HISD to stay online-only for first 6 weeks
District plans to open campuses in October, but questions remain on students’ tech gap
Students and staff in Houston ISD will begin school after Labor Day and remain in online-only classes for the first six weeks of 2020-21, a move designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 amid a continuing outbreak across the city and state, Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said Wednesday.
In announcing the district’s long-awaited plans for the upcoming school year, Lathan said public health concerns outweighed the benefits of returning to face-to-face instruction, which educators and families widely agree provides a better experience for children.
HISD now joins several other Houston-area school districts — including Aldine, Alief and Fort Bend ISDs — in declaring they only will hold virtual classes to start the year.
“I’ve had many sleepless nights, even up until this morning, wrestling with this decision,” Lathan said Wednesday. “But I need our children to be safe.”
District officials tentatively plan to reopen campuses on Oct. 19, but Lathan cautioned that timeline could depend on orders issued by local health authorities or Gov. Greg Abbott.
Families in HISD will have the option to remain online-only or return to campuses once in-person instruction resumes. District staff will begin contacting families Aug. 24 to ask whether they want their children to attend in-person classes
“We’re going to make sure that they’re safe, that they’re fed, and that they have what they need.”
Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan
or stay in virtual. Parents and guardians can change their minds up to two weeks before buildings reopen.
Lathan’s decision comes amid growing pushback on calls from President Donald Trump, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and others to reopen campuses as soon as possible. In recent days, as Texas’ COVID-19 outbreak grew into one of the nation’s worst, many of the state’s leading superintendents and education employee organizations have argued Texas is in no position to cram hundreds of people together indoors.
While children are sickened by COVID-19 at much lower rates than adults and youth deaths from the disease are rare, health experts say much remains unknown about the virus. For example, early evidence suggests children may spread coronavirus less often than adults, but researchers do not know the full extent of their ability to infect others.
Some countries, including Germany, Norway and Denmark, have resumed in-person classes and avoided any significant increase in COVID-19. Yet, no nation has reopened schools with infection and hospitalization rates remotely as high as Texas.
“I think this guidance of trying to get kids back to school is important, (but) of course we can’t do this in the middle of a huge surge,” said Claire Bocchini, an infectious disease specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital.
In HISD, the state’s largest school district, the move to remain online-only means more than 200,000 students will receive a mix of live instruction delivered via video conferencing and online coursework they can complete on their own time. The decision also puts added pressure on HISD employees to meet the academic, social and technological needs of children — a task better accomplished on-campus.
“We are going to reach students,” Lathan said. “We’re going to make sure that they’re safe, that they’re fed, and that they have what they need.”
In addition to halting in-person classes, HISD will not allow students to participate in extracurricular activities on school grounds. The decision means fall sports, including football, will not take place at least mid-October.
The district’s school board still must vote on delaying the start of the school year, which currently is scheduled to start Aug. 24. HISD’s new calendar likely will include 10 added days of class at the end of the year, pushing instruction into midJune.
HISD’s plan for six weeks of online-only instruction appears to go against current state guidelines, which dictate that public school districts risk losing funding if they deny face-to-face instruction to families who lack at-home computer and internet access for the first three weeks of school.
However, Gov. Greg Abbott signaled Tuesday that Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath will change the guidelines in the coming days to give districts more time and flexibility to keep students at home.
‘Happy with that decision’
The HISD plan appeared to largely draw praise from local leaders, employee union officials and social media commentators.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said he believed district administrators did “an excellent job” in crafting a roadmap to reopening.
He also urged city residents to wear face masks and maintain strong social distancing practices, calling it the fastest way to resuming regular school activities.
The presidents of the Houston Federation of Teachers and Houston Educational Support Personnel, HISD’s two largest employee organizations, both lauded the district’s decision to keep campuses shuttered.
Jennifer Hamad, speaker of the HISD Student Congress, said the move to delay returning to campus reflected fears voiced by families and teachers in nearly 3,000 surveys collected by the organization.
“We were actually very, very happy with that decision,” said Hamad, a rising senior at Heights High School. “We think, during this time of coronavirus, it’s the most responsible thing to do.”
The decision, however, comes with tradeoffs.
Early research suggests that lower-income, Black and Hispanic children fell significantly farther behind academically than their peers at the end of the 2019-20 school year, widening ever-present achievement gaps.
Many families in HISD also lack the technology needed to engage in online-only classes. Survey data collected between mid-May and mid-June suggested about 50 percent of families needed computers and about 35 percent needed better internet access.
Lathan stopped short Wednesday of pledging that HISD could outfit all families needing computers and Internet hotspots.
“We have shipments rolling in, and as those shipments have been rolling in, we’re deploying that equipment,” Lathan said. “This is the goal, to get those in the hands of every child that needs a hotspot or a laptop.”
‘A million more questions’
When HISD campuses ultimately reopen, students and staff will face numerous safety requirements.
Under protocols HISD released Wednesday, all students and staff will be required to wear masks while on campus. In addition, desks will be spaced six feet apart and student movement “will be minimized as much as possible.” District staff will determine how long campuses need to remain closed after an individual present on campus receives a positive COVID-19 test result.
T.H. Rogers School fourth-grade teacher Eve Harbour said remaining online-only for now is “the responsible decision to make,” though she eagerly awaits for more clarity on how in-person classes will work.
“Naturally, I had a million more questions today,” Harbour said. “It seems like overall — the board, Dr. Lathan, everybody that was on these reopening task forces — they know and get it, but I’m curious about all the logistics.”
Questions about transportation also abound. District officials said they plan to limit bus ridership, providing priority to students with disabilities and homeless children. From there, an undefined group of “certain student populations” will get access.
Dara Williams worries that her son, a soon-to-be junior who travels 20 miles from southwest Houston to Fifth Ward’s Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy, will be left off the list of riders. Williams has epilepsy, and she cannot drive for three months after each seizure.
“It would certainly complicate my life tremendously,” Williams said. “I’d have to find someone to get him to school.”