Every day, our schools are monitoring health attestations, tracking attendance and keeping in touch with representatives from the Herkimer County Department of Public Health so that we are prepared to respond to any confirmed cases of COVID-19. To date, there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Poland Central School District.
If there were to be a confirmed case of COVID-19 linked to our school (through a student, staff member or an approved visitor), the district would coordinate its response with the Herkimer County Department of Public Health. We would work with the department on contact tracing, and a notice would be sent out districtwide with the information provided by the county health department.
In addition, all districts in New York state, including Poland, are required to submit a daily report to the state of any confirmed cases of COVID-19 linked to a school. The COVID-19 Report Card is available to the public on the New York State Department of Health website and includes daily case statistics from schools throughout the state. While the dashboard is an important tool for identifying trends regionally and statewide, please know that any information regarding COVID-19 in Poland Central School District will be shared with you directly.
Districts are required to report not only confirmed positive COVID cases connected to the school, but also any instance where someone (such as a student or employee) has shown symptoms of the coronavirus for at least 48 hours, but has not been tested or has not received a conclusive alternative diagnosis within that time. In such instances, the district must proceed as if that individual is positive and report it as a positive case to local and state authorities.
On the state dashboard, it is especially important to note that for every school district, the state includes a number that is an estimate of “Lab Reported Positives based on Residential Address” as part of its school COVID Report Card. This is an estimate only. This estimate may include students who reside within the district, but who don’t attend school at Poland – such as homeschool students and students who attend private school or another public school outside of the district. The estimate does not reflect the actual number of cases confirmed for students, staff or visitors at Poland Central School District. Actual school data on the dashboard is listed separately below this estimated number, and the data is broken down to the elementary level and the junior-senior high school level.
Since Sept. 9, the district has been submitting required reporting data to the state, which includes student and staff information relating to daily attendance, absences, suspected COVID-19 symptoms and testing results. County health officials have verified all data submitted by the district to date.
Click here to view the NYS COVID-19 Report Card.
