CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi Independent School district (CCISD) has added 87 new COVID-19 cases to its count.
"CCISD is committed to transparency as we communicate during the COVID-19 pandemic," says the CCISD website."We appreciate your patience as we prioritize care of the individuals who test positive as well as anyone with whom they may have come into close contact."
Since the first day of school for the CCISD, the district reports a total of 797 cases. As of Monday, 714 of those cases are among students and 83 among staff.
It is unclear how many of these cases are considered active cases, how many have fully recovered, or how many have been vaccinated against COVID-19. KRIS 6 News reached out to the district for further clarification.
CCISD Chief Communications Officer Leanna Libby gave this response:
"CCISD’s cases chart is for informational use only, and is based on positive-case reports the district receives from employees and from students’ families. Each business day, the district posts the number of positive-case reports for the current week. The chart also houses cumulative totals for campuses as well as the district as a whole. As recovery time varies among individuals and we do not always receive confirmation of recovered cases, we did not have enough confidence in the numbers to continue including the column for the 2021-2022 school year. CCISD does not share health information for individual cases, nor does the district track hospitalizations. While, anecdotally, we believe most of the recent cases are among unvaccinated persons, the district does not require this information to be shared. We continue to urge everyone age 12 and older to get vaccinated."
COVID-19 cases numbers among districts students and staff are updated every weekday on the CCISD website.The numbers from the weekend and holidays are posted by the end of the next business day.
According todata collected during the 2019-2020 school year from the National Center of Education Statistics, CCISD had about 36,618 total students and 2,227 teachers.
CCISD has received guidance from the Texas Education Agency on how to handle absences due to COVID-19.
The district says they are offering remote conferencing starting as an instructional option for students who can't attend schools because of temporary medical-related conditions. Remote conferencing is a Texas Education Agency-approved method of instruction for students who meet certain requirements.
Requirements allowing for this include that the student is unable to attend school because of a temporary medical condition and the total amount of remote conferencing instruction does not exceed more than 20 instructional days over the complete 2021-2022 school year.
At least one requirements that must be met include:
- The student's temporary medical condition is documented by a physician licensed to practice in the United States that the student is to remain confined to their home or to a hospital.
- The student has a positive test result for a communicable condition listed in 25 TAC §97.7. Texas Administrative Code (state.tx.us)
- The student has been identified as having been in close contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Also:
- If the documented temporary medical condition persists longer than 20 instructional days over the entirety of the 2021-2022 school year, a waiver request must be submitted and approved for an extension of remote conferencing.
- Students in a remote-learning setting must not be taught by a teacher who is also teaching in-person students at the same time. The campuses will determine if a student qualifies for remote conferencing based on the criteria listed above and notify parents/guardians.
CCISD also said it will continue to share more information about this and other pandemic-related programming as it becomes available. Throughout the year, CCISD will also continue to be a partner with parents to help our students advance their education while also promoting safety.
The district also said it wants to assure parents it is "working diligently to provide a safe learning and working environment.
"In addition to urging vaccines for those age 12 and up to protect ourselves and each other (particularly our youngest students), we highly encourage mask-wearing at all schools and district properties," the district said in a prepared release.