Fall 2021 and school

[erbear]

Jan 21, 2021 13:07:36 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

I do wonder how schools/unions will handle people who don't get the vaccine. If you refuse and get sick, I wonder how leave policies or STD may be affected by choosing not to get it. Especially since so many end up with long hauler issues from COVID. Definitely something that will come into play in the future.

I wonder this too. If you won't get vaccinated and you have to quarantine for 2 weeks, no one has that kind of sick leave and no way can unions negotiate that if a vaccine is available.

[erbear]

Jan 21, 2021 13:54:11 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Jan 21, 2021 10:40:59 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Do you know why they don't want to vaccine?  Are they antivaxxer normally or just wary of this one since it is so new?  If the latter, I hope that attitude changes in the next few months as more and more people are getting it and more data comes out.

I can only speak to my work place with health care workers...

I only know exactly who got vaccinated because I’m the director and we wanted to keep track so we can know for the future.
But the people that I know who didn’t get vaccinated I’ve heard them talking about scared of side effects, I guess they saw a video of a woman supposedly having a seizure after her vaccine. I guess it’s circulating the inter webs. They were also saying that they’ve been working the front lines this entire time and have had multiple exposures and haven’t gotten COVID yet so they’re not too worried about COVID. All of the providers (doctors and nurse practioners got vacccinated), but not all of the rest of the support staff that interacts with patients. Fwiw, the majority of staff I work with are people of color so I do try to understand their viewpoints. I actually was just on a panel this week at a black church discussing the vaccine and I think it went well and me and another doctor seemed to do a good job at helping with the myths and helping people feel more comfortable.

Bht overall at work I’ve stayed out of those conversations because I was gonna lose my mind lol. I have been sending general emails about the COVID vaccine and safety but of course people will still have their own opinions.

Not everyone got the flu vaccine this year either so I knew for sure not everyone was gonna get the COVID vaccine.

At my other job I work with 2 ICU nurses and they also said not all the ICU nurses where they work their full time jobs got vaccinated.

I really wonder how many people are going to refuse to be vaccinated when all is said and done, I think a lot.

There is a persistent rumor going around teacher message boards about infertility. I don't know how it originated but it's definitely the most cited reason I've seen for not getting it yet.

[CurlyQ284]

Jan 21, 2021 14:26:12 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

We’re currently operating in person five full days a week right now, so I anticipate that continuing. What I’m not clear about is whether they will continue to offer full-time virtual school for those who want it. I think that they will offer some expanded virtual schooling on some basis, because I think there are some families that would prefer it regularly.

I’m not sure that they’ll be able to continue the levels of distancing that they’ve been doing with the kids who are in virtual school returning to the classroom. I anticipate some masks will be worn in common areas, but I think they may relaxing on them wearing them in the classroom or outdoors.

Also, we’ve only had single-digit Covid cases of students since the start of the school year. The health department has not tracked any spread as being from in the classroom. The times that our schools had to close were when the governor closed nine through 12, and my sons school did close for two weeks due to staff members being infected or quarantine. But during that time, the community spread was very very bad and things have improved considerably. Classrooms this year look like wearing masks all the time except when they’re eating lunch, kids in grades K through six stay in the same classroom all day, at recess they can only play in a sectioned off area of the playground with their own classmates, and theoretically after school and before school care treated the same way. I say theoretically, because I’ve noticed at my daughter school when I’ve gone to pick her up, kids aren’t distancing all the time.

All this same, except we are 4 days a week with virtual on Wednesdays for deep cleaning. Not many cases, spread is not happening in school its all out of school. Mostly due to extracurriculars and family gatherings according to our county health department.

[Roc A Bee]

I think this is very dependent on vaccine distribution for adults. I anticipate a “normal” start in fall 2021.

