Monday, thousands of Dallas ISD students will return to schools with enhanced health and safety measures in place designed to keep students and teachers safe.
According to district officials, 53% of students have made the choice to return to classrooms for in-person instruction.
“Principals and teachers have planned procedures to maximize safety,” DISD Chief of Schools Jolee Healey said. “We have had plenty of deliveries – so, supplies at every school and it includes hand sanitizer, masks, everything we need to ensure safety.”
Healey said the district have worked all summer for the return of students.
“We absolutely started months ago working hand-in-hand with the County health department, with teams of folks all over the district. We’ve created an evolution handbook and it changed frequently as the information was updated,” Healey said “Principals studied those plans together and created campus playbooks. We talked about every aspect at school from how we go to lunch to how we pass in the hallway to what might need to change and maximize social distancing, safety.”
“Every campus has a special plan for their needs depending on their building design, depending on how many students and the age of the students. So, it is very individual,” Healey added.
Students who were starting the school year at a new campus were allowed to return to classrooms Sept. 28.
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“Week one has gone very well and something that we’ve learned is that our experience with students over the last few weeks through distance learning and ZOOM has helped us to already build relationships,” Healey said. “So, even our youngest learn that may have already had apprehension about school found that they recognized their teacher right away. They had already been taught the procedures. So, think we have already learned a lot of lessons from this time that I think we will carry forward every year.”
