Officials with the Texas Education Agency announced Thursday night (Aug. 19) that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates has been dropped — for now. The announcement came via a public health guidance letter explaining that enforcement was being halted due to ongoing court challenges, the Associated Press reports.

The new guidance “takes effect immediately, replacing all prior guidance,” the letter notes.

The new guidance comes after the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday denied a request from Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to overturn temporary restraining orders in at least two pending challenges to Abbott’s executive order, issued last May, prohibiting local authorities, including school districts, from issuing mask mandates to try and slow the spread of COVID-19.

As of 5:35 p.m. Thursday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, there were 10.772 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported over the preceding 24-hour period, plus another 3,285 probable cases and 194 newly-reported fatalities.

The new guidance from the TEA recommends that public school systems consult local public health officials and legal counsel before making any final decisions and requires that districts notify teachers, staff members and families if a test confirms a COVID-19 case in a classroom or extracurricular activity. The previous guideline only recommended such notifications.

The district is also required per the latest guidance to notify the local health department of a test-confirmed COVID case and submit, via an online form, a report to the Texas Department of State Health Services each Monday, covering the previous seven days, listing the number of teachers, staff members, students or visitors at the school who have test-confirmed COVID illness.

The guidance also directs public school systems to “exclude students from attending school in person who are actively sick with COVID-19, who are suspected of being actively sick with COVID-19, or who have received a positive test result for COVID-19, and must immediately notify parents if this is determined while on campus.”

— Tammye Nash