OPUSD COVID-19 Dashboard

The Oak Park Unified School District is committed to providing accurate, transparent, and up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 cases of individuals who report to our campuses, while we also maintain the privacy and confidentiality of our students and staff.

The data in the chart below represents the number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases among OPUSD students and staff who were physically on our campuses. For the purposes of this dashboard, OPUSD is not counting community-related cases for those individuals who have not come onto an OPUSD campus.

The "Current Confirmed Positive Cases" listed below are positive cases that have been reported. Cases are removed from the current confirmed cases when the positive individual is cleared to return to campus. These cases are moved to the "Total COVID-19 Cases no longer" active on the Dashboard.

How often is the OPUSD COVID-19 Dashboard Updated?

The data in this dashboard will be updated at least once every day on weekdays when school is in session (it may not be updated daily during school holidays and breaks). The date the dashboard was last updated is shown below in yellow text.

Communities across our county, state, and country are seeing a significant increase in the number of COVID cases as a result of the contagious nature of the Omicron variant, so to are we experiencing a sharp rise in the positive case rates among OPUSD students and staff.

As you can imagine, school districts across the state are experiencing difficulties in conducting contact tracing to very high numbers of individuals. For this reason, among others, this past Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) revised the guidelines related to contact tracing, isolation, and quarantining in K-12 schools. These guidelines are designed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and keep students and staff safe while considering the limited capacity of school districts to manage the number of cases.

Noting “the shorter incubation period and increased transmissibility of variants” in California, the CDPH has stated that an alternative approach known as the “Group-Tracing Approach to Students Exposed to COVID-19 in a K-12 setting” may be warranted.

Based on these criteria, students exposed within a larger group setting should get tested for COVID-19 with at least one diagnostic test obtained within one to two days after their last exposure, regardless of their COVID-19 vaccination status or any prior infections. Exposed students who participate in testing may continue to take part in all aspects of K-12 schooling, including sports and extracurricular activities unless they develop symptoms or test positive for COVID-19.

NOTIFICATION PROCESS FOR IN-SCHOOL EXPOSURE

• Schools will notify the parents of students who spent more than a cumulative total of 15 minutes (within a 24-hour time period) in shared indoor airspace (e.g., classroom) with someone with COVID-19 during their period of infectiousness.

  • Notification will occur to "groups" of exposed students (e.g., classmates, teammates, cohorts, Club Oak Park Cohorts etc.).

  • This “group tracing” approach is a departure from the previous practice of identifying individual school-based close contacts.

  • These “group notifications” will be provided to all individuals considered exposed, including those who are vaccinated and/or recently infected.

  • At middle and high school we are notifying each of the classes where the student who tested positive was last on campus. Some classes may receive multiple notifications of different exposure dates in one day.

  • Notifications will include specific details for possibly exposed students about recommended testing and other pertinent information.

  • It is recommended that potentially exposed students, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status or prior infection, get tested for COVID-19 with at least one diagnostic test obtained within 1-2 days after the last exposure. Subsequent testing is also recommended on day 5 after exposure.

• If exposed to COVID, your child may remain in school unless they develop symptoms or test positive for COVID-19. If your child develops symptoms please have them stay home and get tested right away.

• Being potentially exposed to somebody with COVID-19 does not necessarily mean that your child will become infected. The multi-layered approach to COVID-19 mitigation has effectively curbed in-school transmission to date. These other layers – such as receiving COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters, wearing high-quality well-fitting masks, staying home and testing if symptomatic, and improving indoor air quality – remain crucial to school-based mitigation efforts.

SCHOOL-WIDE NOTIFICATIONS/DASHBOARD

• Only the parents of students in an exposed group (i.e. classroom) will receive a targeted notification.

• School principals will no longer send school-wide notifications with each new positive case.

• In order to keep families updated with the latest numbers, we share information about positive cases on an ongoing basis via COVID-19 Dashboard, above which is updated every evening. The Dashboard provides current positive cases by school and grade level.