Are you sending your kids to school next month?

[gwynne]

Sadly, we have enough trouble getting adults tested. Testing cancelled due to lack of supplies still happens.
Recently the news reported the children's hospital would not test kids that were not admitted. Not enough supplies. Go home and quarantine 10 days.

 

[siren0119]

My county announced free drive-thru testing focused on children starting this morning. 25% of their testing capacity is being diverted to children who are residents of our county. It is by appointment. The aim is due to schooling (though most districts aren't starting for close to another month). They also said "will focus on testing for faculty and staff ahead of school."

Anyone else's area thinking (or already have) doing this? I know faculty and staff have been done other places.

I actually posed the question to our school board, as to what plans there were (locally or statewide) to facilitate testing for students, teachers and staff. No answer yet, but I think it's an important piece to the puzzle. Not just access to tests, but access to no cost tests in areas where cost may inhibit families from getting tested.

 

[mjkacmom]

I think there are delays in testing in my area (though I haven't heard much about that for probably 2 1/2-3 weeks now) but my assumption is if they are specifically diverting testing supplies to children with the intent to reduce possibility of spread when school starts they will amp up the priority level on getting those results back. It may also have helped out on backlogs as they made it more appointment only drive thru-testing a while back instead of first come first serve (which led to a LOT of traffic in the area) so likely able to keep track of incoming tests on a more consistent basis but again don't truly know on that.

We have enough tests, I can go to citymd and take one whenever I want. A month ago results were 48 hours at most.

 

[hulagirl87]

We are getting an email later today about what the finalized plan will be for this upcoming school year. supposedly it will be 2 days in school and one day online with the teacher. I don't know what they could say to convince me to send them, so I'm more than likely homeschooling them. There is another district nearby that will be in person 5 days a week but for only 2 hours each day. That seems like a waste of time. Drop off at 8am and pickup at 10:05am. and then scrub scrub scrub the classroom for the afternoon class of 11:55 until 1:55. It's interesting to read this thread though to see what other counties/cities/ etc are offering. Even within the same county, the different towns have such different plans.

 

[godisney14]

And now they are going online for the next two days and will let everyone know Tuesday night what the plan is. Seems to me that this kind of stop and start, open and close, in person then forced online kind of stuff is far more disruptive for students and families than coming up with a reasonable remote plan for now with the aim of getting back to in person learning as case counts come down.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1292564766100279296

And, the teenager who took to social media is now getting threats from fellow classmates.
https://tampa.cbslocal.com/2020/08/10/viral-photo-north-paulding-high-school-hannah-watters-threats/

Just everything about this school is poorly handled. Just like their governor.

 

[kymom99]

Our KY governor just announced he is recommending no in person school until at least sept. 28. As far as I know colleges are going back. My son moves in tomorrow

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

Both of my kids started back today. Masks are required at the high school, lots of rules about congregating, removed seating in lounge areas and the library, staircases designated as up or down.

Youngest (4th) only has to wear a mask when moving in the hallway or during activities that aren't conducive to social distancing. They have the desks in the classrooms spread as far apart as they can, his is literally 6 inches from the board. The silliest thing is that we are required to take his temperature every morning, write it down on a piece of tape and stick it on his shirt. I took a sheet of stickers and wrote 98.7 on all of them and put it in the car. I'll take his temperature, I don't have any problem doing that, I just think it's dumb to have to remember to put a sticker on him every day. It's not like I'd write 101.5 on it and send him to school.

I give it a month before they go virtual. The county school are starting next week (a week later than planned) as completely virtual until the end of September.

 

[OneOftheB's]

My two started back F2F today. It helps that it's a small, private school, so class sizes are very small (DS has 9 kids in his class, DD has 11). Among the new policies are: masks all the time, except when eating (even on the playground), each kid's desk is a self contained area, with all the supplies they will need, handwashing upon entering the class, specials will be via Zoom instead of moving to another class or a different teacher entering the classroom, no parents on campus, all kids must use carpool and temps are checked at drop off before parent can leave. It will be quite different, but both kids had great days and are happy to be back.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

My two started back F2F today. It helps that it's a small, private school, so class sizes are very small (DS has 9 kids in his class, DD has 11). Among the new policies are: masks all the time, except when eating (even on the playground), each kid's desk is a self contained area, with all the supplies they will need, handwashing upon entering the class, specials will be via Zoom instead of moving to another class or a different teacher entering the classroom, no parents on campus, all kids must use carpool and temps are checked at drop off before parent can leave. It will be quite different, but both kids had great days and are happy to be back.

I teach at a small private school and we are doing things in a similar way. BUT there are a couple of HUGE issues teachers are very upset about. Our classrooms will have double the number of kids in them, and they are allowed to take off their masks once they are in their 6 feet apart seats. They don’t wear masks on the playground either. The teachers want MASKS ALL THE TIME and are being told we can’t require them. I don’t think it’s going to go well for our school.

 

[Kestryl]

My county announced free drive-thru testing focused on children starting this morning. 25% of their testing capacity is being diverted to children who are residents of our county. It is by appointment. The aim is due to schooling (though most districts aren't starting for close to another month). They also said "will focus on testing for faculty and staff ahead of school."

Anyone else's area thinking (or already have) doing this? I know faculty and staff have been done other places.

My area isn’t doing anything.

