shakinros- going back made DD (age 8) anxious. But once she was back a week or so, she was fine. We had to spend time game-planning things like what to do if some was wasn’t wearing their mask or if they were refusing to distance.
We’re currently spring break here, but I answered for our plan as of 4/21 - full time in person. But only for half the class, the other half has to be distant all the time. Teachers will be teaching both classes at the same time, and our district insists on treating school as prison.
We have been back since September, full time, in person. We have a total of 2 cases in the school that required a broader quarantine all year.
I found out today that DD2 was exposed at soccer last week. School policy is that, even if she tests negative tomorrow, she still has to quarantine for 14 days. Next week is spring break, so she just has zoom this week - not for 2 weeks. State recommendation is to quarantine for 10 days after exposure, plus negative test. So the timing will be good - as long as she tests negative and doesn’t have symptoms, she will be free for break.
We’re currently spring break here, but I answered for our plan as of 4/21 - full time in person. But only for half the class, the other half has to be distant all the time. Teachers will be teaching both classes at the same time, and our district insists on treating school as prison.
How do they decide which half gets to go to school?
We’ve been full-day, everyday since August. Public school in a red district in a red state. I wasn’t sure if it’s the right thing to do, and no doubt learning and morale have definitely suffered due to kids and adults alike missing large quantities of instructional time for required quarantines, but alas, overall the students have adapted and we are moving forward as if nothing has changed. 🤷🏼♀️. Students still wear masks and have desk shields, although laziness about full compliance with those has also settled in.
We were hybrid full time, but switched to full time in person after February vacation. There are 4 schools in our district and they are letting back one grade to full time in person each 2 weeks. I think maybe only 9th and 10th are still full time hybrid right now. We have personally not had a school exposure all year, thankfully, but were exposed at dance back in October.
We have been full time since September. We went hybrid over the holidays. And then back full time in January. We have had cases here and there but no wide spread cases. My son was quarantined once, but then found out that the person was negative for covid so he went back early. (Elementary prek- 5th)
We've been public school, full time in person all year. Case numbers and quarantines have been extremely low. There was only one instance of an entire class having to quarantine so far, otherwise it's been a couple people here and there.
Beau's son is public school, full remote. Full in person is an option for him, but his mom insists on keeping him full remote for the entire year.
Post by mustardseed2007 on Apr 12, 2021 9:21:33 GMT -5
Just one snow flake fact: I considered moving out of our current private school into another until the pandemic hit. When that happened the small size was pretty darn perfect and I'm not planning on just keeping my kids there through 8th grade which is as high as they go.
I picked public school hybrid, but am kind of a special snowflake... We started the school year with 2 days in-school and 3 days remote every week. In February, DS1 went to 4 days in-school and 1 day remote. In March, DD went to that same schedule. There have been various shut-downs in the school district depending on the number of positive cases. I don't think there are any current plans to get to 5 days and there is only 8 weeks of school left.
I selected public-hybrid but we might switch to full time next month. I'll probably find out next week. I'd be fine with either continuing on as we are now or going back 5 days. Mask use is very good and there is random testing each week.
Next fall the tentative plan is to offer only full in person OR virtual (parent's choice) with 3 feet of spacing. So we'll be full time by fall. I do wonder if lunch might end up being very early or late for some classes to accommodate the lower density needed in the lunchroom.
hocus2- ours eat in their classrooms or in a courtyard, outside, on nice days. They alternate days when it’s their class’s turn to go to the courtyard.
Today our school is opening up recess so all the kids in the grade will get to play together outside. The kids are really excited. I’m a little leery.
Post by mustardseed2007 on Apr 12, 2021 9:43:16 GMT -5
My school mentioned 3 feet also, which kind of surprised me because they are on the conservative side of covid restrictions by Texas standards. Also in both my kid's grades they can achieve 6 feet.
But then I remembered the middle school is bigger and if all those kids were in person they would have to break them up into some offices or something to achieve 6 feet, so I'm guessing for that reason they are jumping on the 3 feet allowance when they can.
ETA: Our school has been allowing outdoor recess with multiple grades for a while. Since they are outside in masks I don't mind, but then again, if it were just their class they'd only have 8 kids to play with. My kids really enjoy having the other grades on the playground with them.
I didn't realize it but our largest school district has prohibited playing on playground equipment. We have been playing on playground equipment since the beginning.
Post by librarychica on Apr 12, 2021 9:48:31 GMT -5
We are public virtual by choice in an existing public all- virtual school. The earliest we could have rotated back in was January and decided to just keep with it.
