In response to updated CDC guidelines, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has changed its guidance, bringing Richardson students one step closer to pre-COVID school conditions.
Part of the TEA’s newly released guidelines permits students to keep a social distance of only three-feet from each other rather than the earlier guideline of six feet. Moreover, per CDC guidelines, the Plexiglas desk dividers will come down, as the nation’s highest health authority deems the dividers to have no effect on the virus spreading.
Already, Richardson ISD has informed parents that the Plexiglas desk dividers can in most cases come down and no longer be an impediment to learning. Dr. Jeanne Stone, Richardson ISD superintendent, said that the district will give parents the final say regarding the desk shields. Parents can request for their child to continue utilizing the desk shield for the rest of the academic year.
Richardson ISD has also switched to a three-foot safe social distancing requirement, and so long as this is followed outside, the students may remove their masks.
Poster printing services provide an effective means of keeping the public abreast of COVID-19 restrictions.
Setting up and taking down their Plexiglas desk dividers had become a regular part of students’ day in the Richardson ISD and, although many welcomed the decreased restrictions, others do not. Fox4News.com notes that some kindergartners have no experience of school without dividers and may be more hesitant about their removal.
