Attendance policy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you surely can see why the school would need medical documentation to support an absence of 5 days or more, can't you? This surely can't be that hard for you to comprehend.

No I really don't. I don't appreciate being treated like a liar and I don't think schools must function on the assumption that that is what parents are. I also don't appreciate the assumption that parents are too stupid or ill-motivated to make extremely basic medical decisions for their kid without a doctor intervening. The state of Maryland allows homeschooling next to no oversight. Yet suddenly when you enroll your kid in public schools, you are no longer trustworthy to make your own parenting decisions. I also don't buy into the naive magic-doctor theory that many on this thread seem to ascribe to. I'm all for vaccines/antibiotics/antivirals when necessary but there is just nothing a doctor can do about a lingering case of the flu/COVID/other assorted viruses. Plenty of states/schools operate fine without this requirement.

Its just comical next to their alleged concern about spreading COVID, but w/e. Clearly I am in the minority here. I at least hope the schools drop the pretense of caring about COVID spread--at least that would be consistent.

I agree, op. MCPS shouldn’t be putting up barriers making it harder for kids to stay home sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What, you don't want to pay $100 to sit in a waiting room with a bunch of even sicker people for 4 hours? Where is your sense of adventure?

Urgent care is like $20-$25 with most insurance. And if you make an appointment, you won’t wait 4 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What, you don't want to pay $100 to sit in a waiting room with a bunch of even sicker people for 4 hours? Where is your sense of adventure?

Urgent care is like $20-$25 with most insurance. And if you make an appointment, you won’t wait 4 hours.

DP. That it costs $25 and might be faster is there is still no reason to be there, except MCPS’s excessively fastidious administrative BS. That’s a fairly terrible basis for any additional use pressure on the health care system we have going in this country rn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you surely can see why the school would need medical documentation to support an absence of 5 days or more, can't you? This surely can't be that hard for you to comprehend.

No I really don't. I don't appreciate being treated like a liar and I don't think schools must function on the assumption that that is what parents are. I also don't appreciate the assumption that parents are too stupid or ill-motivated to make extremely basic medical decisions for their kid without a doctor intervening. The state of Maryland allows homeschooling next to no oversight. Yet suddenly when you enroll your kid in public schools, you are no longer trustworthy to make your own parenting decisions. I also don't buy into the naive magic-doctor theory that many on this thread seem to ascribe to. I'm all for vaccines/antibiotics/antivirals when necessary but there is just nothing a doctor can do about a lingering case of the flu/COVID/other assorted viruses. Plenty of states/schools operate fine without this requirement.

Its just comical next to their alleged concern about spreading COVID, but w/e. Clearly I am in the minority here. I at least hope the schools drop the pretense of caring about COVID spread--at least that would be consistent.

Maybe you should look into homeschooling. I think you'd be happier in that kind of arrangement, since you think kids should be indefinitely absent from school without medical documentation because.....schools should trust parents? Even if they do trust parents, which I think 5 days without requiring a doctor's note is a sign of, have you ever heard of the phrase, "Trust, but verify"? Relationships built on trust still need substantiation and documentation to support them.

Seriously. Opt out of public school and go the home schooling route, since you don't like structure or rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you surely can see why the school would need medical documentation to support an absence of 5 days or more, can't you? This surely can't be that hard for you to comprehend.

No I really don't. I don't appreciate being treated like a liar and I don't think schools must function on the assumption that that is what parents are. I also don't appreciate the assumption that parents are too stupid or ill-motivated to make extremely basic medical decisions for their kid without a doctor intervening. The state of Maryland allows homeschooling next to no oversight. Yet suddenly when you enroll your kid in public schools, you are no longer trustworthy to make your own parenting decisions. I also don't buy into the naive magic-doctor theory that many on this thread seem to ascribe to. I'm all for vaccines/antibiotics/antivirals when necessary but there is just nothing a doctor can do about a lingering case of the flu/COVID/other assorted viruses. Plenty of states/schools operate fine without this requirement.