[Jalapeñomel]

Jan 21, 2021 14:44:54 GMT -5 court26 said:

Jan 21, 2021 10:35:52 GMT -5 lo said:

I’m a teacher in NY and got vaccinated as soon as I could, but a lot, like A LOT, of my coworkers do not want the vaccine. I don’t know how that will play out. My district has said they plan on everything being “normal” next year.

Interesting. I’m in NY and our superintendent already said prepare for hybrid in the fall.

I’m in the the NYC area, my super is ready to go back to full time after mid-winter break. It won’t happen, but she really wants it.

[Jalapeñomel]

What I think is more pressing and what we should be discussing IMO, is what we will do in our communities to ensure that our students never return to classrooms with 25-35 students, punish kids who are able to do work but have extended absences, and how we can build our schools so they support working parents.

[bookqueen15]

School has been an option for full time in person at all levels (Elementary, Middle School and High School) since late August in my state, so I anticipate it will be next year as well. I hope it will also be an option for all other states in the Fall 2021 as well, hopefully the vaccine will be more widely available soon as well which will hopefully help with schools reopening.

[abs]

Jan 21, 2021 15:56:59 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

What I think is more pressing and what we should be discussing IMO, is what we will do in our communities to ensure that our students never return to classrooms with 25-35 students, punish kids who are able to do work but have extended absences, and how we can build our schools so they support working parents.

Agreed. There also needs to be better policies around sick time. Neither students nor teachers should feel pressured to come to school when actively sick.

[meganew]

Jan 21, 2021 12:34:45 GMT -5 tarzanswife said:

Unless our case rates come down significantly, I am sure we will still be in some sort of hybrid situation like we are now. Our district has not announced anything as our county has been having major issues getting the vaccine program up and running. The next 8 months will be very telling and I hope that by August, things look much better and that the kids can go back 5 days a week.

I mean, if our case rates aren't down in 8 months with the vaccine rollout hopefully improving a ton under the new administration, then I don't even know where we go from there. 

[InBetweenDays]

We are 100% remote and have been since March 12, 2020. Our district (and governor) are very conservative in handling the coronavirus. In October we had the lowest infection rate of the 30 major US cities and we still stayed remote. They are discussing sending K and 1st back in March, but there is no way any other grades are going back this year. Teachers here haven't started receiving vaccinations, but are in the next tier.

Most families seem to be patient and are ok with staying remote this year. But I think the shit will hit the fan if we aren't able to be in person in fall 2021.

[fryjack2]

Jan 21, 2021 13:54:11 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Jan 21, 2021 10:40:59 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Do you know why they don't want to vaccine?  Are they antivaxxer normally or just wary of this one since it is so new?  If the latter, I hope that attitude changes in the next few months as more and more people are getting it and more data comes out.

I really wonder how many people are going to refuse to be vaccinated when all is said and done, I think a lot.

Based on the number of people refusing to wear masks, I agree. 

[docholly]

Jan 21, 2021 15:39:40 GMT -5 erbear said:

Jan 21, 2021 13:54:11 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

I can only speak to my work place with health care workers...

I only know exactly who got vaccinated because I’m the director and we wanted to keep track so we can know for the future.
But the people that I know who didn’t get vaccinated I’ve heard them talking about scared of side effects, I guess they saw a video of a woman supposedly having a seizure after her vaccine. I guess it’s circulating the inter webs. They were also saying that they’ve been working the front lines this entire time and have had multiple exposures and haven’t gotten COVID yet so they’re not too worried about COVID. All of the providers (doctors and nurse practioners got vacccinated), but not all of the rest of the support staff that interacts with patients. Fwiw, the majority of staff I work with are people of color so I do try to understand their viewpoints. I actually was just on a panel this week at a black church discussing the vaccine and I think it went well and me and another doctor seemed to do a good job at helping with the myths and helping people feel more comfortable.

Bht overall at work I’ve stayed out of those conversations because I was gonna lose my mind lol. I have been sending general emails about the COVID vaccine and safety but of course people will still have their own opinions.

