Back to school time - What are your kids doing?

[disneysteve]

Our daughter is thankfully out of school but we really feel for all of the parents dealing with school restarting this year in the middle of the pandemic. The choices - in person, hybrid, or remote - are all flawed for one reason or another.

This article from today shows that what we all feared would happen with in-person school is exactly what is occurring: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/us/sc...UuCXvNIJWHsiUY

I work in Urgent Care and, unfortunately, several of our local districts are planning to open in person. I fully expect it to be an overwhelming disaster within a week or two of opening and have us swamped with people needing COVID testing (which we don't even do currently but they're talking about starting it).

What is your local school district doing? If you have the option of remote or in person, which are you doing?

[bjl584]

I don't have kids

My cousin's wife is an elementary teacher, and there is no real plan right now.
I'll have to ask her what the latest news is

[disneysteve]

My cousin's wife is an elementary teacher, and there is no real plan right now.

I have many friends and relatives who are teachers. They're terrified.

I know of at least 2 people so far who have opted to quit their school jobs rather than risk their lives to go back.

One friend's district has already informed them that PPE will not be provided. GoFundMe campaigns are happening to help raise money for the teachers to buy the supplies they need to protect themselves and get their classrooms set up.

It's really sad how incredibly mismanaged this has been nationally.

[~bs]

I have many friends and relatives who are teachers. They're terrified.

I know of at least 2 people so far who have opted to quit their school jobs rather than risk their lives to go back.

One friend's district has already informed them that PPE will not be provided. GoFundMe campaigns are happening to help raise money for the teachers to buy the supplies they need to protect themselves and get their classrooms set up.

It's really sad how incredibly mismanaged this has been nationally.

Probably the status quo for state/local governments.... incompetence.

I do feel bad for them, but everyone needs to weigh risk/rewards and make their own decisions in these trying times. If distance learning isn't offered or acceptable, then need to see if it's worth the covid risk to work. If unacceptable, they should resign. To be honest, I am not overly sympathetic to their plight, as there are many of us that have worked through this pandemic since it all started, including first responders and essential personnel who are at even higher risk. Teachers are not a special class of citizen, nor should they be treated as such. My 0.02

[Mjenn]

Our schools have never closed and there’s no social distancing and grade school is mandatory for everyone- home school is forbidden. In the spring high schools did distance learning, but they are opening for mostly in person with only some having staggered openings.

our numbers dropped significantly when schools closed for the summer, so I think in about a month things will be pretty awful here. On the positive we know at least one of our kids teachers has had it and a lot of kids were symptomatic, so maybe our school will be ok? Who knows. I am not feeling good about it.

[rennigade]

Besides the military, Im not sure if a workplace exists where you arent allowed to quit at any time? Thats the beauty of a free country. If people really do fear for their lives, they can leave their job and find another one. No one is being forced to return to work.

Our schools are offering options of virtual, in person and something else. Its good to give people options.

[Singuy]

So far we are sending our 4yo to VPK with a mask on. I feel uncomfortable about it so we will see. She doesn't need to go to VPK as going doesn't affect our ability to work or not. I just don't want her to grow up a weirdo with such few school interaction. She only had 1 month of day care total and then we stopped it due to Covid. Lets say her social skills need lots of work.

What do you guys think? My dad wants her to go (naturally since we Asians hate our kids missing school) and he's the immunocompromised one.

[disneysteve]

Our schools are offering options of virtual, in person and something else. Its good to give people options.

I agree. The problem is the kids may have options but the employees don't.

Are all schools in the country offering a virtual option?

[disneysteve]

So far we are sending our 4yo to VPK with a mask on. I feel uncomfortable about it so we will see. She doesn't need to go to VPK as going doesn't affect our ability to work or not. I just don't want her to grow up a weirdo with such few school interaction. She only had 1 month of day care total and then we stopped it due to Covid. Lets say her social skills need lots of work.

What do you guys think? My dad wants her to go (naturally since we Asians hate our kids missing school) and he's the immunocompromised one.

I think in-person school is super important for both social and educational reasons. I also think that at this time, there's no safe way to do in-person school, especially because the US has done next to nothing to get an adequate COVID testing system in place. We're way behind in this regard. I mean the NBA and MLB and NFL and NHL and White House seem to have no trouble testing everyone every day but for the rest of us, tests are hard to come by.

One local district has already released their policy. It includes a requirement that if any kid is sent home with a fever, they need a doctor's note with a diagnosis and documentation that they don't have COVID in order to return (or they need to do a 14-day quarantine). Coming into respiratory season, that's going to create a need for thousands of COVID tests in that district alone. There's no system in place for that to happen.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Tests are hard to come by. We are remote for the foreseeable future. No idea what is going to happen.

