A petition on Change.org calling for the Texas Education Agency to issue new guidelines for the fall semester of the 2020-2021 school year has gathered thousands of signatures.
The organizer wants the TEA to allow teachers to work from home "until it is safe to return".
Governor Greg Abbott has said he expects the TEA to announce new guidelines soon allowing school districts to offer online-only instruction for the first few weeks of the fall semester without sacrificing any of their state funds. However, that would still leave open the possibility of requiring in-person instruction for some students as the semester progresses. Many school districts have set deadlines for parents to choose whether they want in-person or on-line instruction for their kids this fall as they work to implement a system that will accommodate both of those instructional methods.
Denton ISD English teacher Jon Ladner is not directly involved with the Change.org petition, but has been vocal about the TEA's plans for in-person instruction. He notes that there's no way to predict how many parents will choose to have their students attend in-person.
"My building has 2,700 kids. We have no idea how many of those will come back...and we have no idea how many of those will choose the on-line option that's going to be offered," he said.
He's urging the TEA to reconsider its push to make in-person instruction the priority, especially if there's no limit on the number of students who can choose to attend in-person. "They need to shift directions completely and offer a plan where it would be possible for social distancing to take place in the classroom, in the lunchroom, in the hallways...and wherever the students are," he said. "The safest option is on-line. What TEA has chosen is the farthest thing from that."