Dallas County health officials have decided the best way to keep students safe is to keep them at home until after Labor Day – learning online.
Following Dallas County's mandatory delay for in-class instruction, Dallas ISD officials are in the process of forming a plan for when students are allowed in classrooms to present to the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees.
The Education Evolution Guidebook would describe the plan for changes to keep students learning and healthy in and out of the classroom.
From temperature checks for students when getting on school buses to mask and face shield usage, there are a number of proposed changes.
“It’s all a matter of getting kids acclimated and getting them into the routine,” DISD Assistant Superintendent of Student Learning, Leslie Stephens said.
Teachers would teach both online and traditional classroom students and those students would keep the same teacher no matter which learning model they chose.
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“When the kids come in face-to-face, they’re still using that same learning management system that the student at home is using. Everyone is going to do the same lesson,” Stephens said. “The teacher is going to do an explanation and get students working on independent work and then have the kids come in on ZOOM and then do an explanation for those students that need it.”
This plan allows students and families to go back and forth between online and in-person throughout the school year.
There will be plexiglass partitions in lunchrooms and classrooms.
“At the secondary level, we are purchasing individual plexiglass screens for the desks and it literally has a handle so they can take it with them from class to class to set up on their desk,” Stephens said.
Students will be given masks and face shields.
“We are doing face masks that they will wear from home to school and then from school to home and then wear the face shields at school,” Stephens said.
Under the plan, technology would be made available to all students – tablets for Pre-K through second grade and laptops from third grade through twelfth grade.
