Published April 23, 2020

(Updated August 15, 2022: The Tenney School will begin the year under normal operations. This page will be revised and updated should we need to initiate COVID Prevention Procides due to local health conditions)

The Tenney School is currently a mask-optional facility for the 2021-2022 school year.  Students and staff will wear a mask in the facility based on their individual preference. However, there will be certain conditions described below where we will require students/staff to wear a mask. Students not able to attend in person will be encouraged to take their one-to-one classes online using Tenney School Live. Due to their negative impact on in-person learning, classroom classes will not be offered online this year due to student absences. Teachers not able to attend in person will teach both one-to-one and classroom classes on Tenney School Live.

We will generally use the Texas Education Agency (TEA) guidelines to inform our COVID procedures. In cases where TEA guidelines are confusing or incomplete (like Return to School Guidelines), we we may defer to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. 

As a small school featuring one-to-one classes, we will be able to operate school in our facility much sooner than larger schools. Our size and format of learning make The Tenney School less susceptible to person-to-person spread.  In addition, our low student density will allow us to institute additional procedures to minimize the possibility of COVID-19 spread.  We have safely operated our facility for in-person operations since May 18th of 2020.  The below procedures will be followed to mitigate the possibility of person-to-person spread in the facility.

Facility Access:

Screening will not be performed entering the facility. However, students and faculty should not come to the facility if any of the conditions below are met:

  • Feeling feverish or a measured temperature greater than or equal to 100.0 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Loss of taste or smell
  • Cough
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Shortness of breath
  • Fatigue
  • Headache
  • Chills
  • Sore throat
  • Congestion or runny nose
  • Shaking or exaggerated shivering
  • Significant muscle pain or ache
  • Diarrhea
  • Nausea or vomiting

In addition to these symptoms, students and teachers will not come to the facility who have:

  • Close contact with someone with confirmed COVID-19
  • Under investigation for COVID-19
  • Is ill with a respiratory illness

Anyone not able to enter The Tenney School facility, will automatically be transitioned to Tenney School Live for the day. If it becomes necessary based on community health information or positive cases in The Tenney School community, all or some of our students and staff can be transitioned to Tenney School Live.

* Staff and students (or their parent) must notify The Tenney School if they have COVID-19 symptoms or are lab confirmed positive for COVID-19. In these cases, staff and students will remain on Tenney School Live until they meet the criteria for reentry to school.

COVID 19 Prevention Procedures:

  • Students and teachers must be fever free for at least 24 hours (resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications); show an improvement in symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath); and at least ten days have passed since symptoms first appeared
  • Students and teachers may wear masks, but masks will not be required in most circumstances.
    • Exception: Our one-to-one classes are an environment where students and teachers are in close contact for an entire period. Out of respect for each other’s safety, students and teachers will both wear a mask in one-to-one classes if either the teacher or the student prefers masks to be worn. This does not apply in classroom classes. 
  • Students and teachers should continue to wash their hands or use alcohol based sanitizer on a regular basis throughout the day. Hand sanitizers will we provided at every point of contact.
  • The campus will be disinfected on a daily basis.  Disinfection will also occur during the school day for high use surfaces. Any surfaces used by teachers or students will be wiped down with disinfectant each afternoon after school or each morning before school.

COVID-19 Positive:

If we are aware that someone testing COVID-19 positive has been in our facility

  • Anyone testing positive will enter a Stay-At-Home period.
  • We will identify all students and faculty who came in close contact with the student/faculty who tested positive.
  • We will notify public health.

Close Contact:

Anyone identified as coming in “close contact” with someone infected by COVID-19 will need to quarantine and take classes on Tenney School Live.  According to the CDC guidelines:

  • Close Contact through Proximity and Duration of Exposure: Someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period (for example, three individual 5-minute exposures for a total of 15 minutes). An infected person can spread SARS-CoV-2 starting from 2 days before they have any symptoms (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days before the positive specimen collection date), until they meet criteria for discontinuing home isolation.

* Per CDC guidelines, Individuals who are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID within the last 3 months are not considered close contact.

Return to School:

To keep our school populations healthy and safe, students and staff should never come to school with COVID symptoms unless they have tested negative for COVID. Return to school guidelines have changed over time and will be evaluated case-by-case.   Students and staff who have come into close contact with the virus may need to quarantine. Students and staff who have tested positive will need to isolate. Below are some of the guidelines that will be used to determine when an impacted person may return to school:

  • Close contact with COVID & Unvaccinated:
    • Quarantine for at least 5 days
    • If symptoms develop within 10 days of close contact:  isolate & get tested for COVID
  • Close contact with COVID & Vaccinated:
    • No quarantine required
    • If symptoms develop within 10 days of close contact:  isolate & get tested for COVID
  • Close contact with COVID & confirmed COVID-19 within past 90 days:
    • No quarantine required
    • If symptoms develop within 10 days of close contact:  isolate & get tested for COVID
  • If you test positive for COVID 19:
    • Isolate for at least 5 days
    • For mild cases, end isolation after 5 full days if you are fever-free for 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medication) and your symptoms are improving.
    • For sever mild cases, end isolation after 10 full days.

* These procedures may be revised as more information becomes available.

Useful Links

COVID-19 Crisis Information

Facility Occupancy

City of Houston Approved Occupancy

459

Average Attendance (Student+Staff)

85

Average Occupancy

19%