I’m so interested to know... How many states have been completely closed for in person school all year?
I’m luckily teaching from home due to some health conditions but schools here have offered in person school since August. My Title I elementary school has 50% of students online and 50% in person.
There have been some issues for the high schools but elementary schools and most middle schools have been fine.
The article says schools CAN be opened safely and I quite honestly do not disagree.
I think that, unfortunately, it’s such a hard decision. How many parents have lost their jobs or are making significantly less now due to schools not opening? In my area, we are completely open (not saying I 100% agree with this) for “normal” life so if schools weren’t open so many parents would be out of work completely.
NO I know what you’re going to all say and I’m not saying schools/teachers are babysitters.... BUT it is the way that our society runs.
Biden has been “very clear” that he wants schools to “reopen and to stay open.”
“That means every school has the equipment and the resources to open safely,” he said during the news briefing, urging Congress to “do its part” by passing Biden’s Covid rescue plan. “Not just private schools or schools in wealthy areas but all schools.”
But that hasn't happened. So shut up about it until it does happen.
And I mean govt officials should shut up--not you guys!
Our district has had a plan since school ended last year.
I haven’t set foot in my classroom all year. I worked from home first semester, and am on leave now. My colleagues haven’t complained about any of the measures that are in place. The only ones who have had to quarantine or have been sick were from community spread, not school.
DH’s district has been similar, but a few more hiccups. It’s also a much larger district with different protocols. His only complaint has been no consequences for improper mask wearing.
Parents in both districts are critical of any decision that’s made. Damned if we do and damned if we don’t. My favorite recently is how parents were mad at teachers because there were two “snow days” where kids worked from home instead of being in person as scheduled. Like we have control over the weather and/or whether school is in session.
I have been remote all year. It's not working. But our numbers around here are not good. It's not worth even losing one person, so we will be remote the whole year.
Our district has been face to face all year. Only the high school/jr high (connected building) had to be put on hybrid twice because of increased numbers with covid. That was mostly do to students being on sport teams.
. But that hasn't happened. So shut up about it until it does happen.
And I mean govt officials should shut up--not you guys!
Completely agree. Our governor said schools could reopen when they wanted but did not make clear all the guidelines we had to meet. So now parents are mad at districts/schools instead of her. Just like she wanted,I’m sure.
I understand that the CDC based their decision on research in rural schools in Wisconsin, which showed that there was very little transmission within the school setting.
I would love for them to do a similar study in my last school in a low SES large minority area with a high transiency rate. The community has some of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the state. The concrete building is from the early 1970s and does not have windows and very poor HVAC. I am sure that the results would be quite different.
“That means every school has the equipment and the resources to open safely,” he said....
Right. Right. Because we all know school districts value teacher safety. (I’m not even thinking about the kids right now.) I think this is so much BS. Teachers need to receive the vaccine before returning to the classroom.
I’m over 65 and therefore eligible, but it’s not my turn yet. And I’ll gladly wait until every classroom teacher gets the vaccine before me.
My district in Illinois just started a hybrid model this week with only grades prek-2 and 6th returning this week and the rest in the pre-K-8 district starting on Monday. Most of the schools in my county have been remote this whole time. A couple of districts in my county won’t go hybrid until late March after spring break.
Everyone in my district was offered the first vaccine shot last Saturday with the second one on February 20th though which is good timing. teachers in other districts in my area have not been so lucky.
In the neighboring county, a little closer to the city, schools have been hybrid since September and had to go remote fro November until after MLK day.
Inner city schools were supposed to go back this week but the teacher’s union has been fighting it and an agreement has not been finalized yet so they are still remote. The teachers in that district feel that there are not enough safety protocols set up for everyone to stay safe.
The schools in the higher income areas are HVAC and ventilation safe due the conditions of their modernized buildings. The kids are back in school with tight regulations for spacing and masking. The parents are lawyers and docs. These guys will sue if their kid dies. Many of these parents can work from home.District spends big money on insurance in case of lawsuits.
Across town where population density is heavy,the schools are not modernized . HVAC and ventilation is not safe at all. These parents whine too but didn't get their kids back into the classroom because the districts know these buildings are not safe for people. The parents are the essential workers.These parents cannot work from home. Teachers are not vaccinated.
This is the disparity in healthcare and education. It's always been there and the pandemic magnifies it. Add the vaccine shortage and now we have un-vaccinated teachers in poor communities being blamed because the kids are not in school. It is BS as amiga13 so aptly put it.
Our governor, NC, announced the other day he wanted schools to reopen. Following Biden's request I guess. I don't know anymore! Schools were not safe to open here in Aug when out numbers were half they are now. How is it safe????
Some schools in rural locations in my state have been able to be open the entire time. We opened in August, but students didn't start until September 1. We made it basically 2 months before going remote for November and December. Some other metro area districts started remote for the first quarter, and then stupidly tried to go back in person just as things were 100x worse than when they went remote in the first place. That lasted about a week.
In the fall, the narrative was that covid wasn't spreading in schools due to precautions. Schools had to close again only because of quarantining guidelines- they couldn't keep buildings open because too many staff were ending up quarantined. Once a class did get quarantined due to a positive case, they weren't finding that others in that class started testing positive.
