Parents Anyone gone back to school in person yet?

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So do they have plans for when they open, and then kids come back, or enroll, or move in, etc??

And, I may have to teach kids IN person AND online.

Again can't speak to all districts. Their plan set as if 100 % come back. Hybrid 2 teams.

And yes the teachers of the classes will be teaching in person and on-line. My daughter's geometry teacher will have half their kids 2 days the other half 2 days, those that are remote will join the class via video. One day a week they have the whole class online at the same time. Same for the rest of her teachers. Class size per teacher is same as precovid. Just a question of some in building some online. If you have 1 period geometry and you are in Mrs X class. You are either online or in you desk for her 1st period class. We are a small district our class size averages 20-24 ish
 
Well if you don't like teens at home part of the week. How can you be OK with them home all week?

I am not, really. If they are home unsupervised, they are likely out spreading the virus. But if they are in school half-time, they are bringing it back to a captive population of classmates in a confined space.
 
What do they think parents will do with the kids on the days when they aren’t in school?

This is a struggle for many working parents in the whole country these days.

I am fortunate that I work part time and my husband is not currently commuting 5 days a week. We can arrange so at least one of us is home 95% of the time.

And many parents having to make decisions about their employment situations. Folks are going crazy trying hire tutors, setup study groups.
Nearly everyone is impacted. None of this OK.
 
We don't have the money. Districts that can't make the distancing requirements can't open.

There are districts that will be able to open 5 days. Most are doing hybrid at at least 50% capacity (if everyone would come back). There are districst only able to do 1 day in. Some districts no days in. Same teachers are teaching in classroom those staying home get the video.

Again, those are NY state requirements. Many states don’t have strong requirements, or really any requirements at all. My state had one of the strongest initial responses to the pandemic, yet has only set a a distancing requirement of 3 feet in schools and has granted our district a waiver of even that extremely lax standard.
 
I am not, really. If they are home unsupervised, they are likely out spreading the virus. But if they are in school half-time, they are bringing it back to a captive population of classmates in a confined space.
You are absolutely convinced if you are not at home you are getting the virus. This is simply not the case.
 
Again, those are NY state requirements. Many states don’t have strong requirements, or really any requirements at all. My state had one of the strongest initial responses to the pandemic, yet has only set a a distancing requirement of 3 feet in schools and has granted our district a waiver of even that extremely lax standard.
Are they offering an all remote option? Then its not a problem for those not comfortable in building.

The other part of NYS and districts being able to open. All remote has to be an option as well.
 
THe issue is, that parents can come back when ever they want. So, if Homeschooling, or online schooling is not working, and they want to come back, we have to let them. Room or not. Distancing or not. So, it could happen that we end up with too many kids and not enough room/staff.
Our students are locked in for the semester if they choose the Digital Academy. Students CAN choose to go "the other way" - from the in person option (whether 5 days in school or 2 days in school or regular school going fully digital due to a spike in the county) to the digital academy, but then they are locked in until the end of the semester if they switch.
 
Again can't speak to all districts. Their plan set as if 100 % come back. Hybrid 2 teams.

And yes the teachers of the classes will be teaching in person and on-line. My daughter's geometry teacher will have half their kids 2 days the other half 2 days, those that are remote will join the class via video. One day a week they have the whole class online at the same time. Same for the rest of her teachers. Class size per teacher is same as precovid. Just a question of some in building some online. If you have 1 period geometry and you are in Mrs X class. You are either online or in you desk for her 1st period class. We are a small district our class size averages 20-24 ish

That makes a difference. We average 25-32 per class, elementary school. High school might be higher. ANd not great funding.

Elementary was slated to come back 100% until last week. MS/HS hybrid. SO I would have to teach 100% in person and 100% online to the kids who choose it. So...that is not good. Plus, any kid can come back to their neighborhood school. It is not good. I anticipate school closures from this.
 
That makes a difference. We average 25-32 per class, elementary school. High school might be higher. ANd not great funding.

Elementary was slated to come back 100% until last week. MS/HS hybrid. SO I would have to teach 100% in person and 100% online to the kids who choose it. So...that is not good. Plus, any kid can come back to their neighborhood school. It is not good. I anticipate school closures from this.

This is true for our gen ed students, but if a student in Sp Ed cannot manage online, they can choose to come back.
 
SpEd ... oh boy. I have a friend who is a SpEd teacher. She goes back in person soon and has still received no direction. Parents are asking her for recommendations as to whether to put their kids on line or in person, and she doesn’t know what to tell them because she doesn’t know what services and accommodations will be offered in either program. It is a mess.

