Covid and School

[miami_fan]

My son's school had about 30% of its middle school staff out yesterday due to "illness". Subs aren't answer call to go to the school due to the number of teachers who have been out with "illness".

It is a good thing that according to the county's COVID-19 dashboard that was created to make sure "All reported cases are being shared with the public in the spirit of transparency.", we only have 5 cases since end of July. 1 staff member on August 18 and 4 students on August 26. Students did not actually start in person school on August 31.

[sterlingice]

Well, if you can't trust Ron DeSantis, the governor who fired his lead data scientist for not forging COVID data, who can you trust?

SI

[larrymcg421]

Fulton County begins phase 3 (1/4 students per day) on Sep 21st and plans on going full face to face by October 14th.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

... while my child has a sore throat, per question 3, whatever the results are, this entire protocol could be triggered by a simple runny nose.

I saw a similarly bit of ... sub-par phrasing ... not fifteen minutes ago.

From the alternative (county-run) charter school back in my hometown, a copy of the flyer being given to students who are sent home "Students presenting signs or symptoms of COVID-19 or that have had a risk of exposure will be sent home to work virtually."

That ain't the sketchy part though. It's this bit:
"Someone from the school will contact you when it is safe for you to return to school. If your symptoms get worse, please follow up with a doctor before returning to school."

Notice that there's no indication that they're doing ANYTHING other than counting days since you sneezed three times before saying "hey, c'mon back"
No testing requirement, no follow up calls, nada, zip, zero.

So conceivably get sent home because somebody's perfume triggered your allergies. So conceivably get told to come back even though you're asymptomatic but actually have it.

#brilliant

[cuervo72]

Yeah, that was an oddity with how VT handled it too. Essentially, you're fine to come back in 15 days if you don't have symptoms. I don't think anything was mentioned regarding an actual test. (Never mind that we all got negative tests by last weekend). Same with the roommate, who tested positive; quarantine period is up soon, and I guess she can go back to the room after that? I've not heard a mention that she has to actually test negative first (after having tested positive).

Also, I think some of the follow-up after being told to go into quarantine housing or leave campus was from Virginia itself. Once they found out the student was no longer in the state...they didn't seem to care.

[Kodos]

Today was the first day for my kids in school. They're in the Thursday-Friday group of students. I'm happy they are there from an education quality standpoint, but nervous on the virus front. Especially since my 78-year-old father lives in our house. Feels like playing roulette on some level.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I saw a similarly bit of ... sub-par phrasing ... not fifteen minutes ago.

From the alternative (county-run) charter school back in my hometown, a copy of the flyer being given to students who are sent home "Students presenting signs or symptoms of COVID-19 or that have had a risk of exposure will be sent home to work virtually."

That ain't the sketchy part though. It's this bit:
"Someone from the school will contact you when it is safe for you to return to school. If your symptoms get worse, please follow up with a doctor before returning to school."

Notice that there's no indication that they're doing ANYTHING other than counting days since you sneezed three times before saying "hey, c'mon back"
No testing requirement, no follow up calls, nada, zip, zero.

So conceivably get sent home because somebody's perfume triggered your allergies. So conceivably get told to come back even though you're asymptomatic but actually have it.

#brilliant

My assumption when filling out the form in the app was that because I was able to answer in the negative for all of the other six questions and because there were five different symptoms listed in that particular question, the "yes" on that one would trigger a follow-up, like maybe five radio buttons used to check off which of the symptoms they have, and perhaps a severity scale for those that they do have. But...no. Even just a runny nose from some mild fall allergy would yield a "stay home" response.

Interestingly enough, the principal's clarification email was "if her symptoms clear up or it becomes evident that it is because of another medical explanation, she may return to campus," which (thankfully) is not in line with what's written in the school's official reopening guide. Her response seems much more reasonable than waiting 10 days or running to the doctor for a note every time your kid gets a runny nose.

