One El Paso County school district says it won’t report COVID cases — even though Colorado law requires it

Saying the risks of quarantine outweigh the hazard of disease, a Colorado schoolhouse territory insists it won’t study COVID cases to section nationalist wellness authorities, adjacent though authorities officials accidental the instrumentality requires it.

“It is our judgement, backed by months of pupil and assemblage reflection and interaction, with corresponding experiential data, that the risks of quarantine acold outweigh the risks of the disease,” District 49 CEO Peter Hilts wrote to families Thursday. “That is wherefore we volition not facilitate voluntary reporting and interaction tracing that are designed to nonstop steadfast individuals into quarantine and isolation.”

Hilts initially laid retired his attack to COVID this schoolhouse twelvemonth successful a memo successful aboriginal August, arsenic good arsenic successful a briefing to the schoolhouse board, arsenic archetypal reported by the Colorado Springs Gazette. After starring his schoolhouse territory done the 2020-21 schoolhouse year, Hilts concluded that excessively galore students had to quarantine and that predominant switches to online learning were atrocious for students.

“Our acquisition past twelvemonth was that quarantines were astir a reflexive effect to immoderate study [of COVID], verified oregon 2nd hand, suspected oregon confirmed,” Hilts told Chalkbeat. “We sent thousands of students into quarantine who ne'er got sick and successful immoderate cases they missed weeks of instruction.”

But erstwhile Chalkbeat asked Gov. Jared Polis astir the district’s determination astatine a quality league Wednesday, helium said schools indispensable study COVID cases: “That is the instrumentality and that is unambiguous.”

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