Some Texas Counties Issue Partial Curfew for Thanksgiving weekend
Officials in the San Antonio area are following in the footsteps of El Paso County, which issued a similar order earlier this week. The curfews come as coronavirus infections surge to new levels in Texas.
Hours before Thanksgiving, San Antonio and Bexar County officials issued partial curfews that will take effect through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Starting Thanksgiving Day, residents cannot gather outside of their homes from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Central unless they are commuting to or from a business. The curfew ends Monday, according to the amended emergency orders by San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff.
Restaurants must close their indoor and outdoor dining during curfew hours, but curbside, takeout and drive-thru options can continue as usual.
Those who violate the order can face a fine up to $1,000.
The curfew is a last minute attempt to curb social gatherings as Texas continues to see record numbers of people infected with the coronavirus.
“Please listen to our public health experts. It's not worth the risk this holiday season,” Nirenberg said in a tweet. “If you have to leave home, wear a mask & keep your distance from others.”
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego issued a similar order late Tuesday.
Texas health officials reported more than 14,000 new coronavirus infections Wednesday in what appeared to be an all-time high for daily cases. The record comes right before the Thanksgiving holiday as public health authorities urge people to celebrate apart this year, warning that family gatherings may increase the spread of infections at a time when many Texas hospitals report overwhelming volumes of COVID-19 patients.
The seven-day average of new cases in Texas continues to surpass 10,000, having tripled since the beginning of October. Testing is also at record levels. Roughly 10% of coronavirus tests yielded positive results on Nov. 24, according to Texas Department of State Health Services data.
Officials Raise Alarm Ahead of Thanksgiving
Health experts worry that increased travel and mingling over Thanksgiving and into the December holidays could exacerbate an already dangerous situation as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are rising across Texas.
The original plan for Thanksgiving was that nothing would be different.
Eight members of Jesse Gonzales’ family would come from all over North Texas for a traditional turkey dinner in his Dallas home, just like they do every year. His grandchildren would run around the house and Jesse would watch football with his son while other family members caught up and retold old stories.
Then, the family got a wake-up call.
Gonzales was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October. And six other family members also caught the virus around the same time. It was enough to remind the family about the seriousness of the still-raging coronavirus pandemic.
So this year, Thanksgiving is canceled. It’s a big deal for Gonzales, who loves the fall holiday celebration even more than Christmas — which is also canceled.
“It’s always been a tradition that we all come here and celebrate, but now with this deal, this put a different outlook on the situation,” Gonzales said.
That’s along the lines of what health experts and some local officials are advocating for as the holidays draw near, and some families across Texas make preparations to travel and gather indoors over Thanksgiving meals.
“Cancel gatherings, large and small, unless you’re with your household,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Tuesday. “We’re in a war against this virus. This is not the time to lament that we didn’t get a gathering this time around.”
Eight months into the pandemic, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are rapidly rising again in Texas and across the country. Experts say the latest surge in cases is linked to pandemic fatigue. In just eight days, the U.S. recorded 1 million new coronavirus cases, bringing the nation’s total to over 11 million. Texas exceeded a million cases Friday, according to state data.
Health experts worry that increased travel and mingling over Thanksgiving and into the December holidays could exacerbate an already dangerous situation.
“The worst thing I could think of is to take people from all over the country, put them in planes and mix them up,” said Dr. James McDeavitt, dean of clinical affairs at the Baylor College of Medicine. “That’s almost like you designed something to spread the virus aggressively.”
Already, airlines are reporting that travel is up for the holidays.
United Airlines is expecting the Thanksgiving holiday to be the busiest time since the pandemic began in March, according to a news release. The airline added over 1,400 domestic flights to accommodate the demand during the week of Thanksgiving.
Southwest Airlines plans to add up to 300 flights a day, and American Airlines plans to average over 4,000 flights a day during the upcoming holiday, about a 15% increase compared with the rest of the month.
New traditions
Anaiya Davis said when her family gathers this Thanksgiving, there will be temperature checks at the door. Everyone attending is being asked to quarantine before the celebration. When Davis heads from her home in Austin to the Fort Worth area, she’s expecting to see about 15 people in her family. Usually there are about 50 there. Davis said two family members died this year who were immunocompromised, which has put the rest of the family on high alert.
“When we lost my grandpa, it kind of made us more conscious and very afraid of the virus in general,” Davis said. “Then when we lost my cousin, we jumped back into being more afraid because we were like, we’ve already lost two super important people in our family. We don’t want to run the risk of losing anybody else.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says small household gatherings are an “important contributor” to the rise in COVID-19 cases. The CDC advised that holidays be celebrated among the members in a household and noted that college students who live away are not considered household members.
“In-person gatherings that bring together family members or friends from different households, including college students returning home, pose varying levels of risk,” the agency said.
Kate Feuille said her family is planning a small, outdoor Thanksgiving, but the situation where she lives, in El Paso, is worrisome. Cases in the area have surged and overwhelmed hospitals.
Still, she’s hoping the weather is nice so the family can have a physically distanced celebration outdoors. Feuille said her family is still working out how to get her son home from college safely. This year, instead of worrying about throwing a more grand Thanksgiving, she’s planning something more scaled down.
“The idea of making this big meal to come together as a family doesn’t seem that special right now,” Feuille said.
Alternative plans
Isolating completely for the holidays isn’t the only option, health experts say.
“We need to celebrate after everything everyone has been through for the past year,” McDeavitt said. “If we could just get enough people paying attention to the holidays and being careful, then my hope is we can keep the holidays from becoming a major super-spreader event.”
McDeavitt said this holiday season, people should consider meeting virtually, celebrating only with those in their households, having carefully planned events with masks and distancing, or gathering only with those in their “bubble.” In the holiday bubble, as he described it, everyone involved would need to agree to follow strict health precautions, self-quarantine if possible, get tested for the virus and avoid contact with people outside of the bubble.
“Once you’re in your bubble, everybody comes in, everybody stays, nobody leaves and you don’t have neighbors over for drinks,” McDeavitt said.
Being away from family and friends during the holidays can have mental health consequences.
“If you want to be totally safe, you would just hole up in your house and never see another human being,” said Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston. “Well, that’s probably not even possible, but also not real good for your mental health.”
Even in normal times, the holiday season is “probably one of the most difficult times of the year for people” said Austin-based psychotherapist Grace Dowd.
“I think people are starting to really feel the psychological implications of COVID and some of that loneliness and isolation that’s being brought out,” Dowd said.
Dowd said while it can be the season of joy, people can also feel lonely and be reminded of family or friends who aren’t around. If someone is looking for community, they might not be able to visit family, but they could meet virtually or visit friends in their area while following precautions, Dowd said.
“I think we’re going to have to get a lot more creative this year around what the holidays look like, and I think coming to terms with [how] they may not look like how they looked in the past and mentally preparing for that,” Dowd said.
Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff contributed to this report.
After Getting Stranded in Peru, the Bills are Arriving.
The U.S. State Department has sent letters to Americans rescued abroad during the pandemic asking for repayment for the repatriation flights and threatening to withhold tax refunds or social security payments if the debt goes unpaid for months.
Iqra Beg is one of dozens of Texas tourists who were stranded in Peru in March, after the South American country abruptly shut its borders because of the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic.
Under a military-enforced curfew, the Texans spent days frantically trying to contact the unresponsive U.S. embassy and consulate, spending hundreds of dollars extending their hotels and Airbnbs and growing increasingly panicked when they couldn’t find open flights back to the U.S. to their jobs and families.
They thought the nightmare was over when government-chartered planes arrived to fly them to Miami.
Months later, the bills arrived.
The U.S. State Department has sent letters to Texans like Beg in recent weeks asking for repayment for the repatriation flights and threatening to withhold tax refunds or social security payments if the debt goes unpaid for months. Many of the tourists signed promissory notes before boarding the flights back promising to pay, without knowing exactly how much they would owe until they received the bill.
Those Texans are among the more than 100,000 citizens and permanent residents the State Department has helped bring back during the coronavirus pandemic, with less than half taking government chartered-flights and agreeing to pay the cost, a department official said. Most of the remainder bought tickets for commercial flights and, in rare cases, a U.S. military or government aircraft was used, according to the official.
Lawmakers in Congress have tried unsuccessfully to waive payments for the repatriated Americans — with U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, saying “for many, getting home meant thousands of dollars in unanticipated expenses incurred through no fault of their own.”
But a bill co-sponsored by Masto and six other lawmakers — none from Texas — has failed to pass.
The Texas Tribune interviewed or reviewed bills received by a half-dozen Texans marooned in Peru, most of whom was charged around $1,300 for an evacuation flight, and said the cost was higher than they expected. Interest will be added if they don’t pay within a month of the due date, and they could be placed in the crosshairs of a private debt collection agency, have their credit damaged or their wages garnished if the debt goes unpaid long enough, the letters say. Their payments are due in October and November.
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“The reimbursement amount established is the reasonable commercial air fare immediately prior to the events giving rise to the evacuation, or the cost of the charter divided by the number of passengers, whichever is lower,” the letters say.
Reference
See one of the letters.Beg, a Dallas educator, said she hadn’t expected the bill to come seven months later and to be so high, after she already spent hundreds of dollars to extend her hotel in Cusco, pay for an overnight stay in Miami and then a domestic flight from there to her home in Dallas. She had tried to cancel her March visit to Machu Picchu as coronavirus concerns grew but was told by her travel company that the $1,000 all-inclusive trip would not be refunded. Her original return flight, also booked through the travel company, was not refunded, she said.
The State Department is required by law to seek reimbursement for “evacuation assistance” up to what would be considered reasonable commercial airfare in a normal time, the official said. It has sent some 24,000 billing notices worth about $41.4 million and received about $21.5 million in payments so far, according to data provided by the State Department official. It had received approximately 25,700 promissory notes as of last week.
Though some Americans had raised concerns about the pricing of return flights, the official said the State Department “did not set or control the prices,” “does not have authority to do so” and that private carriers who did determine the bills “stepped up to offer commercial rescue charters under extraordinary circumstances from difficult locations.”
“These are not ‘business as usual’ commercial flights during normal times, and they cost significantly more to operate,” the official said. Financial risk assumed by the airline and the fact that one leg of the plane’s journey would be without passengers are factors that could drive up the cost, the official said.
Airline executives have said the last-minute nature of the flights — and routes through places where they may not usually fly — leaves them with little time to negotiate prices and contract with vendors who load baggage, clean aircrafts, and the like.
Latam, the airline that flew Beg and several other Texans interviewed by the Texas Tribune, did not answer questions before publication.
Texans who received the bills said it’s the latest episode in a disorganized government effort to retrieve citizens stranded abroad. The State Department warned Americans to avoid all international travel on March 19, several days after the Peruvian borders were sealed.
President Donald Trump initially seemed to blame the tourists for being stuck in Peru, and some said they felt abandoned as other nations came to retrieve their citizens. Beg and others holed up in hotels or hostels, traded information and worried about those who were missing work or running low on medicine as the days ticked by. Armed officers patrolled the streets, and the Americans were instructed to only leave to go to make essential visits, like to get food or medical care.
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Nine days after the border closed, Beg saw an email from the U.S. embassy at 6 a.m. It said a flight from Cusco to Miami was scheduled for that morning and that she should be outside the airport in two and a half hours.
She walked 2 miles to get there, with a half-dozen other Americans — including an elderly man who had been cutting his pills in half each day to make them last, Beg said.
“You're just in such a desperate state to get out…. You’re like: ‘If I miss this flight, will I be able to get another one?’” she said.
Jana Miller, a 34-year-old from Richardson, found temporary housing at a hostel in Peru when the borders closed and after failing to find any available flights out of the country, she resigned herself to staying and waiting out the lockdown.
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But on March 25, a woman Miller befriended at the hostel — another Texas resident — was notified there was a government-chartered flight out. She raced to the airport — walking four miles before dawn to get there — and told Miller to follow and see if she could get on the flight. She did.
Miller said just a bag of chips was served on the roughly 8-hour flight, which made a stop in Lima. She ate a foot and a half worth of Subway sandwiches after landing and spent the night in the Miami airport waiting for a morning flight to Dallas.
She was prepared to pay but expected the bill would be for a “reasonable amount,” she said.
“Flights were averaging, like $350. And so my thought was: ‘This is a one way ticket. Surely it's not going to be so extravagant that it's going to be unmanageable,’” she recalled.
When a bill for $1,300 arrived seven months later, she sent a photo of it to her coworkers and jokingly told her roommate she’d be eating a lot of Ramen noodles in the days ahead. Her coworkers surprised her by pooling together enough money to pay it off.
Jonathan Du, a student at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs, said the repatriation process “could have been handled better” and that the confusion over the bills was a “case study in government bureaucracy” and the effect of the coronavirus.
He reached out to the State Department to get answers when he returned, worried that the bill would get lost in the mail and go into default and leave him with interest payments or unable to renew his passport. He never got an email back from the department, he said. He eventually spoke to an official on the phone in October — after initially only reaching a voicemail — and gave them his credit card information.