[QuikSand]

There's just no perfectly comfortable middle ground available. If you accept kids to in-person schooling, at some point the situation leads to absurdity. Either you do what feels like a wild overreaction to sniffles, or you make what seems like a coldhearted calculation about acceptable exposures to kids, families, and staff. None of this ends up in a nice, easy, goldilocks position.

[Ben E Lou]

On the public school side, our county superintendent and her team keep making what appear to be well thought-out decisions given the restrictions from the state that their navigating. The latest is wildly unpopular with many high school parents, but I'm not seeing better arguments than "this is bad for MY kid!"


The plan is to prioritize the youngest kids for in-person instruction, the reasoning being, on the educational side, that it's a more critical stage for learning (sounds reasonable to me, but I'll leave evaluating that one to the experts,) on the practical side, that older kids can navigate the computer themselves and can stay at home while parents go to work. Plus, the county has long had teaching assistants on the payroll for the younger grades, so for classes other than the most critical (math and reading,) if they have more physical space available to them, they can spread the kids out more by having the assistants teach other subjects. So, the superintendent is proposing something like (don't recall the specific grade levels, but you'll get the point,) K-2nd will occupy the elementary buildings, 3-5 will be in middle school buildings, 6-8 in high school buildings, 9-12 remote until January. Under this proposal, K-5 start in-person in October, 5 days per week, and I think middle school does the mixed remote/in-person thing starting in October. High schools return to in-person in January. (There are also other plans being made for issues like special needs kids and those who need individual help.) Sucks for high schoolers, but if you're trying to work out something for everyone under the constraints given, this seems to a solid plan. The school board votes on it in about 10 days, but up to now that has just been a rubber stamp. We watched the most recent meeting where this proposal was put forth for consideration, and all indications are that it'll pass.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

There's just no perfectly comfortable middle ground available. If you accept kids to in-person schooling, at some point the situation leads to absurdity. Either you do what feels like a wild overreaction to sniffles, or you make what seems like a coldhearted calculation about acceptable exposures to kids, families, and staff. None of this ends up in a nice, easy, goldilocks position.

Fair point generally speaking, but in our case, the principal's email makes 100 times more sense than the written policy. Yes, I get that the latter is there for liability reasons, but what good is it even for that if one of the primary enforcers decides within the first 3 weeks of school to ignore the policy and trust parents to make a wise decision on when to send their kid back?

For the record, she went back today. Our first guess appears to be accurate: she slept with a fan blowing directly on her on Wednesday night, and that was the most likely cause of the sore throat. She popped out of bed 30 minutes before she needed to this morning, as chipper as ever.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Fulton County begins phase 3 (1/4 students per day) on Sep 21st and plans on going full face to face by October 14th.

I hope Phase IV doesn't happen. I'm not particularly fond of ants.

[dawgfan]

In the "what could go wrong handing out laptops to elementary school kids?" department: my son yesterday decided that the school-district issued password was too easy for someone else to figure out (since it's based on their birthdates) and decided on his own to change it. Which resulted in his laptop no longer being able to sign in to the school district servers to log in. And of course I found this out picking him up from his school camp after 4PM, which is when the Seattle Public Schools IT support staff are done for the day.

Called them ASAP this morning after 7:30AM when they open, had to leave a message (their recording insists you only call/email once per issue). It's now 2:42PM and we haven't heard back from them, meaning he's probably fucked for school on Monday. He stayed home today and used my laptop, but that's not a sustainable solution.

Given that they are putting all kinds of restrictions on these laptops, why didn't they disable the ability to change the log in password too?

[whomario]

University of Arizona had a pretty mindblowing 261 positives yesterday. In normal times 55.000 students/staff (though i guess way less now but let's leave that aside). So 0,47% of the 'population' tested positive yesterday alone. Put a different way, the same rate for the US would come out at about 1.55 mio cases for that day.


Subsequently pulled the plug on in-person and asking students to essentially shelter in place.



Latest Updates | COVID-19


Now, this might well be just collected results from multiple days. But all i can say is that i sincerely hope those students are aware of the high likelihood of being carriers when interacting with anybody that might be at an increased risk compared to themselves.