[kork13]

I'm living in a small, slowly growing town in SW Idaho (pop. ~15k, at least 30% of which is military folks like myself). The public schools here are offering an option if 100% virtual, and otherwise they're opening schools on Monday with a hybrid, half in-person/half virtual model. Kids attend in person either AM or PM, and do virtual work the other half of the day. That's the story 5 days a week, and allows reduced volume/better distancing in classes, while giving some of that valuable socialization. Masks are mandatory, and washing/sanitizing standards will be broadly enforced.

Personally, we're satisfied with those measures, especially because we're in a small, low-density community. And DS5 is thrilled to be starting kindergarten. DS3 is also starting at a small, private preschool on Monday. That will be all day, but the class size is very small, and they're taking similar measures to limit contact, to include as much time outside as feasible.

Frankly, I'm not terrified by the possibility that we could become exposed to COVID, if we haven't already. Besides work & now school, we largely stick to ourselves anyway, and we follow all the recommended protocols. And in this town, most people just aren't panicking about it. But again, I think alot of that is driven partly by the low population & low density.

[Jluke]

Our school is doing remote learning through at least the end of October.

some kids may be allowed to go in to the school for certain reasons (small groups, probably IEP related, special assignments).

I’ll be going in one day soon just to pickup the supplies, including an iPad.

im glad the school board decided to do remote learning. One less thing to worry about but with that comes the struggle of getting a 2nd grader to focus on schoolwork at home, missing out on being physically active and socializing etc.

There are a lot of people for and against this move of course. School is a business in that there are a lot of moving parts that all have to be present for each school day
(Teachers, administrators, bus drivers, maintenance, lunch crew, etc). I think some parents don’t see what it takes behind the scenes just to have a day of school.

hopefully this is the right move.

[rennigade]

Our school is doing remote learning through at least the end of October.

some kids may be allowed to go in to the school for certain reasons (small groups, probably IEP related, special assignments).

I’ll be going in one day soon just to pickup the supplies, including an iPad.

im glad the school board decided to do remote learning. One less thing to worry about but with that comes the struggle of getting a 2nd grader to focus on schoolwork at home, missing out on being physically active and socializing etc.

There are a lot of people for and against this move of course. School is a business in that there are a lot of moving parts that all have to be present for each school day
(Teachers, administrators, bus drivers, maintenance, lunch crew, etc). I think some parents don’t see what it takes behind the scenes just to have a day of school.

hopefully this is the right move.

Are you a teacher? Are you against teachers having to be in their rooms all day even if students are 100% virtual? Teachers could get more done if they are in their rooms. They would be social distanced so no need to worry for their lives. Equipment could be set up so they could host calls with students. They could do their grading on site. In reality, it would bring a lot of normalcy back to them.

Im not completely against students being completely virtual, teachers on the other hand, they should have to report into the school for a full day, every day.

Also, for those who say teachers can do everything from home they could in their classrooms, thats fine...but they should be paid at a reduced rate. Same goes for college. If students are forced to receive an education and are forced to do it remotely, college should be significantly cheaper.

[Jluke]

Are you a teacher? Are you against teachers having to be in their rooms all day even if students are 100% virtual? Teachers could get more done if they are in their rooms. They would be social distanced so no need to worry for their lives. Equipment could be set up so they could host calls with students. They could do their grading on site. In reality, it would bring a lot of normalcy back to them.

Im not completely against students being completely virtual, teachers on the other hand, they should have to report into the school for a full day, every day.

Also, for those who say teachers can do everything from home they could in their classrooms, thats fine...but they should be paid at a reduced rate. Same goes for college. If students are forced to receive an education and are forced to do it remotely, college should be significantly cheaper.

Not a teacher. Used to be a summer time custodian at schools and had other insights to the way school works.

for our district they have floated a few ideas and I’m not sure where they landed for where the teachers will be located -home or at school.

it’s a 5 hr 50 min school day. Best I can remember (more details coming) There will be live teachings via a school app and recorded.

One other thing I had been thinking but left out was what happens when the school gets their first case or cases of the virus? Will they continue in school, or will they suddenly have to switch to remote learning? And how many cases would it take to shut down school.

[riverwed070707]

Our district offered 100% virtual or a hybrid that encompasses 2 days a week in the classroom (divided in 2 groups so students choosing this option would go Monday-Tuesday OR Thursday-Friday, with 3 days virtual). 1/3 of our school chose virtual with 2/3 choosing hybrid, which effectively means only 1/3 of students will be in the building at a time with every wednesday designated for cleaning. Masks mandatory for those attending in person. We chose hybrid but there is supposed to be a school board vote this week to decide if we will delay the start of in person learning for 2 weeks. Our district is the largest in the state and I think they are essentially trying to wait and see what happens with those that decide to return right away before making a final decision. I would be surprised if we don't end up 100% virtual before the first day.