Are you sending your kids to school next month?

[Mango7100]

Well it has started. Schools that went back about 2 weeks ago are already sending classes home for quarantine or changing up their in person policies. So far Coffee & Blount counties and Maryville schools in TN are having issues.

Yup. Alcoa schools have been back for two weeks and have had positive cases at elementary, middle, and high schools already

 

[bobgobblin15]

I don't have kids but I am in nursing school (I have my LPN, but am going for my RN). My program has gone completely virtual as we are connected with the local hospital and the hospital is not allowing students at all. Are you sure they are even going to have in person classes? Even our labs are virtual.

Unfortunately the college my DSD is going to isn’t doing completely online. She was able to get a few of her classes online but not all. The college is leaving it up to the professors. I do remember her saying something that they won’t be allowed to the hospitals or anything.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Two things concerning my alma mater

Good news: "University of Kansas students, staff and faculty will be required to take a COVID-19 test before returning to the Edwards and Lawrence campuses for the fall semester." It will be a "non-invasive, saliva-based test” will be performed at no charge. Testing will begin later this week for students who will be living in university housing." I'm glad to see they are using the saliva test and hope it provides more accuracy and quicker results.

https://www.kshb.com/news/coronavirus/ku-to-require-covid-19-testing-for-all-students-staff-faculty

-----------------------------------------
Not sure how I feel about news: I knew it was being developed but it's extremely similar to China and HealthQR code--

"CVKey is developed by KU alum and former Google VP Brian McClendon, and it’s meant to take the guesswork out of navigating campus. After downloading the app, students, faculty, staff and even visitors to campus will be asked to take the daily health assessment quiz. The new app is called CVKey, and KU will become the first university in the world to use it for coronavirus screening. “CV” refers to COVID-19, and “Key” refers to the app’s intended usage: “unlocking” buildings for anyone on campus.

“The honor system is important,” McClendon said. “A lot of places already have policies in place, with no actual enforcement possible. We use the app, and ask you to tell the truth. In KU's case, it's going to be part of the promise that people make when they come to campus.” Each building will be equipped with iPad kiosks, which will scan each entrant’s app-generated QR code on his or her cellphone.

“The iPad scans to verify that your QR code shows you have status to go in, but it doesn't even log the scan,” McClendon said. “All it really does is keep a count, so it has an accurate count of how many people it scanned into the building."

If students don't get a blue, or fully passing, designation, it doesn't mean they are stuck. There are lower designations (yellow and red) that would still allow someone to do things like get food from cafeterias in the same building where their dorm is located.

The app is already in use for the few people on campus"

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/ku-using-new-covid-19-screening-app-for-fall-semester

 

[barkley]

So what say you DIS? Should counties be able to keep private schools closed as well as public schools?

i think if it's a matter of public health and/or safety they should be able to. when our entire state shut down school wise by the governor's orders both public and private were included. now each county is calling the shots and our county's director of public health has strongly recommended at least starting off the school year remotely b/c of the increasing numbers we've been having. of the 17 or 18 individual districts in our county so far 3 of the largest have announced they will follow his recommendations, no word on the remainder or any of the private schools (at least publicly). i suspect if things take a turn for the worse the county there may be a mandate to shut the schools down in which case the private schools would be bundled in b/c in order to be an 'approved private school' in this state they have to, by law comply with 'reasonable health and fire safety requirements' which i suspect an order by the director of public health would fall under.

 

[Colleen27]

My county in MD is having a dispute with the Governor. The county has mandated virtual schooling for public schools for the first semester (until January 21). The county public health official also restricted private schools from starting in person before October 1. The governor overruled that by amending his previous executive order saying school systems and private schools should have sole authority to determine when and how to safely reopen.

So what say you DIS? Should counties be able to keep private schools closed as well as public schools?

I don't think so, but I'm admittedly biased. Our state order applies equally to public and private, regardless of size, so my daughter can't go back to her classroom of 4 students unless the local public schools can safely bring back classrooms of 30+. If we are allowed to have indoor gatherings of up to 10 and restaurants are open at half capacity, we should be allowed to return to school - only our largest class (11) exceeds that limit and they're all *well* below even the reduced occupancy of restaurants just down the street.

Unless they have an outbreak which will change things real quick...which I so hope doesn’t happen! I hope the school year goes great for you guys!