The Chancellor of my former university somewhat poetically described Universities as "permanent mobile mass gathering"

[Izulde]

We're switching to 4 days face-to-face with all students every day rather than the A/B cohorts starting the 28th. First time I've ever seriously contemplated writing a will. If I get COVID, I've got a reasonable chance of dying, I suspect.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by whomario

University of Arizona had a pretty mindblowing 261 positives yesterday.

fwiw, I wouldn't put much stock in what day things are reported (unless they're detailing those results very specifically). Look at, say, a weekly figure or something. There seems to be a considerable ebb & flow in number-of-results (positive or negative, I'm talking about just the total of test results) reported on a given day virtually everywhere.

[Lathum]

First day here, in person every day from 9-1. School has been OK about communicating, bussing the biggest issue. I decided to not bus them and drive them to school.

I had zero issues picking them up but apparently there were some issues with very late busses, kids getting off the wrong stops or not being on the bus, kids in the wrong place at pickup, etc...as far as I can tell no lost kids or anything real crazy.

One mom went all Karen in the local facebook group and now there is a herd of Karens calling for blood.

[Flasch186]

Our 6 yo was up all night, puke and diah.

Complained of ear hurting so we took her for an ear infection look and no dice there so they tested for CV. Negative thank goodness.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

fwiw, I wouldn't put much stock in what day things are reported (unless they're detailing those results very specifically). Look at, say, a weekly figure or something. There seems to be a considerable ebb & flow in number-of-results (positive or negative, I'm talking about just the total of test results) reported on a given day virtually everywhere.

While that is obviously true, that'd be more relevant if the numbers weren't that gaudy.

Plus, they do list daily numbers as well as weekly (put the wrong link, here is the actual dashboard : Dashboard | COVID-19 ) which have the usual variations you see most places. Today it was another 172, the 7 day average is up to 150. That is a lot, no matter how you look at it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by whomario

While that is obviously true, that'd be more relevant if the numbers weren't that gaudy.

Gaudy is in the eye of the beholder I guess. UGA had 1,400 the first week.
Bama had something like 3,000 (?) in the first few weeks.

Though I'm not sure how much stock I put in the numbers I just mentioned (not yours, I'm talking about my two numbers) being accurate in either direction. UGA used that number but it's "self-reported" and drawn from at least four different sources amalgamated. When all but 1 case (literally, 1) is student rather than employee, something feels like it miiiiiight be amiss somewhere.

There's surely some positive test results being hidden, but based on the published info about the sources, it's likely UGA also has duplicate results as well as the ever popular false positives.

edit to add: my point being that the figure you mentioned really didn't strike me as gaudy in the sense that it's inline with what I've already seen

[cartman]

One of my nephew's teachers tested positive, so he and his classmates are all home for the next couple of weeks. Makes my mom's decision to stay with me while she recuperates from surgery a good one, since my sister and her kids moved back in with my mom and dad.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

edit to add: my point being that the figure you mentioned really didn't strike me as gaudy in the sense that it's inline with what I've already seen

Keep in mind that UGA and Alabama have THE two highest case counts of any school in the country.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

Keep in mind that UGA and Alabama have THE two highest case counts of any school in the country.

Couldn't have told ya beyond those two honestly, those happen to be the two I've seen. I couldn't tell you within several hundred one way or another what the count is at Miami for example. (And unless I miss my bet, neither could my kid)

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Couldn't have told ya beyond those two honestly, those happen to be the two I've seen. I couldn't tell you within several hundred one way or another what the count is at Miami for example. (And unless I miss my bet, neither could my kid)

Look like University of Miami has 259 cases.

[miami_fan]

Interesting bits of information from our school superintendent. The district has seen approximately 7,000 fewer students this year. This is excluding students that have officially left the system such as graduates, transfers etc.. They "found" 3,000 of them that are now homeschooling. They are trying to figure out where the other 4,000 students have gone.

EDIT: If nothing changes, the district will be returning $56 million to the state.