Texans were rescued by the U.S. government after getting stranded in Peru. Now the bills are arriving. https://t.co/9vW1oEr5Pp
— Shannon (@ShannonNajma) November 17, 2020
Below:
— An evacuation flight taking off from Peru
— People waiting for a gov-chartered flight
— Clapping aboard one of the repatriation flights pic.twitter.com/vkKXIqNdnC
The State Department official said the agency is processing an “unprecedented” volume of bills and that its website notes there are a huge number of emails due to the large-scale nature of the repatriation efforts.
But Du said he can't imagine what it's like for people unable to pay thousands of dollars right away, or who "might have missed their bill or aren't at the same address anymore or just don't even know it's coming.”
That might have happened to Lauren McKinney, a junior at the University of Texas at Austin. She thinks her bill was sent to her old apartment because her sister — who was in Peru volunteering before becoming stranded with McKinney — already got one for around $1,300. She has requested that a bill be sent to her virtually and is hoping to work out a payment plan with the government as she doesn’t have the ability to pay that amount of money. Her sister’s bill is due in mid-November, McKinney said.
“I was hoping since there's a pandemic still going on and people are still asking for stimulus checks... Not that this would be waived, but it just seems a little odd that it's so clear that so many Americans are struggling financially currently, and this is the time they chose to send the bill,” she said.
Texas Schools Tell Teachers They Must Return to Classrooms
Several school districts are trying to accommodate teachers with health conditions who want to work from home, but many are being called back in as more students return to classrooms.
Texas schools tell teachers with medical risks they must return to classrooms
during the pandemic
By Aliyya Swaby and Emma Platoff - October 20, 2020
After several miscarriages over the last few years, Joy Tucker is finally pregnant with her third child at the age of 37.
A school counselor at the Houston-based Windmill Lakes campus at the International Leadership of Texas charter school, Tucker talked to her doctor about the risks she and her child would face if she were to contract COVID-19 from students or other employees. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that pregnant people may be at an increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness, or even preterm birth. At her doctor’s recommendation, Tucker turned in a note asking her school if she could work remotely.
School leaders denied that request, saying she would have to return to work in person in September. If not, Tucker would have to use the rest of her paid leave to remain home, leaving her no time to recover after the baby’s birth. Her options quickly dwindling and her baby due in January, Tucker lawyered up and filed a grievance with the school district.
“I want nothing more than to go back to work and be with my kids,” said Tucker, who chose to use paid leave instead of returning in September. “If I have to choose between mine and my baby’s life, or going to work in a situation where we could get sick or we could die, there’s no choice to make — I have to stay home.”
Caitlin Madison, a spokesperson for the charter school, declined to comment on Tucker’s case but said, “since this school year started, the ILTexas policy has been that if we have students on campus, then we need to have our employees on campus as well.” About 28% of students in the district have chosen to return to campus.
“The only work-from-home exception for campus staff has been if they are sick with COVID or were potentially exposed to COVID and require a 14-day quarantine,” she added.
International Leadership of Texas is one of a number of Texas schools denying some teachers’ requests to work from home, as they balance staffing against often-fluctuating student enrollment. Federal disability law allows employees to ask their bosses for reasonable accommodations, such as temporary schedule changes, shift changes or working remotely, if an illness puts them at higher risk for COVID-19.
School districts must grant those requests unless they would pose an “undue hardship,” including costing too much or impeding their ability to run the school. With Texas largely requiring school districts to bring back all students who want to return, administrators like those at International Leadership of Texas argue they cannot run their school campuses properly if too many teachers stay at home. More than 2 million of 5.5 million Texas students were attending school in person as of late September, according to a state estimate, an increase from 1 million earlier this fall.
Experts say that school districts should layer safety requirements such as masks, social distancing and sanitizing to keep COVID-19 from spreading. In other countries, transmission in schools has been extremely low. But few of those countries had the same level of uncontrolled community spread as Texas, which has failed to contain the virus in many regions and is seeing regional surges in cases. State data on transmission in public schools shows almost 6,500 teachers reported positive COVID-19 cases, but the data is limited and full of gaps.
Given the unclear picture of COVID-19’s spread in Texas schools, teachers say school administrators are unfairly expecting them to put their lives in danger, in some cases requiring all staff to return to campuses even when most students have chosen virtual learning. Texas teachers have little leverage, given the state’s strict labor laws: Any teachers who strike could be stripped of their jobs, teaching certificates and pension benefits.
“You don’t need to be in an office to do your job,” said Tony Conners, who is representing Tucker and has exclusively represented teachers for more than 30 years. “Since spring break, when COVID-19 hit, everyone was working from home and [school districts] were taking the money from the government and they were telling the communities and parents that they were being well served.”
Conners said he’s heard from more teachers than ever before wanting counsel on how to get accommodations to stay home. The toughest cases, he said, are in charter schools and suburban districts. By law the process is individualized, requiring school leaders to talk with employees about how to meet their needs.
But districts do not have to hire new staff or create new positions to accommodate someone under the law, said Joy Baskin, director of legal services for the Texas Association of School Boards. “If more than half of students are coming back, you have to create social distancing in the physical environment, which may mean you need smaller class sizes and therefore you need all hands on deck,” she said. “A lot of districts responded to that by saying, ‘We don’t have remote-only positions.’”
Even districts currently providing teachers with accommodations cannot guarantee them for the entire year, since many are allowing parents to decide each marking period whether to enroll their students in virtual or in-person education.
“If we can provide some of those accommodations without creating a hardship on a campus where they wouldn’t be able to serve their students safely, then I wanted to be able to proudly say that we had valued both students and staff,” said Austin Independent School District Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde. About 700 of 5,000 total Austin ISD teachers have received permission to work virtually at least through December. But as more students return in person, “we will be challenged to keep all of those accommodations for a long time …... There is of course fine print that says, if it becomes necessary to rescind the approval for school student needs, then we would have to do so,” she said.
Some teachers have already had that rug pulled out from under them. In August, Gina Morreale, an Eanes ISD middle school history teacher, was approved to work remotely after turning in a note from her doctor explaining her chronic bronchitis and susceptibility to pneumonia. She even got an email from administrators asking her not to come on campus to do her work sponsoring the cheerleading team. Lean on the cheer moms, she was told.
A month later, Eanes administrators decided to bring back all students who wanted to come in person, instead of phasing them in slowly. Unfortunately for Morreale, that meant also bringing all staff back to campus.
“This can’t apply to me,” she remembers thinking. “Maybe this applies to someone who is in a walking boot — someone that wasn’t high risk.” She started to think through her options — Could she quit and move in with her parents? Did she need to look for a new job?
She asked her doctor for another letter with more detail, and said she is still working with district leaders, hoping they can agree on an accommodation.
Eanes ISD was forced to call its staff back to ensure there were enough personnel, said spokesperson Claudia McWhorter. The human resources department is working with concerned educators on a case-by-case basis. “Even when we were at 25% capacity, our campuses were short-staffed; some campuses have been forced to have an all-hands approach and even have principals serving as teachers in classrooms,” McWhorter said in an email. “Simply put: with more students returning, we need staff in the buildings.”
For now, Morreale has been able to work remotely, but she’s not sure how long the district will allow it.
“I hope I can until it is safe for me,” she said.
Administrators that deny teachers' requests to stay at home are offering other options. Baskin said the school board association is training human resources directors to get creative in thinking about accommodations that could help teachers with health risks safely work from school buildings. That might mean offering a more remote office away from students and teachers or extra safety equipment.
Six years after finishing multiple rounds of chemotherapy for breast cancer, Pasadena ISD high school English teacher Elizabeth Alanis asked if she could work from home. Her white blood cell count, which determines the health of her immune system, still yo-yos every several months.
To her horror, after a conversation with school leaders, she received a letter denying her request to stay home long term. The district instead offered to minimize her direct contact with students, provide her with plexiglass dividers and protective equipment, set up student desk shields or move her classroom to an external portable building so she didn’t have to pass many people in the halls.
“Your job duties and responsibilities require your physical presence on campus as of September 8, 2020,” they wrote in a letter Alanis provided to The Texas Tribune. “Consequently, the District does not believe allowing you to telework after the short-term program has ended and after students have returned to campus, is a reasonable accommodation based on your job duties and responsibilities as a classroom teacher.”
According to the district, she is one of 59 teachers who have formally requested to work from home through the federal disability accommodations process, of about 3,700 teachers total. None of them were allowed to work from home past Sept. 8, when students returned to campus. “Pasadena ISD must provide students attending in-person instruction with a safe, supervised school/campus environment, and that effort is supported by all of our staff being physically present,” said Arturo Del Barrio, spokesperson for Pasadena ISD. The percentage of students on campus is gradually increasing, from about 40% in September to almost half by mid-October.
Alanis used her personal leave days to remain at home until mid-October, but decided to return Tuesday, unable to afford unpaid leave for months. “I've spoken to my oncologist on this matter and he knows it's a tough place to be in. My white blood cell count is still low, so that just means I'll have to take extra precautions,” she said. “I am going to invest in a medical grade mask and I am going to also invest in an air purifier with a UV light.”
Sitting out of classes for even part of a semester is heartbreaking for Alanis, who has been a teacher for 16 years, most of them in Pasadena ISD. “There’s not much they can take from me at this point. They’ve already kind of taken who I am,” she said, her voice over the phone showing she was close to tears. “I’ve had such huge ties to my students, to my community. And oh my God, I love those kids.”
Students Reject Coronavirus Testing
Halfway through the semester, schools are reporting participation rates far below their goals, prompting at least one school to go so far as to offer prizes to students who volunteer to get a coronavirus test.
Texas colleges offer free coronavirus tests. Why aren't more students getting tested?
"Texas colleges offer free coronavirus tests. Why aren't more students getting tested?" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas colleges and universities spent the summer months bulking up their testing capacity to catch COVID-19 outbreaks fueled by students who are infected but don’t show symptoms.
The University of Texas at Austin said it could test up to 5,000 asymptomatic students, faculty and staff weekly. Texas A&M University trumpeted a similar goal of testing more than 5,000 students each week – about 7% of the student body. And the University of Texas at El Paso, with about 25,000 students, said it had the capacity to test up to 2,500 campus members weekly.
But halfway through the semester, schools are reporting participation rates far below their goals, prompting at least one school to go so far as to offer prizes to students who volunteer to get a coronavirus test.
UT-Austin, which has more than 50,000 students, has only required students to be tested before attending football games. During the first five weeks of the semester, the school had the capacity to test 25,000 community members but tested only 8,870 – an average of about 1,770 per week. That included the 1,198 students tested for the first home football game on Sept. 12.
“Why aren’t we testing 5,000 people per week? The answer, in part, is that we have fewer than 5,000 people a week who have been willing to take the tests,” reads a Sept. 28 memo from the UT-Austin Faculty Council.
Texas A&M conducted 6,195 tests in its first two rounds of random testing through Sept. 12. Meanwhile UT-El Paso, which tested 6,691 campus members from Aug. 17 to Sept. 18, has yet to break 2,000 weekly tests, the El Paso Times reports.
Experts say routine testing is crucial to stomping out “silent spread” on college campuses, as the CDC estimates 40% of COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic. And school officials rely on the results to get an accurate snapshot of the community’s health.
Major Texas universities have already mandated rigorous testing regimens for athletes, and some schools in other parts of the country require students and employees to get tested multiple times a week. But if the goal is to identify people who might trigger an outbreak on campus, waiting for students and staff to volunteer to get tested “doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” said David Paltiel, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health.
“Frankly, I think the whole idea is flawed from the get-go,” Paltiel said. “Unless you're going to have a routine program that you require the entire population to adhere to, I just don't know what you're doing.”
School officials are stopping short of calling testing participation a problem, even as they work to increase it.
Shawn Gibbs, dean of the School of Public Health at Texas A&M, said participation is “pretty much what we expected it to be.”
“Our participation rate isn’t low,” he said. “We always would like higher participation, and we're in the process, like everyone else, of taking a look at the students who aren't participating and trying to figure out ways to incentivize participation.”
At Texas A&M, that means appealing to “selfless service,” one of the Aggie core values, and emphasizing that the saliva-based tests are free, quick and easy, Gibbs said. The flagship College Station campus reported 144 active cases as of Sept. 29.
UT-Austin’s goal is to test 1,000 asymptomatic people per day, and participation is gradually building in that direction, said Michael Godwin, program director of the university’s proactive community testing. Monday was “a really great day,” he said, with close to 700 people coming out. The flagship reported 67 estimated active cases as of Sept. 30.
To boost participation, the school is launching an incentive program, with raffle prizes for students including $50 gift cards to local and national vendors, Godwin said. The university has also enlisted professors to make class-wide announcements and deployed ads on Canvas, its online learning platform.
UT-Austin faculty participation in the testing has been “very low,” according to the Sept. 28 Faculty Council memo.
