Officials at several school districts in Texas are traveling to Mexico to interview potential teacher candidates to meet the growing demand.

The ‘Exchange Teachers’ Visiting International Teacher Program was approved by the ESC-2 Board of Directors in December 2021.

District officials in South Texas are conducting interviews in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala.

“There are 65 candidates available right now. It does not mean we are going to use all 65, it’s just what the district is needing at this time,” said ESC-2 Associate Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Accountability, Dr. Daniel Ceballos.

District leaders say COVID-19 exacerbated the demand for educators. The need goes beyond teachers in core subjects like math and science.

“Now it’s really English teachers, special ed teachers, bilingual teachers, those are in high demand,” said Kingsville ISD Superintendent Dr. Cissy Reynolds-Perez.

“There may be potential other vacancies, because usually about May or April is when people start deciding if they are going to retire or not and so we just need to have a pool ready to make sure that we can fill those vacancies quickly and easily.”

Region 2 directors are looking forward to bringing highly qualified candidates into the classrooms through this specialized partnership.

“Making sure that all the shortages positions are taken care of, I think it’s going to be important not only to the teachers but the kids and the communities there,” said Dr. Ceballos.

“And what a better way than to have somebody also, an international teacher that comes in to also learn about the different culture as well, I think it’s an added benefit.”

This story was originally reported by Reyna Rodriguez at KRIS in Corpus Christi, Texas.

COVINGTON, Ky. — As students in Covington Independent Public Schools return to the classroom, schools in the district received grants to help those students navigate any trauma they may have from the pandemic.

Holmes Middle School, Ninth District Elementary, Sixth District Elementary, Latonia Elementary and Holmes High School received $100,000 from the CARES Act with the explicit purpose of supporting the mental health of students through social emotional learning materials. The grants will also provide mental health training for teachers and families.

"We are excited to have these additional funds to help our children and families get back on track emotionally as we recover from the impact of the pandemic," Dr. Janice Wilkerson, the assistant superintendent of Covington Independent Public Schools, said.

Officials said that when schools went to virtual learning, some students withdrew from classes and others failed multiple classes.

“We have found some problems exacerbated as students were isolated for long periods of time," Renata Watts, Youth Services Center coordinator for Holmes Middle School, said. "We know that if (students) cannot connect to their emotions, they cannot thrive academically. We know that we must address the emotional well-being of our students."

Wilkerson said the funds will help students get back on track, and Watts said the grants will make a difference.

"We know it will take some time, but we are prepared to receive our students at where they are, and most importantly, focus on their well-being, thanks to the grant," Watts said.

As schools head back to the classroom, many people have questions about what, if anything, will change in schools after the pandemic.

WCPO 9 anchor Julie O'Neill talked with Lakota Local Schools Superintendent Matt Miller about the upcoming school year, requiring students to wear masks indoors and how the district will handle pandemic setbacks.

JO: How much catching-up time do you think you need, generally speaking, for kids?

MM: There's one train of thought that calls that learning loss. I prefer to use the term school loss, because it's not just the academic piece. It's the relationships. It's the sports. It's the band. So I don't think we're going to be able to answer that yet until all the kids are back.

We are in a fortunate position in Lakota that our kids were at least offered in-person learning from the get-go last year. Last year at our peak we were at about 4,000 students that were on our virtual learning option. This coming school year we're down to about 350.

JO: Do you foresee some kids continuing with just online going forward, whether COVID's a threat or not?

MM: Yeah, I do think that there is a sliver of our student population that will want to continue to learn, the virtual learning option, moving forward. It's actually something at Lakota we've been talking about doing. Just providing as an option for our families even pre-COVID.

JO: What about the emotional peace for students? What are you doing here to prop them up?

MM: We have a pretty robust guidance program for our kids, and we actually have added to the social-emotional learning components in a class for our K through 6 kids, so we brought that online because we knew we were going to have some issues we were going to have to address.

One of the other things that Lakota has done is we've ramped up our therapy dog program for our kids. We have seven therapy dogs now for the district. The therapy dogs are trained to de-escalate, to help kids, and adults for that matter, with anxiety and things like that.

JO: All right, what do you want to say to the kids, to the staff as they head to school today?

MM: I think the biggest thing that I'm excited about with this new school year is welcoming our kids back. This just feels like a different year in terms of how different it had been in the past year and a half. Our kids do amazing things. I don't think our kids get enough credit for their accomplishments and what they do, and certainly that can also transcend into the teachers and staff. I'm just excited to welcome people back. Let's go.

This group of Maine students are publishing a book using their experiences from the pandemic

Updated: 1:00 PM EDT Jun 14, 2021

This group of students at Farwell Elementary School in Lewiston, Maine, have been working on publishing their own books. The books are an adaptation of their mentor, Gary Savage's novels, altered to include their experiences of life during the pandemic. The Author Studies program has been around for years. However, during the pandemic students had to get creative and find virtual ways to work together. Some students were worried the program would not be able to continue this year. Many students were relieved and excited the program was still taking place.Hear about their story in the video above.