Twelve of Maricopa County's school districts -- including most of the large unified districts in the East Valley -- have seen significant rises in positive COVID numbers. This should, in theory, trigger a shift to virtual learning with in the districts, under guidelines issued by the county public health agency.
The county uses benchmarks in categories to help determine the spread and danger within a district. The benchmarks: Cases per 100,000 people within the district boundaries; percent positivity; and COVID-like illnesses. Each benchmark has a red, yellow or green rating. If a district has all three benchmarks in yellow or yellow and green for two consecutive weeks, the district should move to hybrid learning. If all three benchmarks are red, the schools should go to virtual learning.
The 12 school districts below all went from one or two red benchmarks last week to 2 red benchmarks when the data was updated yesterday. All of them showed increases in the percent of positive cases within the district boundaries, which parallels the overall rising level of positive cases in the state.
The districts which added an additional red benchmark are:
Cave Creek Unified School District
Chandler Unified School District
Deer Valley Unified School District
Dysart Unified School District
Higley Unified School District
Litchfield Elementary School District
Mesa Unified School District
Murphy Elementary School District
Peoria Unified School District
Queen Creek Unified School District
A number of other county school districts are already in the two red-benchmarks category.
