Coronavirus News
Sept. 16 through 8 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30

Texas Public College/University Data Reflects
Pandemic-Era Enrollments Surge
in Higher-Ed Summer Sessions
The pandemic didn’t slow down enrollments in Texas public higher-ed summer sessions, and the pandemic perhaps even contributed to the surge in summer enrollments.
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For the Current School Year
First COVID-19 School Data Issued
The state’s first reporting for the new school year of positive COVID-19 related cases in Texas public schools reflects that — from when the school year started in August through Sept. 20 — ISDs and charters reported:
  • 3,720 (0.34 percent) positive COVID-19 cases out of an estimated 1,101,065 students on campuses, and

  • 3,053 (0.38%) positive cases out of an estimated 800,078 staff.
That’s a grand total of 6,773 (0.36 percent) who have tested positive out of the 1,901,143 students and staff.
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In Designated COVID-19 “Hot Spot” Areas
Some Districts Could Get Extra Time
To Return to In-Person Instruction
The TEA issued (Sept. 24) new “Attendance and Enrollment” guidance (see "Back to School Transition" No. 7 here) that allows school boards in districts in certain areas of the state to seek TEA waivers to extend the deadline to transition from online instruction to in-person instruction.
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Other Coronavirus News
  • Remote learning issues — There have been scattered reports (here and here, for example) of several, mostly small-enrollment rural ISDs cancelling their virtual instruction options and requiring in-person only instruction.

    Some of the districts that have been reported in the media as dropping their distance-learning options include Louise ISD (530 students), Hardin ISD (1,400 students) and Evadale ISD (443 students).

    Typically, reasons given for reverting to in-person only classes have included low student distance learning participation, the effort involved by teachers and administrators and the lack of Internet capability and other technology.

    The education commissioner, in a recent conference call to superintendents, reportedly clarified that districts that don’t want to, or can’t, offer distance learning opportunities to a parent who requests it must allow the parent’s child to transfer to a district that offers online instruction.

    Guidance given by the TEA over the summer had been interpreted to mean that every district must offer to any parent who requests it the distance learning option for their child.

    Parents also have the option of withdrawing their children from public schools to either home school them or enroll them in a private school.

  • Broadband worries — More than 80 Texas House and Senate members sent a letter to the governor making suggestions for improving broadband access, especially in the state’s rural areas.

    The letter says the state can’t wait for the Legislature to convene in January.