“I don’t think anyone expected to see 5,000 people in the first week,” Godwin said. “It takes a little bit of time to get the word out, to get the process set up and working well, and … we’ll continue to build on what we have and get more people in the door to get tested regularly.”
Mandatory testing at Baylor
Students might dodge invitations to test for a number of reasons – especially if they don’t feel sick, said Diana Cervantes, an epidemiologist at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Students may also be avoiding the inconvenience of quarantines in the event they do test positive.
“Let's say I think I had a high-risk exposure and I think that testing positive is going to mean something detrimental to me, maybe I'd decide not to get tested,” Cervantes said.
Julia Elder, a UT-Austin master’s student, said she has not taken the university up on its offers to get tested because she worries about being exposed to the virus during her appointment. Elder hasn’t eaten in a restaurant or socially interacted with anyone since March. She takes online classes and only leaves the West Campus apartment she shares with her twin sister to pick up food.
“I definitely have wanted to get tested … but it seems like more interaction than I do on a daily basis,” Elder said, adding that she recently drove past the health center and saw a line of students wrapped around the building. “It seems like an unnecessary risk to take if I feel fine.”
Some universities are making testing mandatory.
At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, students and employees must get tested twice a week. They’re testing about 10,000 people per day, and reporting positivity rates below a half of a percent. The university feels “very confident” in its plan, in part because it’s mandatory, said Robin Neal Kaler, associate chancellor of public affairs at UIUC.
“Our data scientists showed if you tested the vast majority of people twice a week … that would be enough to slow the spread, to keep potential outbreaks under control, and to let you know about them quickly enough that you can deal with them,” Kaler said.
“But that only works if it's mandatory testing. And it only works if you're testing basically the entire population, which is what we decided to do,” she added.
In Texas, Baylor University is one of the only institutions to require testing. The private Christian university chooses 5% of students and 5% of employees for mandatory testing each week; failure to comply may result in disciplinary action.
Unlike other Texas universities, Baylor also required a negative test from students and employees before they returned to campus in August. The school reported 62 active cases as of Oct. 1.
“We felt ... we needed to make it mandatory partly because there was some concern if people were left on their own, they would not want to be tested,” said Jim Marsh, dean for student health and wellness at Baylor. He added that even though the testing is mandatory, the school gives students raffle prizes such as meal vouchers, football tickets and scholarships for participating.
Legality in question
So far, none of the major public universities in Texas require testing – though some have left the door open.
Godwin said state law restricts UT-Austin’s authority to require testing “as a prerequisite to accessing any kind of educational benefit, or work, in the case of faculty and staff.”
“We are following the advice of the Office of the Attorney General,” UT spokesperson J.B. Bird said in an email. “State universities have not been delegated the authority to mandate testing as a requirement for pursuing an education.”
A spokesperson for the Texas attorney general's office said they can’t comment on whether it’s legal to require students to get tested because the office hasn’t been asked to give an official opinion on the matter.
In September, UT-Austin students had to test negative to attend a football game against UT-El Paso, even though the other 15,000 fans did not. Godwin said testing was allowed to be required in that instance because football games are not considered an educational benefit.
But Texas A&M has said it will move to mandatory testing if school officials deem it necessary.
“Our legal view is that we have the legal authority to require random testing on campus if it is necessary to protect public health and safety, but the issue has not been squarely addressed by the courts,” said System spokesperson Laylan Copelin. “So far, voluntary participation has been sufficient to meet the public health goal and mandatory testing is not necessary.”
For now, school officials hope their messaging and prizes will turn out more students, though Elder, the UT master’s student, questions whether it will be enough.
“Anything short of a reduction in tuition, there's no incentive they could provide anyone for getting tested,” Elder said.
Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of North Texas and Baylor University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/05/texas-coronavirus-college-free-tests/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Federal Court - Texas Prisons Must Provide Hand Sanitizer for Some Geriatric Inmates
Texas has had more inmate deaths related to the coronavirus than any other prison system in the nation. Its death toll of at least 162 inmates outranks every other state as well as the federal prison system.
Federal court orders Texas prison system to provide hand sanitizer for some geriatric inmates during pandemic
"Federal court orders Texas prison system to provide hand sanitizer for some geriatric inmates during pandemic" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
A federal judge ordered the Texas prison system on Tuesday to provide more protective measures against the coronavirus, like hand sanitizer for wheelchair-bound prisoners, at a prison for geriatric inmates.
After a weekslong trial that started in July, U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ruled that Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials acted with deliberate indifference toward the inmates’ medical needs and recklessly disregarded obvious health risks during the pandemic.
“The Court acknowledges that [TDCJ officials] have taken a number of steps to address the spread of COVID-19 … at the Pack Unit,” Ellison wrote in his ruling. “But the Court views these measures as the most basic steps that TDCJ could have taken to prevent mass death within the prison walls on an unimaginable scale. Designing a policy and implementing some of the measures therein does not automatically satisfy Defendants’ constitutional obligations, especially in the face of an unprecedented public health crisis.”
Ellison, who has slammed the state prison system in another lawsuit over heat conditions, said he was dubious that TDCJ was implementing many of the procedures and policies it claimed to be. He cited officials’ text messages that revealed a confusion about coronavirus reporting among officials, modifications made just before trial to make the unit “look more favorable,” and staged visits to the prison as explanation for his skepticism.
The ruling follows a nearly four-week long trial in a lawsuit filed in March by older inmates against TDCJ and the Pack Unit, a prison near College Station whose population mostly consists of inmates over 65. The department is expected to appeal the order to the same court that previously halted Ellison’s pretrial, temporary ruling against the department, in part because it said TDCJ was already making efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Texas has had more inmate deaths related to the coronavirus than any other prison system in the nation. Its death toll of at least 162 inmates outranks every other state as well as the federal prison system. More than 20 Texas prison employees have also died with the virus.
Nearly 23,000 inmates and about 4,800 employees have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic was declared a Texas public health disaster in March, according to TDCJ reports.
At the Pack Unit, more than 500 inmates had tested positive for the virus by August 2, and 20 had died with it, according to trial records. TDCJ’s public reports on inmate deaths only include 17 Pack Unit deaths as of Tuesday, the second most behind 20 reported deaths at the Duncan Unit in East Texas — another geriatric facility.
Ellison’s permanent injunction includes many requirements that TDCJ has long said it already implemented, like providing unrestricted access to soap and water, sufficient cleaning supplies and face masks required for all staff and inmates. His injunction also requires, however, hand sanitizer to be provided to inmates that use a walker, a cane, crutches or a wheelchair. At trial, it was noted that wheelchair-bound inmates with unsanitized chairs could infect their hands with germs instantly after leaving the sink.
TDCJ has long fought against providing hand sanitizer for inmates, arguing it could be used as a fire accelerant or inmates could drink it. Inmates’ attorneys said the concerns were “disingenuous,” as fires are not a problem on the unit and inmates have plenty of flammable material, like paper.
Inmates at the Pack Unit sued the prison system in March as the coronavirus began to spread across the state, arguing its policies were "woefully inadequate" to protect the unit’s elderly and sick inmate population. The agencies' actual practices, they said, were even worse and violated the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. They asked for more protective gear, cleaning supplies and social distancing.
In a temporary ruling in April before the case went to trial, Ellison sided with the inmates and ordered TDCJ to make a slew of policy changes like providing hand sanitizer and face masks and testing all inmates for the virus. Though many of the demands, like providing masks and mass testing, had since been enacted by the department, TDCJ appealed to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judges on the appeals court agreed that TDCJ had already met many of the ordered requirements, though one of the judges urged Ellison to hold a trial in the case as soon as possible.
The trial included testimony from several inmates, TDCJ officials and experts on health and prison conditions. During the weeks in the virtual courtroom, inmate janitors — some of whom are wheelchair-bound and otherwise disabled — said they didn’t have enough cleaning supplies, contact tracing wasn’t properly done and more and more people were getting sick and dying. John Keville, the inmates’ lead attorney, said in his closing arguments on Aug. 6, that two more inmates had died during the trial.
The prison’s warden testified that he thought his unit had been doing “everything within reason” to combat the virus. He said he didn’t think security staff specifically asked inmates how they were feeling, noting that would be for medical teams, though the department’s deputy executive director said in a pre-recorded deposition that officers are supposed to talk to inmates about their health.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/29/texas-prisons-coronavirus-protections/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Restaurants and Other Businesses can Open up to 75% Occupancy
Restaurants, retail stores and office buildings will now be able to operate at 75% capacity, Abbott said. Three regions — the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo and Victoria — were excluded from the loosening of restrictions, however.
Gov. Greg Abbott loosens coronavirus restrictions for restaurants and other businesses in most regions of Texas
"Gov. Greg Abbott loosens coronavirus restrictions for restaurants and other businesses in most regions of Texas" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that most of Texas will be able to loosen some coronavirus restrictions, including letting many businesses increase their capacity to 75%, as soon as Monday.
The standard that Abbott unveiled applies to the 19 out of 22 hospital regions in the state where coronavirus patients make up less than 15% of all hospitalizations. In those 19 regions, businesses that have been open at 50% capacity will be permitted to expand to 75% capacity — a group of places that includes retail stores, restaurants and office buildings. Hospitals in those regions will also be allowed to offer normal elective procedures again, and nursing homes can reopen for visitations under certain standards.
The three hospital regions excluded from the new reopening stage are in the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo and Victoria. Abbott said those regions’ hospitalizations are still “in the danger zone.”
At the same time, Abbott said the state was not yet ready to reopen bars, saying they are “nationally recognized as COVID-spreading locations.” He stressed, though, that the state is looking for ways to let bars reopen safely.
Abbott unveiled the new standard during a news conference at the Texas Capitol that marked Abbott’s first major announcement about the reopening process since early summer. In late June, Abbott shut down bars and ordered restaurants to scale back to 50% capacity as case numbers started to surge.
Days later, Abbott issued a statewide mask mandate.
A few weeks later, key coronavirus metrics began to trend downward. Those statistics include daily new cases, daily new deaths, hospitalizations and the positivity rate. For example, the state reported 3,249 hospitalizations Wednesday, a drop from several days in July when the tally was above 10,000 but still higher than springtime numbers than hovered around 2,000 or lower. Also on Wednesday, the seven-day average of daily new cases was 3,415 — again, a significant decline from July highs but still clearly above the levels in April, May and June.
Still, there have been regular questions about the reliability of the state data. On Monday, state health officials announced they were changing the way they calculate the positivity rate — the ratio of cases to tests — an acknowledgment that the previous method was flawed.
Democrats noted the data issues in their pushback to Abbott’s news conference.
“Gov. Abbott’s press conference today was notable for what he didn’t say,” state Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, who chairs the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement. "There was no mention of a contact tracing program, no mention of improving the state’s unreliable data and no mention of expanding Medicaid to increase access to health care for the millions of Texans who are uninsured.”
The Texas Democratic Party said Abbott is "basing his decisions on dirty data."
Abbott began the news conference hailing the state’s progress in the fight against coronavirus, saying the “biggest reason” for improvements has been that Texans are taking the pandemic seriously and exercising personal responsibility.
The governor reminded Texans that doctors have said the goal is not to eradicate the virus but to “contain the disease, to limit its harm and to maximize the health care system’s ability to treat both COVID patients as well as other medical needs of the community.”
When it comes to further reopenings, he emphasized the state will consider all data but “rely most heavily” on hospitalizations, calling that metric the “most important information about the severity of COVID in any particular region.” It is also the “most accurate information available on a daily basis,” Abbott said.
To that end, the regions that will be allowed to further reopen must have seen coronavirus hospitalizations makes up less than 15% of all hospitalizations for seven consecutive days, according to the governor. If coronavirus hospitalizations rise above the 15% threshold for seven consecutive days in a region, a "course correction is going to be needed," Abbott said, suggesting the solution would be a reversal of the area's latest reopenings.
In addition to stores, restaurants and offices, the business that will be able to shift to 75% capacity on Monday include manufacturers, museums, libraries and gyms.
As for elective procedures, Abbott said the restoration is effective immediately. In early July, also as part of Abbott's response to the statewide surge, Abbott expanded a ban on elective surgeries to cover more than 100 counties across much of the state.
The new rules governing nursing-home visitation go into effect Sept. 24. They apply to "all nursing-home facilities, assisted-living centers, state-supported living centers and other long-term care facilities," Abbott said.
After Abbott’s news conference, the state Health and Human Services Commission detailed the new visitation rules. They allow residents to designate up to two “essential family caregivers” who will be trained and then permitted to to go inside a resident’s room for a scheduled visit. The designated caregivers do not have to socially distance from the resident, but only one is allowed to visit at a time.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/17/greg-abbott-texas-coronavirus/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Testing Backlogs Skewed Coronavirus Data
The Texas Department of State Health Services said it will now rely on a calculation that takes into account the date on which a coronavirus test was administered, rather than when it was reported.
