County curtails reopening of schools
Districts must hold off face-to-face classes until Sept. 8
Harris County and Houston health authorities on Friday ordered all public and nonreligious private schools to delay opening for in-person instruction until at least Sept. 8 — a date likely to be extended unless the region sees a significant reduction in its COVID-19 outbreak.
Flanked by their respective health officials, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Mayor Sylvester Turner said the region’s novel coronavirus outlook appears too dire to allow the restart of face-to-face classes before Labor Day. Most Houston-area public school districts already had pushed back their in-person start dates to Sept. 8, though a few remained on track to hold on-campus classes in August.
“The last thing I want to do is shut down a brick-and-mortar representation of the American dream,” Hidalgo said Friday. “But right now, we’re guided by human life.”
The order applies to schools serving grades prekindergarten through 12. It does not impact day care centers, preschools, colleges or universities.
With the decision, officials in all five of the state’s largest counties — Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar and Travis — have ordered the closure of public schools through at least Labor Day.
None of Greater Houston’s other large counties — Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria and Galveston — have issued closure orders. However, Montgomery County public health officials recommended this week that their school districts delay their start dates or remain online-only through Labor Day.
The Harris County order comes four days after Hidalgo
and Public Health Executive Director Umair Shah issued a nonbinding recommendation that campuses stay closed until October at the earliest. While county and city officials held off Friday on mandating closures through September, Hidalgo said reopening buildings immediately after Labor Day “is still likely too soon.”
County and city officials said they would need to see a significant decrease in several measures, including case counts, rate of positive tests, hospitalizations and deaths, before they OK the opening of campuses. Local health officials, however, have not identified specific benchmarks to be met.
In the days leading up to Friday’s order, nearly all of Harris County’s public school districts had moved to keep campuses closed through Labor Day by delaying their school start dates or beginning the year online-only.
Exceptions included Clear Creek ISD, which planned to bring a limited number of students into buildings on Aug. 31; Spring Branch ISD, which canceled a scheduled meeting Friday on possible changes to its school calendar; and Humble, Huffman and Waller ISDs, which had not announced changes to their school years.
Most Harris County districts tentatively plan to offer in-person instruction beginning Sept. 8, though Houston ISD officials decided to stay online-only through mid-October.
The order arrived Friday amid a heated debate over when and how to reopen campuses in Texas, which is experiencing one of the nation’s largest COVID-19 outbreaks.
Parents, staff divided
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance Thursday recommending that school leaders in areas with “substantial, uncontrolled” transmission of COVID-19 “should work closely with local health officials to make decisions on whether to maintain school operations.”
Leading medical and child advocacy groups have promoted the academic, behavioral and social benefits of students returning to campuses while also cautioning that safety risks remain. The American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in a statement earlier this month that “schools in areas with high levels of COVID-19 community spread should not be compelled to reopen against the judgment of local experts.”
Harris County reported a daily average of 27 confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past week. By comparison, many countries that reopened schools this spring without experiencing a COVID-19 spike reported a daily average of 1 confirmed case per 100,000 residents in the week before resuming face-to-face classes.
In districts across the Houston region, one-third to two-thirds of families have signaled they want inperson classes for their children, according to preliminary survey data released by several local districts.
Katie Floeck, the mother of a 5-year-old son in Humble ISD, said her family should have the option to choose in-person or virtual classes.
“I believe it’s going to be a major hindrance for our child,” Floeck said. “Online learning doesn’t work for him, and when I consider the emotional well-being of kids, I think it’s important that they’re around other children.”
Surveys administered this summer suggest employees are more reticent to return to classrooms.
In Spring Branch, for example, 23 percent of nearly 3,000 staff members surveyed in the past several days said they were ready to return to work. About 70 percent said they were uncomfortable returning or wanted to see a reduction in COVID-19 cases locally before coming back to campuses, while 6 percent said they did not plan to return.
“I know there are a lot of parents that want in-school classes, and they wanted them to start Aug. 17,” said Spring Branch Federation of Teachers President Craig Adams. “I personally don’t think we have enough information to have done that safely. I feel better about it being moved to Sept. 8, but I think at that time, we’re going to have to assess the situation.”
‘Time will tell’
The city and county order ultimately will impact a small number of districts given extensive plans already set into motion.
Clear Creek Chief Communications Officer Elaina Polsen said district leaders are expected to huddle in the next few days to adjust plans for the week of Aug. 31, when they hoped to start in-person classes for children in prekindergarten, kindergarten, sixth grade and ninth grade, as well as students receiving special education services. Clear Creek faces an added layer of complexity because roughly two-thirds of the district falls in Harris County while the rest is in Galveston County.
“I think time will tell, but this announcement really doesn’t shift us too far off what we were planning, other than those transition grades,” Polsen said.
In a letter to families Friday, Humble ISD Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen said district officials hoped to “collect student choices, match them to staff needs, make health and safety adjustments to our operations, and be allowed to monitor conditions throughout July” before making a final decision on reopening by Aug. 1.
Fagen wrote that Humble will follow the county order, and administrators are “considering several options” for the start of school. District officials did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Spring Branch trustees voiced strong support earlier this week for delaying the start of their school year until Sept. 8, a decision that was scheduled for a vote Friday. That vote was rescheduled for next Wednesday.
While the mandate does not apply to Catholic schools, officials from the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston said they will review the order and “make further recommendations as deemed appropriate.” Archdiocese leaders said many administrators at their 50 schools, each of whom has the authority to reopen campuses, already had opted to offer virtual-only classes through Labor Day.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who previously overruled local officials on stay-at-home and business shutdown orders, has indicated he would allow local school closure orders to stand for now. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a state guidance letter last week indicating that local health authorities cannot order religious private schools to shutter buildings.