Update on COVID-19

Sunday, August 23, 2020 In-Person Learning Benchmarks Update for Arizona

Legacy Community,

As our students, teachers and families are understandably excited to gather together again on Legacy campuses for in-person learning tomorrow, we offer you this update as additional assurance that Legacy school locations are meeting the state guidelines for reopening.

Governor Ducey’s order from July 23 (Executive Order 2020-51) required the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) to develop public health benchmarks for the safe return to in-person learning.

It also required each school to consider those benchmarks, guidance from county health officials, community needs, and available resources to determine when in-person classroom instruction could safely begin again.

On August 6, ADHS released those public health benchmarks which consist of two “equally important” components: (1) the quality of the school’s mitigation plan and (2) the level of community spread. Legacy’s mitigation plan can be found here. The level of spread is indicated by three measures defined by ADHS:

  • Cases: a two-week decline in the number of cases OR two weeks with a case rate of less than 100 cases per 100,000 population within the county
  • Percent Positivity: two weeks of percent positivity less than 7% within the county
  • COVID-Like Illness: two weeks with hospital visits due to COVID-like illness below 10% within the region.

ADHS defined targets for each of these measures, indicating whether the spread level is substantial (red), moderate (yellow), or minimal (green). As described in more detail below, the current data indicates a moderate spread (yellow), which according to ADHS indicates a hybrid learning model where some students are in physical buildings and some are distance learning.

A summary of currently available data for each of these three measures follows.

First Benchmark – Cases

For Maricopa County, (on map, click on Maricopa County) this benchmark was met after the week of July 19, which was the second consecutive week of decreased case rates. Since then the number of cases in the county has continued to decline.

For Pinal County, (on map, click Pinal County) this benchmark was met July 19, when cases dipped below 100 per 100,000 and has stayed below 100. In addition, the number of cases has been trending downward.

For Pima County, recent county data shows that as of August 9 there were two consecutive weeks of less than 100 cases per 100,000, which falls in the ADHS moderate range.

Second Benchmark – Percent Positivity

We have been observing the second benchmark, positivity rate, very closely since first released by ADHS. While the School Benchmark site has data posted for the week of August 2, the ADHS Data Dashboard has more up-to-date data. You can find the most recent data by clicking on the “Laboratory Testing” icon, then on any county in the map, and scroll to the table where you can hover over a specific date on the PCR graph.

  • For Maricopa County, the PCR positivity rate for August 9 was 6.1% with updated numbers for August 16 showing a 5.1% positivity rate. This shows at least two consecutive weeks within the ADHS moderate range of 5% to 10%.
  • For Pinal County, the PCR positivity rate for August 9 was 6.1% with updated numbers for August 16 showing a 5.3% positivity rate. This shows at least two consecutive weeks with rates within the ADHS moderate range of 5% to 10%.
  • For Pima County, the PCR positivity rate for August 9 was 6.3% with updated numbers for August 16 showing a 5.1% positivity rate. This shows at least two consecutive weeks with rates within the ADHS moderate range of 5% to 10%.

Third Benchmark – COVID-like Illness 

  • For Maricopa County, this benchmark was met with the release of July 26 data, showing at least two consecutive weeks within the ADHS moderate range of 5% to 10% of hospital visits exhibiting COVID-like illnesses. It has stayed consistently under 10% and for August 2 was at 2.4%, dipping into the ADHS minimal range of below 5%.
  • For Pinal County, this benchmark was met with the release of July 26 data, showing two consecutive weeks within the ADHS moderate range of 5% to 10% of hospital visits exhibiting COVID-like illnesses. It has stayed consistently under 10% and for August 2 was at 2.4%, dipping into the ADHS minimal range of below 5%.
  • For Pima County, this benchmark was met with the release of July 12 data, showing multiple weeks within the ADHS moderate range of 5% to 10% of hospital visits due to COVID-like illnesses. In fact, for July 26 (3.5%) and August 2 (1.7%) this benchmark was in the ADHS minimal range of below 5%.

In summary, and importantly, this data will not be posted to the School Benchmark site for at least another week, but it is the data that will ultimately be posted. In our study of this data over time, there has been no significant recalculation of the numbers from the ADHS Data Dashboard during the past weeks. The numbers reported by the current ADHS Data Dashboard are those that will be shown at the end of next week on the School Benchmark site.

These data points indicate that Legacy schools in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties all meet the ADHS benchmarks to offer the option for in-person learning on school campuses.

In prior communications, we have shared our Safe Return to School and Safe Return to School FAQs. We include both resources for your convenience again. We hope you will reference it, as we encourage all families to do their part to ensure that our campuses are as healthy as possible.

We look forward to welcoming students back to their campuses and seeing you tomorrow!