The number of active covid-19 cases among teachers and students in the state's public schools dropped by almost 20% to 16,806 from the record high of 20,937 active cases last week, according to data reported by the Arkansas Department of Health on Monday.
The Rogers School District had the highest number of cases Monday at 948, followed by the Bentonville School District with 635 cases and the Bryant School District with 600 cases. The Rogers number reflected an increase from 872 last Thursday. Similarly, the Bentonville number increased from 523. The Bryant count declined from last week's case number of 774.
Fort Smith had 418 active cases. The Van Buren School District had 381 and the Pulaski County Special district had 378, just three more than the neighboring Little Rock School District's 375, according to the state agency report.
A total of 232 of the state's 261 traditional school districts and charter schools had at least five cases.
Public elementary and secondary school systems have now had a total of 65,656 cumulative covid-19 cases since Aug. 1.
Active covid-19 cases in private elementary and secondary schools was 678, according to the Monday report. That was down from 960 active cases in last Thursday's report.
Colleges and universities in the state had a reported 175 cases Monday, up from the 167 cases reported last week.