I'm optimistic. We've had relatively few cases in our area (between 0 and 10 per day, in a county of 170K) and our school is teeny-tiny. At this point, our feeling is that the bigger risk to our reopening plans is the governor's orders, because there's a lot of speculation that she might resolve some funding conflicts over in person vs. virtual by using our level-but-higher-than-June case numbers to roll all or part of the state back to a reopening phase that would mandate school closure.

I wonder how many schools who say they are going hybrid will switch to full remote even before the school year starts. I have been hearing lots of districts releasing hybrid plans but not committing to them just yet. Part of me thinks they are doing that to appease parents but will pull the plug at the last minute and do full remote.

It amazes me how few schools around me are attempting hybrid. Most seem to be giving parents the choice between online and in person, but in person looks pretty normal schedule-wise. I guess the transportation issues were prohibitive for part-time schedules. The public districts' polling around me suggests that at least 1/3 of parents will opt for online, which will enable better in-class spacing, and at least one district has an internal threshold for a minimum percentage to justify holding in person classes at all. At our school, it looks like we're only going to have a handful of families (representing about 10% of the student body) opting for distance learning; the rest are looking to get the kids back into the classroom.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I heard a rumor today that we may be hearing from our diocese or from the governor that kids will no longer be allowed to take their masks off when sitting at their desks, which will be spaced 6 feet apart. It’s about damn time!!!! The diocese expected us to be locked up in a classroom for hours with 18 maskless kids at a time. With what we know about ventilation systems spreading the virus, how was that going to be safe????!!!!

I can’t be the only one who raised heck about it, so I hope official word comes down soon.

 

[Renarr]

Our governor indicated that HS hybrids should not start to be considered until we had a rolling average of 25 positives per 100,000 residents per day in our county over a two-week period.

My county is currently at 99 positives per 100,000, and while we sniffed close to 25 in early June, we haven't technically been below that threshold since March 15.

 

[JM23457]

So what say you DIS? Should counties be able to keep private schools closed as well as public schools?

No!

 

[JM23457]

It amazes me how few schools around me are attempting hybrid. Most seem to be giving parents the choice between online and in person, but in person looks pretty normal schedule-wise.

Hybrid is the most difficult to implement, while still causing exposure. Parents who want their kids in school tend to want them there all day, and parents who want their kids at home don't want them in school at all. And trying to juggle both in-person & virtual is overwhelming for teachers.

 

[barkley]

Hybrid is the most difficult to implement, while still causing exposure. Parents who want their kids in school tend to want them there all day, and parents who want their kids at home don't want them in school at all. And trying to juggle both in-person & virtual is overwhelming for teachers.

actually, the complaints i've heard about hybrid in my neck of the woods is that parents are viewing it as more difficult for either their kiddos or themselves. with their kids it's a matter of it having no semblance of 'normal' school. it's half days during partial weeks w/ no aspect of the socialization kids are craving (3-4 hours 2-3 days per week w/ no recess built in). for the kids that crave routine it's not much better b/c so far none of the districts have said that there will be any set in stone schedule for what kiddos will be taught during their on site hours-just that they will be able to be in a classroom. for parents, unless they have a spectacularly organized and supportive school district that coordinates scheduals/schools/multiple kids within individual families then they are dealing with kids attending different days/different times so absent any kind of on school site (READ-NONE) childcare-trying to arrange employment hours/childcare is next to impossible.

 

[Kestryl]

So what say you DIS? Should counties be able to keep private schools closed as well as public schools?

Yes, if the county has jurisdiction over if other places should close.

Private schools should be held to one of two standards:
1) The same as public schools. They are schools, after all.
2) Whatever rules business have to follow, so do private schools. Mask requirements, capacity limits, etc.

 

[mousefan73]

Hybrid is the most difficult to implement, while still causing exposure. Parents who want their kids in school tend to want them there all day, and parents who want their kids at home don't want them in school at all. And trying to juggle both in-person & virtual is overwhelming for teachers.

