Cancel Virtual Academy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How are we behaving irresponsibly? We are vaccinated. But, you can still get and spread covid vaccinated. Which part of that do you not understand?

What is the real issue? Do you feel guilty sending your kids back? Do you feel guilty about your behavior so you have to tell yourself as long as you are vaccinated everything is ok?

Your kids are best in school. Its very clear. Its good you made that choice for them.

DP. By insisting that your children can't go to school until it's 100% safe, which it will never be (and which it also previously wasn't). But it's your right as a parent to make that decision for your children who are younger than 18.

What makes you think it was not a family situation? My kids choose it. Surprise. Really, why do you care about someone you don’t know making different choices. We’d love to send ours back. They are not ready. So you want them back too what are you willing to do to make it safer?

Your kids are your kids.

Yes, and they will be taking advantage of the district administered virtual program, which you don't like, but that's a You Problem.

The VA is the same as in person now. We are happy with it. MCPS runs it. They will continue to run it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What do you mean by “over”? There is no “over”- COVID is never going away. Perhaps it will end up like the flu, with different variants popping up from time to time, some more serious than others. Life moves on, though. It is ridiculous to think we’re going to keep up COVID mitigations forever.

Keeping virtual options for kids/families is fine, as I’ve repeatedly said in this thread. But you seem to have unrealistic goals for COVID. You should work on acceptance. Life is filled with risks. With vaccines, the known and unknown risks of COVID blend into the background noise. That’s not to say the risk is zero, or that something bad won’t come along a month, year or decade from now. But that’s life. I can’t imagine the sheltered life someone would have had to live to not understand that.

Before the pandemic phase of COVID is over, you pedant.

You're dishing out insults based on an argument I'm not making, so perhaps you should be the one doing some self-examination here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How are we behaving irresponsibly? We are vaccinated. But, you can still get and spread covid vaccinated. Which part of that do you not understand?

What is the real issue? Do you feel guilty sending your kids back? Do you feel guilty about your behavior so you have to tell yourself as long as you are vaccinated everything is ok?

Your kids are best in school. Its very clear. Its good you made that choice for them.

DP. By insisting that your children can't go to school until it's 100% safe, which it will never be (and which it also previously wasn't). But it's your right as a parent to make that decision for your children who are younger than 18.

What makes you think it was not a family situation? My kids choose it. Surprise. Really, why do you care about someone you don’t know making different choices. We’d love to send ours back. They are not ready. So you want them back too what are you willing to do to make it safer?

Your kids are your kids.

Yes, and they will be taking advantage of the district administered virtual program, which you don't like, but that's a You Problem.

The VA is the same as in person now. We are happy with it. MCPS runs it. They will continue to run it.

For how long though? That’s what I am nervous about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all families are in VA for Covid. Some are, some aren’t. vA is part of MCPS. It’s no different from them opening up another in person building.

I am pulling the information from the information we are getting from VA. If you were involved with VA or even spent a few minutes learning about it you would know it.

If you’d like our kids to return in person for families who choose it due to Covid, what are you willing to do to make it safer for them to return.

Even if MCPS does away with VA the state is not going to offer one. How do I know? Because unlike you, I contacted the state and MCPS to look at all our options prior to getting accepted into VA as a back up plan as we decided as a family our kids were not going in person last fall. Some of us actually put effort and research into this. The state of MD approved two programs that are private pay and looked terrible. Those are the only two options they offered. There was no live teaching and it was either self taught or videos with periodic check ins. If you also followed old threads some of us talked about it as we were scrambling on what to do with our kids. You should research this before you rant and want to shut down VA.

But, again, if you aren’t willing to be part of the solution in keeping kids safe in school, then stop critiquing our choice to keep our kids virtual. We checked out in person school. There is no distancing, kids half masked, very limited testing and everything back to normal. It’s an old building and walking through it I did not see the portable air filters as promised.

Nothing beyond vaccinations. Covid is here to stay, and either you learn to exist out in the real world or you don't. We're looking forward to masks coming off by next school year.