Not everyone got the flu vaccine this year either so I knew for sure not everyone was gonna get the COVID vaccine.

At my other job I work with 2 ICU nurses and they also said not all the ICU nurses where they work their full time jobs got vaccinated.

I really wonder how many people are going to refuse to be vaccinated when all is said and done, I think a lot.

There is a persistent rumor going around teacher message boards about infertility. I don't know how it originated but it's definitely the most cited reason I've seen for not getting it yet.

Vaccine trial participants were told not to get pregnant as is normal during a trial.  As is also normal, some of them did, including ones who got the vaccine and not the placebo, so... myth debunked.  I forget the specific numbers, but I think it was something like 23 participants in one trial got pregnant.

[fivechickens]

Our school currently has 3 options currently. We are full remote with the intention to return in March. I am not totally sure that will happen for us.

I do anticipate that my kids will go back to in-person in the fall but I don’t know if the school will be full in-person by then. I hope so for the kids sake.

[m15]

Jan 21, 2021 15:36:41 GMT -5 erbear said:

Jan 21, 2021 12:47:39 GMT -5 m15 said:

Our elementary is full time in person, middle and high school are a cohort model, so they go twice per week and e-learn the rest. We do have a full virtual option (broken into three options) and an actual homeschool model. I suspect next year that the virtual options will go away because the district cannot financially sustain paying teachers for that. The homeschool option and in person will be back to normal I would think. That being said, we are still in phase 1A of the vaccine and teachers fall in 1B. We've been told that their best guess at this point is March for teacher vaccinations. All the teachers I work with want the vaccine. We just can't get it yet. We had an open panel discussion with local doctors on Monday and I think many fears were eliminated after that.

I just proposed this to a friend who is on the school board in her community. I think this would go a long way toward getting teachers on board - having a medical professional sit there and answer alllllllllllll their questions and concerns.

It was awesome. People submitted questions prior, but also had the opportunity to type them in the chat on zoom. They recorded it and sent a link for those that could not make it. I know a lot of people felt much better after. They also discussed the fertility issue that someone mentioned above.

[noodleoo]

Jan 21, 2021 15:39:40 GMT -5 erbear said:

Jan 21, 2021 13:54:11 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

I can only speak to my work place with health care workers...

I only know exactly who got vaccinated because I’m the director and we wanted to keep track so we can know for the future.
But the people that I know who didn’t get vaccinated I’ve heard them talking about scared of side effects, I guess they saw a video of a woman supposedly having a seizure after her vaccine. I guess it’s circulating the inter webs. They were also saying that they’ve been working the front lines this entire time and have had multiple exposures and haven’t gotten COVID yet so they’re not too worried about COVID. All of the providers (doctors and nurse practioners got vacccinated), but not all of the rest of the support staff that interacts with patients. Fwiw, the majority of staff I work with are people of color so I do try to understand their viewpoints. I actually was just on a panel this week at a black church discussing the vaccine and I think it went well and me and another doctor seemed to do a good job at helping with the myths and helping people feel more comfortable.

Bht overall at work I’ve stayed out of those conversations because I was gonna lose my mind lol. I have been sending general emails about the COVID vaccine and safety but of course people will still have their own opinions.

Not everyone got the flu vaccine this year either so I knew for sure not everyone was gonna get the COVID vaccine.

At my other job I work with 2 ICU nurses and they also said not all the ICU nurses where they work their full time jobs got vaccinated.

I really wonder how many people are going to refuse to be vaccinated when all is said and done, I think a lot.

There is a persistent rumor going around teacher message boards about infertility. I don't know how it originated but it's definitely the most cited reason I've seen for not getting it yet.

I wondered why people would think the vaccine could cause infertility and google turned this up. As usual, anti-vaxers latch on to a tiny detail and then twist it to fit their agenda.

www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210112/why-covid-vaccines-are-falsely-linked-to-infertility

[RoxMonster]

We are going to five days in person, full days, classrooms crammed full and no social distancing on Monday. We are not vaccinated. My district is acting like this is life as usual. The only extra thing we are doing is masks (except when they are allowed to be maskless to eat breakfast in our rooms!) and squirting some cleaning solution on the desks.


