Richardson ISD student COVID-19 cases are more than half of last year’s entire total

Richardson ISD is reporting 1,160 total cases of COVID-19 among students, more than half the 1,854 total from the previous school year, according to the district’s dashboard.

There are 112 active cases among students and 25 among staff, the district says.

The total case numbers six weeks into the school year have slowed after spiking early, with 964 student cases reported two weeks ago and 525 cases reported two weeks into the new school year.

About 3% of the 37,497 students have tested positive this school year. Staff cases are also about 3%, with 221 members out of 7,257 testing positive.

One Richardson student and a staff member have died from complications of COVID-19, officials announced Oct. 4.

RISD trustees voted in early September to affirm Superintendent Jeannie Stone’s decision to require face coverings, after an elementary school was forced to close because of a spike in COVID-19 cases and a sixth-grader was admitted into the intensive care unit.

The Texas attorney general’s office has filed lawsuits against Richardson ISD and others, following through on his pledge to sue school districts who mandate masks.

Richardson ISD’s dashboard shows a current snapshot of conditions at local schools, while data from the state is delayed by about a week. Texas officials stress that state data should be used as a historical reference to provide broad trends.