Are you sending your kids to school next month?

[roomthreeseventeen]

Well, here goes the school year. (I've never heard of a school starting this early, but I guess some do.)

 

[yeahdisney]

My coworker read out loud yesterday. Her kids school plan. She has 3 kids. The younger 2 kids; hours will be for the first 2 months of the school year 815 to 11:15. No more than 50 masked kids riding a bus. 300 minutes of remote learning.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Arizona parents asked to sign COVID-19 waivers before sending kids back to school

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Arizona parents asked to sign COVID-19 waivers before sending kids back to school

Key part: "The waivers though, do not even need to be signed by parents for their kids to be allowed to return to in-person classes." Additionally: " The Trust told ABC15 Tuesday evening that they have developed a "coverage option" that would make the "optional waiver" obsolete. The board plans to vote on it at their meeting August 4."

**Arizona School Risk Retention Trust [The Trust] is the statewide insurance carrier for schools.

It's kinda a dicey thing but all over are liability warnings. What makes it different IMO is that education is not the same as a leisure activity but the premise is the same; just makes it more complicated in terms of lawsuits IMO. But coming from an insurance background I understand why the insurance company would want such a waiver (not that I agree with it but I understand why)

 

[monsterkitty]

The district I live in just announced their plan and I really like it!

They are delaying the start of school until August 27. The first four weeks will be remote learning with exceptions:

Students who have IEPs will be placed in small pods at their home school, as in the one they normally go to. These students will be bussed if normally bussed.

Parents who cannot work from home or have no child care can request their children be in-person and the students will be placed in pods.

The pods for choice students may be at their home school but if there are too many for the small pods, 10-12 students/room, they will be assigned another school. Parents of the choice kids must provide transportation.

All other students will do remote learning with assignments and zoom lessons with the teachers they are scheduled to have this year.

There is also the option of 100% remote using the online curriculum the purchased from the district I retired from.


Side note- FB and NextDoor are already full of comments. People are asking those who are complaining about no busses that they need realize they may have to adjust their work schedules a bit to transport their child to and from school, or they can figure out how to care for them if it was 100% remote learning.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

WA state: they just announced my high schooler will have virtual learning for the rest of 2020. (School was set to begin September 1st. My four college age kids, who go to three different colleges have all announced online classes for Fall.

I work from home. My husband is home to at least October. We have upgraded our internet to the best available, but spring was stressful. We are going to have to come up with a 24 hour schedule to spread out the bandwidth.

 

[VandVsmama]

I don't see what the big deal is about signing waivers. If one isn't comfortable with it, then do online instruction or pull your kids out of the school system and home school them.

 

[lifesavacation]

WA state: they just announced my high schooler will have virtual learning for the rest of 2020. (School was set to begin September 1st. My four college age kids, who go to three different colleges have all announced online classes for Fall.

I work from home. My husband is home to at least October. We have upgraded our internet to the best available, but spring was stressful. We are going to have to come up with a 24 hour schedule to spread out the bandwidth.

That’s funny you mentioned the bandwidth. We had to upgrade as well. I got tired of my daughter telling us she was taking an online test so no one should use the internet for a couple of hours

 

[Renarr]

As you’re deciding, remember that public school is public school. If your family’s needs change, they cannot bar you from public school. That is the one thing I’m seeing that seems unenforceable. My state is saying that you must choose an option for a quarter and can only change then but how will they enforce that? Students move, change schools, pull out to home school, come back all the time every year. Is public education really prepared to say to a family who made a choice that isn’t working after a few weeks, “well too bad, you can change in 6 weeks.” I highly doubt it.

My district's lawyers have been using the argument that they're not denying anyone public schooling, they're just denying access to the building.

Their rationale is that since remote students are in different class periods with different teachers than hybrid students, the movement may cause a break in social distancing parameters.

Now, my experience with the district is that they will likely bend on this, but I'm wondering if they're just trying it to prevent people from moving willy-nilly.