I had to take my oldest up to her zoned school for state testing and while I have doubts about the school as a whole I was watching them rotate kids in and out of lunch in the cafeteria (all glass windows) and courtyard near where I was waiting and they were on point. I was impressed. They had seating charts for each grade and were placing each kid on a spot to space them out. Mask adherence has been high here as well, especially in the schools.
We’re currently spring break here, but I answered for our plan as of 4/21 - full time in person. But only for half the class, the other half has to be distant all the time. Teachers will be teaching both classes at the same time, and our district insists on treating school as prison.
How do they decide which half gets to go to school?
Priority is given to homeless/foster kids, IEP/special needs, at risk, and essential workers, then open from there. You had to opt in in November with no details about what reopening would look like - before vaccines and while the country was trending terribly. They gave the option to try to get in again now, but only to the extent of open spots. If you didn’t get a spot and wanted one, you can change teachers or schools.
They did not give priority to families. So we know someone whose third grader is in person and must be dropped off between 8:40-8:40 15 miles from their house, but their kinder didn’t get a spot and is supposed to log in at home at 8:50.
The district and schools are all doing their best to make it as miserable as possible for everyone, including requiring guidelines and restrictions that no health agency has recommended (teachers have to stand behind a rolling sneeze guard at all times, for example.)
This weekend I met someone who just moved here from Chicago so their kids could be in in person school. Both parents are remote working but don’t know when they will have to go back to the office, so they are both looking for new jobs here while still working full time at the old jobs. They are pretty adamant they aren’t going back to Chicago. They sold their house and are renting here while looking to buy.
This weekend I met someone who just moved here from Chicago so their kids could be in in person school. Both parents are remote working but don’t know when they will have to go back to the office, so they are both looking for new jobs here while still working full time at the old jobs. They are pretty adamant they aren’t going back to Chicago. They sold their house and are renting here while looking to buy.
There was a CNN article (still on their website I think) about californians moving to Texas. They said it's a red wave coming from California into Texas. But even with the people they interviewed, I wondered how their version of conservatism and republicanism tracks with Texas versions.
Our district did go back to hybrid on the 29th of March but I choose to stay virtual. One of the main reasons was that DD would need to be dropped off at 8:35 and had to be picked up by 1:50 either M/Tu or Th/F with the other 3 days totally on her own with a max of 1 hour of work provided by the school. Staying virtual gives her 2 hours of class each day other than Wednesdays with up to 1 hour of homework. I work 30 minutes away from school and have no daycare right now.
hocus2 - ours eat in their classrooms or in a courtyard, outside, on nice days. They alternate days when it’s their class’s turn to go to the courtyard.
Today our school is opening up recess so all the kids in the grade will get to play together outside. The kids are really excited. I’m a little leery.
Our school has more than 1,000 students and outside space is limited (mostly just a basketball courts).
We inquired about tents and tables this year but there seemed to be a huge logistics barrier since the space in open to the public after school hour so those would have to be brought out each day and brought back in.
Currently lunch is spaced at 6 fee with all students facing one direction. This means the lunchroom is at maybe 1/8th capacity. They could have lunch based class for some kids, or use the auditorium for kids who bring lunch from home. I expect they'll start "lunch" second period and then keep the groups really small. They might have more options if cases fall. Right now they are at a high plateau but if a vaccine could be approved by summer the 8th and 7th graders could get it which would help.
mommyatty, We've had outdoor recess this whole time. The playground is fenced off by grade, so the classrooms stay together. That way the kids stay in the same bubble.
We do indoor lunch, with plexi shields between each kid. They have assigned seats and lunches are pre-packed and put at their place. No lunch line or getting up to get your own food.
twinmomma- we have had outdoor recess too, but with their bubbles. Their bubbles are now increasing from their classroom to their entire grade. Which granted is only like 36-38 kids per grade, but that is a big jump from 10-12 kids.
Post by supertrooper1 on Apr 12, 2021 11:24:45 GMT -5
This is the last week of public school hybrid. Next week, they'll go back to "full time" which is half days, 4 days a week, with Fridays as remote learning. I wish they would go back to full days since they're now combining A and B groups.
I selected public school full time. Just today we went five days a week (we were full remote for a month and then hybrid two days a week most of the year). But it's not a full day - it ends at 12:45 so the kids don't eat lunch unmasked. Even though they could easily eat outside and far apart here.
k3am our school also made it sound like prison at first, and so did my sister's before they recently went back. My theory is that the powers that be (that don't want to open) want to make in-person sound as awful as possible so that fewer parents will send their kids back, and they can say "see! parents don't think it's safe and prefer remote!" But I advised my sister that it would be better than it sounded and teachers/staff/policies would relax a bit once they saw that it was safer than they expected- and that has already been the case in her kids' first few weeks back in person.