The Jamestown Public Schools District said Friday it learned of another change to the New York State Department of Health COVID-19 School District Report Card that may lead to questions from the school community.

The dashboard now displays the total number of school-aged children who have tested positive for the coronavirus and purportedly reside within the area served by a school district. This new data is not reported by the Jamestown Public Schools, but instead is reported by the state Department of Health based on the address provided by a laboratory that submits a positive test result to the state department of health.

The new “Lab Reported Positives based on Residential Address” number may not reflect how many Jamestown Public School students have actually tested positive, nor does it represent positive results that have been made known to JPS and confirmed by the Chautauqua County Department of Health.

As a reminder, the “Total Students Testing Positive (on/off site)” includes all health department-confirmed cases reported to date, including the two off-site students previously reported by the district to our school community on Sept. 16. 

As the health and safety of our school community is our first priority, the Jamestown Public Schools remains fully committed to transparency. We will continue to communicate all information we receive and confirm with the Chautauqua County Department of Health.

To view the NYSDOH dashboard, visit https://schoolcovidreportcard.health.ny.gov.