We've been collecting data on child care...

Here's what we've found about the status of daycare, camp, & school

A few weeks ago, we sent out a call to action asking for help tracking the opening status of child care centers including camps, day cares, and schools. In this issue, we wanted to provide a progress update of sorts and summarize some of our findings thus far. But first: a huge thank you to the many of you who have been contributing to this effort. For more on how to contribute, see the page on the site explaining the project and the infographic below:

Our Crowd-sourced Data

The first of our data collection efforts tracks child care settings — primarily for very young children — which were open through most or all of the pandemic. The dataset now contains a total of 983 centers which served 27,497 students during the pandemic. Forty-two of these students tested positive for COVID, for a confirmed case rate of 0.15%. These childcare centers had a combined total of 9,691 staff members, 107 of whom tested positive for COVID, giving us a confirmed case rate of 1.10%.

Out of the centers which were open for the entirety of the pandemic, confirmed case rates are similar: 0.14% and 0.89% for students and staff, respectively. And for large centers (greater than ten students), the confirmed case rate was 0.16% for students and 1.14% for staff.

The second effort involves weekly tracking of child care settings. In the most recent week we have data for 56 locations, serving 5247 students with 1755 staff members. Since data collection began in mid-June, we’ve only seen a maximum of two confirmed COVID cases among students or staff in a single week. You can explore all the raw data at this link, to see what the situation looks like in individual locations.

We’ve also separated out summer camps in the data, as we see them a key to understanding what school reopening may look like in the fall; our most recent week includes 27 camps, employing a total of 1083 staff and serving 3182 students. Since data collection began in late June we’ve seen at most two confirmed COVID cases in a given week among students and staff.

There are, of course, limitations of the data collection process. We talk much more about these on the site. And we’ll be updating our tracking sample each week, so you can always visit the site to see the latest numbers.

State Level

In addition to the crowd-sourced data, we have made an effort to put together all the “official” data that states are putting out on child care settings and cases. You can see that at our post here. You will note it’s an inconsistent mess! Some states collect data on cases, some on outbreaks only. Some states only release numbers through the media, others have official sites.

We’ll keep on top of this so bookmark the page to keep track of your state.

Please feel free to share your thoughts, questions, and concerns — you can get a hold of us via email, Twitter, Instagram, and the site itself.