Texas officials change how the state reports positivity rate after testing backlogs skewed coronavirus data
"Texas officials change how the state reports positivity rate after testing backlogs skewed coronavirus data" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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Texas health officials announced Monday that they are changing the way the state reports a key metric used to evaluate the extent of coronavirus infection, a move that conceded that the state’s previous method of calculating the “positivity rate” muddied the extent of viral transmission by mixing old data with new.
The Texas Department of State Health Services said it will now “primarily rely” on a new calculation of the daily positivity rate — defined as the share of tests that yield positive results — that takes into account the date on which a coronavirus test was administered. Officials said the new metric will give a more accurate representation of viral transmission in Texas on a given day.
It also means that each day’s positivity rate will be an oft-changing number, fluctuating as officials collect lab results over time. Labs and hospitals report their test results to the state with varying degrees of timeliness, and state officials will have to recalculate the positivity rates for previous days as more test results from those dates pour in.
That’s a departure from the current system, which calculates the positivity rate based on the date the health agency receives test results, which can be weeks or even months after the tests were administered.
It marks the latest in a series of data methodology changes and corrections health officials have issued over the course of the pandemic.
While touting the new reporting method as an improvement, state officials defended the old system as providing the best information that was available at the time. The new positivity rate for the most part closely resembles the old metric, particularly when viewed as a trend line over time, officials said.
Health department spokesperson Chris Van Deusen said in an email that the different positivity rates generally moved in parallel until about August, when the state reported dumps of test results. “As long as the test results and new cases were reported fairly close in time, the case reported date was working as a metric,” he said.
Asked if the health department had concerns about the accuracy of the positivity rate before August, Van Deusen said, “We have to go off of the data that we have.”
The state said it will begin releasing the positivity rate under both the new and old methods later Monday. Health officials said they will publish a third positivity rate metric, which is calculated based on when lab results were reported to a national disease surveillance system, NEDSS, which officials said would reduce reporting lag time.
In its announcement, the Texas Department of State Health Services said the new calculations for the positivity rate will provide a more accurate representation of coronavirus transmission on any given day. It said the change was made after technology improvements last month improved the department's ability to use data from labs and other testing sites. The agency said that until recently, it wasn’t able to track test results by the date they were administered.
The state can now process about 100,000 lab reports per day, officials said, compared with about 45,000 per day before August.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, so must the data we share,” Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner John Hellerstedt said in a prepared statement. “Our information must provide the clearest possible picture of what is happening now and what has occurred in the past.”
Gov. Greg Abbott has pointed to the positivity rate as one metric that guides the state’s response to the pandemic, helping policymakers calibrate the level of restrictions placed on bars and restaurants, for example. Abbott has previously said that a rate above 10% would be considered a red flag. According to the state's old calculations, the rate regularly exceeded that level in late June, after Abbott began allowing businesses to reopen in phases in early May.
The department did not immediately respond to a question about whether it agrees with the governor’s threshold.
Health experts have raised questions about the value of the old metric since it included test results from widely variable time periods, and they have pointed out the limitations of the state’s data.
“The numbers that we see from the county health departments or the state health department … they're not useless, but they are highly qualified and unreliable in terms of studying the trend,” Rajesh Nandy, associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, has said.
Coronavirus test results vastly undercount the extent of viral transmission; researchers estimate that the true number of coronavirus cases could be more than 10 times the number of positive tests. As many as half of the people who contract the virus may never experience symptoms and may not seek out testing.
Texas health officials said Monday that the positivity rate is just one of many metrics that inform disease surveillance. After a midsummer surge that overwhelmed some Texas hospitals, particularly in South Texas, the state’s number of coronavirus hospitalizations has fallen in August and September. Still, rates of viral spread and hospitalizations are higher now than they were before Abbott began the phased reopening of businesses in May. More than 14,000 Texans have died from the virus, according to the state’s accounting.
The decision to start calculating and posting the additional positivity rates began this summer, when thousands of backlogged tests were added to the health department’s reporting system, causing the positivity rate to spike, health department officials said.
Part of that logjam — some 350,000 of more than 850,000 tests — had accumulated because the state could not process enough test results each day before an Aug. 1 system upgrade. Labs have also struggled to upload their test results to the state’s system, with formatting errors and glitches as minor as an errant question mark sometimes causing monthslong delays. Local officials and lawmakers have called the data “meaningless” and “inaccurate.”
Just Sunday, San Antonio officials shared a health department email that revealed more backlogs — this time of roughly 205,000 test results from HCA Houston Healthcare, including 21,366 positive cases extending as far back as March. Baylor Scott and White and the health department’s own lab in Austin also encountered a “routing error” during the system upgrade that prevented some 140,000 test results from June to the present from being processed into NEDSS.
Van Deusen said some of the cases were reported to local health departments despite the “routing error.”
“I wish I could guarantee there would never be another IT issue that interrupts lab reports, but that’s probably not realistic,” Van Deusen said.
About 800 facilities have registered or are in the process of working with the health department to submit test results — many of them long-term care facilities, including nursing homes that are now under a federal mandate to regularly test staff for the first time, Van Deusen said. The department could not immediately provide a number for how many labs already testing Texans have been unable to upload their results into the state system so far.
The state has hired health technology company Persivia to help improve the reporting process. Another consultant, Deloitte, joined the Department of Information Resources and Abbott’s office in working with DSHS to improve “data quality and transparency,” the health department said.
State data will also start to more accurately and efficiently separate tests by county, which could eliminate a large pool of tests that have been stubbornly categorized as “pending assignment” without being tied to a specific county, health officials said.
Disclosure: The University of North Texas Health Science Center, Baylor Scott and White, and Deloitte have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/14/texas-coronavirus-positivity-rate/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Military will not be the First Group to Receive the Coronavirus Vaccine
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has developed a plan to develop a coronavirus vaccine at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
By Menda Eulenfeld, Sept. 4, 2020
An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has developed a framework for implementing a plan to develop a coronavirus vaccine at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
According to an article by Military.com a four tier plan for the vaccine has been recommended. In the plan, the military will not be selected as the first group to receive the vaccine. “…the military has had 38,424 cases of the coronavirus and seven service members have died. About 575 people have been hospitalized and 23,011 have recovered, according to Pentagon data.”
Tier 1: The highest priority target groups who serve important societal needs (e.g., health care providers, emergency services personnel, pandemic vaccine and antiviral drug manufacturers) and vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women and infants;
Tier 2: Groups critical to national security (e.g., National Guard, intelligence services), critical community support personnel (e.g., pharmacists), other critical infrastructure (e.g., just-in-time utility services), high-risk children aged 3–18 years old, and household contacts of infants <6 months old;
Tier 3: Other critical infrastructure groups (e.g., those that maintain transportation, financial infrastructure), other health care, critical government personnel, and children aged 3–18 years without a high-risk condition;
Tier 4: Adults aged 19–64 years with high-risk conditions and adults aged >65 years;
Tier 5: Healthy adults aged 19–64 years not included in other groups.
Source: The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine
Special Education Students Lost Help During Lockdown
Ten percent of Texas public school students need special education resources, and many were left stranded when schools closed abruptly in the spring.
Special education students lost crucial help when
the pandemic hit. Texas schools are still struggling to
restore it.
By Stacy Fernández, August 28, 2020
Since March, Melissa and her husband have gutted their savings, spending more than $5,000 caring for their three children. Most of the money has gone to child care and speech therapy for their daughter Nora. Two weeks ago, the couple put their house up for sale.
Five-year-old Nora is on the autism spectrum and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, her mother says. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Nora attended school full time in the Katy Independent School District and had access to a suite of behavioral therapists, speech therapists and special education teachers. But that resource lifeline has been cut for nearly six months, and her parents have only been able to afford select specialists since.
She’s at an age when special education intervention and socializing with other kids are crucial. Without them, she could lose out on building key skills — like learning how to intuitively communicate with others — that she may never pick back up. It only takes two weeks without school for Nora to regress. Since schools closed, Melissa has noticed it’s harder for her daughter to pick up on social cues, like when someone speaks to her and it doesn’t click that she has to respond.
“She’s starting to become more self-aware of other kids not liking her, so she’s not even willing to practice those skills anymore, so that’s a little heartbreaking,” said Melissa, who asked the the family’s last name not be used to protect their privacy. “I don’t know if she’ll become more reclusive because of that or if she’ll be able to pick that back up.”
Nearly 10% of Texas public school students — about half a million — receive special education services through their schools, which offer help with a wide range of behavioral, emotional and physical challenges.
When schools shuttered in the spring, many families were left to manage their children’s learning and seek out special services, like therapy, on their own. Educators, many new to remote teaching themselves, struggled to adapt students’ individual learning plans to a virtual world.
For students with more intensive needs, both cognitive and physical, being at home without access to the many professionals they work with is an “incredible burden to put on parents,” said Lindsay Jones, chief executive officer of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Families don’t have the training to provide the support their children need, she said. Districts need to provide ways to get parents those services online and in “unique and creative ways.”
The online classes offered during the initial months of the pandemic largely did not serve the needs of students with disabilities, parents and educators say. Some classes were prerecorded, and curriculum was more text- and reading-heavy than traditional schooling, putting students who struggle with reading at a disadvantage. Special education students were often left stranded in front of screens. Experts say it’s important to get special education students who have trouble with online learning adapted resources, and some need to be back in classrooms.
As the new school year begins, districts are pushing to do that as quickly as possible, knowing that valuable ground is lost as time slips away.
Pandemic-era school this fall will almost surely be better executed than in the spring, educators say, but with many school buildings still closed, some parents aren’t confident that the education offered to their children will be enough. Some students will struggle to recoup lost progress and move forward in their learning, which could have long-lasting effects.
The health risks of in-person learning for students who may already have physical vulnerabilities has left may families torn. Some would prefer that their children continue learning virtually. Other parents are pushing to reopen in-person classrooms, fearing that without them, their kids will stagnate and regress, cut off from access to crucial resources.
Nora’s teachers from the Katy school district are doing the best they can, her mother said. They’ve uploaded videos on YouTube, created new lesson plans for online learning and checked in on the family via phone and text, though much of that hasn’t been done since early May. What Melissa really wants is for Nora to go back to school.
“The [skills] I worry about the most are probably her socialization because I don’t want her to be lonely in life, where if she sucks at math I can live with that,” Melissa said.
Katy ISD has a reputation as a district with the bandwidth, expertise and resources for children with disabilities. But even a district lauded as a hub for special education is struggling.
Maria Corrales DiPetta, a Katy ISD spokesperson, said in an email that the district will continue providing students the services outlined in their individualized education plans. If accommodations need to be made for distance learning, a meeting will be convened to review options with the student’s parent and support committee.
Some families in the district have been critical of how it is approaching reopening. The district’s local health authority has mandated that schools remain closed to in-person learning until Harris County drops below Red Alert level 1, which means the county needs to average 400 or fewer new cases of COVID-19 over a 14-day period, among other factors, according to county reopening guidelines.
In a letter signed last week by the superintendents of 10 school districts, including Kenneth Gregorski of Katy ISD, school leaders called the threshold for reopening schools “not attainable” and said they cannot support “your recommendation that would essentially require indefinite closure.”
“We must come to grips with the fact that in order to learn and grow, students must be healthy and safe. That means not setting arbitrary dates for reopening schools that provide false hope, dates this virus does not recognize or respect. Instead, our focus should be on thresholds and on developing measured reopening plans,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a written statement.
Earlier this month, the Texas Education Agency released suggested guidelines for schools to consider students with special needs in their reopening plans and virtual learning strategies. The agency suggested access to assistive technology — things like audiobooks, alternative keyboards and screen readers — and spacing out classrooms with mobility needs, like wheelchairs, in mind. The agency also asked schools to consider on-campus, remote, hybrid and intermittent closure models.
On the ground, Texas schools are trying to figure out how to adjust their special education programs and improve on last spring’s makeshift efforts.
Premont Independent School District in south Texas will open its doors to students with disabilities in late August, weeks before welcoming back general education students in person. North East Independent School District in San Antonio is using Google Classroom, which has built-in accessibility tools like audio for students with hearing impairments and those who have trouble with reading. In other districts, some teachers are moving classes outdoors to make physical contact with students safer.
But some parents can’t wait any longer for public schools to work out solutions. A few weeks ago, 14-year-old Katie, whose disabilities include Asperger’s, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder, started school at a residential mental health treatment center in San Marcos instead of her school in the Keller Independent School District, said her father, Chuck Lee.
Katie’s parents were advised to send her to the care center for up to three months after she tried to hurt herself, an act her parents believe resulted in part from the stress of the pandemic.
For months, Katie moved between her mother’s house and her father’s. The routine for online school was the same in both homes. Katie would sit and stare at the screen. Click. Click. “Type some stuff,” and that was it, her father said. None of the services she was used to, like face-to-face counseling, could be offered through a laptop. Social reinforcement couldn’t be done through a screen.
“The specialized support she gets to help her with her academics, it’s gone from teacher’s aides and special education specialists and the teachers conforming to her [individualized learning program] to just her mother and I and the laptop,” Lee said.