So yes we will definitely be fully in person next fall.

[RoxMonster]

For those who are saying there is no spread in your schools, how often and how many people are being tested?

Without any testing, I don't understand we can say there is absolutely no spread. A lot of times, young people are asymptomatic. We have no idea if they spread it. Or they may have mild symptoms and not get tested. In my district, if you are quarantined due to being a close contact, you are not required to ever get tested. You just stay home for two weeks. So those people may be positive and we will just never know. Hell you could HAVE symptoms after being quarantined and we still aren't requiring a test because you are staying home, so those positives never get counted.

I am asking because this is something I keep seeing mentioned all over the Internet: "There is no spread in schools." But then when asked if they are requiring people in quarantine to test or doing regular testing of everyone in the building, they say no. So I don't understand how we can say there is no spread?

[Patsy Baloney]

I’m wondering about the no spread/no quarantine reports, too. Whether close contact through school or outside of school our small-to-moderately sized school district has consistently had around 200 kids quarantined week-to-week, quarantined staff, and almost daily reports of confirmed infection from each of the schools. This was one of the reasons we chose to do virtual this year because we didn’t want our student knocked out of school for 2 weeks at a time due to a close contact on the bus or in the classroom.

I don’t know if state guidance has changed, but at one point, if 2 students in a classroom were covid-positive, that classroom would be totally shut down for health department investigation.

Is it maybe just because you don’t know? Or is your community spread so low that your school is reflecting that?

Either way, I’m glad so many have had success being in person this year.

[Jalapeñomel]

Jan 21, 2021 19:07:20 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

I’m wondering about the no spread/no quarantine reports, too. Whether close contact through school or outside of school our small-to-moderately sized school district has consistently had around 200 kids quarantined week-to-week, quarantined staff, and almost daily reports of confirmed infection from each of the schools. This was one of the reasons we chose to do virtual this year because we didn’t want our student knocked out of school for 2 weeks at a time due to a close contact on the bus or in the classroom.

I don’t know if state guidance has changed, but at one point, if 2 students in a classroom were covid-positive, that classroom would be totally shut down for health department investigation.

Is it maybe just because you don’t know? Or is your community spread so low that your school is reflecting that?

Either way, I’m glad so many have had success being in person this year.

Actually, they were changed this week. They’re now saying a person within close contact (within 6 ft) for 10 minutes or more will need to be quarantined and the others do not, even if they’re in the room with the positive.

[wanderingback]

Jan 21, 2021 18:57:08 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who are saying there is no spread in your schools, how often and how many people are being tested?

Without any testing, I don't understand we can say there is absolutely no spread. A lot of times, young people are asymptomatic. We have no idea if they spread it. Or they may have mild symptoms and not get tested. In my district, if you are quarantined due to being a close contact, you are not required to ever get tested. You just stay home for two weeks. So those people may be positive and we will just never know. Hell you could HAVE symptoms after being quarantined and we still aren't requiring a test because you are staying home, so those positives never get counted.

I am asking because this is something I keep seeing mentioned all over the Internet: "There is no spread in schools." But then when asked if they are requiring people in quarantine to test or doing regular testing of everyone in the building, they say no. So I don't understand how we can say there is no spread?

Some schools and districts are doing testing.
From what I hear nyc is. I don’t think it’s perfect, but if you google (sorry on my phone), I bet you could see the data and form your own opinion.

[wanderingback]

Jan 21, 2021 16:02:47 GMT -5 abs said:

Jan 21, 2021 15:56:59 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

What I think is more pressing and what we should be discussing IMO, is what we will do in our communities to ensure that our students never return to classrooms with 25-35 students, punish kids who are able to do work but have extended absences, and how we can build our schools so they support working parents.

