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Originally Posted by rjolley
We decided to do homeschooling another year. The kids did well with it last year and with the public schools appearing to be headed towards another year of uncertainty, being remote is the best option for us.
I listened in to one of the school board meetings about mask mandates and it's as crazy as ever. Schools are in a tough spot. Do you not follow the county/state/federal guidelines and risk losing funding? Do you follow the guidelines and piss off parents? If kids get gravely ill from COVID and it can be tracked to the school, are the schools liable ? I don't envy having to make those decisions.
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Just a month ago, we were all getting our son ready for school with the plan of sending him masked and basically holding our breath until he could get his shots, which will probably be in late September and late October. My wife and I had a long, hard conversation this weekend.
Our rates are going through the roof here. Five weeks ago, we were averaging 133 new cases per day in Houston. Last week, we averaged 2200(!). Weekly test positivity rate has gone from 2.4% to 11.5%(!!) in those same few weeks. We're back to early February numbers and racing to winter peak numbers. ICUs have had to open up expanded capacity in the med center - we still have room, but it feels like we're just now starting this wave. And pediatric hospitals are getting crushed right now with COVID and also RSV.
Abbott seems hellbent on his stupid death race with DeSantis. His current executive order explicitly forbade mask mandates for school districts so even if our district wanted a mask mandate for kids, it couldn't. Austin might try to challenge it in court. But I haven't heard any noise about Houston or any of the surrounding districts doing it. Also, they played some political chicken to make sure no funding was approved for virtual schooling so unless you had it prior to 2020, you can't do it.
Instead, we're probably going to be stuck homeschooling again. We'd much rather he be in school. But we just can't, in good conscience, put him there in this state under these conditions. I'm sure we'll all get COVID this winter at some point but I want it to be after he's had his vaccine and after this current wave has had a chance to burn out a bit. But, for now, assuming things keep going at the current rate and the politics remain as they are, I think we're going to keep him at home another 3 months until he can be vaccinated.
SI