At least 10 North Texas school districts have closed due to illness in the last month

At least 10 North Texas school districts have closed schools due to illness at some point in the last month.

These districts represent about 6,000 students who have missed at least one day of school in the last month, according to the Texas Education Agency’s enrollment data for the 2022-23 school year.

Most of these districts were closed during the last week of January, but one — Frost Independent School District — just announced closures on Tuesday of this week. The district will be closed for the remainder of the week and reopen on Monday after custodial staff members have sanitized buildings.

Emergency room visits for flu cases sharply increased in the last week of January, nearly matching the previous peak just before Christmas, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services’ respiratory illness dashboard. The dashboard also reports that flu ER visits are highest among school-age children, similar to national trends.

Dallas ISD said Thursday the district is seeing a typical flu season.

Districts that have closed schools because of illness include:

• Archer City ISD, Archer County
• Benjamin ISD, Knox County
• Chillicothe ISD, Hardeman County
• Crowell ISD, Foard County
• Electra ISD, Wichita County
• Frost ISD, Navarro County
• Garner ISD, Parker County
• Graham ISD, Young County
• Olney ISD, Young County
• Rio Vista ISD, Johnson County

While athletic events in some districts continued despite the school closures, some games were rescheduled.

— Staff writer Talia Richman contributed to this report.