Dear Hays CISD Family,

Our school year is generally off to a great start. Thank you all again for everything you are doing to make the best of a challenging year. You’ll likely be seeing a lot of COVID data in various places, and you may even get a COVID-positive notification from your campus or the district. Rest assured our student health services and campus safety and security teams are working diligently to keep your, your children, and your families safe.

Here is what you can expect:

Notifications

General Notification : If anyone is lab-confirmed to have a positive COVID test and is later determined to have been on a Hays CISD campus or building during their period of potential infection, parents and staff members at the campus will receive an email notification about the case with additional safety information.

Close Contact Notification : Anyone who is determined through contact tracing to have been in close contact, as defined by health department criteria, with an individual on a Hays CISD campus or building during the person’s potential infection period will receive a special notification and additional information about next steps.

Numbers & Reporting

This week, the district will being reporting detailed information to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) about lab-confirmed positive COVID cases in which individuals have been on district property during their potential periods of infection. Each week, Hays CISD will update a summary dashboard reflecting the number of reported cases to TEA in an effort to keep you informed and to maintain uniform criteria that yields easily comparable data regarding COVID case counts.

The Hays CISD dashboard is located at https://www.hayscisd.net/COVIDdashboard.

You may have seen a recent local television report showing that Hays CISD has had 40 employees test positive for COVID-19. We’d like to put that number in greater context for you to alleviate any concerns you may have with it. The station requested, and we provided, the cumulative number of people who happen to work for Hays CISD (and who have reached out to our Human Resources Department for potential COVID-related benefits) who tested positive since April 1st. Most of the cases in that number occurred during the spring and summer when all of our buildings were closed. The positive cases were often not work-related exposure. New staff cases, moving forward, will be reported on the Hays CISD dashboard and to TEA, should they involve potential infectious exposure at a district campus or building.

Stay safe!

Tim