AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin ISD Board of Trustees early Friday morning voted to push the start of the school year back to after Labor Day, on September 8.


What You Need To Know

  • Start of AISD school year pushed to September 8

  • School board voted on decision about 3 a.m. Friday

  • In-person learning to be available to students without access to technology

  • District requesting 4 additional weeks of virtual learning to be made available 

School had previously been slated to resume virtually on August 18, but a 3 a.m. vote changed that.

In addition, each school day will be extended by 10 minutes and the school year won’t conclude until June 3.

Beginning September 8, in-person instruction will be provided to those students who don’t have access to technology, ensuring they aren’t victims of the what has been referred to as the digital divide.

The district will also petition the Texas Education Agency for four additional weeks of virtual learning. This, leaders said, will accommodate the “phased-in” approach the district is taking to the reopening of schools.

Factors board members considered are the high number of COVID-19 cases in Travis County, the fact that Austin-Travis County remains in Stage 4 of Austin Public Health’s risk-based guidance, Travis County’s infection rate, and the disproportionate number of Hispanic people afflicted with COVID-19 in the county.

Education Austin, the union for AISD teachers, earlier this month called for the start of the school year to be pushed to September 8 and requested certain criteria be met before in-person learning resumes.

Among the criteria, Education Austin doesn’t want schools top open and in-person learning to begin until there is a decline in new cases of the virus for a minimum of 14 days, a positive test rate of less than 5 percent, and a transmission rate of less than 1 percent.