The Dallas Independent School District hopes now Labor Day has passed more students will return to the classroom.
“We think it’s really important for kids to experience as much normalcy as possible and school is a big part of that,” Dallas ISD Deputy Superintendent for Leading and Learning Susana Cordova said.
Cordova said the district saw some students missing out on coming back to class.
“As of the end of August we were at 97% of our students who were back in school,” Cordova said.
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The district said it anticipates missing students for several reasons. This year there were staggered starting dates during the month of August.
“We ended in the middle of June which is later than we typically end so it was a short summer,” Cordova said. “There are times when we see kids come back in the area after Labor Day so we do anticipate we might see another bump.”
No matter what’s keeping kids away, the district makes every effort to reach out to them through emails, home visits and more.
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“We’ve had a big postcard effort where we actually send a little postcard to families at home to remind them that school is in session,” Cordova said. “We call our students when maybe they have attended but are not coming every day or they haven’t shown up yet.”
In case parents are keeping kids home over COVID-19 concerns, Dallas ISD said it is following local health experts' guidance to keep schools safe.
The district is offering vaccination clinics for students 12 and older and to the community.
The district is also offering a virtual academy option to students under 11.
The bottom line for the district is it wants to get students back to learning, which benefits everyone in the long run.
“We know that our community thrives when we have a strong school system educating our kids and supporting them,” Cordova said. “That’s never been more important than it is now as we hopefully come out of the pandemic. Making sure that our kids have the support they need to keep Dallas thriving.”
