Humble ISD launches COVID-19 dashboard tracking cases per campus

Humble ISD launched its districtwide COVID-19 dashboard on Sept. 10, which shows COVID-19 cases per campus, the campus makeup of online versus on-campus learning and metrics used to measure the spread of the virus.

The dashboard premiere comes days after HISD board of trustees approved a revised schedule for secondary students Sept. 8. Middle and high school students who opt for in-person learning will be able to return full time Sept. 21 rather than Oct. 12.

HISD is using six metrics to determine the districtwide COVID-19 risk, including Texas Medical Center hospitalizations, seven-day averages for new COVID-19 cases, beds at local hospitals being used by COVID-19 patients and active cases in Humble ISD's ZIP codes.

A green status—which HISD currently is under—means the district is 100% open to all students; yellow means the district switches back to the staggered A/B schedule for secondary students; and red means the district will revert to remote learning for all students, according to the dashboard.

As of Sept. 7, the district is in green on all metrics except the seven-day average for positive coronavirus tests in the Houston area. To reach a green status in this metric, the region must have less than a 5% average positivity rate over seven days; the region has an 8.8% positivity rate, according to the dashboard.

At the Sept. 10 Summer Creek BizCom event, Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen discussed the dashboard and said the district must maintain a green status to keep campuses open to all students.

"We want to be in the green for 14 days before we bring all of our secondary students back to campus," she said. "By Sept. 21, we will actually have—we believe—three weeks of data in the green to bring back our students."

Additionally, the dashboard also tracks the total number of positive student and teacher COVID-19 cases by campus since Aug. 11. Families can also find a breakdown of the number of students who are participating in online and on-campus learning at each campus.