[miami_fan]

Not really COVID related but listening in on a middle school Civics class during this time has been fascinating. There has definitely been some homeschooling going on in this subject based some of the responses of the kids.

[Lathum]

My friend who is doing virtual with her 2nd grader just told me she has been watching a kid eat his boogers on camera for 20 minutes while the teacher tells a different kid to stop climbing on his bed.

Glad I sent mine back.

[dawgfan]

As much as my kids like to complain about having to go to a "camp" to do their schooling while most of their classmates are at home, I suspect they are far less distracted and more focused on their work than if we were letting them do it from home. It also means my wife and I can actually work without distractions from them fighting or asking us a bunch of questions or bitching that the WiFi is down, etc.

So far so good with the day camp. They had a false alarm scare this summer when a counselor got an inconclusive test, but they only missed two days before that counselor got another test showing they were not infected. Knock on wood that we can get through the school year without any closures. It does suck though that they can't leave any of their school supplies there overnight - both their backpacks are filled to the brim and pretty damn heavy for elementary school kids. Hoping we can work with the camp to figure out a solution so they can keep some of the supplies on-site.

[miami_fan]

A report from the of course that is happening department. I just received a text from my son's school stating that they are not accepting requests to place students into e-learning unless there is a medical requirement to do so.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

On the public school side, our county superintendent and her team keep making what appear to be well thought-out decisions given the restrictions from the state that their navigating. The latest is wildly unpopular with many high school parents, but I'm not seeing better arguments than "this is bad for MY kid!"


The plan is to prioritize the youngest kids for in-person instruction, the reasoning being, on the educational side, that it's a more critical stage for learning (sounds reasonable to me, but I'll leave evaluating that one to the experts,) on the practical side, that older kids can navigate the computer themselves and can stay at home while parents go to work. Plus, the county has long had teaching assistants on the payroll for the younger grades, so for classes other than the most critical (math and reading,) if they have more physical space available to them, they can spread the kids out more by having the assistants teach other subjects. So, the superintendent is proposing something like (don't recall the specific grade levels, but you'll get the point,) K-2nd will occupy the elementary buildings, 3-5 will be in middle school buildings, 6-8 in high school buildings, 9-12 remote until January. Under this proposal, K-5 start in-person in October, 5 days per week, and I think middle school does the mixed remote/in-person thing starting in October. High schools return to in-person in January. (There are also other plans being made for issues like special needs kids and those who need individual help.) Sucks for high schoolers, but if you're trying to work out something for everyone under the constraints given, this seems to a solid plan. The school board votes on it in about 10 days, but up to now that has just been a rubber stamp. We watched the most recent meeting where this proposal was put forth for consideration, and all indications are that it'll pass.

So....Kids in K-2nd were set to return to in-person learning in our county tomorrow (no other ages.) Apparently the head of the health department called the superintendent *today* with some bad numbers. Per 4:30pm presser, in-person learning is delayed, and probably all grades will be pushed back in timing. There are some disappointed kids, and some parents are going absolutely nutso...

[QuikSand]

Like many, I too have an anecdotal story of something here or there that worked out worse than it would have under ideal, non-pandemic, circumstances. I join the many in accusing every decision-maker involved of war crimes.

[sterlingice]

Facebook comments always remind me of an old episode of Duckman ("The Longest Weekend") where he goes to City Council

Random Man: "There's an evil cabal running this city! A ruthless group who loot our treasury to finance their goal of world domination through pornography and the proof of this is the proposal that the intersection of Beacon and Third have a 22-second walk cycle!""
Random Lady: "And I want to know the names of the unholy pagans who spent their nights making offerings to their dark lord and their days voting for mandatory feline distemper shots! "
Duckman: "I've never heard such a bunch of penny-ante, dime a' dozen, two-bit half-wits exaggerating their enemies, and belly-aching over the tiniest, stupidest personal problems."
Cornfed: "It's your turn"
Duckman: "I want to talk about the most vicious, heartless, cold-blooded traitors in the history of mankind and how they changed my block's street-cleaning hours! "

SI

[ISiddiqui]

So my wife's school district (Dekalb County in GA) had a goal to go back when the rate of Cases per 100k over the last 14 days dropped below 100. And it did during the first week of October... for like 4 days. So during that time they were getting ready and trying to make plans (some of it was pretty scary since my wife's school was built forever ago and the AC unit is ancient... it just turns off and on, there is no thermostat). And then when it jumped back up over 100, they postponed school opening. It's been consistently above 100 since, and it just hit 123 cases per 100k over the last 14 days (after being at 117 yesterday and 113 the day before).

