Schools are back in session in Florida, but what's not clear yet is the number of COVID-19 cases at schools across the state.

So, the Florida Education Association (FEA) is running a commercial asking for the state to be more transparent.


What You Need To Know

  • Florida Education Association wants state to release numbers for COVID-19 cases in schools

  • Florida Department of Health says it's working on an online dashboard

  • In the meantine, the FEA has created its own 

"As a parent of two daughters in our public schools, I want to know what's happening in their schools,” FEA president Andrew Spar said. “You literally could have a situation where a child is in a classroom and there could be one, there could be two, there could be three COVID cases, and I have no idea.”

The FEA wants to see the state release the number of COVID-19 cases in every school along with the number of people and classrooms under quarantine.

To deal with the information gap, local school districts are creating their own COVID-19 trackers.

In the Tampa Bay Area, almost every county has a dashboard online, but the amount of information being released varies.

Officials also said only 35 of the state's 70 school districts are posting COVID-19 tracking information.

"Everyone is trying to figure out their own thing because there's been a void of leadership," Spar said.

Antonio White, Vice-President of United Teachers of Dade, said he feels like the state is stalling.

"This is not a political event. This is a pandemic. This is a social and economic event that we must correct. Drop the politics, let's do what's best for the children," White said.

The Florida Department of the Health sent Spectrum Bay News 9 a statement that read:

"We are still working to determine the structure and release of the report containing information regarding cases of COVID-19 in schools and daycares and will advise as soon as that has been finalized."

The DOH said the tracker will be on its website, but it could take days or weeks for that to happen.

In the meantime, the Florida Education Association is compiling, what it calls, the Safe Schools Report.

FEA is collecting data from local school districts that are posting online and putting it on the association's web site.

That report can be found here.