 

[MrsPete]

I bought 100 gift bags that are large enough to pack a lunch in for DH. He will not be taking his lunch bag to school this year. Neither will I when I sub!

That is a very practical idea.

Before our county decided to go with 100% online learning, everyone in my department bought face shields -- we were planning to wear masks + shields. And we talked about using painter's tape to "box off" 6' squares for student desks.

There's a lawyer in St. Petersburg Fl offering this as well. If I were a teacher, I would be quitting my job rather than go back. Finances are important, but living is better.

It's easy to see such absolutes when you're not actually facing the question. I looked into the possibility of quitting /taking a year (or two) off, but if I quit, these are realities for me:
- We have a teaching shortage in my area. I 100% can return to the classroom when I want -- maybe not in my current school, maybe not in the same grade I've been teaching, but I can "come back" easily.
- I'm nearing retirement, so I was hired years ago under "the old rules", so I will have paid basic health insurance for the rest of my life AND I have the option to buy health insurance for my husband. If I quit and am rehired, I will have to come in under "the new rules", and I would give up that huge, huge benefit. I can't do that.
- I could retire now, but it would cost me just short of $5,000/year in pension for the rest of my life (because I'm young to be retiring, I have to "max out" with the full 30 years OR take a big hit financially). That's a huge amount of money to give up.

I continue to be amused by it's work and die or stay home and live.

Agree. My RN daughter and her coworkers have been exposed to Corona Virus many, many times since March -- she works in one of our state's real "hot pockets" -- but only one person in her office has tested positive. Protective gear is quite effective. Not an absolute promise, of course, but we do have some control over our fate.

 

[Lumpy1106]

In CA, schools in all counties are not allowed to open until the county has less than 100 cases per 100,000 people over a 14 day period, neglecting the most recent 4 days to allow testing to catch up. Math is hard, public access to data is scarce, but the city I live in has its own health department so luckily we do get pretty good data here that is reported daily. Extrapolating the data, I estimate that the earliest we'll meet that metric is about 60 days (magic number is a rolling average of new daily positive cases < 33 for the city). That is almost meaningless though, because we are in Los Angeles County, and the numbers for the county as a whole are worse - we'd have to get the Governor to treat our city differently than the rest of the county. While we are a city of nearly a half million people and that makes sense (Long Beach), I don't see the political desire to make that a reality. Point of fact - the Mayor's Mother just succumbed to COVID days ago and his Step-Father is on a ventilator.

Of course if there is a spike, or if other schools across the nation open without incident, all of that could change...as it has...nearly daily...since this started...in March.

 

[sk!mom]

I looked into the possibility of quitting /taking a year (or two) off, but if I quit, these are realities for me:
- We have a teaching shortage in my area. I 100% can return to the classroom when I want -- maybe not in my current school, maybe not in the same grade I've been teaching, but I can "come back" easily.
- I'm nearing retirement, so I was hired years ago under "the old rules", so I will have paid basic health insurance for the rest of my life AND I have the option to buy health insurance for my husband. If I quit and am rehired, I will have to come in under "the new rules", and I would give up that huge, huge benefit. I can't do that.
- I could retire now, but it would cost me just short of $5,000/year in pension for the rest of my life (because I'm young to be retiring, I have to "max out" with the full 30 years OR take a big hit financially). That's a huge amount of money to give up.

I’m in the same boat. I met my minimum retirement date last December. However if I take retirement now, I will lose thousands forever. I really need to work 8 more years, and PreCovid, I really wanted to work several more years. I do not feel ready to retire.

I also love my current position and coworkers. I teach at a school less than a mile from my house. If I took a year off, I could for sure come back (shortage here, as well and I have lots of contacts) but there is no guarantee that it wouldn’t be to a less desirable job with a long commute.

For all those reasons, I’m masking up and going back.

 

[unrequited23]

We are going to have to come up with a 24 hour schedule to spread out the bandwidth.

Over a year ago, we switched from a residential account to a business account at our home and it increased our bandwidth & removed data caps. The price was a few dollars more than our previous 3 yr residential contract that was due to expire, but $15 lower than the new rates the company was offering.