Under federal law, students with disabilities are entitled to a free education that helps them make progress academically and socially.
A hallmark of special education is the individualized education plan put together for each child by a team that often includes parents, teachers and specialists. Some students may need extra time or additional resources, like word banks and calculators, during tests. Others may need full-time aides or physical therapy.
It’s generally understood that the current health crisis presents limitations, but “there’s no exception for a pandemic,” said Dustin Rynders, supervising attorney at Disability Rights Texas.
Katie’s stay at the center is temporary, but as long as she’s there, Lee has more confidence that she’ll get the education she needs.
“It took our daughter a long time to understand that it wasn’t punitive, it wasn’t punishment, she wasn’t being sent away to ‘the bad kid’s place.’ But we just couldn’t get the resources and services that she needed. It’s our hope that … there’s some semblance of normalcy when she comes back,” Lee said.
In some districts, students with disabilities that affect their reading or math comprehension are now spending most of their school days in virtual classes with their general education peers and teachers who may not be know how to make the classes accessible for them, said Jones, of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.
It’s possible that students will be sitting at home staring at their computers unable to do work because they can’t understand the lessons without the teachers turning on accessibility tools, which many general education teachers are unfamiliar with using, Jones said.
Ten-year-old Max had his first day of virtual fifth grade in mid-August. Aside from a hiccup in the morning with logging into Google Classroom, virtual learning went smoothly. There were audio options for Max, who has dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, general education and special education classes for reading and math were staggered throughout his day — but his usual hourlong extra help sessions were cut to just 30 minutes.
Halley Justus, Max’s mom, will tentatively let her son continue in the North East ISD school during the initial three-week remote-learning period. If she sees improvements in his learning, she’ll likely keep him in the school district.
But like many parents and experts, she’s anticipating gaps in what the local public school district can provide and has already begun looking into alternative education programs that she hopes will better meet Max’s needs.
Advocates and special education experts are urging parents to meet with their children’s education teams and look for solutions before pulling them out of their schools. Rynders and his team have found that most schools are open to finding solutions, “but there will still be cases where combat and compensatory education is needed.”
Paying for online school, which Justus estimated would cost about $1,500 a semester, would be a financial burden for Justus, who had to get a laptop from the school after her son did the bulk of his virtual learning on her smartphone in the spring. But with a scholarship, the switch may be feasible, she said.
“If he’s being neglected and he’s not getting the resources, then I already decided I would put him in one of the actual online schools, the ones that have been doing it since before the pandemic,” Justus said.
"Special education students lost crucial help when the pandemic hit. Texas schools are still struggling to restore it." was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/28/texas-schools-special-education/ by The Texas Tribune.
Texas bar Owners are on the Brink of Losing Everything
Some bar owners are planning to reopen in defiance of the moratorium, a desperate attempt to generate income — and draw Gov. Greg Abbott’s attention.
With no end to the shutdown in sight, Texas bar owners and employees are on the brink of losing everything
"With no end to the shutdown in sight, Texas bar owners and employees are on the brink of losing everything" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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Holly Jackson has spent 20 years working for the Austin nightclub Barbarella, where crowds of customers danced and drank until the early morning hours. But for months, there’s been no music or cocktails at Barbarella. And Jackson and around 30 of her employees have been furloughed.
“I have no idea what’s gonna happen to me, honestly,” said Jackson, the bar’s general manager. “I feel like I’ve lost my right arm. I have no family. I have no kids, no husband. My entire identity in life was Barbarella. And now that’s gone.”
Gov. Greg Abbott has shut down Barbarella, along with the rest of Texas’ bars, twice — once in March and again in June — in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus. There is no end in sight for when bars will be allowed to reopen, leaving those business owners and their workers worried about how long they can hang on until they lose everything. In some cases, bar owners are planning to reopen anyway in a desperate attempt to generate some income — and draw Abbott’s attention.
Jackson joins thousands of service industry workers who have filed for unemployment, with restaurant and bar workers leading the state in number of claims. About 12.5% of the 3.2 million unemployment claims filed in Texas between the beginning of March and early August have come from workers in the accommodation and food services sector.
But economists say joblessness in Texas will only improve when the state has a handle on the coronavirus and consumers feel like they can safely patronize businesses in person. Still, Texas is experiencing record numbers of deaths related to the coronavirus and high numbers of hospitalizations.
While some bars can serve to-go items or reopen as restaurants, both of these options require them to have a permanent kitchen, excluding many bars across the state. Chris Porter, a spokesperson for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, said about 6,600 active businesses were required to close under the order.
Jackson said she feels abandoned by the state and is frustrated by the “radio silence” from the governor. Abbott addressed the shutdown last week, expressing sympathy for employees put out of work. But he said the closure would need to continue until coronavirus metrics improve significantly — with the state’s positivity rate dropping below 10% for a sustained period of time and the number of hospitalizations decreasing.
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But many bar owners say their businesses might not survive that long.
Last month, Elizabeth McNiel was forced to move into an RV along with her husband and 14-year-old son behind Ironwood Saloon in Sabinal.
Her husband was the bar’s general manager, and now they’re relying on her income as a school teacher to scrape by. They’ve depleted their savings and maxed out credit cards trying to keep their dream of owning a bar afloat.
“I don't want to lose a dream that we've had for years,” McNiel said. “But on Sept. 1, I will have to close these doors for good.”
The TABC recently allowed some bars and other businesses with high alcohol sales to reopen as restaurants after they applied for food and beverage certificates. However, this workaround requires businesses to have an onsite kitchen and keep alcohol sales under 51%, which excludes many bars across the state and is sometimes cost prohibitive.
Kim Finch owns two bars in Dallas, but neither has a kitchen. So she’s going all in on a third bar — a lease she signed before the pandemic began — that is under construction with a kitchen that will allow it to open as a restaurant.
But even once it’s open, she doesn’t know if it’ll be enough to offset her losses.
“I have absolutely no way to make any income or revenue to pay all the bills, taxes, rent that are due. I can’t provide jobs for my employees,” she said. “I have no way to save my businesses that I’ve worked 17 years to build. And I’m afraid I’m going to not only lose my businesses but lose my house.”
Finch has cashed out all of her investments and her life insurance policy and has depleted 15 years of savings. It’s money she won’t get back even if her businesses survive. She tried opening a pop-up market but was told that wasn’t allowed because even without alcohol, her business was still a bar.
“It’s disheartening. It’s frustrating. It’s maddening,” she said. “I understand there was bad bar operators, too, that were not adhering to guidelines, but it sucks for the ones that were trying really hard to be safe.”
Reopening in protest
Some bar owners say they have no choice but to open in defiance of the state moratorium.
Hundreds of bar owners across the state participated in a demonstration late last month called Freedom Fest, intended to prove that they could open safely. As a result, 16 bars’ liquor licenses were suspended.
Chris Polone, the event’s organizer and owner of the Rail Club Live in Fort Worth, said the event adhered to strict safety precautions — limiting capacity to 25%, requiring masks at all times and enforcing social distancing.
And last week, around 100 bar owners gathered to protest near the TABC office.
But Polone said the group hasn’t been able to discuss the situation with anyone from the TABC or from Abbott’s office.
So now, Polone said some bars are making plans for another unified reopening Aug. 29 dubbed Come and Take It.
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“We don’t have a choice. Our livelihoods are on the line,” he said. “We’re opening and we’re not closing back down.”
The hope is that if enough bars reopen, the TABC will be overwhelmed and unable to enforce the shutdown order, Polone said.
Polone said he will be selling small ownership stakes of his business instead of tickets to his customers — since he says owners of the bars are still allowed to be inside.
“We’re not selling cover charges,” he said.“We’re making everybody an owner.”
A. Bentley Nettles, executive director of the TABC, addressed rumors of bars reopening in an Aug. 7 letter to the industry.
“Recently we have spoken with business owners who tell us they don’t intend to follow the orders. On that note, I want to remind every member of this industry that it is a privilege to be in the alcoholic beverage business in Texas,” Nettles said in the letter. “When a business tells TABC it doesn’t intend to follow these orders, you leave the agency with no option but to revoke your license and shut you down.”
Porter said any business that defies Abbott’s order will first face a 30-day suspension of its license to sell alcohol. Second offenses will result in a 60-day suspension, with third offenses leading to “stronger actions up to and including cancellation of the permit.”
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Music venues
The bar shutdown is also hurting Texas musicians and concert venues.
About 90% of National Independent Venue Association members report that they will close permanently in a few months without federal funding, according to an internal survey. Many bars have doubled as music venues and vice versa.
“I haven't had a paying gig since Feb. 11,” Austin drummer Mike Webb said. “Nobody I know has gotten any gigs.”
Some of his musician friends have moved on to other jobs. One is a janitor now. Another is working at a grocery store.
According to the Austin Chamber of Commerce, 83% of the city’s live music venues and 70% of the restaurant and bar owners reported in a survey that they had to lay off full-time employees.
“Most of those businesses indicated that if something doesn't give in the next few months, that they are at risk of closing their doors,” said Laura Huffman, CEO of the Austin chamber.
Polone said the economic effects of music venues ripple outward, funding musicians, agents, sound engineers, distribution companies, public relations firms and other businesses. The National Independent Venue Association estimates that for every dollar spent at music venues, $12 is generated in economic activity.
“If we lose,” he said, referring to venues being forced to close, “music, in my opinion, will never be the same. The local music business will never be the same.”
Lack of collaboration from Abbott
State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, said closing bars, breweries and other businesses with high alcohol sales while restaurants are allowed open is unfair and impractical.
“You can go into a restaurant and you can drink, you could buy a $10 hamburger and fries and you could order three drinks,” Schaefer said. “You could sit there and have your drinks and eat your hamburger, without a mask. Tell me how that’s any different.”
He said there’s been a lack of collaboration among lawmakers with both Abbott and with the TABC.
Porter, from TABC, disagreed.
“From the beginning of this crisis, TABC has worked closely with stakeholders to assist struggling businesses and at the same time protect the health of Texans,” he said. “We’ve also worked directly with industry members and state lawmakers to find ways of assisting businesses.”
Schaefer said lawmakers will have to look at options in the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January, to find ways to offer relief to the food and beverage industry.
“We’ve got to find economic relief for this industry when you have livelihoods essentially being destroyed by government order,” Schaefer said, adding that it’ll be a challenge due to a constricted budget.
State Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, said she’s unsure that indoor dining of any kind is a good idea right now and believes that a lot of the COVID-19 cases that came on the heels of Texas’ phased reopening could be tied to restaurant and bar activity.
But Zwiener lamented that there has not been enough collaboration between Abbott and lawmakers. Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.
“I really wish Abbott would work more closely with legislators, but his, his circle seems to only get smaller,” she said. “Absolutely legislators are, by and large, not at the table, and that seems to be a bipartisan frustration.”
For Jackson, the general manager of Barbarella, the hardest thing to grapple with is that she has no idea what comes next. She’s running out of options while waiting for something to change.
“I have mentally in my head prepared myself to have to lose my house and probably move back home to Orlando with my mom at 40 years old,” she said. “It’s scary. I did what I was supposed to do. I went to college and worked my ass off at the same job, bought a house, and now it’s all being taken away for something that I didn’t do.”
Disclosure: The Austin Chamber of Commerce has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/21/texas-bars-shutdown/.
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Isolation of Nursing Homes During the Lockdown
Texas eased restrictions on visitation in long-term care facilities last week, but many families remain unsure if they will be allowed to visit. For those cut off from their loved ones for almost five months, isolation is becoming another very real threat.
By Sarah R. Champagne , August 14, 2020
After 70 years of marriage, the coronavirus tore Margie and Werner Stalbaum apart. But Margie, who was positive for COVID-19, wasn’t the one who died. It was Werner, of natural causes — and maybe of loneliness.
In early June, when 87-year-old Margie tested positive for the virus in the Cedar Park nursing home where they lived together, she was transferred to a different facility in nearby Round Rock to be isolated.
When their granddaughter Serena Bumpus visited Werner during that period, she talked to him through a window. Werner, who was 88 years old with dementia, would point at his wife’s empty bed, looking as if he didn’t know what was going on.
“Part of me wonders, and the rest of my family wonders, did he think she had already passed?” said Bumpus, who is a nurse. “And he just thought, ‘It’s time for me to go be with her.’”
The coronavirus pandemic has been a constant and precarious balancing act between limiting the spread of the virus and the need for life to go on. In few places has this balance been more delicate than in long-term care facilities, where elderly and medically fragile residents have been deprived of visits from loved ones for almost five months.
For some families, that wait is ending as the state rolls out new rules to allow visitation again in certain nursing homes and assisted living facilities, but it remains unclear how many facilities can — or will — start allowing visits. And some families say the damage to their loved ones from prolonged isolation has already been done.
As the pandemic reached the U.S. — and began ravaging nursing homes soon after — most states with coronavirus outbreaks closed visitation at long-term care facilities. Recently, some states have begun allowing visitors again as the COVID-19 curve flattened.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott shut down visitation in mid-March. That order remained in effect for 145 days until Aug. 6, when the state eased restrictions for facilities that don’t have any active COVID-19 cases among residents or confirmed cases among staff in the last two weeks.