So okay, that evidence IMO does point to reopening. BUT, how do we really know if kids aren't being tested? They very likely will have no symptoms, or extremely mild symptoms, such as a runny nose for one day that can easily be explained away. So how do we really know no one else in the class got it after the one confirmed case? Sure, it wasn't a big deal for them if they did get it, but how many others in the community did they spread it to?
We had a HUGE spike that began in late October and peaked in November. This was blamed on "labor day gatherings" and we were told it was a "delayed impact." Pretty much every district, except for a few very rural ones, closed sometime in November. Then there was no post-Thanksgiving spike, no post-Christmas spike, and no post- NYE spike. So we're to believe that "labor day" caused this huge spike, but much bigger holidays, where people are less likely to give up gatherings, and during cold weather when people couldn't gather outside, caused no spikes at all? That makes no sense. It makes much more sense to me that the supposed "labor day spike" was actually a result of schools opening.
We went back again on January 11th. I made it longer this time with none of my students quarantined- to the beginning of week 4. We had some quarantines, but not in my grade levels. Then they had to abruptly close the building mid-week this week because we had positive cases in 1/3 of our classrooms all of the sudden. The "childcare" aspect isn't really happening because it's constant in and out of quarantine. And yeah, teachers aren't being vaccinated here yet.
We had a HUGE spike that began in late October and peaked in November. This was blamed on "labor day gatherings" and we were told it was a "delayed impact." Pretty much every district, except for a few very rural ones, closed sometime in November. Then there was no post-Thanksgiving spike, no post-Christmas spike, and no post- NYE spike. So we're to believe that "labor day" caused this huge spike, but much bigger holidays, where people are less likely to give up gatherings, and during cold weather when people couldn't gather outside, caused no spikes at all? That makes no sense. It makes much more sense to me that the supposed "labor day spike" was actually a result of schools opening.
This makes sense to me. So many are trying to explain the spike disparity between Labor Day and Thanksgiving as "people were trying harder and isolating for 14 days before traveling" etc. No, they weren't. People were far more "over it" by Thanksgiving.
The massive inconsistency caused by in/out quarantining, open/not open, online/hybrid, teacher in person/teacher zooming but aide in the classroom - how is that better than 100% online with counselor support for students and families and resource support for families who need it? Like you said, the childcare element isn't even there because of the back and forth. Our families far prefer the fact that they can plan in advance and aren't constantly having to change childcare plans month by month or even week by week.
I'm getting my vaccine next week because Oregon's governor threw the elderly and the truly essential workers under the bus and pushed us ahead of practically everyone else. It's just shameful. We've ben in distance learning the whole time - and it absolutely isn't perfect. My students have significant special needs and are some of the most impacted, but we're making it work. We could continue to do distance learning until all of the elderly and people who can't work from home are vaccinated. But our governor wanted the pressure off of her, so now we're getting the vaccine ahead of more vulnerable people - all in the name of getting some kids back in the classroom for two months. It's disgusting. When teachers asked if we could give our vaccine to someone else we were told absolutely not.
. I'm getting my vaccine next week because Oregon's governor threw the elderly and the truly essential workers under the bus and pushed us ahead of practically everyone else. It's just shameful. We've ben in distance learning the whole time - and it absolutely isn't perfect. ... But our governor wanted the pressure off of her, so now we're getting the vaccine ahead of more vulnerable people - all in the name of getting some kids back in the classroom for two months. It's disgusting.
And not even back in any kind of useful sense. If we do hybrid model, my students will get lessdirect interaction from me, less interaction with peers, less time with specials teachers, and fewer opportunities to collaborate on projects with other grade levels.
We do reading buddies with the primary and teach SEL lessons to the intermediate grades, we have Zoom lunch where we play games and chat with each other, we do group work inbreakout rooms, and we have specials 4 days a week. When we do independent work, teacher zooms are open for kids to pop in and ask questions or just hang out silently for the feeling of being “with” someone while working.
All this would go away to sit in a seat for 2.5 hours and then do fully independent work with no ability to pop into zoom and ask a teacher a question.
I think schools need to open. Immediately. I live in California and the effects this is having on kids is devastating. Their mental health is at risk and they are turning into lazy, unmotivated lops. They are turning into zombies.
According to a regional affiliate of the American Academy of Pediatrics, because the harms of keeping children out of school outweigh the risks of safely and carefully managed classrooms, schools should reopen immediately.
It’s been almost a year. This is getting ridiculous. How much longer will this go on??? If people can
work at doctors offices and grocery stores, then we can let students come back. I’m saying this as a mom AND a teacher. I know I have the most unpopular opinion on this forum.
Schools were not safe to open here in Aug when out numbers were half they are now. How is it safe????
Well, we do know a lot more now than we did, even in August.
I've read quite a lot of articles and studies lately. Basically what I've read is that elementary schools reflect the numbers of cases in their area, but aren't seen to be spreaders. In other words, opening schools hasn't increased cases and they aren't finding that there are large spreads throughout the school. However, if you are in a community where cases are high there WILL be many cases in the school.
