Building Bridges for Health: Collaboration Between Public Health and Schools During COVID-19 Follow-Up and Beyond
Abstract
Background: When Covid-19 swept the world in 2020, school systems had to navigate new ways to educate their students, balancing in-person learning and student health. In our jurisdiction, Fulton County Board of Health (FCBOH) built a partnership with Fulton County Schools (FCS) to monitor and respond to Covid-19 cases within the school district using a self-reporting parent portal that was operated and monitored by epidemiologists and school nurses. Through the creation of this portal, the partnership between FCBOH and FCS conducted follow up on thousands of Covid-19 cases and grew to serve areas of surveillance and public health intervention beyond Covid-19.
Methods: Using the survey platform Qualtrics, FCS created a web portal allowing parents to self-report a child’s positive Covid-19 test result. FCBOH formed a team of case investigators to conduct follow-up on each individual case reported through the portal. Epidemiologists began monitoring cases for clusters and trends in October 2020 and these efforts are ongoing.
Results: Overall, 16,468 cases of Covid-19 were reported and investigated through the parent portal. School nurses from FCS assisted FCBOH efforts and sought advice from epidemiologists on complex response issues, beginning with Covid-19 but spanning into other common public health issues faced in the school setting. Reports of various communicable diseases such as varicella, impetigo, mumps, and more have been collaboratively investigated by the school nurses and epidemiologists. These relationships result in real-time reporting of notifiable diseases that allow for quick public health intervention.
Conclusion: Building on an established community relationship with FCS allowed for our jurisdiction to respond swiftly and with longevity to the Covid-19 pandemic. Innovative surveillance methods for Covid-19 and other illnesses identified cases and clusters and encouraged community engagement with public health efforts. FCS integrated into public health response and now serves as a source for active public health surveillance.
Keywords
Epidemiology, surveillance, school districts, collaboration
Building Bridges for Health: Collaboration Between Public Health and Schools During COVID-19 Follow-Up and Beyond
Background: When Covid-19 swept the world in 2020, school systems had to navigate new ways to educate their students, balancing in-person learning and student health. In our jurisdiction, Fulton County Board of Health (FCBOH) built a partnership with Fulton County Schools (FCS) to monitor and respond to Covid-19 cases within the school district using a self-reporting parent portal that was operated and monitored by epidemiologists and school nurses. Through the creation of this portal, the partnership between FCBOH and FCS conducted follow up on thousands of Covid-19 cases and grew to serve areas of surveillance and public health intervention beyond Covid-19.
Methods: Using the survey platform Qualtrics, FCS created a web portal allowing parents to self-report a child’s positive Covid-19 test result. FCBOH formed a team of case investigators to conduct follow-up on each individual case reported through the portal. Epidemiologists began monitoring cases for clusters and trends in October 2020 and these efforts are ongoing.
Results: Overall, 16,468 cases of Covid-19 were reported and investigated through the parent portal. School nurses from FCS assisted FCBOH efforts and sought advice from epidemiologists on complex response issues, beginning with Covid-19 but spanning into other common public health issues faced in the school setting. Reports of various communicable diseases such as varicella, impetigo, mumps, and more have been collaboratively investigated by the school nurses and epidemiologists. These relationships result in real-time reporting of notifiable diseases that allow for quick public health intervention.
Conclusion: Building on an established community relationship with FCS allowed for our jurisdiction to respond swiftly and with longevity to the Covid-19 pandemic. Innovative surveillance methods for Covid-19 and other illnesses identified cases and clusters and encouraged community engagement with public health efforts. FCS integrated into public health response and now serves as a source for active public health surveillance.