Masks can and should stay.

Mandatory masks won't stay. They'll finish out this school year with them, but next school year the policy will change. At most, they'll say that unvaccinated students need to mask as an incentive to get vaccinated.

Vaccines is your criteria for safe. Others of us feel differently and because you will not be part of the solution thank goodness MCPS gave us another option. When you can show me long term studies on the vaccine and that it’s 100% then I’ll agree. But when you keep need more shots in several months time, it’s not even as effective as the flu vaccine.

This is amazing- so you're arguing we need to keep VA for anti-vax families?! Someone ought to take a screenshot of this and send to the BOE, lol.

Why do you assume we aren't vaccinated? Is that your only talking point? Its not about vaccines for us. Its about school safety. Our kids are vaccinated to protect them against people like you. BUT, that doesn't protect them from getting covid at school given that MCPS is not following CDC guidelines.

So, if you want our kids to return, what are you going to do to make it safe for them to return? We'd love our kids to return. Our kids prefer to stay in virtual though.

Lol, I’m a nurse. You got them vaccinated to protect them against people like me at medical appointments? Ok. In your previous post you were arguing the vaccine wasn’t safe for kids. You’re pretty confusing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every county, or at least he bigger ones have VA. Googling to see it, even Baltimore City has one. At some point, if you have 10-40K students in VA, you'd have to create a entire new school system, vs. separate schools like each county did now. If that poster wants to go through the state, fine, however they can argue all they want but MCPS has been clear that they are committed to keeping VA.

Doing it through the state makes no sense except if you mandate each county use the same exact curriculum so kids can move in and out of VA to in person easily. Although the state taking over the curriculum may not be a bad thing if they brought textbooks back.

I get why it there might be substantial value to making it easy to go to/from virtual during the pandemic. But we're nearing the end-game on COVID, with the 5-11yo vaccines rolling out. Of the kids whose parents choose to keep them in virtual next fall, I think it is safe to assume *most* will never return to their old in-person schools. So there's very little benefit to keeping the virtual curriculum aligned with the physical schools that happen to be geographically close to the students.

It is striking how little anyone here seems to contemplate the prospect of a vaccine-escaping variant.

The vaccines target the spike protein. The spike protein is the part that engages with the cell. If the spike protein mutates far enough to escape the vaccines, it will no longer engage with the cell.

Naturally acquired immunity, though, can target any part of the virus, and those parts of the virus can mutate away. This is why vaccine acquired immunity is better than infection-acquired.

I would bet money that the COVID spike protein turns out to be more creative than this makes it out to be.

More to the point, I wouldn’t bet our school system that it’s going to happen only the way you suggest and that we’re not going to be right back in March 2020 a lot faster than any of us want to be.

Good luck to all.

This post perfectly illustrates my point. For some people the pandemic will never end, and they'll never consider in-person schools safe. To someone like the pp, terrified of breakthrough infections, hesitant to get vaccine boosters, and convinced the other shoe is going to drop, there's plausible path back to in-person learning. And that's her right. But let's structure virtual learning around the false belief that students in these families are coming back. We'll need a large number of students return next fall after getting vaccination. But the ones that are kept home after that are going to stay home for a long, long time. And when/if they return to in-person school, I suspect will end up in private schools rather than public schools. Only a small percentage will end up ever stepping foot in an MCPS school again.

This post also perfectly illustrates that you don't understand how to hold two contradictory ideas in one's head at the same time. My child is in-person school in MCPS. Both of his parents have received boosters.

I still find it...surprising? perplexing? amusing? that people who have lived through the same things I've lived through in the last two years are dead-set on the idea that they can predict what is coming next. We can't. Certainly not enough to move to shut down the thing we desperately needed on the front end of this and didn't have until Fall 2021. Keep the Virtual Academy open--we all may need back into it before this is really over (as opposed to "over" on the internet).

What do you mean by “over”? There is no “over”- COVID is never going away. Perhaps it will end up like the flu, with different variants popping up from time to time, some more serious than others. Life moves on, though. It is ridiculous to think we’re going to keep up COVID mitigations forever.