 

[MrsPete]

I’m in the same boat. I met my minimum retirement date last December. However if I take retirement now, I will lose thousands forever. I really need to work 8 more years, and PreCovid, I really wanted to work several more years. I do not feel ready to retire.

I also love my current position and coworkers. I teach at a school less than a mile from my house. If I took a year off, I could for sure come back (shortage here, as well and I have lots of contacts) but there is no guarantee that it wouldn’t be to a less desirable job with a long commute.

For all those reasons, I’m masking up and going back.

You've heard the term "golden handcuffs" in terms of retirement pensions? You and I are both wearing them. I have to work two years to complete my 30 (so potentially I might not see post-Covid schools again), and I would retire now -- but, as you say, I'm not ready to "lose thousands forever".

 

[Kitty 34]

My 4 year old granddaughter starts school in Avon, Ind tomorrow......5 days a week.

 

[sk!mom]

You've heard the term "golden handcuffs" in terms of retirement pensions? You and I are both wearing them. I have to work two years to complete my 30 (so potentially I might not see post-Covid schools again), and I would retire now -- but, as you say, I'm not ready to "lose thousands forever".

Definitely, wearing those handcuffs. I keep reminding myself that PreCovid, I had no desire nor plans to retire soon. Our youngest graduated college in 2018 and married in 2019. With everyone fully on their own, our plans were travel during every school break and much of the summer. We started in January with an anniversary trip to NYC but COVID killed all remaining plans. Holding out for better times ahead.

 

[RangerPooh]

Last week the largest school district in our county announced that they will delay opening until the end of August and will be virtual for the fall semester. My kids are in two districts (a shared high school), my 4th, 5th, and 8th graders will be in virtual classes for the first 9 weeks. Our 10th grader will be in a hybrid program of two days in class, 3 days remote. Her district delayed the start of school one week. Apparently our district (elementary and middle school) had most parents opting to send their kids back to school.

 

[FigmentSpark]

It's easy to see such absolutes when you're not actually facing the question. I looked into the possibility of quitting /taking a year (or two) off, but if I quit, these are realities for me:
- We have a teaching shortage in my area. I 100% can return to the classroom when I want -- maybe not in my current school, maybe not in the same grade I've been teaching, but I can "come back" easily.
- I'm nearing retirement, so I was hired years ago under "the old rules", so I will have paid basic health insurance for the rest of my life AND I have the option to buy health insurance for my husband. If I quit and am rehired, I will have to come in under "the new rules", and I would give up that huge, huge benefit. I can't do that.
- I could retire now, but it would cost me just short of $5,000/year in pension for the rest of my life (because I'm young to be retiring, I have to "max out" with the full 30 years OR take a big hit financially). That's a huge amount of money to give up.

Everyone makes the best decision for them, but just to throw it out there... If you took the early retirement you'd lose the $5000/yr, but you would also have the opportunity (assuming you are young enough that you don't really want to retire) to work in some other area and make much more than that. A second career is not for everyone, but it's something to think about if it does work out for you.

 

[johnsontrio]

Not to be flip and NOT comparing it to the flu, but children die of the flu every year. They just don’t always publicize it. It’s always sad whenever a child dies.

I hear flu brought up many times in discussion of C-19. I know that many thousands of Americans die yearly from the flu but I personally have never known anyone that has died from the flu, nor can I recall anyone telling me that someone they know, has died from the flu. I personally know 2 people that have died from Covid, 2 others that were on life support with one of those on ECMO and 2 nurses that were hospitalized along with their husbands with Covid. My DD worked with a 30 yo woman who passed away from Covid and left a 10 yo child behind. I have 2 friends who have lost an elderly parent to Covid. All but one of the aforementioned people were medical personnel or exposed through medical personnel that contracted Covid prior to use knowing it was here and wearing appropriate PPE.

 

[mom2rtk]

Well, here goes the school year. (I've never heard of a school starting this early, but I guess some do.)

Our district has been having in person summer school for almost a month.