NEWTON, Iowa — With just two weeks into the school year, dozens of students in the Newton Community School District are calling out sick. And it's having a real impact on not only the students, but the community.
"Not only do you have parents that have to line up somebody to care for their student while they go to work or do what they have to do, but also, you know, when the kid does come back to school, or when they when they get their work to do, now....the parent has the pressure of helping their student get caught up as well," said Superintendent Thomas Messinger.
Messinger has been busy the last week, updating an online document tracking illness-related absences among his students.
Three buildings in the school district now have absence rates higher than 10%, the threshold for reporting to the Iowa Department of Public Health and the local county health department.
"They are involved in what's going on and we have daily conversations with them," said Messinger of public health officials. "They provide guidance, they also provide any new information that they may have, whether it be from the Iowa Department of Public Health or from the CDC. And then they will share that with us they'll offer any type of support or help that they can give."
One of the many things different about monitoring school absences this year as compared to the previous school year is the option to go to temporary remote learning.
The section of Gov. Kim Reynolds' emergency health disaster proclamation granting school districts to move to temporary remote learning, with the state's permission, expired earlier this summer.
Now, if a district sees an uptick in student or staff illnesses and would like to go to online learning, those days would not count toward approved learning time.
Messinger said he has weighed his options and has decided for now to keep students learning in-person. But he realizes parents are stressed out.
"Parents really want their kids in school and want their kids learning," said Messinger. "They also want their students to be healthy and looked after as well. So it's, it's really a challenging balance to continue to try to keep."
Messinger did not have data behind the reasons why so many students called in sick the last week. Not every illness is coronavirus-related.
But testing in Jasper County has significantly increased over the last month, according to public and private health leaders.
The Newton Clinic is in charge of a majority of COVID-19 testing for the community. A nurse there told Local 5 more and more people have been coming in for testing, and more tests are coming back positive.
At the county health department, officials have run out of free at-home Test Iowa kits to give out to residents. An administrator told Local 5 the department can only order 50 test kits at a time, and expects more to arrive in the coming days.
Iowans can order their own free at-home test kits to be delivered to their homes, but many are complaining of a long wait to receive the kits.
In Fairfield, the city's high school has more than 12% of students out sick this week. Nearly every building reported on Wednesday an increase in sick students over the last week.
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