Department of Ed and CDC Release District COVID Dashboard

Two federal agencies have released a new COVID-19 dashboard to publicize how the virus is hitting K-12 schools. The new dashboard, produced by the U.S. Department of Education and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), aggregates data on pediatric COVID-19 cases, youth vaccination rates and numbers on schools that are operating in-person, hybrid or remote.

The agencies said the data would be updated weekly and, where possible, presented geographically so that users, including educators and families, could view the impact of COVID in their communities. Location filters include states and districts.

The agencies also announced a plan to work with The Rockefeller Foundation, to speed up school-based screening testing for students and staff.

The data being used for the dashboard comes from a number of sources, and the agencies warned that it wasn't guaranteed to be "100% accurate." Sources include: Burbio's school opening tracker, MCH Strategic Data's district operational status updates, the Return2Learn tracker, and state dashboards.

To present data on school modalities, CDC researchers worked with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to define a model for estimating the most likely learning modality (in-person, hybrid and remote) for public and public charter school districts nationwide. These findings were originally presented in a recently published CDC report, and now CDC will be providing the data on a weekly basis.

The two agencies also recently teamed up with the Rockefeller Foundation to make it easier for schools to set up testing.

This program grew out of President Biden's Covid-19 Action Plan announced in September. The administration called on schools to set up regular testing for students, teachers and staff and provided $10 billion in funding for Covid-19 "screening testing" in K-12 schools -- in addition to the $130 billion provided to states and school districts that may also be used for testing.

The Rockefeller Foundation has been providing resources to schools on setting up testing programs since the early days of the pandemic – including by piloting screening testing programs to gather insights on how best to structure testing in K-12 schools; establishing a K-12 National Testing Action Program to connect school leaders and parents with labs and manufacturers; and issuing a school playbook to offer step-by-step guidance to design and implement effective testing programs in schools.

The latest initiative has several aspects:

  • Providing staff to state health departments through the COVID Workforce Initiative "to coordinate, execute and expand on school-based COVID-19 testing, contact tracing/case investigation and other public health activities."

  • Producing a one-page start-up guide for schools on how to launch screening testing programs.

  • Holding weekly "office hours" to connect schools to national testing experts to set up and sustain screening testing programs.

  • Launching an online directory for schools to identify a provider and get started with testing within their states.

  • Releasing a one-page fact sheet for districts on how to use relief funding in providing incentives to parents and guardians for participating in screening testing programs.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • laptop displaying a glowing digital brain and data charts sits on a metal shelf in a well-lit server room with organized network cables and active servers

    Cisco Unveils AI-First Approach to IT Operations

    At its recent Cisco Live 2025 event, Cisco introduced AgenticOps, a transformative approach to IT operations that integrates advanced AI capabilities to enhance efficiency and collaboration across network, security, and application domains.

  • cloud icon with a padlock overlay set against a digital background featuring binary code and network nodes

    Cloud Security Auditing Tool Uses AI to Validate Providers' Security Assessments

    The Cloud Security Alliance has unveiled a new artificial intelligence-powered system that automates the validation of cloud service providers' (CSPs) security assessments, aiming to improve transparency and trust across the cloud computing landscape.

  • robot brain with various technology and business icons

    Google Cloud Study: Early Agentic AI Adopters See Better ROI

    Google Cloud has released its second annual ROI of AI study, finding that 52% of enterprise organizations now deploy AI agents in production environments. The comprehensive survey of 3,466 senior leaders across 24 countries highlights the emergence of a distinct group of "agentic AI early adopters" who are achieving measurably higher returns on their AI investments.

  • laptop with AI symbol on screen

    Google Launches Lightweight Gemma 3n, Expanding Emphasis on Edge AI

    Google DeepMind has officially launched Gemma 3n, the latest version of its lightweight generative AI model designed specifically for mobile and edge devices — a move that reinforces the company's focus on on-device computing.