Of Texas’ 1,215 nursing homes, 56% still had active cases on Thursday while more than 15% of the 2,000 assisted living facilities have reported active infections.
Once a facility determines it can allow visitors, the next step is to get approval from the state if it decides to resume visitation — and that’s up to each facility, Texas Health and Human Services spokesperson Kelli Weldon said in an email. Weldon added that the state doesn’t yet have a list of facilities that have been approved to resume visitation.
It’s up to families to contact the facilities to find out whether they are able to allow limited visitation. Even facilities that meet the requirements cannot allow physical contact between residents and visitors, state officials said.
Genny Lutzel holds a photograph of her mother, Paula Spangler, 80, outside her home in Rockwall on Aug. 06, 2020. Lutzel hasn't seen her mother, who lives in a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer's, since March due to COVID-19.
Genny Lutzel stretches her hand as she describes her experience visiting her mother through a window outside of a nursing home, outside her home in Rockwall on Aug. 06, 2020. Lutzel hasn't seen her mother, who lives in a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer's, since March due to COVID-19. Lutzel stopped visiting her mother through a window because, she says, "the experience for her (mom) is very confusing" due to the Alzheimer's.
Genny Lutzel covers her mouth as tears fill her eyes while holding a photograph of her mother, Paula Spangler, 80, outside her home in Rockwall on Aug. 06, 2020. Lutzel hasn't seen her mother, who lives in a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer's, since March due to COVID-19.
For many families, this is not acceptable.
“My mom has Alzheimer’s, she is nonverbal," says Genny Lutzel, whose mother Paula is in an assisted living facility in Rockwall, near Dallas. "Everything in her world is sensory, sensory touch, sensory communication. And we can’t touch.”
COVID-19 has been so devastating in long-term care — with close to 22,000 infections and over 3,100 deaths in Texas since the beginning of the pandemic — that facilities are fearful of allowing any visitors and wary of putting more pressure on their staff, who will have to supervise every minute of the visits, said Jude Goodson, former executive director of Orchard Park at Southfork, an assisted living facility south of Houston.
Goodson said the pandemic has put facilities under tremendous financial pressure because of expenses like protective equipment for staff and technology to keep the residents in touch with their families. Meanwhile, revenues have dropped because of fewer new admissions and more deaths, she said.
“With severe financial issues, where is that extra staff [to manage visitations] going to come from?” Goodson said.
Roadblocks to visits
Abbott’s March order halting visitation didn’t halt the spread of COVID-19 among some of the state’s most at-risk residents. After the governor allowed businesses to gradually reopen in May and June, infections in nursing homes and assisted living facilities soared. In July, more than 11,000 of their residents were infected, and 1,350 died — more than four times the totals for June.
While families were banned from entering the facilities, infected staff members brought the virus to work with them, health experts say. Once inside a facility, it spreads “like a wildfire,” Phil Wilson, the acting executive commissioner for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said during a webinar about the new visitation rules on Aug. 7.
The visitation rules are taking effect even as cases in nursing homes and assisted living centers are still growing, with deaths in long-term care facilities still making up for a third of the state’s overall toll. More than 1,100 new cases have been reported over the past week, a 54% drop compared to the last week of July — which saw some of the highest case numbers of the pandemic — but still more than double the weekly average for June.
Under the new rules, in addition to being COVID-free, nursing homes — the hardest hit facilities — will also have to test their staff every week, which has been difficult to achieve because of limited access to testing.
“Testing has been an ongoing challenge,” Kevin Warren, president and CEO of the Texas Health Care Association, which represents long-term care facilities, said last week after the new rules were published. Facilities can perform their own testing, using federal funds allocated for COVID-19, but without that federal money, Warren said it can cost facilities up to $15,000 a week to perform tests.
In July, the state tested all residents and staff in only about 7% of long-term care facilities, either through requests by the facilities or through quick response teams the state deployed after outbreaks were reported. In August, the state plans to test residents at 9% of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
At the end of July, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services started sending devices to nursing homes that can perform antigen tests on-the-spot within minutes; 372 have been allocated so far at Texas’ more than 1,200 nursing homes. Antigen tests are taken by nasal or throat swab like other tests, and while faster, they generate more false negative results than other kind of test.
But the new requirement to test all staff weekly could be a Catch-22 for nursing homes: those with no active case aren’t prioritized to receive those testing devices.
“I don’t see how a nursing facility can test staff weekly without point-of-care testing [with the federally-supplied devices],” said Patty Ducayet, the state’s long-term care ombudsman, adding that she has no evidence that the state is fulfilling the remaining need.
Isolation kills too
Lutzel said she has been visiting her mom through a window since March.
“I know they’re doing everything they can, but there is just no substitute for a family member,” she said.
Scientists have long studied the effect of social interaction on the brain; the pandemic has offered a grim occasion to measure the consequences of the lack of interaction.
Isolation can lead to mental and physical decline, said Dr. Carmel Dyer, professor and executive director of the Consortium on Aging at UTHealth in Houston. Anxiety and depression increase with social isolation.
“One thing that our brains like the most is social interaction,” says Dr. Janice Knebl, professor in geriatrics at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
Both said several of their patients in long-term care have shown signs of declining health at a much faster pace than the normal course of aging or dementia.
Leora and Aretha Carter have also noticed the rapid decline of their mom, Willie Mae Carter, who is in Ridgecrest Retirement and Healthcare in Waco, during their weekly through-the-window visits.
“She had dementia but could still recognize us even if it took a minute. Now she won’t even get up out of a chair. I understand she’s 90 years old, but it occurred so quickly,” Leora Carter said.
She had a chance to do an outside visit with her mother in mid-May, but being six feet apart was hard, and the ritual hug to say goodbye was impossible.
Dyer said people with moderate to severe dementia are not always aware of the reasons why their loved ones can’t visit or hug them and might feel abandoned.
The new state rules allow for a “failure to thrive” exception to the visitation ban, which has to be documented and is only allowed at facilities that meet the other requirements.
Under the exception, if a physician diagnoses a decline in a resident’s physical or mental health, one person can be designated to be the sole visitor for that person, and not just in end-of-life situations as has been the case.
“Signs of a failure to thrive include weight loss, decreased appetite, poor nutrition, and inactivity,” reads the new emergency rules for nursing facilities.
For Renee Griggs, the fact that rules are different for different facilities creates “a lot of confusion.”
Her mother suffers from dementia and lives in an assisted living facility called The Grandview of Chisholm Trail in Fort Worth. When she talked to the facility on Friday, they didn’t know if they could or were going to allow visits.
Griggs said her mother has lost 16 pounds since January, and she’s gone from remembering her daughter to being disoriented and incontinent.
“Even though COVID itself is not killing my mom, the consequences of the disease are killing her,” she said.
She picked her mother up last week on Friday for an essential doctor’s appointment. She still has not driven her back to the facility. “I just couldn’t do that,” she said.
The Stalbaum family thinks Werner Stalbaum could be another victim of the virus who never contracted it. Werner and Margie Stalbaum in May 2020, about two months after Texas nursing homes were locked down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Margie Stalbaum was her husband’s “lifeline,” and putting her in quarantine took away the one person “who kept things familiar,” Bumpus said.
They had never been apart for so long, she added, and Werner’s health declined quickly after his wife was transferred.
Bumpus had a chance to visit her grandfather in his last hours, because of the exception to the visitation ban for compassionate end-of-life care. Bumpus said what she saw still haunts her; in 18 years of nursing, she said she had never seen such a “look of defeat on everyone’s face,” including residents and the staff.
That day, Margie Stalbaum was still waiting for a second test to come back negative so she could be reunited with her husband. She learned through a wrought iron fence, through masks and distance, that the love of her life was gone.
“She could hardly formulate a sentence” after she returned to the Cedar Park facility, Bumpus said, adding that she believes isolation caused her grandmother to become disoriented.
Only at Werner’s funeral did it become clear that Margie didn’t fully grasp what had happened.
“And so when she is rolled up to the casket to say goodbye, she looks at my aunt and says ‘Oh my god, he died,’” Bumpus said.
"The crushing isolation of nursing homes during the pandemic" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/14/texas-nursing-home-visitation-coronavirus-isolation/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.
Bars and Restaurants Reinvent Themselves to get Around Shutdown
Businesses that make up most of their sales with alcohol were closed down by Abbott's latest shutdown order, leaving them to maneuver through loopholes to reopen.
Restaurants, bars and breweries scramble to reinvent themselves to get around Gov. Greg Abbott's bar shutdown
"Restaurants, bars and breweries scramble to reinvent themselves to get around Gov. Greg Abbott's bar shutdown" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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Hundreds of Texas bars and restaurants are scrambling to change how they operate, maneuvering through loopholes that will allow them to reopen after being closed by Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest shutdown targeting bars.
Abbott has shut bars down twice since the coronavirus pandemic emerged in Texas. The first time bars were swept up in a total lockdown of statewide businesses. But the second time, on June 26, Abbott singled bars out while allowing virtually every other kind of business in Texas to stay open.
But other operations such as restaurants that sell a lot of booze, wineries and breweries were ensnared in the same order and also forced to close because alcohol sales exceeded 51% of total revenue, meaning they were classified as bars.
“Generally everyone has a common sense understanding: ‘What is a bar? And what is a restaurant?’ I think that 51% rule is so broad that it actually picks up or encompasses businesses that we would normally think of as really being restaurants,” said State Rep. John Wray, R-Waxahachie, one of more than 65 lawmakers who signed a letter asking Abbott to update his order’s definition of a restaurant.
Wray gave the example of a burger restaurant, where a patron might buy a burger and two beers. Oftentimes, the beer will cost more than the food, but that doesn’t make the restaurant a bar, he said.
Emily Williams Knight, Texas Restaurant Association president, estimates that about 1,500 restaurants ranging from steak houses to coffee shops that sell wine were “inadvertently” forced to close when Abbott shut down bars, translating to about 35,000 lost jobs in the state.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission responded to outcry from the service industry with new guidance in a July 30 notice allowing businesses to either demonstrate that they recently had less than 51% alcohol sales or use alcohol sales projections and apply for a Food and Beverage Certificate, documentation that allows them to reopen as a restaurant.
The certificate workaround requires the business to have a permanent kitchen. It allows bars and restaurants to use projected sales numbers instead of requiring past sales to determine if alcohol sales exceed food sales.
The TABC received more than 600 requests from existing businesses for Food and Beverage Certificates since Abbott’s order took place and granted about 300, according to commission spokesperson Chris Porter. Almost 90 businesses have also requested to update their alcohol sales numbers in an effort to reopen.
The Texas restaurant industry is already struggling, with Knight projecting that up to 30% of restaurants in the state could go out of business.
For those forced to shut down due to the bar order, it can be a death sentence and business owners see these changes as their last hope.
After his Dallas restaurant was closed for a second time, Lava Cantina owner Ian Vaughn knew he’d have to figure out a way to reopen — and fast — for the sake of his more than 100 employees and to save his business.
After three weeks of pursuing various options to reopen, Vaughn updated his sales numbers to include live music ticket sales from concerts, knocking his alcohol sales percentage down to about 39%. This allowed him to resume operations.
“I was highly distressed throughout the entire time," Vaughn said. "I had over 100 people out of work, and I just needed to get my staff back, and I had bills to cover and no idea how we were going to ultimately make ends meet. You feel completely helpless.”
Even some traditional bars can reopen using the same workarounds outlined by the TABC — as long as they have, or will obtain, permanent food service facilities.
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Justin Kaufman, owner of the El Paso Drafthouse and The Rey Muerto, decided to reopen his bars as restaurants by using future sales projections to get a Food and Beverage Certificate.
Functionally, Kaufman’s businesses operate almost the same as before the second shutdown, using the safety measures he implemented when he was first allowed to reopen. He offers the same menus but now requires all patrons to purchase food with their drinks to ensure he stays under the 51% alcohol sales limit. He also hired additional chefs to deal with the increased food sales.
Although he’s happy to be open, finding a way through the state’s loopholes took time and money.
Kaufman estimates that the entire process, from hiring new chefs to deal with increased food sales to applying for the permits cost him around $10,000.
“I wish things have been a little different, and I wish we'd been taken into consideration,” he said. “I've had no choice but to kind of sidestep these situations and do what I got to do to stay open.”
However, the option to reopen doesn't work for everyone. Kim Finch, owner of Dallas bars the Double Wide and the Single Wide, said adding just one kitchen to her facilities would cost about $30,000. A grease trap alone would cost $15,000, she said.
After already draining her savings to keep the bills paid while her businesses are bringing in zero income, adding that expense not an option for her.
“You're just in the dark, you know nothing," she said. "No one’s mentioned a ‘maybe date.' There's not too much longer that we can all just stay closed and keep paying bills.”
