Johns Hopkins creates online site to track school reopening decisions

Original article written by Maya Rodriguez for ABC 7 Denver.

With each state coming up with its own plan to reopen schools, researchers at Johns Hopkins University created an interactive online dashboard, as part of its eSchool+ Initiative. “It's intended to be something that anybody can go to as a resource,” said Megan Collins, co-director for the Johns Hopkins Consortium for School Based Health Solutions.

The website lays out what schools are doing in each state, with a dashboard covering teacher vaccinations. There is also a tracker that contains everything from in-person learning to specific reopening plans, as well as tracking the number of COVID-19 cases in a state. In the coming months, new information for each state could potentially get added, including whether or not schools will require teachers and staff to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

“We're already collecting that data at the state level as to whether state Boards of Education are mandating teachers for vaccination,” Collins said. “To date, we don't see anybody having moved in that direction, but you are seeing murmurs of that in other industries.” With vaccine trials now underway in children, whether students are required to get the vaccine will be another question needing an answer. “I think that's one of the things we're ready to commit to in our vaccine tracker, is looking ahead to, ‘what are the requirements of the school level going to be for vaccinating students?’” Collins said.

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