Its just comical next to their alleged concern about spreading COVID, but w/e. Clearly I am in the minority here. I at least hope the schools drop the pretense of caring about COVID spread--at least that would be consistent.

I agree, op. MCPS shouldn’t be putting up barriers making it harder for kids to stay home sick.

There is no BARRIER. They're just asking for documentation and substantiation AFTER 5 days. How is that a barrier???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What, you don't want to pay $100 to sit in a waiting room with a bunch of even sicker people for 4 hours? Where is your sense of adventure?

Urgent care is like $20-$25 with most insurance. And if you make an appointment, you won’t wait 4 hours.

My in-person urgent care visits run me $75, but there are probably telemedicine visits that can run much cheaper.

Again, if your kid is sick for 5 days, YOU SHOULD be talking to some kind of medical professional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Huh, if your kid is sick for 4 days you're not taking them to urgent care?

They test positive for COVID with an at home test on day “0” and then have to stay home for 5 days. That’s potentially 6 days home without seeing a doctor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh, if your kid is sick for 4 days you're not taking them to urgent care?

What would you expect the doctor to do if your kid has covid, tested positive at home, seems like they are doing okay but still has mild symptoms? There is nothing to do help them except rest. Doctors won't give paxlovid to low risk people that age. So, uh, yea, I see no point. Same with the flu.

Most kids with covid recover in a day or two if not hours. If your kid is still sick after 5 days I'd absolutely take them in to the Dr. Something else is going on.

Glad your kids feel better so quickly, but isn’t the policy still to stay home for 5 days after a positive test?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh, if your kid is sick for 4 days you're not taking them to urgent care?

They test positive for COVID with an at home test on day “0” and then have to stay home for 5 days. That’s potentially 6 days home without seeing a doctor

+1 the point is that if it's Covid positive, you'd want kids to stay home but they probably won't be sick enough to need to see a doctor. There's no point in seeing a Dr for mild/typical Covid.

In other situations like a kid has a multi day fever, yes of course we would go to the Dr to check for strep or other issues that may need treatment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh, if your kid is sick for 4 days you're not taking them to urgent care?

They test positive for COVID with an at home test on day “0” and then have to stay home for 5 days. That’s potentially 6 days home without seeing a doctor

Again, the protocols have changed and updated. The main reason to stay home is positive PLUS highly symptomatic, such as fever, notable fatigue, etc. You can then return if symptoms subside, though it's recommended to do so masked for the 5 or so days.

The emphasis is much more on whether an individual is symptomatic and not just a blanket "5 days for everyone" policy that we had with Omicron.

[Anonymous]

Lol enjoy my kids contagion, MCPS. You asked for it

[Anonymous]

I used to have awful “insurance “ and can attest that some plans you are probably better without.

I think you can pay for a cheap telemedicine Dr and they can give you a note.

[Anonymous]

People will just ignore this policy, and MCPS won’t enforce it. Do what you want, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to have awful “insurance “ and can attest that some plans you are probably better without.

I think you can pay for a cheap telemedicine Dr and they can give you a note.

I know *I* could. And so could everyone else on this thread if they wanted to. The point is this is an incentive to just kids to school sick instead because that's easier and cheaper and school is making the alternative a pain in the ass. Some parents don't have the time/money/patience for that. And I count me in as someone who doesn't have the patience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What, you don't want to pay $100 to sit in a waiting room with a bunch of even sicker people for 4 hours? Where is your sense of adventure?

Urgent care is like $20-$25 with most insurance. And if you make an appointment, you won’t wait 4 hours.

My in-person urgent care visits run me $75, but there are probably telemedicine visits that can run much cheaper.

Again, if your kid is sick for 5 days, YOU SHOULD be talking to some kind of medical professional.

Our insurance does not cover urgent care. We have to go to the er. On a rare occasion we can get urgent care preapproved but you need a doctor to approve it and you cannot get appointments within a few weeks let alone same day. The virtual one we use is $75 out of pocket. We spend a fortune out of pocket for medical care.