Right- it depends on the situation. Like if I knew she was truly exposed that is one thing.
If it was something like they are quarantine out of an abundance of caution that might be another.
Whatever the health department and school tell me is what I will follow. I’m not la de da about this virus at all. But there is an area where there is a lack of guidance where people and work are trying to figure it out in their own.
We’ve been using the MIT chart and the CDC website at work and making judgment calls. To be clear these are people who have not been contacted by the health department. This is the gray area. For example a co-workers daughter went to a “prom” where there was an outbreak but there is no evidence that her daughter was exposed. Or a co-workers daughter traveled to a hotspot so they got tested out of an abundance of caution. Or someone has symptoms- was tested and it was a sinus infection. We had no guidance from the health department from any of these situations because there were no positive Covid cases.
Our school quarantined the entire class and After Care kids - they did not take the 6ft and 15 minutes into consideration. Even the kids that were virtual and were not in school the same day as the positive case were quarantined. I don't think quarantining every time someone in your household does is feasible given this protocol. Something to question and think about since we are planning on the kids going 100% virtual pretty soon. One elementary school here has already closed because they had too many out on quarantine.
One thing that is nice because of hybrid and having room to social distance we can switch between e-learning and hybrid and back again whenever we want. So if there starts to be tons of quarantines then I’ll pull her to just e-learning.
Post by mustardseed2007 on Sept 14, 2020 11:52:08 GMT -5
Yes all of these are good points on when quarantine is triggered. Industries have been left to basically manage themselves (at least in my area) with very little interaction from health departments. That's basically across the board in my industry in all of the states we are in. So we are following the CDC and we are following an industry standard that is guided by epidemiologists that work for multiple players in our industry. I feel like it's REALLY consistent and well administered at this point. In my industry.
When it comes to schools I really don't have a good bead on how well health departments are doing with contact tracing. I know the Health Dept has been driving the bus on quarantines and deep cleans and closures, but it hasn't happened at our little school (knock on wood) so I don't know if they are being reasonable or not.
We currently have our kids in in-person school and the nanny is picking them up and bringing them home after school. The only thing I can say is if we were told our kids have to quarantine, our nanny probably wouldn't want to come be there all day to help with school unless there was CLEARLY no risk. Like if a middle school kid at our school was lab confirmed positive and they closed the whole school as a result for example. Even then I'd really have to help her understand that the middle school is a totally separate building that my kids never go into etc etc.
We have had an employee whose daughter tested positive, so she let me know how they handled the contact tracing with the health department on a personal level.
However, I don't have a good bead on how they will handle school either. The ISBE handed down quarantine guidelines that said everyone is quarantined basically, and then schools shut down to try to figure out how to staff that if all their teachers are quarantined. Then they handed out guidelines for the guidelines, and they must have figured out what to do and are attempting to re-open with the hybrid model.
One example I gave the nanny is that if the other cohort has a case, then the teacher has to quarantine which means our cohort has to quarantine because there is no teacher. She was comfortable coming in that situation. I would say if it were her specific cohort than I would be more strict. Busses they are quarantining fully and probably aftercare. I told her if the quarantines become too disruptive or burdensome then I will just pull DD for e-learning. We can switch at any moment now, so that relieves my mind a lot.
A good laugh, hopefully. DD figured out how to watch TV on her school Chromebook through the education apps the district put on. I come out to check on her and she is watching TV and "I go how did you get our prime account onto the school computer" DD "No it is this app for school" and then proceeds to shows me.
My sister started teaching yesterday and it was glitch day so basically a day to get use to logging in and using the new programs and stuff. The district system overloaded so it was a complete glitch mess. Sis had a mom jump on her kids zoom and berate her in front of the whole class. Sis is recording zooms (required by district) so she had to turn it over to the admin so they could deal with it.
Our county may go back to the worst tier in California - all because 600 college kids at San Diego State have tested positive. The rest of the 3 million+ county residents are keeping rates low.
As far as I can tell, this doesn’t really mean anything for our schools opening hybrid next week - but if I were a business owner who has to close my hair salon or whatever for the third time starting Tuesday because of those college kids, I would be so angry. Our positivity rate is still well below 5%, but now our daily cases per 100,000 have gone from 6 to 7.something, and that would cause us to change tiers. It’s so arbitrary.
