How much you’ll learn about coronavirus cases in your student’s school depends on where you live. A Bridge Michigan analysis shows parents still can’t depend on schools or local health departments to voluntarily alert them to outbreaks.
Michigan K-12 schools
Posted inChildren & Families
Back to school puts financial strain on Michigan’s most vulnerable families
As the new school year ramps up and the economic downturn of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, parents are having to make tough financial decisions. Nonprofits and social service agencies say they see families struggling to purchase materials for school, access child care and put food on the table.
Posted inTalent & Education
A rural Michigan district has 15 COVID cases, one death, and few answers
Health officials say the school followed safety protocols, and the cases that suddenly proliferated in Carson City show how a coronavirus outbreak can happen anywhere. The district has ended in-person classes.
Posted inTalent & Education
COVID outbreaks spiking in Michigan K-12 schools and colleges
The number of K-12 schools with coronavirus outbreaks jumped from 28 to 46 schools in just a week. And there are now over 3,800 confirmed cases at colleges and universities across Michigan, numbers that are likely an undercount.
Posted inMichigan Government
Whitmer orders Michigan schools to tell the public about COVID cases
Pressure mounted for more than a month on the administration to require more immediate public notifications of coronavirus outbreaks at Michigan schools as students returned for the fall term.
Posted inMichigan Government
Whitmer: Michigan movie theaters can open and K-5 students must wear masks
Many businesses set to reopen on Oct. 9 — like event venues and bowling alleys — have been closed in much of the state since mid-March.
Posted inMichigan Government
MI ‘actively considering’ ordering K-12 schools to reveal COVID outbreaks
Hours after a committee hearing in which health officials said they can’t report school outbreaks more than once a week, Michigan’s public health director told Bridge Michigan the Whitmer administration may order schools to publicly reveal outbreaks as they are confirmed.
Posted inTalent & Education
Child care centers provided young students a safe place to learn online. Michigan said no.
The coronavirus child care crunch is falling hardest on low-income families of color, many of whom work in-person jobs in sanitation, grocery, and health care that the state has defined as “essential.” When these families have young students learning online, many parents find that they have no safe place to send their children during the work day.
Posted inMichigan Government
State: Officials too busy to report MI school COVID outbreaks more often
Once-weekly reporting of coronavirus outbreaks in schools is the most local public health workers can handle, state health officials argued Wednesday.
Posted inGuest Commentary
First Person | I opened schools early. Then COVID struck. I stand by the call.
No doubt, the coronavirus is dangerous, but so is social isolation, writes a superintendent, whose district had the first student in northern Michigan test positive for COVID-19.