SAN ANTONIO — As more students are welcomed back into classrooms, a Texas teachers union is hoping to welcome a little more accountability.
"We want to make sure we have some level of transparency around the information," said Zeph Capo, president of the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.
The information Capo is referring to is transparency regarding coronavirus cases, and the decision some school districts have taken to post the number of cases while others have chosen not to.
"We just really felt like a total number of COVID cases, this arbitrary number, would really serve not a positive purpose for anyone on campuses," said Aubrey Chancellor, a spokesperson for Northeast ISD.
While NEISD isn’t sharing their diagnosis count on its website they are reporting it privately to Metro Health as now, to the Texas Education Agency.
Last month, the Texas Education Agency announced all school districts will have to share case numbers, which the agency would compile on a dashboard for the public to access. However, while many school districts have started in-person learning, the dashboard isn't up yet.
The TEA told KENS 5 via e-mail the numbers will be available by district starting next Wednesday, but the union’s concerns lie in how detailed that information is.
"The state was going to collect data on districts, but not necessarily provide that information based on a campus level," Capo said.
So AFT has created its own dashboard with crowdsourced information based on cases by school rather than an entire school district.
Capo says that, since its start, the site has been visited over 40,000 times and more than 370 COVID cases have been reported from across Texas.
While they appreciate teachers and parents coming forward with the information, they hope school districts eventually play ball.
"We certainly want to partner with school districts to do this right because everyone's safety is paramount to us," Capo said.