It has worked for our school since June. We had 8 weeks of hybrid until summer break. But we are in Germany. Basically the class was split into two groups one week you would be in classroom and the other week he would be online. The teacher would continue the lessons regardless and will implement video recordings or video calls for those who were at home. Granted my kids are basically at the middle school high school level. The other school in our town implemented a system where you would have one week Monday Wednesday Friday and the next week Tuesday Thursday and rotate. Whole concept revolved around reducing class-size in keeping kids into bubbles

Outback in my hometown in a suburb of Chicago there has been a major “SHDT” storm about schools. About two weeks ago a survey went out requesting if you wanted to have your kids in school, Remote or a hybrid basically giving parents a choice then two days later came The email from the superintendent basically saying It has been decided it will be virtual 100%. I guess They took a look at the community spread in the numbers in the area.

An old school friend of mine has been crying for days - she’s a single mother who works and has a kid in grade school and she really does not know what she’s going to do. There really is not a win-win situation at all either you put your kids in school and risk them getting sick or bringing the virus home and getting someone else really sick or we risk losing your job

 

[JM23457]

It has worked for our school since June. We had 8 weeks of hybrid until summer break. But we are in Germany. Basically the class was split into two groups one week you would be in classroom and the other week he would be online...Granted my kids are basically at the middle school high school level...

Germany's educational system and society are both very different from the U.S. What works for schools & families there isn't particularly relevant to what's going on here. And yes, elementary school is very different from middle or high, and is less adaptable to a hybrid situation without a parent standing by to guide the child through it at home.

I wasn't saying hybrid could never work for anyone anywhere. I was explaining why it's the least popular option here.

 

[HeatherC]

I don't think so, but I'm admittedly biased. Our state order applies equally to public and private, regardless of size, so my daughter can't go back to her classroom of 4 students unless the local public schools can safely bring back classrooms of 30+. If we are allowed to have indoor gatherings of up to 10 and restaurants are open at half capacity, we should be allowed to return to school - only our largest class (11) exceeds that limit and they're all *well* below even the reduced occupancy of restaurants just down the street.



I'm optimistic. We've had relatively few cases in our area (between 0 and 10 per day, in a county of 170K) and our school is teeny-tiny. At this point, our feeling is that the bigger risk to our reopening plans is the governor's orders, because there's a lot of speculation that she might resolve some funding conflicts over in person vs. virtual by using our level-but-higher-than-June case numbers to roll all or part of the state back to a reopening phase that would mandate school closure.



It amazes me how few schools around me are attempting hybrid. Most seem to be giving parents the choice between online and in person, but in person looks pretty normal schedule-wise. I guess the transportation issues were prohibitive for part-time schedules. The public districts' polling around me suggests that at least 1/3 of parents will opt for online, which will enable better in-class spacing, and at least one district has an internal threshold for a minimum percentage to justify holding in person classes at all. At our school, it looks like we're only going to have a handful of families (representing about 10% of the student body) opting for distance learning; the rest are looking to get the kids back into the classroom.

What state are you in again Colleen? Didn’t know your school was that small. You are right, that is a completely different thing if there are only 4 kids in a class.

Here in Mass. I keep hearing of more and more schools who have hybrid plans now pulling the plug on them to stick with remote for a while. I think this also has to do with the fact that numbers have been on a sneaky, slow climb upwards and they don’t want us to go back to where we were in the Spring.

Another concern here is that many of the buildings are very old with terrible ventilation systems and no windows in some rooms that really haven’t been upgraded due to lack of funds over the years. I do think this is a very legitimate worry. I work in a school and during a normal fall and winter part of the building is scorching and the other part is freezing. It always seems the flu and cold outbreaks seem to start in the classrooms that are like ovens where the germs can breed more easily and then spread to the others. It’s actually a running joke with the teachers because we all know which rooms will be sick first. So with this virus, that is definitely a legitimate concern.

 

[KittyKitty]

It amazes me how few schools around me are attempting hybrid.

My school district was until the County Health Dept recommended remote learning for the start of the school year for 113,000 students in their county. This is because of the increase in cases. Possible transition to in person will be evaluated on Nov. 12.

 

[Colleen27]

What state are you in again Colleen? Didn’t know your school was that small. You are right, that is a completely different thing if there are only 4 kids in a class.

Here in Mass. I keep hearing of more and more schools who have hybrid plans now pulling the plug on them to stick with remote for a while. I think this also has to do with the fact that numbers have been on a sneaky, slow climb upwards and they don’t want us to go back to where we were in the Spring.

