Name: Private schools in Bexar County no longer required to make public their coronavirus cases
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Private schools in Bexar County no longer required to make public their coronavirus cases

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Cornerstone Christian Schools filed suit Sept. 1 to try to extricate itself from the Metropolitan Health District’s directive that school systems publicly post their coronavirus case numbers on their websites — just in time for Metro Health to quietly toss the requirement two days later.That will leave the decision to publicize cases voluntary for private schools in Bexar County. Public and private school administrators must still report the information to Metro Health, but the local health agency won’t release school-specific information, it said Wednesday.Public schools also have to report their cases to the Texas Education Agency once a week, which will be available online.The requirement that school districts post the information on their websites had not been enforced during the few weeks it was in effect, and when Metro Health dropped it last week, the agency hadn’t been served with the lawsuit, which called the rule unconstitutional when applied to a private religious educational institution like Cornerstone.The revised directive, issued Sept. 3 by Dr. Junda Woo, Metro Health’s medical director, lines up with the TEA’s requirements for schools, a city spokesperson said.More for youThe state agency requires public school districts - but not private ones - to notify local health authorities of any person who has tested positive for the virus who has been in a school and to report new cases every Monday. That information will be available on the Texas Department of State Health Services website.The TEA rules don’t force public school districts to post case numbers on their own websites. But many do anyway, as part of their required case notification to families, said TEA spokesman Jacob Kobersky.The state health services department expects it will start publishing statewide COVID-19 data for public schools on its website early next week. District level breakdowns will be available by the following week, Kobersky said.Jared Woodfill, a lawyer representing Cornerstone Christian Schools, said it will comply with Metro Health’s directive that all school systems report any confirmed virus cases within 24 hours.“The big issue becomes not as much when you’re requiring them to turn the information over to a health authority, but when you’re requiring them to post it on a private website,” Woodfill said.“It would be like me saying to you ‘I want you to post on your Facebook page whether or not anybody in your house has contracted COVID or been exposed to anyone with COVID.’ As opposed to them coming to you and saying we want you to report it privately to this government agency so we can keep track of what’s happening,” he said.On ExpressNews.com:The Sept. 1 arguments were added to a lawsuit Cornerstone filed in July against Woo, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and San Antonio Police Chief William McManus. At the time, Cornerstone was fighting Metro Health’s order to keep all public and private schools closed until after Labor Day to guard against the spread of the coronavirus — an order that also was later revised.McManus was named as a defendant because the lawsuit claims that San Antonio police went to Cornerstone Christian Schools on two occasions to investigate allegations reported to a COVID complaint hotline.Cornerstone has 1,350 students in all grade levels and reopened for in-person instruction on Aug. 17. So far, no coronavirus cases have surfaced at the school, said Woodfill, a Houston attorney and former Harris County Republican Party chair.In a statement Wednesday, city officials said Cornerstone’s lawsuit is moot given Woo’s revised directive and because of the state’s “clear opinion” that decisions on schools’ in-person instruction must be made by their school boards. The city will seek a “speedy resolution” of the suit, it said.An executive order by Gov. Greg Abbott in June declared that public schools could resume operations following TEA guidelines and encouraged private schools to establish similar standards.Cornerstone Christian Schools is connected with Cornerstone Church, a nondenominational, evangelical church on the North Side with more than 22,000 worshipers.On ExpressNews.com:Bexar County’s three largest public school districts, which started classroom learning on a limited basis this week, had not followed Metro Health’s requirement — now a recommendation — that they publicly post their coronavirus case numbers, though some planned to do so.North East Independent School District already had interpreted the directive as a recommendation and chose not to follow it, district spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor said. NEISD follows the TEA rules, including notifying all parents each time a case is confirmed on a school campus, and will report weekly to the state as required, she said.But posting total numbers of coronavirus cases in a district with 75 schools could cause unnecessary fear for parents, Chancellor said, adding, “We are so large and diverse, and what’s happening at one side of the district or in one school may not be reflective of what’s happening at another school 20, 30 miles away.“Most of our parents are really only concerned about what’s going on in the schools that their children attend.”San Antonio ISD, with about 48,000 students, will start posting case numbers in coming days on . Those numbers will be updated weekly.Northside ISD, with 106,000 students, hopes to start posting weekly case numbers on its website by the end of the week. The district had been waiting for clarification from Metro Health about the recent change to its requirement but decided to make its numbers available for the sake of transparency, said district spokesman Barry Perez.Staff writers Andres Picon and Alia Malik contributed to this report. pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: Peggy_OHare

Cornerstone Christian Schools filed suit Sept. 1 to try to extricate itself from the Metropolitan Health District’s directive that school systems publicly post their coronavirus case numbers on their websites — just in time for Metro Health to quietly toss the requirement two days later.That will leave the decision to publicize cases voluntary for private schools in Bexar County. Public and private school administrators must still report the information to Metro Health, but the local health agency won’t release school-specific information, it said Wednesday.Public schools also have to...

Private schools in Bexar County no longer required to make public their coronavirus cases

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