All students will begin the school year virtually when classes begin Sept. 8.
HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan made the announcement Wednesday on the district's Facebook page.
The announcement came hours ahead of a planned briefing at 3 p.m.
Online instruction will continue for six weeks through Oct. 16, according to Lathan.
In June, the district released a proposed 2020-2021 year-round academic calendar after COVID-19 cut in-person classes short.
District officials later said they would not be moving forward with the plan after asking for feedback from parents.
School officials said at the time that, with the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and the recent increase in cases, they determined the best course of action was to keep the existing 2020-21 academic school year calendar which provides a later start date and an additional 10 targeted remediation days.
"The later start date provides the district an opportunity to monitor the pattern of COVID-19 cases and make necessary adjustments as it relates to in-person, virtual learning, or a combination of the two," the HISD statement read.
District officials said academic boot camps will now be offered from Aug. 18-20 and during Thanksgiving, winter and spring breaks. The camps will provide additional instructional hours for students who need them.
The first day of school for students who do not require additional instructional hours will be Monday, Aug. 24.
Distance learning went into full effect with school closures earlier this year. Since March, 95 percent of the 240,000 HISD students have been contacted by the district, according to Lathan.
This article was originally published by Community Impact Newspaper media partner ABC 13.
