Framingham Top 5 In State For Students/Staff COVID Cases

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FRAMINGHAM – Framingham Public School district is among top five in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for COVID-19 cases among staff and students in the schools, reported the state today, April 1.

With all elementary students in the state set to return to in-person learning 5-day-a-week starting Monday, April 5, school districts reported 1,045 new coronavirus cases between March 25-31 among teachers, staff, & students in the Commonwealth, according to date from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

DESE data has 801 students COVID cases and 244 staff members positive for the virus. That number is up from last week were there were 682 new cases among students and 228 cases among staff statewide.

There are about 575,000 students and 85,000 staff in schools as of March 29, according to DESE.

Across the Commonwealth, Barnstable had the most cases last week with 35 – 23 students and 12 staff.

Boston was second with 25 cases evenly divided between staff (13) and students (12).

Quincy was third in the state with 22 cases – all students no staff.

Methuen was fourth in the state with 15 student cases and 5 staff cases for a total of 20.

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Framingham, which was third in the state last week, but dropped to fifth overall with 19 cases.

In MetroWest, Marlborough reported 6 student cases. Natick reported 2 student cases, and Lincoln-Sudbury High School reported 7 student cases.

Ashland Public Schools, Keefe Technical High School, and the Christa McAuliffe Charter School reported no cases, according to DESE data.

DESE has Framingham Public Schools with 14 student cases and 5 staff cases.

Framingham Public School district does not distinguish when it reports positive cases if the cases are a teacher, staff, or a student, but the state does release numbers by staff and by student.

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Framingham reported 59 total cases in the month of March on its COVID dashboard.

With the three new cases reported on April 1, the Framingham Public School district is now reporting 107 total COVID-19 cases during the 2020-21 school year.

Framingham High leads the school district with 31 total cases in the academic 2020-21 school year.

There have been more than a dozen cases at the high school in March, and Fuller Middle School is second with 10 cases.

The district has been testing staff weekly.

Students has the option of participating in pooled testing.

SOURCE requested pooled testing participation rates for the district and by school.

In mid-March, the administration provided the total district participation rate by students. It is 46%. Pooled testing is not for remote students. The district reported that number has increased to 51% this week.

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March 17 was the deadline for parents to decide if their child will return to school full-time or stay remote. If a parent chooses not to respond, to the survey, they will be marked as choosing in-person learning for the rest of the school year.

Results of the survey can be found here – 85% of elementary parents request in-person learning.

Phase I & 2 students returned to their classrooms in February, after all schools went remote during the second surge in December.

Phase III students returned to their physical classrooms on February 24. It was the first time in a physical classroom for these students in the 2020-21 school year. They are attending school all five days.

Phase IV students, many who have not physically been in a classroom since March 2020, began on March 3 for cohort B and began on Monday, March 8. for cohort A.

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