Agreed. There also needs to be better policies around sick time. Neither students nor teachers should feel pressured to come to school when actively sick.

Yes I wonder how this will change in the future.
In medicine it’s the same thing, unless you’re in the ED or unconscious you’re coming to work. I personally don’t get sick often, so it’s never been a huge problem for me, but I’ve taken 1.5 sick days since COVID out of an abundance of caution.

1 I woke up with diarrhea, but it resolved by that night. The other mid way through the day I felt off, had a mild headache, felt hot and my temp was 99.5 which is the highest it’s been. So I immediately left work and got tested.

The first incident I had a full panel of patients for procedures and luckily someone was able to cover for me. When I left mid-day they just had to call all my patients and cancel. Of course I felt horrible. But I wonder if we’re going to go right back to normal or people are going to be a little more cautious and accommodating.

End tangent.

[RoxMonster]

Jan 21, 2021 19:29:29 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Jan 21, 2021 18:57:08 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who are saying there is no spread in your schools, how often and how many people are being tested?

Without any testing, I don't understand we can say there is absolutely no spread. A lot of times, young people are asymptomatic. We have no idea if they spread it. Or they may have mild symptoms and not get tested. In my district, if you are quarantined due to being a close contact, you are not required to ever get tested. You just stay home for two weeks. So those people may be positive and we will just never know. Hell you could HAVE symptoms after being quarantined and we still aren't requiring a test because you are staying home, so those positives never get counted.

I am asking because this is something I keep seeing mentioned all over the Internet: "There is no spread in schools." But then when asked if they are requiring people in quarantine to test or doing regular testing of everyone in the building, they say no. So I don't understand how we can say there is no spread?

Some schools and districts are doing testing.
From what I hear nyc is. I don’t think it’s perfect, but if you google (sorry on my phone), I bet you could see the data and form your own opinion.

I'm glad to hear that some districts are.

I know that around me, they are not testing, so I am not sure where those folks are getting their info from.

[m15]

Jan 21, 2021 18:57:08 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who are saying there is no spread in your schools, how often and how many people are being tested?

Without any testing, I don't understand we can say there is absolutely no spread. A lot of times, young people are asymptomatic. We have no idea if they spread it. Or they may have mild symptoms and not get tested. In my district, if you are quarantined due to being a close contact, you are not required to ever get tested. You just stay home for two weeks. So those people may be positive and we will just never know. Hell you could HAVE symptoms after being quarantined and we still aren't requiring a test because you are staying home, so those positives never get counted.

I am asking because this is something I keep seeing mentioned all over the Internet: "There is no spread in schools." But then when asked if they are requiring people in quarantine to test or doing regular testing of everyone in the building, they say no. So I don't understand how we can say there is no spread?

Our district says there's no spread in our schools because the kids who have tested positive didn't get it from school. For the most part, they've been linked to outside activities such as birthday parties or positive caregivers. If a student is positive, the whole class is quarantined. We haven't had any cases where a quarantined class resulted in more positive cases. Now, that's not to say there are no asymptomatic cases, but overall the precautions we have taken at school has prevented a slew of positives.

[laurack]

We are already at 5 days per week but a shortened day (8-noon instead of 2). I would imagine we will be back to 5 full days in fall given our current situation. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still full masking and distancing though. I am in Massachusetts, my county has 75 daily new cases per 100k and 8% positive rate per Covid act now today.

We have heard of the odd case at the kids school but no “outbreaks” however in the next month our governor said weekly pooled testing will be available at schools which should catch a lot of asymptomatic cases and increase the numbers. The only bad part is the testing is optional so I imagine the same people who would send a kid to school after a known exposure or with symptoms and Tylenol, would also skip the optional testing.

[erbear]

Jan 21, 2021 18:57:08 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who are saying there is no spread in your schools, how often and how many people are being tested?

