Austin ISD to reopen campuses on Oct 5 at 25 percent capacity

Parents were asked to fill out a survey to give the district a heads up on how many students want to go back on campus. 

AUSTIN, Texas - On October 5, Austin ISD will be welcoming students back on campus at a 25 percent capacity. Students will be placed in small learning groups monitored by a district staff member.

"For right now, students can expect to be in one classroom working on the classes that they've been doing for the last four weeks," Cristina Nguyen with Austin ISD said. "In these small learning groups, each of our students is going to continue with their traditional schedule that they've been learning through BLEND, which is our learning platform. So every one of those students is going to be doing their individual learning."

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Parents were asked to fill out a survey to give the district a heads up on how many students want to go back on campus.

"When we are getting our survey results, if there's a campus that 40% of those students want to come back, we will have to prioritize who is in that 25%," Nguyen said. "If there is a school that has maybe 20, 23, 24% of their families that want to come back, all of those students are going to be able to come back."

Nguyen says the health of each student and staff member is number one so it will be required for each person to be screened before being allowed in the building and to wear a mask at all times.

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"We've been working day and night throughout the summer to make these plans and adjust as things change," Nguyen said. "And so we're going to be learning as we start phasing students in about what works and what maybe could be tweaked to improve the student experience and our staff experience."

For now, Nguyen says students can expect to be in one spot for most of the school day. "We are going to we are really containing our students in these learning groups for, you know, at least the foreseeable future, just so we can start our phasing process, make sure that it's working, we're able to implement things safely. And then we may talk about, you know, phasing in and different models."

The results of the latest parent survey are expected to be released next week.

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