Some school systems in the area (Atlanta, Decatur) have already decided to postpone any decision to go back to school until January. With these numbers, that same consideration may apply to Dekalb County.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

So....Kids in K-2nd were set to return to in-person learning in our county tomorrow (no other ages.) Apparently the head of the health department called the superintendent *today* with some bad numbers. Per 4:30pm presser, in-person learning is delayed, and probably all grades will be pushed back in timing. There are some disappointed kids, and some parents are going absolutely nutso...

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

So my wife's school district (Dekalb County in GA) had a goal to go back when the rate of Cases per 100k over the last 14 days dropped below 100. And it did during the first week of October... for like 4 days. So during that time they were getting ready and trying to make plans (some of it was pretty scary since my wife's school was built forever ago and the AC unit is ancient... it just turns off and on, there is no thermostat). And then when it jumped back up over 100, they postponed school opening. It's been consistently above 100 since, and it just hit 123 cases per 100k over the last 14 days (after being at 117 yesterday and 113 the day before).

Some school systems in the area (Atlanta, Decatur) have already decided to postpone any decision to go back to school until January. With these numbers, that same consideration may apply to Dekalb County.

This is the reason my wife and I decided to go with a school that does homeschooling instead of our local school for this school year. We felt the uncertainty and changes would be worse than a consistent environment for school, even if that was at home.

[tarcone]

Our district has had no in-school transmissions. We have had 100 HS students quarantined this month. Several kids got it outside of school and shared it outside of school. Last week and this weeks football games cancelled.

We get back the 25 kids quarantined at our school. Again, a student brought it in but no transmission.

As wide open as our county is in regards to mask wearing (No mandates), Im surprised it has been this light.

Overall, I think it has been a success so far.

I am surprised we have stayed open.

[Izulde]

School districts in our area have gone back public against the recommendations of their health departments because political pressure from conservatives. My guess is we get hit with that here too and go back to hybrid soon - despite the cases still squarely in the Severe category. Makes me think school boards should be appointed rather than elected.

[Lathum]

We are in person five days/week on half days 9-1. Over a month in and no problems so far, knock on wood. Lots of studies I have also seen showing transmission in schools is almost non existent.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by Lathum

We are in person five days/week on half days 9-1. Over a month in and no problems so far, knock on wood. Lots of studies I have also seen showing transmission in schools is almost non existent.

I have seen these studies as well. In our district it is mandatory for everyone to wear masks, plus all the other protocols.

Like I said, it seems to be working. It also lowers the amount of kids sent home for exposure.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Just a fun thing I wasn't aware of, maybe everybody does it and I just didn't know.

Will mentioned that, in one of his Zoom classes, the professor uses "walk-up songs" to alert students that they're up for the next question.

I just thought that was unexpectedly creative, ymmv.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Just a fun thing I wasn't aware of, maybe everybody does it and I just didn't know.

Will mentioned that, in one of his Zoom classes, the professor uses "walk-up songs" to alert students that they're up for the next question.

I just thought that was unexpectedly creative, ymmv.

I am so going to steal this.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

I am so going to steal this.

Then it was worth the share.

I liked the hell out of it honestly.

[Ksyrup]

We've been back in school for almost 4 weeks and so far, nothing major has happened (although KY is on the verge of a true surge in positives, so we'll see - we just had 13 positives in 1 day our small county, which is the most ever). Biggest gripe I've heard is that since the school has a policy of sending kids home with the bare minimum of "not feeling well" complaints, that a bunch of kids are abusing this to go home early.

