On March 24, 2020, the Texas Education Agency issued guidance on local “shelter in place” or “stay home and stay safe” orders.
This guidance was issued as County and City leaders in Dallas, Houston, Austin and other urban centers around the state simultaneously issued public orders requiring citizens to stay at home, and entered orders that provide for enforcement mechanisms for those who violate those orders. The Governor has announced that he will, for the time being, leave the decision to enter such orders in the hands of local public officials. Since March 24th, a growing number of Texas
Counties issued into their own emergency resolutions or stay home/stay safe orders.
Because of the lack of centralized guidance on the content of such orders, it is critical for school officials to be in communication with their local City and County leaders as individual decisions are reached. While virtually all orders have a carve-out for essential employees, there is currently no statewide definition of who an essential employee might be. In the absence of such guidance, we find the guidance from the Department of Homeland Security to be
helpful; this guidance that suggests teachers and administrators who are supporting distance learning are essential employees that should be exempt from stay at home order. This guidance can be found at:
Here is some suggested language you may wish to use in communicating to your local County and City officials:
Dear Judge/Mayor _____:
The ________ Independent School District has closed its facilities to students but is providing home-based instruction. Some of our students are receiving on-line instruction, others with limited access to reliable internet service are receiving packets of instructional materials from staff. The District is also providing meal service to our students. Our staff are using recommended procedures for the delivery and retrieval of these meals and packets,
including wearing gloves, disinfecting surfaces where the packets are prepared, and allowing completed student work packets to sit for 48 hours before opening them to correct student work. I wanted to make sure that during the “shelter in place” order, our staff will be able to provide support to our students. According to the published recommended guidelines of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a recommended definition of
“essential employee” includes “educators supporting public and private K-12 schools, colleges, and universities for purposes of facilitating distance learning or performing other essential functions, if operating under rules for social distancing.” The District would be grateful if you could adopt this definition during this period of shelter in place, clarifying that “facilitating distance learning or performing other essential functions, including the delivery of student meals” are essential
to the health, safety and wellbeing of our community. The District asks this language be explicit in any order so that all of our students can continue to receive necessary nutrition and instruction.
We hope this information is helpful and urge all of you to stay safe!
