Districts, TEA Develop New Reopening Plan for El Paso Schools

El Paso area school districts and TEA came together and developed a new reopening plan that is better suited to the COVID-19 situation in our area.

Some sort of on-campus instruction will still need to be offered to certain student populations under this newest plan depending on which one of the four designated safety zones El Paso and the surrounding area is currently in.  Safety zones are color coded and based on the percentage of COVID patients in hospitals.

The Green Zone, which is the most of inclusive of the safety zones requires that coronavirus hospitalizations be below 10% and requires that all students who elect on campus instruction be allowed to physically attend without any restrictions.

The Red Zone, which is the most restrictive of the safety zones and also happens to be where El Paso currently stands requires that COVID patients in hospitals be above 20% (El Paso currently has a 42% COVID hospitalization rate) and allows districts to restrict on campus instruction for all grade levels with the exception of high priority populations such as those that don’t have access to the internet at home.

With a state as big as Texas is and taking into account that the situation in other parts of the state such as Austin or Dallas may be very different from what is happening in El Paso, it makes sense to take a more regionalized approach to reopening campuses.

To get more information on the reopening plan, click Here