New Pandemic guidelines released to schools, but parents still unsure of students return.

Originally published by Foxsanantonio.com.

SAN ANTONIO — New pandemic guidelines for local schools have been sent out by the Texas Education Agency(TEA).

Schools in San Antonio are just a couple days away from classes starting in some districts and many of them must now adjust.

We reached out to more than 15 school districts in our area Friday.

Many of them did not respond with how the new guidelines will impact their safety procedures, including San Antonio ISD which will start school on Monday.

After moving into a new house this summer, Amanda Flores says her 7-year old son Jaxson was looking forward to going back to class in person.

“We got him into the leadership academy because we had to do it early there was a waiting list for that,” Flores said.

Flores also says her younger son was also going to begin a dual language program with SAISD.

“As we were preparing and we were getting closer to it we saw numbers going up,” Flores said.

Flores says the rise in delta variant COVID cases caused her to hit the brakes on a return to school.

She checked with SAISD and East Central ISD to see if they would be offering a virtual learning option

She was told they wouldn’t.

“That did not reassure me to continue sending our kids to school,” Flores said.

Earlier this week Flores got Jaxson set up to begin the school year with Time4Learning, a virtual homeschooling program.

And she’s not the only parent making this kind of move.

“We have certainly seen some communication from parents who have indicated that until certain measures for example the mandating of facemasks is in place that they may continue to look at additional options,” said Barry Perez, spokesperson for Northside ISD.

Perez says the new guidelines from the TEA will let a school district provide instructional support for students who are in quarantine.

“Exactly what that will look like is still being finalized,” Perez said.

In line with Governor Greg Abbott’s mask order, the TEA guidelines do not allow school districts to mandate face masks.

“Definitely a mask mandate would help, especially for the adults,” Flores said. “As soon as things change we’re happy to enroll them back in public school but as of now that’s not going to happen.”

Click here to read and look over the guidelines issued by the TEA.