Keeping virtual options for kids/families is fine, as I’ve repeatedly said in this thread. But you seem to have unrealistic goals for COVID. You should work on acceptance. Life is filled with risks. With vaccines, the known and unknown risks of COVID blend into the background noise. That’s not to say the risk is zero, or that something bad won’t come along a month, year or decade from now. But that’s life. I can’t imagine the sheltered life someone would have had to live to not understand that.

Why do you care if someone makes different life choices than you, especially during a health pandemic? Why is the only acceptable way, your way? Why do we have to agree to risk getting covid because you tell us we do?

You decide what risks you want to take for your family and we'll decide for us. Getting covid is not something our family wants to risk. But, I am fortunate to have kids who do well in virtual, they can count on us to support them and are very understanding of health issues and the impact of covid should one of us get it. We have really enjoyed the extra time together.

You have in person. So, how is this even a debate as it has zero impact on you? Actually, it has a positive impact as it reduces the number of in person kids at your kids school, which makes it safer for them.

And as I’ve said again and again, I think the state should provide a permanent and sustainable virtual learning option for all students in Maryland, including your kids. I’m not trying to force your kids, or any others, back into schools.

DP who has their kids in virtual this year and I agree- anyone who thinks the MCPS will keep VA beyond this year is delusional. At the state level there could be more course offerings for upper grades too. I’ve been writing MSDE and I’d recommend anyone who wants virtual beyond this year to do the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all families are in VA for Covid. Some are, some aren’t. vA is part of MCPS. It’s no different from them opening up another in person building.

I am pulling the information from the information we are getting from VA. If you were involved with VA or even spent a few minutes learning about it you would know it.

If you’d like our kids to return in person for families who choose it due to Covid, what are you willing to do to make it safer for them to return.

Even if MCPS does away with VA the state is not going to offer one. How do I know? Because unlike you, I contacted the state and MCPS to look at all our options prior to getting accepted into VA as a back up plan as we decided as a family our kids were not going in person last fall. Some of us actually put effort and research into this. The state of MD approved two programs that are private pay and looked terrible. Those are the only two options they offered. There was no live teaching and it was either self taught or videos with periodic check ins. If you also followed old threads some of us talked about it as we were scrambling on what to do with our kids. You should research this before you rant and want to shut down VA.

But, again, if you aren’t willing to be part of the solution in keeping kids safe in school, then stop critiquing our choice to keep our kids virtual. We checked out in person school. There is no distancing, kids half masked, very limited testing and everything back to normal. It’s an old building and walking through it I did not see the portable air filters as promised.

Nothing beyond vaccinations. Covid is here to stay, and either you learn to exist out in the real world or you don't. We're looking forward to masks coming off by next school year.

Masks can and should stay.

Mandatory masks won't stay. They'll finish out this school year with them, but next school year the policy will change. At most, they'll say that unvaccinated students need to mask as an incentive to get vaccinated.

Vaccines is your criteria for safe. Others of us feel differently and because you will not be part of the solution thank goodness MCPS gave us another option. When you can show me long term studies on the vaccine and that it’s 100% then I’ll agree. But when you keep need more shots in several months time, it’s not even as effective as the flu vaccine.

This is amazing- so you're arguing we need to keep VA for anti-vax families?! Someone ought to take a screenshot of this and send to the BOE, lol.

Why do you assume we aren't vaccinated? Is that your only talking point? Its not about vaccines for us. Its about school safety. Our kids are vaccinated to protect them against people like you. BUT, that doesn't protect them from getting covid at school given that MCPS is not following CDC guidelines.

So, if you want our kids to return, what are you going to do to make it safe for them to return? We'd love our kids to return. Our kids prefer to stay in virtual though.

Lol, I’m a nurse. You got them vaccinated to protect them against people like me at medical appointments? Ok. In your previous post you were arguing the vaccine wasn’t safe for kids. You’re pretty confusing.

