Courtesy Photo Thunder Bay Junior High School employees Stacy Gerhart and Barb Stevens prepare Chromebook laptops for student use on Tuesday in the school’s media center in this photo provided by Thunder Bay Junior High School.

ALPENA — Northeast Michigan school superintendents say they would notify parents if a student or employee tests positive for the coronavirus, though doing so is not required by state law.

Bridge Magazine reported recently that Michigan school officials, local health departments, and the state health department are not required to inform the public of an outbreak in schools. State officials say there are 14 outbreaks at Michigan schools and colleges, but won’t say where.

In-person classes have resumed at Alpena Community College and resume next week at Alpena Public Schools.

The News on Tuesday joined several other newspapers and government transparency organizations around the state in asking Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to disclose school outbreaks.

Superintendents in Alpena Public Schools, Alcona Community Schools, Atlanta Community Schools, Hillman Community Schools, and Posen Consolidated Schools told The News parents would be notified of an infection at the school.

Calls to Rogers City Area Schools and Onaway Area Schools were not immediately returned.

Once a district is notified of a positive case — either by a parent or the local health department — school officials would work with the health department and follow their guidance about tracing anyone with whom the infected student or employee may have come in contact and about any quarantine requirements, school and public health officials said.

Susan Wooden, interim superintendent in Alpena, said her district would notify parents that a student or staff member tested positive and the date when that person tested positive. She said District Health Department No. 4 would notify students and staff who are considered “close contacts” with the infected person.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a close contact an individual who was within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from two days before the onset of illness until the time the infected patient is isolated.

Posen Superintendent Michelle Wesner said close contacts would be quarantined for 14 days. If the student or staff member in quarantine were to develop symptoms, the Health Department would be notified.

At APS, Wooden said building principals would notify parents and she would like them to use SchoolMessenger, an app through which principals can swiftly send an email or robocall out to parents.

Carl Seiter, superintendent of Atlanta and Hillman schools, said in an email to The News the Health Department would be involved any time a student or staff member were to test positive. He said direction from the Health Department would guide much of what the district would be required to do.

“Additionally, with any positive, I will be informing parents with a call home to the entire district as well as a parent letter as soon as possible,” he said in the email.

Alcona Superintendent Dan O’Connor said privacy laws prohibit schools from releasing names or specifics about the case.

Josh Meyerson, medical director at District Health Department No. 4, said local health officials would notify schools when a case is confirmed and would conduct health investigations if a parent were to tell district officials their child has the virus.

Meyerson said neither schools nor the Health Department can require students be tested for the coronavirus.

“We’re asking a lot of the schools, and it’s very challenging,” he said. “I think the number-one thing is that we maintain the working relationship between our schools and our providers and the Health Department. I think we really have done a lot of prep work for that over the last month, and I’m really impressed with the work that the schools have done to try to make this school year as positive as can be for kids.”