Getting back to the original question, small groups of at-risk kids in our district went back this week for a special “jump-start” program, and some teachers are back for prep. All reports are that neither kids nor adults are adhering to masking or distancing requirements, and that no attempts are being made to enforce those requirements. Our district refuses to disclose its procedures (if they even exist) for contact tracing, notification, and quarantine, stating only that it will defer to the local health department “if” someone tests positive.

A neighboring district had a skeleton staff working at one high school. One staff member transmitted the virus to at least one other staff member, and the school was shut down completely. This district will be 100% on line for at least the first quarter, but was providing meals and some support services through schools.
 
We have parents getting their knickers in a twist because masks at their seats are not required
I would be one of those parents. Lol Our district is saying masks at all times (except lunch and some “mask breaks”?) but I believe many neighboring districts were saying no masks once they are seated was ok. For us (not judging others!!) that’s a non-starter. Newer studies are showing that even 6ft apart is not enough inside. But again, for us it’s one day a week or 100% virtual, so since one day isn’t exactly ideal, pulling them to virtual isn’t a huge jump. And, we are fortunate that like ldw I also work part time and don’t need day care for young children. Again, there are no good answers with all this...
I anticipate we will end up all remote at some point.
Yes, sadly I think you are correct. :(
 
Again, there are children who need to be in class. I one hundred percent support someones right to want to not send their children back. But there are children who need to back in school. For many reasons. I don't judge folks for staying home. I wish people would stop judging those who choose not to.

We have had many camps and day cares open. Day cares open the whole time. There are now businesses opening and managing to do it safely. There aremany "essential" workers who have worked the whole time.

There are ways to be open safely.

There is value in listening with the intent to understand rather than argue. I did not say that in-person school should not be an option for anyone. I didn’t judge anybody for wanting their kids in class. My own child is signed up to be in class as soon as it is allowed. My daughter goes to gym and I feel safe sending her there. I have no argument against schools offering in-person classes. Yes people’s situations and decisions are complicated and nuanced and nothing is perfect right now. I’m very aware of all of that. Everything you said is irrelevant to my comment.

What I said was that it is not accurate to describe the school outbreak quarantines as caution - as if they deserve a pat on the back for keeping so many students safe by quarantining them. Fully opening schools while not requiring masks or distancing, especially when community cases are not under control, is not caution. If they had chosen to act with caution, they would not be having to react with mass quarantines right now.

I am in favor of schools doing the best they can to accommodate the varying needs of families and the community as a whole, by making proactive choices. Pretending the virus doesn’t exist and then upending everyone’s education each time that it turns out it actually does, is being reactive.

And in the end it doesn’t help the community at all, because now all those parents who needed their kids in school have their kids right back at home.
 
I think that what no one is addressing is that maybe people in NY are feeling differently because their PP is less than one percent. The majority of the rest of the country is no where near that, and the current CDC recommendations do not encourage in person class for anywhere unless PP of tests are below 5 percent. The Atlanta district mentioned above has no where near the recommendation and yet they sent kids back with no precautions- no mask, no distancing. They were living in a fantasy land if they thought that this was not a disaster in the making. Frankly I consider it to be child abuse by the district. I hope they get sued and the individuals in charge lose every cent they have over this catastrophe. It is reckless endangerment of minors.
 
Schools have been back in Australia for months now, and they have just been honest from the start - that social distancing is not practical in schools. Teachers and parents were thrilled by this, of course. So they have acknowledged that if one kid in a class gets it, others might too, and they have focussed as much as possible on practices that would stop it at one class or year level rather than allowing it to spread through the school. Masks are neither encouraged nor discouraged in schools in my state (they are now encouraged in other environments ‘when social distancing is not possible’).

In my state, which is equivalent to about Arizona in population, there is a small amount of community spread now. Most weeks have between 70-120 new cases (this is about six in every ten thousand tests coming back positive so we are testing widely to find these cases).

Schools have banned multi-grade activities, assemblies etc and kids only do things with their own class (primary school) or grade (high school). Interschool sport is off for public schools and interschool activities like debating have been taken online.

Primary school kids are encouraged to mix only with their class friends at lunchtime, and to sit with those friends in class, so they are being encouraged into bubbles within their classrooms. Desks are not spaced out - there is no room. Instead they are clustered into those bubbles and space is left between the bubbles. Classroom doors and windows remain wide open all the time to promote air flow. This makes the classrooms a bit cold in winter but we have a mild climate so it is possible here. It will be unpleasant in the heat of summer though! Many/most of our primary schools (all but the oldest) are designed for cross-flow of air to keep them cool without air conditioning, so you enter a classroom directly from the playground and we do not have too many hallways to worry about.

