Royal ISD must identify and implement practices to prevent the virus from entering the school and mitigate or reduce the likely spread inside the school; therefore, district practices and guidelines have been established for various areas noted below:
Health and Safety Guidance
It is recommended that masks be rotated and thoroughly cleaned daily. Sharing of masks with other family members is extremely risky and discouraged. Masks will need to follow the Royal ISD dress code. No advertisement for alcohol-related products, tobacco or tobacco-related products, drugs or drug-related products, suggestive or obscene writing gang affiliations or pictures on masks. Students are to wear a plain color mask, college spirit or Royal Falcon spirit mask.
Temperatures will be taken for each student before entering a school building. If a student’s temperature is at or above 100.4°, the student will be sent home and be given a medical/safety informational form with guidelines that must be followed before he/she is allowed to return to school.
For students who are dropped off by parents, temperatures will be taken before the student is allowed in the campus. If a student’s temperature is at or above 100.4° , the student will not be allowed to stay in school and will be given a medical/safety informational form which, again, must be followed before he/she is allowed to return to school. In some instances, a release from a medical professional may be required.
TEA Guidance is as follows for students:
“Parents must ensure they do not send a child to school on campus if the child has COVID-19 symptoms (as listed in this document) or is lab-confirmed with COVID-19, and instead should opt to receive remote learning until the below conditions for re-entry are met. Parents may also opt to have their students receive remote learning if their child has had close contact with an individual who is lab-confirmed with COVID-19 until the 14-day incubation period has passed. School systems may consider screening students for COVID-19 as well. Screening is accomplished by asking questions by phone or other electronic methods and/or in person. The screening questions should also be asked of a student’s parent if that parent will be dropping off or picking up their child from inside the school.”
Teachers and staff are required to self-monitor. The self-screening should include teachers and staff taking their own temperature. Teachers and staff must report to the school system if they themselves have COVID-19 symptoms or are lab-confirmed with COVID-19, and, if so, they must remain off campus until they meet the criteria for re-entry as noted below. Additionally, they must report to the school system if they have had close contact with an individual who is lab-confirmed with COVID-19, as defined at the end of this document, and, if so, must remain off campus until the 14-day incubation period has passed.
Royal ISD schools are staffed with nurses or nurse assistants. These individuals have been trained to support and assist with health and safety matters. The district head nurse is Holly Bousquet.
TEA Guidance on Individuals Confirmed or Suspected with COVID-19:
Any individuals who themselves either:
i.In the case of an individual who was diagnosed with COVID-19, the individual may return to school when all three of the following criteria are met: at least three days (72 hours) have passed since recovery (resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications);
ii.the individual has improvement in symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath); and
iii.at least ten days have passed since symptoms first appeared.
Identifying Possible COVID-19 Cases on Campus
Campuses and Classrooms
Learning Options
In both models, the campuses must provide instruction in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for the required grade level/subject/course. Monitoring student learning and progress remains integral to the success of the students. This includes attendance, grades, formative/summative assessments, and other monitoring systems that help teachers know how students are making progress.
Unless otherwise noted by the campus administrator, once a commitment to the instructional model has been communicated by the parent/family, a request must be submitted in writing to shift to the other model. These transitions must be approved and processed by the school and may take up to two weeks. Attendance in the current model is mandatory. Instructional model changes will only be allowed at the end of the grading period. Please note that if a student switches between Face to Face Instruction and remote learning, then that student may not have the same teacher(s) or course schedule, as teachers may or may not be teaching both.
Remote learning will be delivered through asynchronous instruction that does not require having the instructor and student engaged at the same time. In this method, students learn from instruction that is not necessarily being delivered face-to-face or in real time. This type of instruction may include various forms of digital and online learning, such as prerecorded video lessons that students complete on their own, and pre-assigned work and formative assessments made available to students on paper. The instructional method must address the required curriculum, per TEC, §28.002.
In addition, per Texas Education Code (TEC), §25.092, students must attend 90% of the days a course is offered in order to be awarded credit for the course and/or to be promoted to the next grade. This requirement remains in force during the 2020-21 school year. This requirement applies to both face-to-face and Remote instruction.
Meals
Royal ISD must comply with child nutrition guidelines. Parents may pick up student meals without the student being present. Parents will need to provide each student’s ID number to the cashier to receive meals.
Transportation
Temperatures will be taken for each student before boarding the bus. If a student’s temperature is at or above 100.4°, the student will not be allowed on the bus and will be given a medical/safety informational form with guidelines that must be followed before he/she is allowed to return school. It is required that parents wait at the bus stop with their child(ren).The district highly encourages parents to bring his/her child to school and pick him/her up from school. Siblings will sit together on the bus. Buses will be disinfected daily after each route and thoroughly cleaned after each bus trip, focusing on high-touch surfaces such as bus seats, steering wheels, knobs, and door handles.
Electives: Band, P.E., CTE Courses, Other Electives: Dance, Cheer, etc.
Special Programs
Extracurricular and After-School Program