Without any testing, I don't understand we can say there is absolutely no spread. A lot of times, young people are asymptomatic. We have no idea if they spread it. Or they may have mild symptoms and not get tested. In my district, if you are quarantined due to being a close contact, you are not required to ever get tested. You just stay home for two weeks. So those people may be positive and we will just never know. Hell you could HAVE symptoms after being quarantined and we still aren't requiring a test because you are staying home, so those positives never get counted.

I am asking because this is something I keep seeing mentioned all over the Internet: "There is no spread in schools." But then when asked if they are requiring people in quarantine to test or doing regular testing of everyone in the building, they say no. So I don't understand how we can say there is no spread?

At my school, we have had 3 students test positive (since August) and no one else has gotten sick, and nor have any family members of kids in those classes. So that's why we feel like we haven't had school spread. We are not test8ing often but when we have, we have had no positive tests.

[sometimesrunner]

Jan 21, 2021 9:41:25 GMT -5 Yankees21 said:

Our district has been in person five days a week since August, but masked, and there hasn't been known spread and few cases. I hope the masks continue until they approve a vaccine for children.

Same here.

Our district just announced that they will use federal funds to established a 1 year all virtual school for the 21-22 school year. Meaning each grade will have dedicated virtual-only teachers. Currently our teachers are juggling in-person students and virtual students.

[isabel]

Jan 21, 2021 18:57:08 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who are saying there is no spread in your schools, how often and how many people are being tested?

Without any testing, I don't understand we can say there is absolutely no spread. A lot of times, young people are asymptomatic. We have no idea if they spread it. Or they may have mild symptoms and not get tested. In my district, if you are quarantined due to being a close contact, you are not required to ever get tested. You just stay home for two weeks. So those people may be positive and we will just never know. Hell you could HAVE symptoms after being quarantined and we still aren't requiring a test because you are staying home, so those positives never get counted.

I am asking because this is something I keep seeing mentioned all over the Internet: "There is no spread in schools." But then when asked if they are requiring people in quarantine to test or doing regular testing of everyone in the building, they say no. So I don't understand how we can say there is no spread?

Our district is testing teachers weekly and in the last couple weeks started offering tests to students as often as they/parents want to test (it's a saliva test for younger kids, but PCR, not rapid). The health department is contact tracing any positive cases and we are required to provide proof of negative PCR result in the event of *any* illness. 

The district shut down all schools the week before Thanksgiving through Christmas because cases in the community were so high that the health department could no longer provide contact tracing. That's one of the metrics the district is using the gauge whether to stay open, so they shut down.

I realize that kids can be asymptomatic carriers, but if there were a ton of asymptomatic carriers, I would think those who are not asymptomatic would make it clear pretty quickly that there is community spread.

I'm not saying the risk is nil, but it really feels like the masking precautions and keeping kids in their classrooms is working well at the elementary level. Our middle and high schools are fully remote and have been since Thanksgiving. I'm not sure when they'll move back to the hybrid schedule they were on before Thanksgiving. There definitely seemed to be more risk and higher spread, at the high school level especially in our district, based on the reported numbers on the district's website.

[RoxMonster]

Jan 21, 2021 21:23:41 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

Jan 21, 2021 18:57:08 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who are saying there is no spread in your schools, how often and how many people are being tested?

?

I’m not sure how to fully answer your question, but the health department has been doing contact tracing, so I assume that they will be able to track if there had been spread that was occurring in the schools—based on close contacts, etc. Again, among students, there are single-digit cases in each school in my district which is comprised of about 3000 kids. Overall in my community where we saw uncontrollable spread in November, was primarily among adults.

I understand how quarantine works, my son was quarantine for two weeks around the time of his school was closed. But if he did become symptomatic, or someone in my family became symptomatic, I assume the health department would be tracing that back to contact at the school that caused him to be quarantined. If that makes sense. Are there probably asymptomatic cases that have gone on tested a notice? I’m sure there are. But the numbers of people seeking medical treatment and needing to be hospitalized in this area are just not reflecting that.

