Ottawa’s largest school board creates its own COVID-19 tracking system

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) will begin collecting COVID-19 data for its staff and students after the province suspended its data collection service for schools and childcare centres late last year.

Parents and staff who receive a positive COVID-19 result from a rapid antigen test (RAT) or PCR test can complete the voluntary online reporting form.

People filling out the form will be asked to provide their name, school, date of birth, date of symptom onset, and test type. The information will then be matched to the board's internal records and added to the database, anonymously.

All data collected from schools within the board is expected to help parents and staff make more informed decisions to protect their children from the highly contagious Omicron strain, prior to an outbreak in area schools.

After the province suspended the gathering of COVID 19 case numbers for Ontario schools, it's now left to the sole discretion of parents to report positive cases in their children.

Parents are also expected to administer the take-home COVID-19 rapid antigen test to their children to determine whether or not they are positive for the virus.

Yet, the accuracy from the results of the take-home is still in question, with the more reliable PCR test administered by health officials now reserved for those who are most at risk.

Staff and students who have tested positive using a rapid antigen test are not obligated to inform their school. However, they must adhere to self-isolation guidelines set out by the Ontario government.

OCDSB Trustee Mark Fisher shares with The Sam Laprade Show on Thursday, January 27 that this kind of data collection is so imperfect because the process of gathering accurate information has so many variables to contend with.

“We are trying to fill that gap by creating our own information system,” he said. “It's certainly not going to look like what was required before, but we are doing our best within the authorities we have to be creative and provide that information to parents as best we can.”

As it stands, the board only has to report the number of teacher and student absences, daily. When there is a 30 per cent rise in absences at a single school, the board is required to inform Ottawa Public Health (OPH), which may then provide additional direction to the school community.

Listen to the full interview with Mark Fisher on The Sam Laprade Show below.