Despite COVID-19 surge, thousands of students return to Houston classrooms for second semester

At the request of their teacher Yadira Sesher, the third graders presented their answers at Calder Road Elementary Elementary School in Dickinson, Texas on Friday, January 15, 2021. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

Yadira Sesher, a third-grade teacher at the center, enrolled her students at Calder Road Elementary Elementary School in Dickinson, Texas on Friday, January 15, 2021. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

When the class completed the test at Calder Road Elementary School in Dickinson, Texas on Friday, January 15, 2021, middle- and third-year student America Castillo closed her privacy station. Despite the surge in the number of COVID-19 infections, thousands of students still choose to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

Vicky Beck (left) escorts her students back to her classroom at Calder Road Elementary in Dickinson, Texas on Friday, January 15, 2021. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

On Friday, January 15, 2021, after a model of the volcano erupted in Dickinson, Texas, the third grader at Cauder Road Elementary School washed their hands. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

On Friday, January 15, 2021, third graders Aza Noriega (left) and Aadan Lopez (right) washed their hands after a volcano model erupted at Calder Road Elementary School in Dickinson, Texas. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

Miranda Zertuche in the lower right corner and her bilingual third-year classmates take the test at Calder Road Elementary Elementary School in Dickinson, Texas on Friday, January 15, 2021. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

Yadira Sesher, a third-grade teacher at the center, registered her student Caleb Gonzalez at Calder Road Elementary Elementary School in Dickinson, Texas on Friday, January 15, 2021. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

The third grade teacher Yadira Sesher registered her student Alondra Martinez at Calder Road Elementary Elementary School in Dickinson, Texas on Friday, January 15, 2021. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

An empty corridor inside Cauder Road Elementary School in Dickinson, Texas, Friday, January 15, 2021. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

Kris McDaniel of the center and her kindergarten classmates follow the rhythm of a song in a music class at Calder Road Elementary in Dickinson, Texas on Friday, January 15, 2021. dancing. Despite the surge in COVID-19 infections, more than 40,000 students have chosen to return to campus for teaching. At Dickinson ISD, 93% of students returned to the classroom.

Despite the surge in the number of COVID-19 infections throughout Houston, there are still more than 40,000 students choosing to attend classes in person this spring, and will gradually approach some areas at the beginning of the second semester of 2020-21, bringing it closer to pre-pandemic enrollment. school year.

The current guidelines of the Texas Department of Education require school districts that provide remote guidance so that parents can choose whether to send students to campus each semester or let them study at home.

In response to the Houston Chronicle’s request for third-year attendance data, all of the 16 areas in the Houston area except Fort Bend and Arif ISD reported that more than half of the students returned to campus. There are more than two-thirds of students in the nine-student classroom, including Dickinson ISD (93% of students) and Friendswood ISD (90% of students).

Ten districts shared the placement data of the first three grades. All the data show that whenever there is a choice, more parents choose to send their students back to the site for guidance.

As of December, at ISD in Houston, 43% of students are studying in person, while 56% are almost studying.

At the same time, COVID-19 infections in Greater Houston will soon exceed the peak seen here last summer. The intensive care unit of the Texas Medical Center is still beyond its first-stage capacity, and 41% of all ICU patients received treatment for the virus. More than 3,022 COVID-19 cases were reported in Harris County on Thursday.

In schools, the number of active cases in January is higher than at any time in 2020. As of Friday, Houston ISD had 577 active COVID-19 cases, Dickinson ISD had 89 cases, and Friendswood ISD had 39 cases. Of the 16 regions that responded to the data requested by the Chronicle, 3,381 cases of activity were recorded on the COVID-19 dashboard in the region on Friday.

Dr. Carlin Barnes, a teenage psychiatrist in Houston, who wrote about sending students back to Psychology Today, said that although this surge may cause some families to keep their children away Schools, but the distribution of vaccines may have given others to the coming pandemic to make us feel more comfortable. She said that at the same time, parents must consider their children's academic needs, because the data shows that virtual learners struggle more academically than their peers who return to campus.

"Many parents are worried about the health of themselves and their children, but at the same time the virtual learning model cannot meet their children's educational needs," Barnes said.

Scott Oliver decided to send his 11-year-old son William back to Glenn York Elementary in Alvin ISD because the young Oliver had difficulty completing work at home s hard work. He decided to send his third grader Lauren back to school. His eldest, 15-year-old Hailey, didn't start attending classes in Shadow Creek High in person until this month.

Since returning, all his children have done better, but due to the infection, his son's class had to be quarantined twice.

Oliver said: "Neither virtual learning nor face-to-face learning, there is no right or wrong answer." "But for my children, going back is a good thing for them, even if we still have to deal with cases and similar thing."

In areas that provide higher services to low-income families and students of color, the transition to face-to-face teaching is not obvious. Locally, Aldine, Alief, Sheldon, and Spring ISD tend to have more families choosing to keep students at home in the third grade compared to the wealthier and whiter communities.

Barnes said that this is not surprising given that low-income families often live in multi-generational families. Data from the CDC shows that blacks and Hispanics are 2.8 times more likely to die from the virus than whites. In addition, Barnes said, black and Hispanic families tend to have less access to health care and more trust in the COVID-19 vaccine.

Other schools, including those in the Dickinson ISD, are almost as full as the schools before the pandemic prompted all schools in Texas to close in March last year.

Principal Sophia Acevedo said that about 94% of the students returned to Calder Road Elementary and started learning in early September last year. About half of the children are studying at home. She attributed the increase in the number of students on campus to the tiredness of parents, children's demands to come back and the feeling of safety at home, which brought young students back to school.

All students must wear masks, wash their hands regularly, use hand sanitizer between subjects, limit interaction between classes, and stand farther in the line. Acevedo said that even with these precautions, it is difficult to maintain social distancing from so many students. The administrator created extra lunch time and covered up the tables in the cafeteria, the music room was moved to the science laboratory, so that there was more space and ventilation, and students no longer chatted on the carpet.

Acevedo said: "We are focused on what we can do, but we cannot maintain real social distancing with so many people." "In class, we cannot guarantee six feet long, but we can make sure they wear masks and handwashing."

Maria Rivera, who co-led the Harris County Health Department’s school advisory team during the pandemic, said the advisory team’s recommendation remains that school buildings remain closed until, among other things, the positive rate of COVID-19 testing at least drops. To less than five percent

Since the Texas Department of Education has informed the districts that they must provide five days a week in-person guidance to obtain state funding, Rivera said her team has informed the districts that the focus is to prevent children from integrating with other classes and keep the environment clean. , Keep as many activities as possible. Keep as far away as possible and track as many contacts as possible. However, these measures may not prevent more infections.

Rivera said: "As more and more children enter the classroom, we have seen more classroom cases." "All these safety measures to reduce transmission-when there are 30 children in the classroom, this is impossible of."

Yadira Sesher’s Calder Road Elementary Primary School third grade bilingual classroom currently has 14 students, and only one student is studying online. Twelve people came back as soon as possible to attend the face-to-face class, including 9-year-old Iseo Lopez.

He said that he missed his friends. Although he was frustrated, he had to stay away from his classmates, but he was very happy to see that each grading period came back. He thinks they are struggling like him.

He said: "I don't like it at home." "My mother told me that I was studying, but I learned a lot here."

shelby.webb@chron.com

Shelby Webb is a suburban education reporter for the Houston Chronicle, covering development trends in Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Brasoria counties. She worked as an education reporter for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida from 2013 to 2016 and studied at the University of Florida.

If the Texans decide to transfer their team's quarterback, then these NFL teams will have the greatest demand and potentially the best deal.