Oh, and we got an email Monday afternoon that DD’s 3rd grade teacher had a family emergency and would be out for at least six weeks, so a sub would be taking over Tuesday. This is the 5th week of school and the kids are scheduled to go back in person twice a week starting next week. The teacher is under 40, has one 5th grade daughter, and has a masters in technology education, so I don’t think she’s super at risk of covid or has major childcare issues or is just over distance learning. I really hope everything is ok - it was so abrupt. Now both my kids have long term subs. But at least DS’s had some time to plan for the year.
We've had a few positive cases in the high school and it's been a mess with tracing and quarantining. Apparently the state told the school district that the district needs to notify DHHS and then they do the contact tracing and reach out to the families who were exposed. So the school notified them like they were told. And the state didn't do it. So no one was contacted or quarantined appropriately. We got a letter last night from the district that they will now be handling all contact tracing and notification since the state dropped the ball. WTF. We're not a big state, this is so inexcusable.
Also found out that if you have a positive kid, siblings have to quarantine for positive kid's 14 days PLUS an additional 14 days of their own. So if one kid gets sick, siblings quarantine for 28 days. The only way to avoid this is to be able to lock sick kid away from the rest of the family and have zero contact or interaction. What a nightmare.
A mom who is a pediatrician has a daughter who is doing the virtual option with my daughter. This is a big reason why she’s doing virtual. She said among her patients, many are refusing to test when they’re symptomatic, refusing to quarantine for symptoms whether or not they do test, and damn sure aren’t quarantining for household contact. And she works in an affluent suburb, so it’s not like her average patient has parents who are grocery clerks who can’t work from home. We as a society are so flipping selfish. That’s why the virus is still raging here. We know how to stop it. We just won’t.
Yes this is according to the CDC if the person self-isolates. Well how do you self-isolate a child? My plan is that myself, DS and DD will all wear masks if there is a positive case. DH is not going anywhere anyway.
Post by twinmomma on Sept 17, 2020 10:04:18 GMT -5
mommyatty, It's so true. The selfish mentality that we have is mind boggling. I'm just grateful that my two kids are in the same class. So any quarantining or anything will just apply to both and we can move on. It feels a little less "whack a mole" and constant compared to having kids in multiple classes or multiple schools.
Our state has given our county the go ahead to reopen indoor dining and bars, schools, etc. But our county has elected not to because apparently their science is better than the state's science.
My kids have been in person daycare for almost 4 months. Small class sizes and stable cohorts. No issues at daycare. Two neighboring school districts are opening for in person instruction shortly. But our district is just like... "well no, it's horribly unsafe and county conditions do not allow for reopening."
WTF is that? So the county knows better than the state and the school district knows better than the county? Fuck that.
Our PTA also keeps sending out emails about how each student needs to donate at LEAST $120 to support our current programs - oh and by the way, get your employer to match AND donate more if you can because they NEED more, $120 is just the minimum. But... we're CLOSED until forever. There are no enrichment programs. So fuck that, and fuck them too. I paid my PTA fees, but I'm donating zero. I'm paying $1400 a month for daycare that I wouldn't need to do. The day they reopen, I'll gladly give them a check for $2k or more.
Post by mommyatty on Sept 17, 2020 11:32:28 GMT -5
k3am- and I have as much a problem with that as I do schools opening with 18% positivity rates and R values over 1. The science should control and scientists should be making the decisions.
Our positivity rate is currently at 2.6%. Our hospitals are at <40% capacity, and <4% of patients are covid patients. At what point to we make changes?
I made DH email the teacher. We'll see how many days/weeks it takes to get a response. I had emailed her nicely about having no idea what DD is supposed to be doing, having minimal work submitted, and getting no feedback on work she's done and just got a "oh she's doing what she's supposed to, but most work is done on white boards and then erased."
