AUSTIN, Texas — Students and staff in Austin are going about their first day of school preparations as usual, despite an ongoing legal battle with the governor and several other districts. 

What You Need To Know

  • Texas Supreme Court’s temporary ruling on Abbott’s mask mandate ban did not affect Austin ISD as its mask requirement is still in place

  • Numerous cities and counties defied Abbott’s executive ban order

  • Austin ISD held drive-up testing sites at four “COVID hot spots” in preparation for the first day of school

  • The delta variant has caused an uptick in affected children under 12

The Texas Supreme Court Sunday upheld Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates, after numerous cities and counties defied the order. Austin Independent School District (AISD) starts classes on Tuesday. The district held drive-up testing sites at four “COVID hot spots” throughout the city Monday. One testing site is at Cunningham Elementary School in South Austin. 

Staff dressed head to toe in personal protection equipment (PPE) to administer nasal swabs to parents and students. Shamaa Lakshmanan brought her two sons to get tested. She says the tests offer a peace of mind amid an extremely uneasy start to the school year. 

“Very uneasy,” she Lakshmanan. “COVID has hit us hard, personally, so I’m a little petrified.”

The delta variant has sickened more kids than ever before, and children under the age of 12 can’t get the vaccine. Clinical assistant Maria Ballesteros says 60 people registered for tests at Cunningham Elementary. 

“The parents that have been coming, they’ve been saying 'my kid was in the hospital like three days ago' and want to be tested, and I want to retest all my three kids as well,” Ballesteros said. 

Since July, AISD has reported 113 COVID cases and 693 exposures in students and staff. From August 9-13, there were 35 new positive cases and 211 new exposures. 

Texas Public Schools’ online COVID-19 dashboard shows a total of 829 positive student cases and 872 positive staff cases as of August 13. 

“We’re excited about the school he’s going to. I am not excited about the numbers,” Lakshmanan said. 

District leaders issued a mask mandate and will continue to enforce it. Austin ISD communications specialist Eduardo Villa says the Texas Supreme Court ruling has no effect on the district. 

“It’s not that we want to defy the governor’s order, but we need to because of the local conditions here in Austin,” Villa said. 

The mask mandate brings a sign of releif to many parents like Ashley Garcia who is still hesitant about the vaccine, but supports requiring masks. 

“It doesn’t seem like this is going away anytime soon and we just got to think about our little ones,” Garcia said. 

Garcia has three kids going to school in Austin. She says even if there wasn’t a mask mandate, she would still have her kids wear masks. As for the vaccine, she says she is waiting to see everyone else’s reactions to it. 

“We don’t really know for sure how that’s working because I’ve heard people that get it still get sick, still get COVID,” she said. 

While there is a percentage of vaccinated Texans getting COVID, it’s very rare for them to end up in the hospital, which is where doctors are seeing an unprecedented surge in younger, healthier patients. 

In a written statement Monday, Travis County physicians are seeing more patients requiring ICU or ventilators than any other time during the pandemic, and more than 90% of them are unvaccinated. They urged anyone who is eligible to get the vaccine to get it immediately. 

“Vaccination is the safest and most effective way by which we can truly be DONE with the virus and get back to normal.”

As for parents and schools, nose swabs and face coverings are their first line of defense against this virus.