90+ Tri-Cities students and school workers test COVID positive in 2 months

In two months, 38 Pasco students and school district employees reported testing positive for COVID-19.

The Pasco School District has created a COVID case tracker that allows parents, employees and the public to see what cases have been reported in the district.

Pasco is the largest Tri-Cities school district with about 19,000 students.

So far, most of those of those infected with the virus have been staff, including five people from the transportation department and three in the district administration building. There have been five students.

Four of the cases involved people who never came to campus, according to the dashboard. And so far, only one case has required the district to shut down a classroom for cleaning.

The Kennewick and Richland school districts already have online COVID report cards.

As of Friday, Kennewick, with about 18,000 students, reported there have been 42 positive COVID cases — 18 students and 24 staff since the start of the school year.

Richland, with about 14,000 students, reported 12 cases — 1 student and 11 staff.

COVID dashboard

Pasco’s dashboard launches as the district prepares to bring preschoolers through second-graders back into schools next week for partial, in-person learning. A few special education and at-risk students already have been allowed into schools for some classwork.

The rest of the elementary students will return to classrooms on Nov. 16. Middle and high school students could start as early as Dec. 3 as long as starting the elementary schools are successful and community health conditions support opening up.

Because Franklin County COVID cases are growing, students will spend only a half day in the schools twice a week and spend the rest of the time learning online.

This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 12:00 AM.