I never said vaccines were not safe for kids. But, we are not rushing back just because our kids are vaccinated either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every county, or at least he bigger ones have VA. Googling to see it, even Baltimore City has one. At some point, if you have 10-40K students in VA, you'd have to create a entire new school system, vs. separate schools like each county did now. If that poster wants to go through the state, fine, however they can argue all they want but MCPS has been clear that they are committed to keeping VA.

Doing it through the state makes no sense except if you mandate each county use the same exact curriculum so kids can move in and out of VA to in person easily. Although the state taking over the curriculum may not be a bad thing if they brought textbooks back.

I get why it there might be substantial value to making it easy to go to/from virtual during the pandemic. But we're nearing the end-game on COVID, with the 5-11yo vaccines rolling out. Of the kids whose parents choose to keep them in virtual next fall, I think it is safe to assume *most* will never return to their old in-person schools. So there's very little benefit to keeping the virtual curriculum aligned with the physical schools that happen to be geographically close to the students.

It is striking how little anyone here seems to contemplate the prospect of a vaccine-escaping variant.

The vaccines target the spike protein. The spike protein is the part that engages with the cell. If the spike protein mutates far enough to escape the vaccines, it will no longer engage with the cell.

Naturally acquired immunity, though, can target any part of the virus, and those parts of the virus can mutate away. This is why vaccine acquired immunity is better than infection-acquired.

I would bet money that the COVID spike protein turns out to be more creative than this makes it out to be.

More to the point, I wouldn’t bet our school system that it’s going to happen only the way you suggest and that we’re not going to be right back in March 2020 a lot faster than any of us want to be.

Good luck to all.

This post perfectly illustrates my point. For some people the pandemic will never end, and they'll never consider in-person schools safe. To someone like the pp, terrified of breakthrough infections, hesitant to get vaccine boosters, and convinced the other shoe is going to drop, there's plausible path back to in-person learning. And that's her right. But let's structure virtual learning around the false belief that students in these families are coming back. We'll need a large number of students return next fall after getting vaccination. But the ones that are kept home after that are going to stay home for a long, long time. And when/if they return to in-person school, I suspect will end up in private schools rather than public schools. Only a small percentage will end up ever stepping foot in an MCPS school again.

This post also perfectly illustrates that you don't understand how to hold two contradictory ideas in one's head at the same time. My child is in-person school in MCPS. Both of his parents have received boosters.

I still find it...surprising? perplexing? amusing? that people who have lived through the same things I've lived through in the last two years are dead-set on the idea that they can predict what is coming next. We can't. Certainly not enough to move to shut down the thing we desperately needed on the front end of this and didn't have until Fall 2021. Keep the Virtual Academy open--we all may need back into it before this is really over (as opposed to "over" on the internet).

What do you mean by “over”? There is no “over”- COVID is never going away. Perhaps it will end up like the flu, with different variants popping up from time to time, some more serious than others. Life moves on, though. It is ridiculous to think we’re going to keep up COVID mitigations forever.

Keeping virtual options for kids/families is fine, as I’ve repeatedly said in this thread. But you seem to have unrealistic goals for COVID. You should work on acceptance. Life is filled with risks. With vaccines, the known and unknown risks of COVID blend into the background noise. That’s not to say the risk is zero, or that something bad won’t come along a month, year or decade from now. But that’s life. I can’t imagine the sheltered life someone would have had to live to not understand that.

Why do you care if someone makes different life choices than you, especially during a health pandemic? Why is the only acceptable way, your way? Why do we have to agree to risk getting covid because you tell us we do?

You decide what risks you want to take for your family and we'll decide for us. Getting covid is not something our family wants to risk. But, I am fortunate to have kids who do well in virtual, they can count on us to support them and are very understanding of health issues and the impact of covid should one of us get it. We have really enjoyed the extra time together.

You have in person. So, how is this even a debate as it has zero impact on you? Actually, it has a positive impact as it reduces the number of in person kids at your kids school, which makes it safer for them.

And as I’ve said again and again, I think the state should provide a permanent and sustainable virtual learning option for all students in Maryland, including your kids. I’m not trying to force your kids, or any others, back into schools.

