Over the last few weeks, the White House, the Department of Education, and other federal agencies have released a significant amount of guidance to support schools, educators, and families regarding COVID-19 (Coronavirus). For updated information, please visit Coronavirus.gov, CDC.gov/coronavirus, and USA.gov/coronavirus.
For education-related information, the Department has established a dedicated Coronavirus webpage (ed.gov/coronavirus), which includes resources for institutions of higher education and for K-12.

• The website includes guidance for students at institutions of higher education, and covers Coronavirus-related scenarios that could impact students who are enrolled in study abroad programs, students who meet full-time requirements but fall below 12 credit hours, students who are quarantined and miss class, campuses that have temporarily stopped offering ground-based classes to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, and foreign schools that serve Americans who receive Federal financial aid. 
• Also see a letter from the Office for Civil Rights that addresses potential discrimination associated with coronavirus.

The Department has provided additional information for families and communities including:

• Information regarding certain flexibilities under the Every Student Succeeds Act, or “ESSA;”
  
• Information regarding services to children with disabilities;
• A fact sheet from our Office for Civil Rights on the risk of Coronavirus in schools while protecting the civil rights of students; and a short webinar on Online Education and Website Accessibility.
• Information on the Family Education Records Privacy Act, or “FERPA,” as it pertains to K-12 and higher education students.
• Information for Accrediting Agencies Regarding Temporary Flexibilities Provided to Coronavirus Impacted Institutions or Accrediting Agencies.

The Department will continue to update its website, ed.gov/coronavirus. Please direct education related questions to COVID-19@ed.gov.

16 March 2020 | Governor’s Office Clears Path for Gov­ern­men­tal Bod­ies to Meet Tele­phon­i­cal­ly or by Videoconferencing Dur­ing Coro­n­avirus Disaster

Governor Abbott’s office today approved a request by the Office of the Attorney General to temporarily suspend a limited number of open meeting laws in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) disaster. This action will allow governmental bodies to conduct meetings by telephone or video conference to advance the public health goal of limiting face-to-face meetings (also called “social distancing”) to slow the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).  

Importantly, however, this action does not suspend requirements that governmental bodies conduct meetings in a transparent and accessible manner. Specifically, governmental bodies are still be required to do the following: 

• provide online written notice containing a public toll-free dial-in number or a free-of-charge videoconference link, as well as an electronic copy of any agenda packet, before conducting telephonic or video conference meetings;  
• provide the public with access and a means to participate in those meetings, preferably through two-way audio or video connections; and  
• provide the public with access to a recording of those meetings.   

Read the Attorney General's notification:
www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/governors-office-clears-path-governmental-bodies-meet-telephonically-or-videoconference-during

Our students are out for extended periods of time due to COVID-19 precautionary measures. While these efforts go a very long way to protect our communities, our students and teachers need the same protections applied to accountability.

Whether it's poverty or lack of resources, many communities along the border (and across Texas) do not have access to wifi and do not possess digital devices necessary for online learning. This means our students whose promotion, retention, and graduation is based on test scores are at great risk. 

Our nation, state, and cities across the U.S. have declared emergency. Holding our students and teachers responsible for continued learning in the current situation is irresponsible and unnecessary. 

16 March 2020 | Governor Abbott Waives STAAR Testing Requirements
https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/Governor%20Abbott%20Waives%20STAAR%20Testing%20Requirements.pdf