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Breweries also found themselves forced to shut down by Abbott’s order, with two-thirds of Texas craft brewery owners predicting that their businesses could close permanently by the end of the year under the current closures, according to a July survey by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild.
Hopsquad Brewing Co., an Austin brewery, reopened as a restaurant using a Food and Beverage Certificate with an onsite food truck serving as its kitchen, General Manager Greg Henny said.
He was lucky, because the brewery already had a food truck on site, Henry said. But he thinks breweries and wineries should have their own classification separate from bars, because they operate differently.
Henny said the guidance from the TABC has been confusing and harmful to breweries. To help other businesses survive the pandemic, the agency allowed “retail and manufacturing businesses” to serve and sell alcohol in a patio or outdoor area that wasn't part of its original designated premises, which some brewery owners took as being able to reopen.
However, the TABC later released a clarification saying that businesses with more than 51% alcohol sales were not eligible.
“The circumstances are constantly changing as a result of which way the winds are blowing with [the TABC],” he said. “It makes us feel frustrated. We're fighting tooth and nail just to stay open, and we've shown time and time again that we can operate safely,” he said.
State Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, and Texas Legislative Tourism Caucus chairman led the efforts behind the letter sent to Abbott asking for an updated restaurant definition.
“You've got a lot of these establishments — these restaurants — that are kind of in limbo just because of how much alcohol they sell,” he said. “Restaurants that have already been decimated by the first initial shutdowns with the pandemic [and] by some people's reluctance to want to come in and eat.”
The letter asks that any business with a permit or license from the TABC still be considered a restaurant if it has a permanent kitchen that is operational during all business hours, serves multiple entrees, includes an exhaust hood and fire suppression system, only serves seated customers and follows social distancing protocols.
Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.
Krause said he also believes bars could safely reopen as well.
“I'd like to see them be able to open up under certain restrictions under certain guidelines,” Krause said. “They're ready, willing and able to comply with those.”
Angela Clendenin, an epidemiologist at Texas A&M University School of Public Health, said that the rise of COVID-19 cases can’t be attributed to any one factor, including to bar activity, but instead is a combination of many. However, it is likely bar activity did have an impact on the overall transmission rate and some areas saw declines after their bars were closed and the mask mandate was in place, she said.
The typical bar environment makes it easy for the virus to be transmitted, she said. People are typically in much closer quarters, willing to socialize with strangers and can’t wear masks as they’re drinking. Even speaking loudly or singing over music can propel droplets further than usual, she said.
Clendenin said to reopen bars safely, it will take consumers making sure that they are holding themselves accountable and bar owners enforcing social distancing, masking and other safety practices.
“But ultimately at the end of the day, bar owners need to be able to provide for their employees and their families,” she said. “This is a very difficult time for everybody, but it goes back to individual responsible behavior and I can't emphasize that enough.”
Texas A&M University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/10/texas-bars-restaurants-gov-greg-abbott-shutdown/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Reality Winner Seeking to Serve Remainder of Prison Sentence at Home
Kingsville native Reality Winner was a government contractor serving a prison sentence after pleading guilty to mailing a classified report to a news organization.
By Menda Eulenfeld, South Texas Community News July 22, 2020
According to Military.com, former Kingsville Airman Reality Winner has tested positive for COVID-19. The Kingsville native was a government contractor serving a prison sentence after pleading guilty to mailing a classified report to a news organization.
Brittany Winner, Reality’s sister, told the Daily Report that her sister had emailed her of the positive result.
Reality is currently serving her 5 year sentence at the Federal Medical Center-Carswell in Fort Worth and is seeking to serve the remainder of her sentence at home. Brittany Winner said her sister doesn’t currently have symptoms.
No Shutdown Coming For Texas
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said it will take weeks to see whether his recent mask order and decision to close bars are effective in slowing the virus' spread.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says "there is no shutdown coming" as coronavirus cases surge
"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says "there is no shutdown coming" as coronavirus cases surge" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
As the number of new coronavirus cases in Texas continues to rise and hospitals grow more crowded, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday there is no statewide shutdown looming.
Abbott said last week that if the spread of the virus didn't slow, "the next step would have to be a lockdown." But in a television interview Thursday, he said that there have been rumors of such a move and stressed that they were not true.
“Let me tell you, there is no shutdown coming,” he told KRIV-TV in Houston.
Abbott pointed to measures he’s taken in recent weeks, including a statewide mask mandate and an order shutting down bars, to slow the spread of the virus. It will take a few weeks to see a reversal in coronavirus case surges, he said.
He has repeatedly stressed this week that, if people wear masks, he'll be able to avoid shutting down the state. On Wednesday, he told KPRC-TV in Houston that it seems like people ask him about a shutdown "like a thousand times a day."
"People are panicking, thinking I'm about to shut down Texas again," he said. "The answer is no. That is not the goal. I've been abundantly clear."
As of Thursday, there were 10,457 people in Texas hospitals with the coronavirus. That was down slightly from a peak of 10,569 on Tuesday, but still an 8% increase from a week ago and more than four times the number a month ago. Abbott described seeing a "flattening" of hospitalizations. The state has reported 3,561 deaths from the virus.
“We are certainly not out of the woods yet, but this could be a glimmer of hope,” Abbott said of the recent hospitalization numbers. “But the only way we can avoid a shutdown is if we do get everybody buying into this process of wearing a face mask.”
Earlier Thursday, Abbott defended his coronavirus response at the Texas GOP convention after acknowledging widespread discontent among party members. Several Republican officials have voiced their criticism of Abbott’s statewide mask order.
"The last thing that any of us want is to lock Texas back down again," he said during the virtual convention.
But Democrats continued to push for Abbott to take more action to stem the spread of the virus.
"Governor Abbott should start listening to public health officials and members of his own coronavirus taskforce before he makes blanket claims," Abhi Rahman, a state party spokesperson, said in an email. "After experiencing record deaths today and over 10,000 new cases, it's shocking that Abbott continues to double down on his failed policies and positions."
Correction: The photo caption for this story originally misstated when Gov. Greg Abbott held a press conference on steps to reopen Texas businesses. The press conference was in April.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/16/texas-shutdown-greg-abbott/.
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Texans Filing Unemployment Claims Increased
In Texas, more than 117,244 people applied for unemployment claims last week, an increase of 21.4% compared to the week before.
Number of Texans filing unemployment claims increased for second week in a row as 117,244 sought benefits
"Number of Texans filing unemployment claims increased for second week in a row as 117,244 sought benefits" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
As Texas experiences a surge of coronavirus infections, more than 117,244 people applied for unemployment claims last week, an increase of 21.4% compared to the week before. It was the second week in a row that the number of claims rose.
Since mid-March, nearly 2.8 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in Texas. The peak of unemployment claims came in early April, when more than 315,000 Texans applied for the benefit in a single week. During June, as businesses reopened, the demand for unemployment benefits decreased, but it was still more than five times larger than the number of applications than during the same month last year.
"The numbers are much lower than in March, but they are rather alarming and they coincide with the increase of coronavirus cases," said Sarah Zubairy, associate professor of economics at Texas A&M University. "Even if you open the restaurants, bars and gyms, this virus will be on the loose and it will affect how people are deciding to engage with the economy."
The overall unemployment rate for June is scheduled to be published next week. Texas’ unemployment rate hit an all-time high of 13.5% in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In May, the unemployment rate slightly fell to 13%. But the forecast for the coming months remains unclear.
"Governments are responding, so hopefully we will see improvements, but because of the coronavirus expansion, things are still very uncertain," Zubairy said.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s worst-ever monthly unemployment rate was 9.2% in November 1986, as Texas reeled from the last big oil bust. Later, during the Great Recession, the unemployment rate in the state never surpassed 8.3%.
The state’s unemployment rate is the share of Texans in the labor force who are out of work. The unemployment rate is different than the raw number of people filing for unemployment insurance because some of those filers are still employed but have been furloughed or had their hours cut.
Disclosure: Texas A&M University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/09/texas-unemployment-claims-coronavirus/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
International students at Texas universities can’t return without in-person classes
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 visa holders in the United States under the Student Exchange Visitor Program will not be allowed to enter or stay in the country if they are attending American schools that will offer only online classes this fall.
“It’s insane that this is not even up to me”: International students at Texas universities can’t return without in-person classes
"“It’s insane that this is not even up to me”: International students at Texas universities can’t return without in-person classes" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
When University of Texas at Austin senior Stephanie Flores-Reyes checked her fall course schedule earlier this week, she was shocked to see all five of her classes were slated to only be online. But as an international student from Mexico who spends the school year here on an F-1 student visa, it could suddenly be problematic for Flores-Reyes to be enrolled only in classes that meet online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 visa holders in the United States under the Student Exchange Visitor Program will not be allowed to enter or stay in the country if they are attending American schools that will offer only online classes this fall. Instead, they must either transfer to a school with in-person instruction or “potentially face immigration consequences," according to a release.
For students attending schools with hybrid plans, the category most Texas universities will fall under as they forge ahead with a mixture of in-person and online classes this fall, colleges must certify to ICE that the students are enrolled in the minimum number of classes required to progress through their degree plans at a normal speed — and that they are "not taking an entirely online course load" this fall.
Flores-Reyes chose her courses carefully in order to graduate on time next May. She doesn’t want to budge from her schedule, which could potentially delay her degree progress, but having all online classes means she can’t return to the U.S.
"It's insane that this is not even up to me," Flores-Reyes said. "I can't make those decisions. If I'd known, obviously I would have chosen in-person classes."
On Wednesday, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a lawsuit against ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, seeking a temporary restraining order against the policy. Harvard announced its move to full online instruction for the 2020-21 academic year earlier this month. No Texas university has yet said it has similar intentions.
ICE's new guidance drew heavy criticism from education groups.
"We urge the administration to rethink its position and offer international students and institutions the flexibility needed to put a new normal into effect and take into account the health and safety of our students in the upcoming academic year," the American Council on Education said in a statement.
The move also has some higher education experts worried about what will happen if more classes get pushed online, even if a school is designated to be hybrid.
“The online-only rule is a good one, if it allows international students to enroll, take classes and not have to come to campus,” said Michael Olivas, the former director of the University of Houston’s Institute for Higher Education Law. “But ... there’s a tidal wave of online classes coming our way, to hybrid schools. And if the international students that are here have to return to their home country midway, that’s going to be bad.”
Olivas said the hope is that if universities transition to online-only classes midway through the semester, ICE will be flexible and implement special-circumstance rules similar to those that helped the same group of students when the pandemic swept the country earlier this year.
But Student Exchange Visitor Program documents indicate that may not be the case.
“If a school changes its operational stance mid-semester, and as a result a nonimmigrant student switches to only online classes, or a nonimmigrant student changes their course selections, and as a result, ends up taking an entirely online course load, schools are reminded that nonimmigrant students ... are not permitted to take a full course of study through online classes,” the new guidance reads. “If nonimmigrant students find themselves in this situation, they must leave the country or take alternative steps ... such as transfer to a school with in-person instruction.”
ICE's decision could potentially alter fall plans for thousands of international students in the state. At UT-Austin alone, there are more than 5,000 international students, according to the school’s international office. Spokesperson Fiona Mazurenko said in an email that staff members are working to respond to and support students with the limited information they have received, but declined to comment on how situations like Flores-Reyes' would be handled.
"We continue to advise all F-1 students to enroll in classes designated as in-person or web-enhanced," Mazurenko said in the email.
The University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas at El Paso also said they would work with each international student to make sure that their course schedule meets federal requirements for F-1 visas. Texas A&M University said it was monitoring the situation and would update students as more information became available.
On Wednesday, University of Houston President Renu Khator said in a tweet that the university would work with international students to support their education.
"As a university with global footprint, we deeply value what international students bring to our classrooms, research labs and to the campus in general," she said.
Some Texas faculty members are considering taking matters into their own hands. David Arditi, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, said he would do an independent study course for international students so that they could have the requisite in-person instruction required to stay in the country.
Arditi said he would not be compensated for the independent study course. He views this as a necessary way to protect international students – an "already vulnerable" group.
"In normal circumstances, I'm protective of my time," Arditi said. "But this is a horribly repressive system. ... We have to step up and find alternatives."
Flores-Reyes would prefer to return to Austin, where she rents an apartment still stuffed with her belongings. She hasn’t been able to cross the border to retrieve anything since she fled in March to Nuevo Laredo.
Now she is looking to speak with her international adviser to plan her next steps, all while dealing with an unfamiliar set of constraints.
"I had no idea this was going to happen," Reyes-Flores said. "Now is not the time to be enforcing these rules."
Disclosure: Texas A&M University, the University of Houston, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas at El Paso have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/08/texas-international-students-college-classes/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Texas Workforce Commission Overpaid Unemployment Benefits
The Texas Workforce Commission said that incorrect filings and fraud can lead to overpayments, but the money must be paid back even if it was the state's mistake.
Texas clawing back $32 million in unemployment benefits after finding 46,000 people were overpaid
"Texas clawing back $32 million in unemployment benefits after finding 46,000 people were overpaid" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
More than 46,000 Texans who lost their jobs in recent months are having portions of their unemployment benefits clawed back after the Texas Workforce Commission found that they were initially overpaid.