Also, I don’t know how other schools are doing it, but if I called my son out sick one day and told him he had a fever and a sore throat, or other Covid like symptoms, the school would probably tell me to go get him a Covid test before he could return. My other friends who send their kids to a different district several hours away have had several instances of the school telling them that they must have their child tested for Covid before they could return after an illness.

And also, the reason my son was quarantine, is because I believe one of the teachers tested positive. Obviously they didn’t tell us that, but it was somewhat apparent based on health department guidelines for quarantine, that it was a teacher and not a student. He did not develop any symptoms, my husband and I did not develop any symptoms, my in-laws, we had been with the previous week, did not develop any symptoms. So I think there is some truth to the fact that the distancing and masking and other measures that they’re taking in schools are actually working to prevent spread.

Our district is not requiring students who have symptoms to show a negative test before returning to school. It can be suggested but not required.

I am glad many schools are employing distancing and other safety measures. Ours won’t be besides masks.

[RoxMonster]

Jan 21, 2021 22:03:02 GMT -5 isabel said:

Jan 21, 2021 18:57:08 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who are saying there is no spread in your schools, how often and how many people are being tested?

Without any testing, I don't understand we can say there is absolutely no spread. A lot of times, young people are asymptomatic. We have no idea if they spread it. Or they may have mild symptoms and not get tested. In my district, if you are quarantined due to being a close contact, you are not required to ever get tested. You just stay home for two weeks. So those people may be positive and we will just never know. Hell you could HAVE symptoms after being quarantined and we still aren't requiring a test because you are staying home, so those positives never get counted.

I am asking because this is something I keep seeing mentioned all over the Internet: "There is no spread in schools." But then when asked if they are requiring people in quarantine to test or doing regular testing of everyone in the building, they say no. So I don't understand how we can say there is no spread?

Our district is testing teachers weekly and in the last couple weeks started offering tests to students as often as they/parents want to test (it's a saliva test for younger kids, but PCR, not rapid). The health department is contact tracing any positive cases and we are required to provide proof of negative PCR result in the event of *any* illness. 

The district shut down all schools the week before Thanksgiving through Christmas because cases in the community were so high that the health department could no longer provide contact tracing. That's one of the metrics the district is using the gauge whether to stay open, so they shut down.

I realize that kids can be asymptomatic carriers, but if there were a ton of asymptomatic carriers, I would think those who are not asymptomatic would make it clear pretty quickly that there is community spread.

I'm not saying the risk is nil, but it really feels like the masking precautions and keeping kids in their classrooms is working well at the elementary level. Our middle and high schools are fully remote and have been since Thanksgiving. I'm not sure when they'll move back to the hybrid schedule they were on before Thanksgiving. There definitely seemed to be more risk and higher spread, at the high school level especially in our district, based on the reported numbers on the district's website.

Yeah I teach at a HS and am very concerned.

[karinothing]

If we are not back in school in the fall I am going to have a breakdown. Our school has not offered an in person option at all since March.

Honestly even reading about all the schools with in person options is making me depressed and angry (no offense to those of you in person) I am just can't  so tired of being stressed over school. I want everyone to be safe, but in my kids class there are kids that haven't done any work all year, that haven't turned on their cameras once. My friend teaches special education and does only small groups (so no more than 5 kids and 90% of the time the kids don't come to class).  We are going to have kids that essentially haven't had any education in 1.5 years and they are just going to throw kids into the next grade without caring and things are going to be a mess when we finally go back.

I feel like thing at home are just constant stress and I am exhausted of working and handling school a the same time. And I didn't even though on kids without a safe place at home.

Sorry this turned into a rant. I don't want to be one of the people that demands schools open now, teacher be damned. But I also feel like I am at my breaking point regarding what I can handle and the idea of my kids not being in school in the fall is incredibly depressing.