Texas Education Agency COVID19 Back To School Planning

The Texas Education Agency released Guidelines for districts reopening schools on Tuesday. The guidelines detail various teaching, administrative, and hygiene practices. They are to limit the COVID-19 spread with numbers rising rapidly.

The guidelines include attendance, prevention, and mitigation guidance.

ATTENDANCE

It’s what everyone already expected. Students are still required to attend 90% of the course days to receive credit. Parents can choose if they want their child to attend online or on-campus learning. If a student is unable to attend online, the school must provide daily on-campus learning. A student wanting to attend online is allowed to enroll in another school if the original school can not provide an online option.

Schools may limit access to on-campus instruction to those who are able to learn online. This is on a temporary basis, but is sure to impact the Dallas ISD Calendar.

PREVENTION

Schools are required to screen any adult that enters their building. Screening per the Texas Education Agency means checking temperature and asking a “Yes or No” question for COVID-19 symptoms at a minimum.

The school may also screen students if they want. If someone has a temperature of above 100F or shows COVID-19 symptoms, that individual is presumed to have COVID-19. They will be immediately isolated.

In order to return to back on campus the individual must remain at home for 10 days minimum and 3 days after their fever has passed (without the use of medication), they must also have had an improvement in COVID symptoms. Alternatively they may also show a medical professional’s note clearing the individual, or two separate confirmations (at least 24 hours apart) that they are free of COVID. Locations for these confirmation tests are found at https://tdem.texas.gov/covid-19/.

If someone tested positive for COVID-19 they must notify the Dallas ISD school. The school must close off and disinfect areas heavily used by the individual.

MITIGATION

According to the Texas Education Agency, hand sanitizer should be everywhere. Every entrance, every classroom, and every bus should have it. People are encouraged to use it at least two times a day.

Schools should also increase airflow by opening windows. The should be allowing outside air to circulate the building and buses.

Texas Education Agency also requires schools to comply with Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order regarding mask usage. Everyone will have to wear some sort of mask (TEA accepts the use of non-medical masks or mere cloth) to cover their mouth and nose at all times (excluding athletic activities and eating).

Whenever possible people should be 6 feet apart. Campuses must plan for entry, exit, and transition procedures that reduce large groups. Teacher, staff, and student meetings should be banned or less frequent. Extracurricular activities are allowed to continue at district’s discretion.

Following the Texas Education Agency guidelines the Dallas ISD Superintendent appeared on MSNBC to explain what might happen. “I’m starting to have second thoughts about can we actually pull this off by August 17th” says Superintendent, Michael Hinojosa.

According to Hinojosa the problem isn’t so much the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) as much as it is the implementations of the procedures that the Texas Education Agency recommends. “If you have a mask on can you be closer than 6 feet? Initially we thought “yes”, but now we are hearing “no”. So there are a lot of complexities about how we keep students and employees safe in this process”.

Further details about how Dallas ISD would reopen, will be addressed in a board meeting on July 23rd. Until then, nothing is set in stone for the Dallas ISD Calendar.

Texas Education Agency

The guidelines released by TEA can be found here. It is expected that these standards may go through multiple evolutions between now and the start of the school year.