Lunch etc is in classrooms on rainy days (uncommon), and outdoors at all other times. (This is normal for us). At the high school it is outdoors on rainy days too. We don’t have school cafeterias here the way you do in the US - kids bring lunch from home, or pre-order it from the canteen and pick it up like it is take-out.

Sanitiser is everywhere. In classrooms. In dispensers mounted around the school. Many primary school classrooms have sinks, and teachers enforce hand washing.

Teachers are supposed to socially distance from each other at all times.

High schools have staggered class times to minimise crowding between classes. This took a bit of getting accustomed to, so the return to school was staggered - a couple of grades at a time. Some busy hallways have been made one way. Many of our high schools are also fairly open plan so hallways are not a huge issue.

The primary school has a staggered finishing time to prevent parents congregating outside the school (no parents are allowed on school grounds at the moment). At both primary and high schools, each class or grade enters and exits the school by a specific gate at a specific time to prevent crowding at the gates.

When a kid tests positive, the school is closed immediately. Usually for the remainder of that day and one full additional day. During that time contact tracing is done, all their close contacts get tested. Test turnaround under those circumstances is less than 24 hours. If another kid tests positive in that first day, they assume it may have spread at school and the school closes for two weeks. If there are no further positives that first day, the close contacts continue to quarantine for two weeks but everyone else goes back to school. The vast majority of the time, the kid caught it from a parent, the school is just closed for one day and nobody else catches covid.

My state’s biggest school cluster so far has 22 people in it so far, although I think half of those are family members, and it is only a week old. All of the first few cases actually caught it at a weekend overnight prayer retreat not associated with the school (these have now been banned), but the students had a chance to spread it at school before it was detected.

We have one state in the country where there is a lot more community spread than there is here. Once about one in a hundred tests were coming back positive, they closed schools again. Because, and I know none of you want to hear this - spread in schools is low and controllable when spread in the community is low and controllable. Spread in primary schools seems to remain low. But we discovered the hard way that when community transmission is high, high schools are not magically excluded, and (even with masks compulsory) it will spread in schools as easily as it will in offices or among retail workers. Not as fast as it does in bars, restaurants or churches or nursing homes. But fast enough.
 
We have one state in the country where there is a lot more community spread than there is here. Once about one in a hundred tests were coming back positive, they closed schools again. Because, and I know none of you want to hear this - spread in schools is low and controllable when spread in the community is low and controllable.
To me, I think this is the critical part. I think so many people say things like "why can't we just open - but in a safe way - like Australia has". But, the fundamental difference is the significantly lower community spread. Interesting to hear that you ARE closing schools once the testing percentages get that "high". So there may be some places in the US that could safely open and replicate this - which is great! But, the vast majority of the US is still a lot higher than this.
 
We have one state in the country where there is a lot more community spread than there is here. Once about one in a hundred tests were coming back positive, they closed schools again. Because, and I know none of you want to hear this - spread in schools is low and controllable when spread in the community is low and controllable. Spread in primary schools seems to remain low. But we discovered the hard way that when community transmission is high, high schools are not magically excluded, and (even with masks compulsory) it will spread in schools as easily as it will in offices or among retail workers. Not as fast as it does in bars, restaurants or churches or nursing homes. But fast enough.
Wow, the.vast majority of the United States can only dream of a 1% positivity rate. Some of the states now opening schools currently have tests coming back 15 to 20% positive. It’s insane.
 
We don't have the money. Districts that can't make the distancing requirements can't open.

There are districts that will be able to open 5 days. Most are doing hybrid at at least 50% capacity (if everyone would come back). There are districst only able to do 1 day in. Some districts no days in. Same teachers are teaching in classroom those staying home get the video.

Have you looked at the national data on return to school? 9 out of 10 of the largest school districts in the country are 100% virtual. Most are not doing hybrid. In fact, very few are doing hybrid.
 

The US is a very large country. This is why there is no one size fits all.

The perception is the whole country like the states with a current high number of cases.

There are 14 states where the positive rate is less than 5%

There are 15 states with a positive rate less than 8%

Another 7 with positive rates between 8-10%

6 states less than 12%

6 States higher than 12%, only 1 state in the 20s, 3 over 15 but under 18%
 
Have you looked at the national data on return to school? 9 out of 10 of the largest school districts in the country are 100% virtual. Most are not doing hybrid. In fact, very few are doing hybrid.
You also realize that there is more involved in the why of those decisions then the virus itself. Most not science based. Most medical folks think kids should be in school.

And are you aware of harm to keeping children home.

I will not comment more then that as the thread will veer off.
 

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