The overpayments, first reported by the Houston Chronicle, are estimated to be more than $32 million in total since March.
“State law requires TWC to recover all unemployment benefits overpayments,” Cisco Gamez, spokesperson for the state agency, said in an email. “Overpayments stay on your record until repaid."
There can be several causes for overpayment, according to the agency, including fraud or incorrect reporting on an application. If TWC finds unemployment fraud in a case, the person has to give back the benefits and pay a 15% penalty.
Benefits must be repaid even if the state is to blame for the overpayment, or if it was otherwise not the recipient's fault.
"We cannot pay you benefits if you have an overpayment," Gamez said.
If the person that receives the notification of overpayment doesn't send back the money, the state comptroller can recover the money by withholding certain funds, including lottery winnings, unclaimed property, unemployment benefits and other state job-related expenses. Some state funding for college students cannot be released until a repayment is made in full.
Claimants who have received notices can appeal the process, but TWC can take legal action too if they don’t recover the money.
“There is no statute of limitations on debts owed to the state,” Gamez said on an email. “TWC cannot forgive or dismiss the overpayment and there is no exception for hardship.”
As of late June, 2.7 million Texans had filed for unemployment relief since mid-March, but TWC has struggled to keep up with the high levels of demand. Since the pandemic started, countless Texans have experienced problems accessing these benefits, encountering busy phone lines and an overwhelmed application website.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/06/texas-unemployment-benefits-workers/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Texas Universities are Moving More Classes Online
Universities are moving forward with reopening plans for the fall semester, anxious to bring students back. But faced with online classes and an altered campus, students are questioning if college is still worth what they're paying.
Texas universities are moving more classes online but keeping tuition the same. Students are asking if it's worth the money.
"Texas universities are moving more classes online but keeping tuition the same. Students are asking if it's worth the money." was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Sarah Ramos has spent her summer anxiously awaiting a fall return to Texas A&M’s campus at College Station. She is hoping for some normalcy after she and her classmates were abruptly forced off campus last semester and into Zoom-based classes for the remainder of the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But as Texas scrambles to address a soaring number of COVID-19 cases, Ramos is worried her upcoming course load could once again be moved online. That’s just not the college experience she’s looking for. So now, Ramos says she’s considering withdrawing from A&M for the fall and delaying her upcoming graduation.
“I do want to return to school, but the likelihood of that is teetering right now,” said Ramos, who’s working at a grocery store over the summer to save up for tuition. “I want the best education possible, and I really don't think that I can get that online. I can't get that from a screen.”
Texas universities are finalizing their fall reopening plans as August approaches. The state’s major public universities are generally all offering some in-person classes, though most schools have moved sizable portions of the fall course schedule online or are offering classes in a hybrid format. A&M is planning on conducting at least 50% of classes online-only, while UT will move almost one-third of its 11,000 courses online.
These plans also paint a picture of significantly-altered campus life, with spaced out dining halls, capacity caps on classrooms and mask mandates for students and faculty in some schools.
But while school will look different, the tuition rates for many of Texas’ largest universities, including UT-Austin, University of Houston, University of North Texas and Texas Tech, will stay the same.
Now Ramos, and many other students across Texas who are weighing their plans for the fall semester, are asking themselves: will it still be worth it?
This summer, nearly all Texas universities went completely online and schools including UT-Austin and Baylor offered reduced tuition while several others waived fees for campus services like parking.
Campus leaders, hammered by financial losses from the pandemic and anxious to keep enrollment up, defended their decisions to maintain normal tuition rates for fall classes that are both online and in-person.
“UT represents one of the very best values in higher education in the country,” UT-Austin interim President Jay Hartzell said last week in a press conference, noting that administrators “have been working really hard to ensure we deliver online courses at high quality and ideally make the class just as valuable as it would have been face to face.”
Acknowledging some resistance to going virtual, UT System board members in a meeting cited surveys that have shown many students said they will pause their education if universities go completely online.
Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec said that while around 80% of Texas Tech University’s 1,000 fall courses will be online, tuition will not be decreased in the fall.
Like many others, the school can’t afford to discount classes, because instructors are paid the same regardless. Schovanec said more than 65% of the university’s expenses are directly related to compensating faculty and other personnel.
“There’s a misunderstanding that online classes are cheaper,” Schovanec said. “When people write to me and say ‘Hey, I’m not getting face to face instruction, give me a tuition reduction,’ it's inconsistent with the reality of our budget.”
Lawsuits
The question of student value in the fall is poised to become a legal battle. Already more than 150 lawsuits have been filed across the country from students seeking reimbursement for tuition and fees from last spring.
When the pandemic forced universities to vacate their campuses in March, students lost access to campus labs, technology, transportation, athletics, library services, dining halls and more.
Baylor University was no exception. After it closed its doors, some students who lost access to those student-funded services wanted refunds for their steep tuition rates and campus fees.
Baylor, which received around $10.7 million in federal funding to offset emergency aid and refunds for students, promised students credits for unused meal plans and dining dollars, but insisted online learning did not necessitate refunds on tuition and campus fees.
But that wasn’t enough for students like Allison King, a rising sophomore at Baylor, who filed a class-action lawsuit in early June seeking prorated refunds for tuition and fees like a $90 payment for mandatory chapel sessions. Another Baylor student, Nabor Camarena, filed a similar lawsuit at the same time.
“In any other business, if you get paid all the money and then cut the services you’re providing, we would call that profiting from a pandemic,” said Roy Willey, the attorney representing King. “The sacrifice here is on the part of the students that are paying for this.”
Baylor is the first in Texas to be sued for tuition-related grievances following the pandemic.
The university said in a statement that it stands by its decisions made in an "unprecedented time for our country and all of higher education."
Other universities have already shelled out millions in refunds for unused services like meal plans and campus housing from last spring. While some of these losses were offset by federal funding designated by the CARES Act, much of it had to be covered by the institutions’ own budgets, leaving universities under financial strain as they worked to refund hundreds of students and award emergency aid.
Living expenses
The partial shift to online also has more students and parents worried about paying for college housing.
Ann Marie Hicks, who lives in Austin, will have two daughters in college this fall. With a combination of online and in-person courses, Hicks’ eldest daughter Allison, a rising senior at the University of North Texas, will only have to be in Denton for 26 days out of the entire semester.
While minimizing contact with campus is a relief in some ways, setting up living arrangements in a different city is a financial headache, Hicks said. The house Allison is planning on moving into with her partner to avoid crowded student apartments will be more than $900 in rent per month, plus additional utilities and maintenance fees. Hicks is having a hard time rationalizing the cost.
“It’s frustrating,” Hicks said. “And I’m mindful that there are many families under more constraints than we are.”
The same goes for Gaby Alvarez, a rising junior studying journalism at UT-Austin. She’s worried about contracting COVID-19 on campus – but she’s also worried about getting stuck with her lease, which she signed back in October.
As of now, Alvarez said she only has one in-person class, which isn’t a compelling enough reason to justify the $880 monthly rent she pays for an apartment near campus. Originally from Ganado, where she’s been quarantining with her elderly grandparents, she said she’d prefer to stay home if she could get out of her lease and move to all online classes.
“This is such a hard situation with a lot of moving parts,” Alvarez said. “And going back (to school) is not worth it to me, financially and health-wise.”
But the promise of the campus experience, however diluted, is a major draw for some students.
Hicks’ younger daughter Annabelle, an incoming freshman at Trinity University in San Antonio, is a theater major and is trying to take as many in-person classes as she can. Annabelle also deals with learning impediments like dyslexia, which she said makes online learning harder and in-person instruction valuable.
“Reading and communicating are already difficult face to face, but when I’m doing it through a screen it becomes even worse,” Annabelle said. “If I’m taking the risk of being on-campus anyway, what’s the point of taking classes online?”
Jorge Cantu, an international graduate student at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, is also watching the situation carefully. He splits his time between the U.S. and Mexico and if his classes were to be moved online, he’d remain in Mexico to save money on rent.
But he’d miss being on campus and would lose out on using the thousands of books in the university library or other research resources to finish out his thesis.
There was no refund for fees at his university during the spring closures, including the library fee, which doesn’t seem fair to him if he’s unable to use those services.
“I think that’s one of the things that pisses people off the most,” he said. ”We’re getting charged for fees that we’re not actually going to take advantage of.”
Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin, University of North Texas, Texas Tech, University of Houston and University of Texas Rio Grande Valley have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporcate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/06/texas-universities-coronavirus-online-classes/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Pence Visits Dallas
During a trip to Dallas on Sunday Vice President Mike Pence promised Texas would bounce back from a recent surge in cases of the new coronavirus while urging Americans to turn to their faith during a tumultuous period for the nation.
Pence visits Dallas as Texas grapples with coronavirus spike
"Pence visits Dallas as Texas grapples with coronavirus spike" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Vice President Mike Pence, during a trip to Dallas on Sunday, promised Texas would bounce back from a recent surge in cases of the new coronavirus while urging Americans to turn to their faith during a tumultuous period for the nation.
"Working with your governor, we will put the health of the people of the Lone Star State first, and every single day we'll continue to reclaim our freedom and our way of life, as each day we are one day closer to the day we put this pandemic in the past," Pence said during an event at First Baptist Dallas. "And when we do, with this governor and this president, we'll bring Texas and America back bigger and better than ever before."
After the event, Pence — who chairs the White House Coronavirus Task Force — was set to meet with Gov. Greg Abbott about the dire coronavirus situation in Texas.
The talk was a last-minute addition to Pence's agenda. For over a week, the vice president had been scheduled to appear at First Baptist for its annual Celebrate Freedom Sunday, but he added the meeting with Abbott in recent days as the state confronted its worst week yet for the pandemic.
The number of daily new cases hit a record high Thursday of nearly 6,000, and the number of hospitalizations has reached new highs every day for the past 16 days.
The positivity rate — the ratio of tests that come back positive — has also spiked. The rate, presented by the state as a seven-day average, reached 13.23% on Friday, which is nearly as high as it was in mid-April when it hit an all-time high of 13.86%.
The numbers led Abbott to begin reversing the state's reopening process Friday, shutting down bars and ordering restaurants to scale back their capacity to 50%, among other measures.
In his remarks at First Baptist, which lasted for about half an hour, Pence thanked Abbott "for his courageous and compassionate leadership for the people of Texas during this challenging time."
U.S. Housing Secretary Ben Carson, who rode along with Pence from Washington D.C., along with Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, also addressed the church and urged resilience rooted in "self-sufficiency" against the virus.
"We must learn to dominate the virus and not let the virus dominate us," Carson said.
Pence's trip also coincided with a growing debate in Texas over requiring people to wear masks. Abbott has resisted calls to fine individuals who do not wear masks but has allowed local governments to order businesses to require customers to do so.
Pence, Cornyn and Carson all had face coverings on when they disembarked Air Force Two in Dallas on Sunday morning, as did their three greeters: Abbott, state House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and Attorney General Ken Paxton. All appeared to remain masked while seated at the church, according to video broadcast by the church.
Pence has made headlines for not wearing a face covering at other public appearances during the pandemic. President Donald Trump has also refused to wear a mask in front of cameras.
First Baptist Dallas, led by pastor and ardent Trump supporter Robert Jeffress, had "strongly encouraged" attendees to wear masks and also socially distance. But the video of the ceremony showed most attendees sitting close together in pews, with only some donning masks. Most of the over 100 people in the choir and band sections on the stage were not wearing masks.
The church did not release any information about how many people it expected for the event, but WFAA reported Friday that the church would operate at "70% capacity, which equates to about 2,200 people inside the main sanctuary where Pence will speak." While Abbott has tightened restrictions on some gatherings amid the coronavirus surge, he has not imposed occupancy limits on religious services, deeming them essential activities.
The campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, released a statement ahead of Pence's trip that said it "epitomizes the dismissive attitude this administration has taken in addressing this crisis from the onset."
"Our leaders should be tackling this pandemic head on and laying out concrete recovery plans for the American people -- not jet setting across the country to hold events that go against basic public health guidance," said the statement from Biden's deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield. "Families in the Lone Star state and across the country deserve better.”
There were ample political overtones to Pence's speech as he touted the Trump administration's first-term achievements, particularly for Christians. He also drew attention to the "strong support of the two senators from Texas" — Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Republicans — "who have stood with this president every step of the way." But he singled out Cornyn, who is up for reelection in November, praising his "principled conservative leadership for our judiciary and our nation."
Introducing Pence, the First Baptist pastor, Jeffress, hailed Trump as the "most resilient, the most courageous, the most faith-friendly president in the history of America." He similarly lavished praise on Pence, telling him that many Christians would like to see him in the Oval Office after Trump leaves.
Taking the stage, Pence thanked Jeffress for his "overly generous introduction."
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/28/mike-pence-visits-dallas-texas-grapples-coronavirus-spike/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.