Another concern here is that many of the buildings are very old with terrible ventilation systems and no windows in some rooms that really haven’t been upgraded due to lack of funds over the years. I do think this is a very legitimate worry. I work in a school and during a normal fall and winter part of the building is scorching and the other part is freezing. It always seems the flu and cold outbreaks seem to start in the classrooms that are like ovens where the germs can breed more easily and then spread to the others. It’s actually a running joke with the teachers because we all know which rooms will be sick first. So with this virus, that is definitely a legitimate concern.

Michigan. Only my youngest is still in school here, and she's in a very small K-8 Catholic school in our little town on the rural fringe of the Detroit metro. Older DD graduated from the affiliated high school as part of a graduating class of 34, and younger DD should be starting dual enrollment there this fall. So our school reopening considerations are very different from those of public school.

I think ventilation systems are likely to be an issue here too. Most of our local schools, both public and private, were built the mid century and I don't know of any classrooms that don't have windows but many have casement windows that barely open and since we have boiler heat there's no meaningful ventilation at all in the hallways or other windowless common areas (library, gym, lunchroom). Ours is a little better than some because we replaced the windows recently to help even out temperatures in the building - the 70s single-panes caused so much solar heat gain that the east facing classrooms were always sweltering, even in the winter, and since the mechanical system controls are in the shaded south-facing wing, the heating system was basically operating to the cooler parts of the school comfortable while overheating those warmer classrooms. So now we have sliding windows that open wide enough to double as emergency exits (in keeping with our active shooter safety evaluation), and therefore also bring in a nice breeze. And the school is waterfront, so there is usually a breeze to catch. A few of the "country" elementaries in our public district, built basically in the middle of corn fields, also have enough windows to get fresh air, at least when the weather is relatively pleasant. But the "town" public schools in particular are very closed-off places, even with every window open, and I think that's going to be problematic.

 

[godisney14]

If it wasn’t controversial enough for schools to forbid teachers from posting about lack of precautionary measures taken by the schools, now there schools could possibly suspend students who do?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/educ...wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
(seems like masks are optional there).

 

[sk!mom]

If it wasn’t controversial enough for schools to forbid teachers from posting about lack of precautionary measures taken by the schools, now there schools could possibly suspend students who do?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/educ...wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
(seems like masks are optional there).

I saw that on the news this morning. As if the lack of precautions wasn’t enough to make them look terrible, they punish the whistleblower. That will take the focus off.

A student already posted the principal’s threatening announcement about not posting. Telling teens to refrain from posting on social media. Good luck with that, sir!

Teachers are employees so telling us to refrain from negative posts about our employer is completely different and reasonable. Students are more akin to customers.

 

[JM23457]

If it wasn’t controversial enough for schools to forbid teachers from posting about lack of precautionary measures taken by the schools, now there schools could possibly suspend students who do?

A student already posted the principals threatening announcement about not posting. Telling teens to refrain from posting on social media. Good luck with that, sir!

They responsibly don't want students to start trying to shame one another on social media. I agree that masks should be required, but students publishing pics of their unmasked classmates online isn't the way to do it. Students have the right not to be photographed at school & have their photos published at online without their parents' consent. They're minors & have that right of privacy when at school.

 

[Renarr]

They responsibly don't want students to start trying to shame one another on social media. I agree that masks should be required, but students publishing pics of their unmasked classmates online isn't the way to do it. Students have the right not to be photographed at school & have their photos published at online without their parents' consent. They're minors & have that right of privacy when at school.

This is generally not true, although there are some local exceptions.

Since the school is a public place, unless the images are being used for commercial or exploitative purposes, generally the images can be used. Some states make additional limitations if there is attribution of names of those pictured in the photo if the subject of the photo is a minor.

Where confusion sometimes comes in is that the school may not film students without the consent of the parents. So, for instance, when I went to get my National Board recertification, I had to get parental permissions for each of the classes that needed to be videotaped, and to find a way to not videotape any students whose parents wouldn't give that permission.

Also, schools have sometimes cracked down on students when they use such filming to harass other students when it has an effect on the videotaped students' ability to access schools under local harassment, intimidation, and bullying laws.

It is hard to definitively argue that a recording of the conditions in the hallway of a recently opened school rise to harassment, intimidation, and bullying of students. This is a school system trying to cover itself from potential litigation and nothing more.

Edited for clarity, grammar, spelling.