AUSTIN, Texas – July 17, 2020 – Last week, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released public health planning guidance for the 2020-21 academic year in order to well prepare students, teachers, and staff to safely return to school campuses for daily, in-person instruction. Given the latest developments around COVID-19, TEA is issuing important updates to the guidance.

AUSTIN, Texas – July 7, 2020 – The Texas Education Agency today announced comprehensive guidelines for students to return to school, prioritizing their health and safety while ensuring that students receive quality instruction, whether they choose to learn in a safe on-campus environment or remotely.    

AUSTIN, Texas – May 12, 2020 – To further support student learning and an understanding of student progress even as students are educated from home for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year, TEA has launched free, optional end-of-year (EOY) assessments that school systems and parents can choose to administer. This optional test does not take the place of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), which Governor Greg Abbott cancelled this year due to COVID-19.

AUSTIN, Texas – May 6, 2020 – The Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced today that its partnership with AmplioSpeech, a leading provider of speech pathology technology, has reached 10,000 Texas students with special education needs. The collaboration is a response to the COVID-19-related shutdown of school campuses statewide and equips school districts with digital speech and language therapy programs, which ensures that students needing such services are receiving them via at-home learning. 

AUSTIN, Texas – May 5, 2020 – Texas continues the reopening of services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While school buildings remain closed to normal in-classroom instruction for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year, schools across the state are seeking to provide graduation ceremonies so they can properly celebrate the Class of 2020. 

AUSTIN, Texas – April 21, 2020 – The Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Texas PBS stations are proud to promote a joint initiative to air TEKS-aligned educational programming each week in 10 different PBS viewing areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Officially known as the At-Home Learning Initiative, the collaboration strengthens TEA’s efforts in assisting school districts and public charter schools with establishing instructional continuity and at-home learning during this unprecedented public health crisis.

AUSTIN, Tex. – March 20, 2020 – Texas parents can now visit the TXSchools.gov MealFinder Map to find locations near them where local school systems are offering free school meals—both breakfast and lunch—for pick-up while school buildings are closed because of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

“We fully support the Governor’s decision to temporarily close schools statewide. As we continue to prioritize the health and safety of all communities across Texas, we are working around the clock to ensure that our school districts have the instructional guidance they need so that students can successfully pursue their studies at home. We know many questions remain over how best to do that. 

TEA is in the process of finalizing changes for the administration of state assessments this year. Commissioner Morath is in daily contact with our state’s more than 1,000 superintendents on this and many other critical issues. By this coming Thursday, TEA will issue formal guidance as those changes are finalized.

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During this unprecedented public health challenge, we at TEA are doing all we can to support our schools and local communities. Given the need for social distancing, schools across the state are closing normal operations, and working to support learning while students remain home.