Association of Texas Professional Educators recommends school districts respond to COVID-19 concerns

Texas’ largest educator association recommended ways school districts can respond to COVID-19.

The Association of Texas Professional Educators, which has over 100,000 members, has several recommendations that it encourages school districts to put in place because of coronavirus, the organization said on its Facebook page.

“The recommendations are drawn from concerns expressed by our membership through surveys, emails, and requests for legal representation,” ATPE’s website states.

Texas superintendents received the recommendations on Aug. 12, ATPE’s website states.

The recommendations refer to making staff accommodations as it pertains to health “consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act” and releasing contract obligations or refraining “from pursuing a complaint with the State Board for Educator Certification” for contracted staff who resign because of a health concern that can’t be accommodated,” ATPE’s website states.

The recommendations also ask that school districts “Provide paid administrative leave for any staff member ordered to quarantine because of a work-related exposure or suspected exposure to COVID-19, or implement a sick leave bank or sick leave pool specific to the needs of staff ordered to quarantine because of a work-related exposure or suspected exposure to COVID-19.”