My kid has had SIX assignments in the 6 weeks we've been back. Two were math assessments and have grades because.. the system does it. Nothing else is reviewed or graded. DD has already caught on.. Her written assignment that she submitted was illegible, no capitals or punctuation, completely nonsensical and her response is.. "It doesn't matter. She doesn't look at them." And I want to say.. YES IT DOES MATTER. But really? It doesn't matter. The teacher isn't going to look at it. She's not going to grade it. She's not going to provide feedback. And mom feedback doesn't mean anything to her.
Post by sandandsea on Sept 17, 2020 11:51:30 GMT -5
Ds is missing school 2 days this week and 1 day next week for his hobby and I don’t care at all. Generally I care a lot. This year he’s not doing much anyway so why bother? I hate that I feel this way but this year is such a waste. I made up half the work he will miss in 30 minutes last night.
Post by traveltheworld on Sept 17, 2020 12:00:12 GMT -5
k3am, I'm sorry. That sounds very frustrating. I can't remember - have you brought this issue up to the principal? I would at this point. It's been 6 weeks; and they've had all spring and summer to prepare. It should be better than this. Your DD deserves better than this.
We now have 19 schools in our school district that has reported at least 1 positive COVID case. Luckily (?) all have been high schools. There has been no talk of shutting anything down yet, so we are soldiering on. So far things seem to be going well. DD loves her kindergarten teacher; and DS's teachers seem to be finding creative ways to make learning more fun while keeping the kids somewhat socially distanced.
sandandsea, I'm writing this year off too. They're going to need to create a 13th grade to make up for the failure that this year is. But of course, they'll only need it in parts of the country (or maybe just my district), because somehow other areas and schools are able to find a way to make it work. Our district is apparently waiting on a vaccine, so maybe January, maybe two years from now.
I am paying xyz in daycare cost because you are not open. I will not be donating anything until the school reopens as my budget does not allow for it. When the school reopens I will donate zyx. I'd leave off the fuck them comments haha.
And if I see one more post about how parents should stop complaining and feel "blessed" to have this time at home with their children, I'm going to scream.
And if I see one more post about how parents should stop complaining and feel "blessed" to have this time at home with their children, I'm going to scream.
Are people still saying that? No one in my area says that. We are all like YES!!!! Back in school!!! And taking bets on how long it will last. We think mid October we will be shut down again. Or we won't come back after Thanksgiving and try again in January.
Post by mustardseed2007 on Sept 17, 2020 12:20:19 GMT -5
This is relevant to our conversation I think, from the industry specialist: A parent whose child is ill with covid symptoms OR is lab confirmed positive, will be told to quarantine for 24 days. The 24 days is: 10 days the kid is contagious if they have covid including 24 hours of fever free with no fever reducers and improvement in all symptoms. PLUS 14 day from the last date of exposure because you are exposed (presumably) to your child each day until their last day of contagion. BUT If the parent tests positive for covid or becomes ill as well, then the parent's quarantine will be shortened to 10 days from their positive test or 10 day from onset of symptoms.
Of course the kind of perverse encouragement for someone who is unable to work from home is for the parent to just go ahead and get sick so they can get back to their life. Of course that's playing with fire too.
And if I see one more post about how parents should stop complaining and feel "blessed" to have this time at home with their children, I'm going to scream.
Post by mommyatty on Sept 17, 2020 12:20:56 GMT -5
My vent on the school thing is our numbers are improving slowly but surely, but DH doesn’t trust the numbers. So on one hand he’s hand-wringing about whether DS is really keeping up and how hard the transition back will be, but on the other hand, he can’t tell me what his yardstick is for measuring safety on sending them back. Today over lunch I finally told him his concerns about DS’s reentry into school will not improve with more time away from school. So he needs to decide what his comfort level is. For me, I’m watching the numbers and paying attention to the science. When the science says “you can be comfortable”, I’m going to be comfortable. And yeah, it’s a risk. But a small one. Nothing is risk-free.
So now he’s shifted to whether DD is being challenged by school. Newsflash: she’s not. She never has been. And that’s okay too. She’s already among the youngest in her class. She’s going to graduate HS at 17. Are we going to have her skip a grade and graduate at 16? No. She’s already in a prep school. There’s not much else we can do. I’m not willing to homeschool her.