Now, middle and high school is different. There is more spread in them. Who knows if it's because of age or protocols or so much more mixing of kids, but it is much more of a problem than at the elementary level.
My school has been open since November. We have gone two days back to remote learning because of weather, but otherwise everything has been good. We have had some isolated cases of staff getting covid, and some kids out on quarantine because parents have it, but we haven't had any classes have to quarantine and there has been no spread throughout the school. Staff gets tested weekly and we have all doors and windows open all of the time. Kids are distanced (but, hey, my kids are 5 so staying apart is not really a thing) and masked all day. We have a shorter day so that they aren't eating lunch at school but they take it home. It's working, and it's a heck of a lot better than remote learning.
My district has been open since August. We had to shut down the high school for one week when the administrative staff became ill but that has been it. We have a hybrid model where the parents can select face to face or computer in 6 week intervals.
All students and staff have to wear masks at all times except at lunch. The students eat lunch in a variety of places (hallways, classrooms, common areas) so that we can space them out. We have had to cancel some sporting events when other teams have had cases on the sports team. Major events such as homecoming have been cancelled.
Our custodians have been working around the clock sanitizing each classroom between classes. With a school population over 2500 students we have 2-5 cases at any given time.
My district in Pennsylvania has been open full time since August. Students have the option to do virtual if that's what their families choose. Things have been going well. There have been a few cases in the school but no major outbreaks. I would say maybe 10-15 cases total between the elementary and high schools since school started. Our district did come up with a pretty good plan though to make sure there were smaller class sizes and social distancing. We have had a few virtual weeks after holidays just in case people were gathering but other than that, we've been in person.
I could see how this might not work for larger districts. My district as a whole only has a bit over 1,000 students. I couldn't imagine being in person right now with a packed classroom. Right now I have 14 in my homeroom class and 11 in the other third grade class I go to.
Our district has had kids in schools since August, with a pause from Thanksgiving until mid January. Our model has the kids in every day, but split into AM and PM cohorts. Some are entirely remote as well.
COVID is not spreading through contact in our schools, but we've had about 5% of our staff and students test positive since August. I feel quite safe with our model and precautions. There a hiccups and issues when a quarantine is needed, but for the most part it's the best we can expect in a bad situation.
That being said, our model would probably not work in larger districts, and I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable with a full class of kids all day instead of 50% at a time.
I'm in an elementary. We've been open since August. Just a handful of students have tested positive, with no spread in our school. Kids are spaced 3' apart, and wear masks when in line. Same class sizes as last year, about 22 per room. But no masks at recess, lunch and often no masks in the halls or bathrooms. It's common to see several staff members without their masks on.
I agree with Minnie716. At this point I think that the mental health of students, parents, and teachers is more important. There are many students who are really struggling with remote learning. I am seeing more reports of teen suicide over all of this. It’s scary. Parents need to be given a choice to send their child to school or to stay remote. I am disappointed many politicians did not realize it was important to vaccinate school personnel first so that schools could reopen. My district has been remote since March. The district I live in has been hybrid since September with no cases transmitted in school or any moves to remote learning.
Please come visit my 20 x 20 Title 1 classroom, with 35 Kinders, in a building that was constructed in 1920, where the PPE we were given was one cloth mask, where teachers have to supply their own Lysol and hand sanitizer, with a population that is 99% Black and Brown (kids who are more likely to have negative outcomes if they get COVID), and THEN tell me we're safe to open.
REALLY disappointed that Biden pivoted so quickly from "This White House supports teachers" to "Get back to the classroom, lazy teachers!!" Ugh.
My ES hasn’t had any students in person since March 12. I’m in northern VA. I am due to receive my second vaccination around Valentine's Day or shortly thereafter. Right now I think our biggest barrier is staffing issues.
My students are due back on March 16. I have 23. I'll have 9 on T/W and 9 on TH/F. 5 will stay fully online. We will be doing concurrent teaching.
REALLY disappointed that Biden pivoted so quickly from "This White House supports teachers" to "Get back to the classroom, lazy teachers!!" Ugh.
I don't think that's necessarily what he's saying. Perhaps he's looking at the mental health side of things. Many families are losing their minds right now being stuck at home for a year.
I understand your frustration, especially in your dire situation. I'm just a sub, but I know exactly what it feels like to get yelled at for not having paper towels in the room. (Like it's our fault schools are underfunded and burnt out...)
Personally I think part of the problem is the previous administration who treated the pandemic and masks as a joke and were constantly trying to diminish Fauci. We're still feeling the fallout from that. Just my two cents. You're certainly allowed to have your own personal views on politics.
I will say this: We should not be forced to teach in-person if we aren't vaccinated and are high risk. Period. Most educators will agree on that one. Unfortunately, bureaucracy and draconian "one size fits all" rules have always been the American way.
Sounds like your situation is a borderline nightmare to say the least and I extend my empathy.
Last edited by subasaurus; 02-10-2021 at 11:35 PM..
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02-04-2021, 10:19 AM
My favorite recently is how parents were mad at teachers because there were two “snow days” where kids worked from home instead of being in person as scheduled. Like we have control over the weather and/or whether school is in session.
