On October 30, 2021, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) released individual school district data on the vaccination status of Washington school employees. Though South Bend School District provided vaccination data to OSPI within the requested timeframe, the data submitted was not accepted. As a result, South Bend is listed as not having complied with the data requirement. We believe our parents and community deserve the same access to information as school districts whose data was accepted. Therefore, this update is provided.The data for South Bend is below:
For reference, "Classroom" defines: teachers, para-educators, and other classroom assistants; "Building" defines: principals, counselors, librarians, social workers, secretaries, bus drivers, cooks, custodians, maintenance workers, and other non-classroom-based district staff.
Why was South Bend's data not accepted by OSPI? Several of the employee categories OSPI asked for consist of less than 10 employees (n<10). South Bend School District chose to suppress the information of these employee groups to protect the individual privacy of these impacted employees. OSPI was informed (before hand) of our intent to protect these employees, and we asked to be given the ability to submit data in a manner that ensures employee privacy. Our request was denied. Though we were told by OSPI that they would suppress any identifiable information, South Bend School District believes we have an obligation to protect employee privacy at the lowest level, thereby better ensuring employee privacy is maintained and not inadvertently disclosed.
