic school year through the new year, there was an explosion of cases that rocked the Skyline student population as seen in the SHS COVID-19 Census Body’s survey released just a week after the break ended. As the last full week of February marks the second winter break, with that comes heightened fears that Covid cases will once again surge through the school and the district.

With the mask mandate ending in Washington State on March 21st, the accuracy of the data regarding case counts district-wide could become an important factor to judge the impact of removing the mandate.