Personal Protective Equipment | File Photo
As school districts across the state plan to reopen in the coming school year, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is busy surveying superintendents and gathering information to ensure that districts have the critical supplies needed to keep students, staff and administration safe and healthy.
On June 9, TEA announced that it has ordered personal protective equipment for students and staff members in schools across the state for when schools begin in-person classes during the 2020-2021 academic year.
The order includes 50,000,000 disposable masks, 10,000,000 gloves for staff, 40,000 infrared and no-contact thermometers and 500,000 gallons of hand sanitizer. TEA is also considering the purchase of 12,500,000 reusable masks, desk dividers and face shields in amounts not yet determined.
The ordered items are expected to arrive in mid-July and early-August, according to TEA. Allotments were calculated with counts of enrolled students and on-campus staff members in the 2019-2020 school year. Each district will receive an allotment based on the number of pupils on campus.
On-campus staff members included more than teachers and administrators – the figure also includes paraprofessionals and auxiliary staff.
The Texas Education Agency urges school systems to review the 2020-2021 PPE District allotments spreadsheet at tea.texas.gov/coronavirus. Districts will receive further information as it becomes available regarding statewide distribution strategy, as well as a final district allotment spreadsheet that explains which items are being distributed and how many product types per item.
Alerts Sign-up