My employer is doing as much as they can. They bought in very early that this would be a problem for the long haul, and invested heavily in getting available testing on-site. (We have medical personnel and the ability to run samples.) They can’t run public tests (as we are not open to the public), but they can run employee tests.

They are requiring anyone who works on site with kids in or household members working for the schools to test at minimum every other week even if they do not have symptoms. Even if someone is working from home, they are allowed to do drive-in testing, regardless of symptoms.

They’re hoping to help prevent community spread from asymptomatic or presymptomatic carriers from spreading it on-site and it’s working. One of my co-workers did a routine test and came back positive- later his kid started showing symptoms, and eventually confirmed positive. My co-worker developed a runny nose later (that was all). The test caught him and made sure he didn’t come in and spread it to other employees, and he kept his kid home from daycare, preventing potential spread there.

 

[HeatherC]

I teach at a small private school and we are doing things in a similar way. BUT there are a couple of HUGE issues teachers are very upset about. Our classrooms will have double the number of kids in them, and they are allowed to take off their masks once they are in their 6 feet apart seats. They don’t wear masks on the playground either. The teachers want MASKS ALL THE TIME and are being told we can’t require them. I don’t think it’s going to go well for our school.

That is ridiculous. I don’t blame the teachers.

 

[OneOftheB's]

I teach at a small private school and we are doing things in a similar way. BUT there are a couple of HUGE issues teachers are very upset about. Our classrooms will have double the number of kids in them, and they are allowed to take off their masks once they are in their 6 feet apart seats. They don’t wear masks on the playground either. The teachers want MASKS ALL THE TIME and are being told we can’t require them. I don’t think it’s going to go well for our school.

That’s crazy. My kids’ school has opted to be very conservative in their approach, while still going F2F. During the summer, they installed a special anti microbial cleaning system to all of the hvac systems. They’ve hired a company to come in and perform additional deep cleanings. Teachers are wearing masks, except when at the whiteboard, then they are wearing face shields. The admin is encouraging outdoor class time (DS’s supply list included a soccer or camping chair for outdoor instruction time).

I can’t believe a private school would balk from requiring masks. Our school’s enrollment maxed out when the local district announced they were starting with remote learning. The admin realizes parents are paying for F2F instruction and will lose students should they be forced to go back to distance learning.

 

[hulagirl87]

we just got our email, but now I'm just left with more questions. It says if we choose remote learning, that they will be given instruction from a teacher at the beginning of the week. And then what? No interaction at all? And will they be given the same work and same amount of work as if they went in person for the 2 day hybrid plan?

There was way more information about masks (definitely required and if not, suspension), checking temperatures and what they will be doing to clean, then talking about the actual learning part of school.

 

[HeatherC]

Our district voted last night to start remote then ease into hybrid. School will start two weeks late (Sept 16) and be remote for two weeks. Beginning Oct. 1 grades K-4 will do the convoluted half day, two days a week, every other week with remote in the afternoon hybrid schedule. On Oct 15, grades 5-12 will begin the hybrid schedule. “High needs” (5%) students will be full time four days a week. And 10% special needs will be half day four days a week. Wednesday’s will be remote learning for all.

I know a lot of people worked very hard to come up with some sort of meaningful plan, but this schedule makes no sense and will be a nightmare for both teachers and parents. Kids go 1/2 day two days a week every other week with remote in afternoons. How will parents and teachers do this? Are parents supposed to fly home from work two hours after arriving to get their kids off the bus or pick them up. Teachers have to teach in person in the morning then fly home to teach remote in the afternoons? If you do in person, why not full day? Makes zero sense. What a nightmare. And we won’t even talk about the bussing.

 

[CarolAnn856]

Many schools are doing half days because serving lunch is extremely difficult with all of the distancing and crowd size restrictions. Eating in the cafeteria is problematic because there are often more students than are allowed in one place, and eating in classrooms can be an issue with cleaning and staffing to cover the lunch (teachers are often required by contract to have a duty-free lunch).

 

[kymom99]

My son moved to his dorm today. I’m anxious. I hope we are doing the right thing.

 

[Kitty 34]

My son moved to his dorm today. I’m anxious. I hope we are doing the right thing.

See, this is why we need the reaction emoji.......I know different thread but hugs to you, Kymom.

 

[Colleen27]

We have enough tests, I can go to citymd and take one whenever I want. A month ago results were 48 hours at most.

A month ago, it was about the same here. But the wait for results has been creeping upward for weeks now, and the health department is currently telling people 5 days. That's going to be a mess when we start seeing even isolated positives among students, because the lag between test and confirmed positive (and therefore any isolation response) is enough that there could be additional spread in the meantime.

 

[HeatherC]

Many schools are doing half days because serving lunch is extremely difficult with all of the distancing and crowd size restrictions. Eating in the cafeteria is problematic because there are often more students than are allowed in one place, and eating in classrooms can be an issue with cleaning and staffing to cover the lunch (teachers are often required by contract to have a duty-free lunch).

I’m ok with the half days for this reason. Our district, however is only doing two half days a week...every other week with remote learning in the afternoons. Just split the kids in half Mon and Tues. then Thurs. Friday. Every other week is ridiculous.

 

[bethbuchall]

My son moved to his dorm today. I’m anxious. I hope we are doing the right thing.

My son goes at the end of the month. I understand the feelings. You (and I) are doing the best we can.