[CraigSca]

My second grader is continuing with the normal school day without issue. Some of the original students that opted out are now beginning to come back. Thus far, thankfully, I've been dead-wrong on this issue.

[Ksyrup]

I hate being responsible and being treated like we are unreasonable. Here's the scenario:

HS basketball starting in about 3 weeks. Practice officially opened last Monday. Coach wants the team to do some sort of bonding event, leaves it up to the girls to figure out. They decide to have a sleepover after the first scrimmage. WTF? We told Mackenzie no. She's apparently the only one not going.

Are we in the wrong here? Are we just supposed to suck it up and let her stay with 15-20 other girls overnight at someone else's house and hope for the best? One kid gets Covid and the team is in quarantine and not practicing/playing. This is rural/suburban KY, cases are increasing but largely under control in our county (compared to others), and there's a lot of pent up hostility over the way school and sports have been railroaded by Covid, not to mention having to wear masks, etc. You know, typical MAGA Country shit.

I feel terrible and guilty for not allowing her to go, while also knowing it is the sensible thing to do. Having to make these calls (compare with my response in the Thanksgiving thread) is difficult and seemingly a choice between what I can live with and what I can't with Covid as the backdrop. This crap needs to end.

[Ksyrup]

Literally minutes after posting this, I see a tweet from our local school district that our county went red yesterday. So I feel a lot better about this decision. It's likely that school is going back online. Unclear what that's going to mean about sports.

[sterlingice]

I'm grateful my kid is 5 right now. Since we both work at home, we can do homeschooling with him and he's not going to fall behind (heck, he's probably quite a bit ahead, actually). And there's no weighing these activities. I know the decision I'd make - just like we did with Trick or Treating (we did some other family activities instead) - but we don't have to be the bad guy, as much as he would understand it in his heart of hearts.

SI

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I hate being responsible and being treated like we are unreasonable. Here's the scenario:

HS basketball starting in about 3 weeks. Practice officially opened last Monday. Coach wants the team to do some sort of bonding event, leaves it up to the girls to figure out. They decide to have a sleepover after the first scrimmage. WTF? We told Mackenzie no. She's apparently the only one not going.

Are we in the wrong here? Are we just supposed to suck it up and let her stay with 15-20 other girls overnight at someone else's house and hope for the best? One kid gets Covid and the team is in quarantine and not practicing/playing. This is rural/suburban KY, cases are increasing but largely under control in our county (compared to others), and there's a lot of pent up hostility over the way school and sports have been railroaded by Covid, not to mention having to wear masks, etc. You know, typical MAGA Country shit.

I feel terrible and guilty for not allowing her to go, while also knowing it is the sensible thing to do. Having to make these calls (compare with my response in the Thanksgiving thread) is difficult and seemingly a choice between what I can live with and what I can't with Covid as the backdrop. This crap needs to end.

Tough decision but the correct one. I am skewed since I am in NJ, but that is shockingly irresponsible of the coach, parents hosting, school, etc...

[Ghost Econ]

Daughter, 11, has been in school since August every day, about 35 kids in her class. She's been doing gymnastics indoors with the team since August. We've been in the office since lockdown ended, but I work at home a couple because I can. They're probably making us go back all the time next month.

So far everything is good for us, but I assume we're just dodging bullets.

[miami_fan]

Two of my son's former teammates in rec ball recovered from COVID about a week ago, According to my son, it was bad enough to keep one of them off the PS4 for about two weeks. That has strengthened my son's resolve not to do anything that might lead to him catching it.

[spleen1015]

My daughter is cadet teaching this year with her 1st grade teacher. The teacher told her yesterday that they've been told to prepare for a return to 100% virtual after Thanksgiving if things continue to get worse.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Two of my son's former teammates in rec ball recovered from COVID about a week ago, According to my son, it was bad enough to keep one of them off the PS4 for about two weeks. That has strengthened my son's resolve not to do anything that might lead to him catching it.

lol Whatever works.