Is hybrid / cohorts really safer?

[Anonymous]

OP, I know plenty of families like yours. UMC working parents need education, childcare, and socialization for their kids, and we'll make sure they get it. It's funny because our DC's elementary school teacher asked us to keep our bubbles to the other kids in DC's hybrid cohort that goes to school for less than 3 hours 4 times per week. All the parents said sure, but in reality people have nannies, babysitters, tutors, pods, extracurricular activities, play dates with others, etc., not to mention entirely separate set ups for siblings while they take the in-person scraps we're offered. No one is sacrificing their jobs that pay the mortgage to appease this childless teacher who is terrified of getting COVID despite getting vaccinated.

If we had full-time school, then it would be easier to forego much of these other in-person activities. If they would stretch school until 4:30 PM by having specials at the end of the day (specials teachers could start their day later and end later) or another way to keep the number of hours a teacher works to contract limits while extending school hours, then some parents would also be able to give up after school babysitters. I know we would find a way to make it work with just school from 8:15 am - 4:30 pm and outdoor play dates with masks with other kids in the class. It would actually be safer than what many of us have to do now.

[Anonymous]

We just took a cares-type spot at our charter (twice a week, supervised DL at school until they get enough teachers back to switch to IP learning). It was worth it for us because our kindergartener was suffering badly from the lack of socialization, and was fixating on when they'd get to go back to school. Plus DC is good with virtual learning and we LOVE the teacher, who is very effective at DL, so it seemed worth a shot. We are uniquely lucky that we can just do our current pod the other days, and the hours are the same (end at 3:00, so not great, but we're used to it by now).

I absolutely feel bad for the school administrators having to do the "hygiene theater" with deep cleaning and trying to enforce social distancing during outdoor play. They'll twist themselves in knots complying with the DC Health guidelines, then the kids will leave school and head right to crowded playgrounds and activities. It's silly, but it's not the school's fault, so we can just hope the CDC relaxes the guidelines over the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I absolutely feel bad for the school administrators having to do the "hygiene theater" with deep cleaning and trying to enforce social distancing during outdoor play. They'll twist themselves in knots complying with the DC Health guidelines, then the kids will leave school and head right to crowded playgrounds and activities. It's silly, but it's not the school's fault, so we can just hope the CDC relaxes the guidelines over the summer.

Ugh, same here. DC Health is acting like it's still early 2020 when we thought that hand-washing and lysol wipes were the most important.

As others have said, the cohorts are more for contact tracing (and preventing a full-scale shutdown) than safety ... but even then, it doesn't make sense because kids have siblings, they have friends in other classes, they go to playgrounds. If we were in a full-on lockdown and strict cohorting was how we kept schools open, then great. But again, that hasn't been the case since last spring. When you take away full-time school, people just come up with ad hoc education & childcare solutions that have no safety measures OR that rely on older, at-risk relatives.

It's better, in my opinion, to do a few safety measures REALLY well than do a dozen for show. One of my kids has been in in-person pre-school for months and they don't enforce distancing with this age group because there's no point. But they're great with masks, they are outside constantly, and they made sure adults got vaccinated ASAP. They've had zero cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keeping your kid safer isn't actually the reason for cohorts. I think the cohort thing is really more about contact tracing. It makes it easier and you only have to keep one cohort out for a positive, not everyone.

+1
If a kid or teacher tests positive, far fewer people have to quarantine if you have strict cohorts. I think that's the real reason for them. There's nothing the schools can do about people's activities outside of school -- even if school was back in person, plenty of families would still have babysitters, nannies, extracurricular activities, and travel. But they can control spread within the school, and keep it logistically simple if there is a positive case at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I absolutely feel bad for the school administrators having to do the "hygiene theater" with deep cleaning and trying to enforce social distancing during outdoor play. They'll twist themselves in knots complying with the DC Health guidelines, then the kids will leave school and head right to crowded playgrounds and activities. It's silly, but it's not the school's fault, so we can just hope the CDC relaxes the guidelines over the summer.

Ugh, same here. DC Health is acting like it's still early 2020 when we thought that hand-washing and lysol wipes were the most important.

As others have said, the cohorts are more for contact tracing (and preventing a full-scale shutdown) than safety ... but even then, it doesn't make sense because kids have siblings, they have friends in other classes, they go to playgrounds. If we were in a full-on lockdown and strict cohorting was how we kept schools open, then great. But again, that hasn't been the case since last spring. When you take away full-time school, people just come up with ad hoc education & childcare solutions that have no safety measures OR that rely on older, at-risk relatives.

It's better, in my opinion, to do a few safety measures REALLY well than do a dozen for show. One of my kids has been in in-person pre-school for months and they don't enforce distancing with this age group because there's no point. But they're great with masks, they are outside constantly, and they made sure adults got vaccinated ASAP. They've had zero cases.

PP here. At our charter they are only outside with their cohort, but even within the cohort they're enforcing distancing and not sharing manipulatives/toys. I completely agree it makes sense to separate the cohorts carefully (for shut down/tracing purposes), but within the cohort it feels excessive, especially since the kids would all have to quarantine together anyways. I highly doubt anyone at the school actually thinks all of these restrictions are necessary, but I do applaud them for making the effort to get kids back in the building even though they have to jump through those hoops. And yeah, we've done camps too and they are much more relaxed, but still have had no cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I absolutely feel bad for the school administrators having to do the "hygiene theater" with deep cleaning and trying to enforce social distancing during outdoor play. They'll twist themselves in knots complying with the DC Health guidelines, then the kids will leave school and head right to crowded playgrounds and activities. It's silly, but it's not the school's fault, so we can just hope the CDC relaxes the guidelines over the summer.

Ugh, same here. DC Health is acting like it's still early 2020 when we thought that hand-washing and lysol wipes were the most important.

As others have said, the cohorts are more for contact tracing (and preventing a full-scale shutdown) than safety ... but even then, it doesn't make sense because kids have siblings, they have friends in other classes, they go to playgrounds. If we were in a full-on lockdown and strict cohorting was how we kept schools open, then great. But again, that hasn't been the case since last spring. When you take away full-time school, people just come up with ad hoc education & childcare solutions that have no safety measures OR that rely on older, at-risk relatives.

It's better, in my opinion, to do a few safety measures REALLY well than do a dozen for show. One of my kids has been in in-person pre-school for months and they don't enforce distancing with this age group because there's no point. But they're great with masks, they are outside constantly, and they made sure adults got vaccinated ASAP. They've had zero cases.

So true. I'm tired of the covid safety theater things we do that makes life so much more difficult and doesn't provide a safer environment. Keep masks, as much outdoor activity as possible, and provide at least full-time school so parents can stop some of the other less safe childcare and education stopgaps.