Going back to school thoughts?

[mom2binsd]

This is an interesting read, from the National Post in Canada, from Sick Kids hospital in Toronto. Canada has had a pretty good/low rate of COVID outside of some very troubling outbreaks in long term care (especially in Quebec).But, for the most part they are doing things very slowly, and have some the most strict rules during shelter in place (lots of people getting 500-1500 dollar fines for being in parks etc) and anyone arriving in Canada has strict 14 day quarantine which involves a follow up by the health dept. In some cases visits form the provincial police or RCMP if they don't think you are in compliance. Fines for breaking quarantine can be up to 750,000. So Canada is not taking this lightly. My family is up there and I won't see my 84 year old father this summer (I honestly hope he is still alive by next summer which is the next time we could visit).

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...ckkids-experts

I truly hope our schools in IL will open back up on a regular schedule in late Aug. DD is a senior and DS is a Freshman. They both are extroverts and thrive in the school environment. I can't even imagine a world where they are wearing masks either, no kids are going to wear them properly for them to be effective, and we don't know if it's even necessary to keep the schools closed. I also don't know how some type of alternating day schedule would work, with parents of younger kids how in the world would they arrange part time childcare? And then the kids will be together outside of school on their day off, so again is it going to be effective.

It will be interesting to see how the schools in Europe have fared.

[sf333]

Do you have to sign up in order to read the article?

[mm123]

Do you have to sign up in order to read the article?

Here are the links directly from the Sick Kids website. This is making big news in Ontario right now. Our cases are down to around 200 per day, but things are still pretty shut down (opening up very slowly). Important to note that these are just recommendations (from a highly trusted source), not actual decisions. The final decisions will be made later this summer by the Ontario government.

http://www.sickkids.ca/AboutSickKids...reopening.html

https://www.sickkids.ca/PDFs/About-S...g-SickKids.pdf

[mom2binsd]

I was able to read it without signing up , I copied from reddit.

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[gatorsmom]

The sick-kids article says that kids shouldn’t wear masks and school staff should avoid them. They think the kids will turn them into play-things which will increase their chances of infection. Also, they said children should the deprived of learning by reading adult and teacher facial expressions.

I found the article interesting but not ground-breaking.

[PZMommy]

Schools in China, S Korea, Israel, and Montreal have had to close again after reopening. There was a class in Montreal where 9 out of the 11 kids in the class got sick. If schools do reopen be prepared for them to close again if a student or staff member gets sick. I don’t see how a hybrid model helps as teachers will still be exposed to the same number of students. Many of the models are trying to make it safe for students, but do nothing to help protect teachers and staff members.

Schools here have had limited openings for staff to pack up and do end of year stuff. Even with minimal numbers of staff on campus people are testing positive and then the school gets closed for 14 days. This happened twice at the school I work at, and I know of 5 schools in my area that has had the same thing happen. I’m not sure why the 14 days, but that is the district policy.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I don’t foresee it being school like normal in August.

[Liziz]

Interesting. I agree with a lot of their recommendations. We have been super strict and serious about staying away from other people and following stay at home orders, etc. - but (even before reading this) I am in favor of school starting more or less "like normal". I just think that too many of the mitigations we might try (like staggering school days, requiring masks, requiring social distancing in schools) won't really do much to keep anyone safer. And if they're not keeping anyone safer, then what's the point of doing them? At that point the harm outweighs the risk to me.

Mostly though, I am frustrated that for us, the new school year starts in only 6 weeks (!!!!), and we still have radio silence from the school and district about what to expect.

[Kindra178]

We need novel solutions to get these kids back at school.

Live stream classrooms so worried parents can keep their kids home if necessary (vocal minority in my opinion) and sick kids can really stay home.

If teachers are unable to go in (older, immuno-compromised, high risk), they should teach via screen and have a sub there for classroom management.

Schools should employ block scheduling to limit passing periods. There is a ton of research on the benefits of block schedules.

Children have been largely spared from this, let's get them back to school. In Illinois, most schools have about 8-9 weeks of summer to come up with viable solutions.

[o_mom]

Live stream classrooms so worried parents can keep their kids home if necessary (vocal minority in my opinion) and sick kids can really stay home.

Our state has released guidelines and one that really is going to impact schools is that ANY fever is now 72 hours fever-free before returning (was 24-hrs), and if they suspect COVID (which includes any unexplained fever, even with no other symptoms), it is 10 calendar days unless you test negative twice 24 hrs apart (which, by the time you do that and get results, will probably be close to 10 days). They are going to need to figure out how to keep those kids learning.

[SnuggleBuggles]

We need novel solutions to get these kids back at school.

Live stream classrooms so worried parents can keep their kids home if necessary (vocal minority in my opinion) and sick kids can really stay home.

If teachers are unable to go in (older, immuno-compromised, high risk), they should teach via screen and have a sub there for classroom management.

Schools should employ block scheduling to limit passing periods. There is a ton of research on the benefits of block schedules.

Children have been largely spared from this, let's get them back to school. In Illinois, most schools have about 8-9 weeks of summer to come up with viable solutions.

I read through our state’s preliminary plans broken down by what phase we are in. I’m fine with any plan that gets them back to school. My only lingering concerns are likely unique to us:
-we drive him though we’d happily put him on the bus. Due to driver shortages we have 1 bus for our huge school district to go to the multiple charter school campuses. If he took the bus he would be on the bus 2 hours to and 2 hours home- 4 hours a day! There’s no way they’ll be able to pull off meeting the current recommendations for the transportation. We can’t just create bus drivers out of thin air. They recruit all the time but it’s a tough gig! Weird hours, dealing with kids... The plans talk about limiting the number of kids per bus. I just don’t know if our schools can meet that goal. If it’s a requirement then we are in trouble. Not everyone can drive their kid in.
-I mentioned before that above 10 absences here (per year) a Dr.’s note is required for each day beyond that. Some of you replied back that tele-health could possibly fill that gap but I’m not sure. It’s possible and I’d certainly research. But, if we are supposed to keep them home for possible Covid symptoms...well, those also look like a cold. Staying home for a cold is going to rack up a lot of days out. Ours still says fever free for 24 hours (I think). If it goes to 72 like pp said then there go even more days.

My ds1 starts college in August and he will be attending in person and living on campus. Now if only he hadn’t dragged his feet getting a registration date because there’s a chance he’ll be sitting in his dorm room attending class online because all the big classes are going that direction and that’s all that will be left. His journey. Not mine.


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