Several schools in St. Joseph County haven't reported COVID data to the state. Here's why.

More than a dozen schools in St. Joseph County have failed to report coronavirus data to the Indiana State Department of Health this school year, with some citing confusion on their end or glitches by the state.

The state's COVID-19 dashboard, at coronavirus.in.gov, updates weekly and tracks positive cases among students, teachers and school staff across Indiana. It also shows which schools haven’t reported any cases this year.

According to the state dashboard, 477 schools in Indiana have not shared any information this year about cases in their schools; 18 of those schools are in St. Joseph County. 

The state developed its school coronavirus dashboard last year but schools weren't required to report numbers until this academic year.

As of this past week, nearly 1,900 Indiana schools have shared data with the state about whether they have confirmed cases of COVID-19 in their buildings.

The Tribune tried to contact the schools in St. Joseph County labeled as "not reported." Many did not respond. Those that did cited communication issues within their schools or pointed to ongoing technical difficulties on the state's end.

A majority of those that haven't reported figures in St. Joseph County are small, private and independent schools.

A representative from the Bais Yaakov High School of Indiana said there may have been miscommunication early in the school year, and that the school would reach out to state officials to ensure they are in compliance. The school did report data last school year.

COVID confusion: Schools report 'technical difficulties' sharing data with state officials

Rabbi Ephraim Goldstein, principal of the South Bend Hebrew Day School, said in a provided statement that the school overlooked communications this summer from the state health department due to a change in leadership.

“As we have not had a case of COVID-19 in school this year, we have not yet reported any information to the health department,” Goldstein said. “It is our intention to report all cases to the IDOH, and will now make sure we are set up to notify them that we have not yet had any cases.”

While some schools acknowledge they have not reported cases, others say technical difficulties have prevented them from doing so.

The state health department posted a message on its dashboard Sept. 7, reading, “Due to technical difficulties on today’s school dashboard, some schools had cases assigned to the wrong school year. This issue has been corrected.”

A week later, the department acknowledged that some schools reporting zero cases had been incorrectly identified as not sharing information. The department has since posted that it resolved the issue.

Schools in Mishawaka and Penn-Harris-Madison that were previously labeled as "not reported" had data posted on the public-facing dashboard after the change.

But Susan Guibert, a spokeswoman for the South Bend school district, said the issue had not been resolved for two city schools. Monroe and Muessel elementaries have been labeled as not reporting this year, even though administrators have uploaded data going back to early August.

A spokeswoman for the state health department said in an email that the agency has fielded more than 2,000 requests through a "school helpdesk" since the dashboard launched in October 2020. There are currently no unanswered requests.

Some schools request to be removed

Other schools appear on the dashboard that don't belong there.

Schools like Veritas Academy, which shuttered in 2017, and South Bend’s Hay and Tarkington elementaries, which closed over the summer, still appear. 

While Veritas Academy and Tarkington are listed as “not reported,” Hay Elementary is shown as reporting fewer than five new cases among teachers this past week.

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Guibert said the district believes the reporting at Hay was due to another glitch in the state system, and that district leaders have requested the closed schools be removed from the dashboard.

Also, several school representatives say they haven't reported figures because of the types of students they serve.

South Bend Virtual School, an online academy run out of the South Bend school corporation, does not report cases unless its students are involved in activities in one of the district's buildings.

If a South Bend virtual student tests positive for COVID, the district reports that case in the totals for the school building the student visited.

DePaul Academy, which serves youths in a residential treatment center through the St. Joseph County Juvenile Justice Center, has requested to be removed from the dashboard, saying its population is different from those the state’s K-12 dashboard intends to track.

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“DePaul Academy is a residential program that has a school component,” said Bill Wood, a regional director with the academy’s parent company, Rite of Passage. “The students are confined to that program. They live there and they go to school there.”

The state department of health does not require residential programs, career centers, virtual schools or pre-kindergarten schools to report cases and officials are working to remove DePaul Academy from the dashboard, a spokeswoman confirmed.

Guy Fisher, vice president of community engagement for Goodwill Industries of Michiana, said his organization’s Excel Centers haven't reported data because their student population differs from a typical K-12 environment.

Excel Centers in South Bend, Hammond and Gary serve an older student population through adult education programs and were told by the state charter board that they don't need to share data, Fisher said.

Other Excel Centers downstate have programs for younger students, ages 16 to 18, and may share data, Fisher said, adding that locations in northern Indiana do contact trace when cases occur.

“We’re very intentional about our COVID protocols,” Fisher said. “Our schools and our organization get the significance of doing things properly.”

Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.