TYLER, Texas — Ahead of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, schools across East Texas canceled classes with hopes to reduce recently high COVID-19 cases among students and staff.
Chapel Hill ISD Communications Director Belen Casillas says in recent weeks, the district has had 500 absences between staff and students, and the last time this many students and staff missed work or school was following summer vacation.
"We did start getting more calls of staff and students being out either because they were exposed to COVID-19, they had a family member in their household that had COVID-19 so they were being quarantined, or they themselves had COVID-19,” said Casillas.
However, according to CHISD, Friday's closure will not affect the academic year.
"We hope this four day gap will really make a positive impact and decrease our case numbers," Casillas said.
Students will be required to wear masks when they come back Tuesday -- returning to a familiar tactic from earlier in the school year when cases were high.
"School masks have helped," Casillas said. "It has shown in our data at our district.”
The goal is to keep students inside the classroom to prevent falling behind.
"Being absent being away from campus, and not learning impacts impacts their academic career," Casillas said.
Karina Renteria is a local tutor for students from kindergarten to 8th grade. She says parents and teachers should focus on their children's learning habits, so they can notice if they are falling behind.
"If you see that your child is struggling, seek help sooner rather than later before it starts getting more into the crunch time," Renteria said.
Renteria suggests establishing and continuing the same routine when in and out of school whether for holiday break or quarantine.
"The end goal is that you want your child to be successful, you want your child to be able to be promoted to the next year," said Renteria.
You can find a list of school closures for this week here.