DP who has their kids in virtual this year and I agree- anyone who thinks the MCPS will keep VA beyond this year is delusional. At the state level there could be more course offerings for upper grades too. I’ve been writing MSDE and I’d recommend anyone who wants virtual beyond this year to do the same.

They already announced it’s here to stay. You are delusional to think they will do it better at the state level. The state offers two programs. Private pay. They are basically homeschooling programs. You can use them if you’d like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How are we behaving irresponsibly? We are vaccinated. But, you can still get and spread covid vaccinated. Which part of that do you not understand?

What is the real issue? Do you feel guilty sending your kids back? Do you feel guilty about your behavior so you have to tell yourself as long as you are vaccinated everything is ok?

Your kids are best in school. Its very clear. Its good you made that choice for them.

DP. By insisting that your children can't go to school until it's 100% safe, which it will never be (and which it also previously wasn't). But it's your right as a parent to make that decision for your children who are younger than 18.

What makes you think it was not a family situation? My kids choose it. Surprise. Really, why do you care about someone you don’t know making different choices. We’d love to send ours back. They are not ready. So you want them back too what are you willing to do to make it safer?

Your kids are your kids.

Yes, and they will be taking advantage of the district administered virtual program, which you don't like, but that's a You Problem.

The VA is the same as in person now. We are happy with it. MCPS runs it. They will continue to run it.

For how long though? That’s what I am nervous about.

They said they are funded for a few years. If there is enough demand they would have no reason to shut it down beyond a few nasty people who want to argue against it for no reason beyond they want to harm our kids.

[Anonymous]

Are VA students allowed to participate in in-person activities at their assigned schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every county, or at least he bigger ones have VA. Googling to see it, even Baltimore City has one. At some point, if you have 10-40K students in VA, you'd have to create a entire new school system, vs. separate schools like each county did now. If that poster wants to go through the state, fine, however they can argue all they want but MCPS has been clear that they are committed to keeping VA.

Doing it through the state makes no sense except if you mandate each county use the same exact curriculum so kids can move in and out of VA to in person easily. Although the state taking over the curriculum may not be a bad thing if they brought textbooks back.

I get why it there might be substantial value to making it easy to go to/from virtual during the pandemic. But we're nearing the end-game on COVID, with the 5-11yo vaccines rolling out. Of the kids whose parents choose to keep them in virtual next fall, I think it is safe to assume *most* will never return to their old in-person schools. So there's very little benefit to keeping the virtual curriculum aligned with the physical schools that happen to be geographically close to the students.

It is striking how little anyone here seems to contemplate the prospect of a vaccine-escaping variant.

The vaccines target the spike protein. The spike protein is the part that engages with the cell. If the spike protein mutates far enough to escape the vaccines, it will no longer engage with the cell.

Naturally acquired immunity, though, can target any part of the virus, and those parts of the virus can mutate away. This is why vaccine acquired immunity is better than infection-acquired.

I would bet money that the COVID spike protein turns out to be more creative than this makes it out to be.

More to the point, I wouldn’t bet our school system that it’s going to happen only the way you suggest and that we’re not going to be right back in March 2020 a lot faster than any of us want to be.

Good luck to all.

This post perfectly illustrates my point. For some people the pandemic will never end, and they'll never consider in-person schools safe. To someone like the pp, terrified of breakthrough infections, hesitant to get vaccine boosters, and convinced the other shoe is going to drop, there's plausible path back to in-person learning. And that's her right. But let's structure virtual learning around the false belief that students in these families are coming back. We'll need a large number of students return next fall after getting vaccination. But the ones that are kept home after that are going to stay home for a long, long time. And when/if they return to in-person school, I suspect will end up in private schools rather than public schools. Only a small percentage will end up ever stepping foot in an MCPS school again.

This post also perfectly illustrates that you don't understand how to hold two contradictory ideas in one's head at the same time. My child is in-person school in MCPS. Both of his parents have received boosters.

I still find it...surprising? perplexing? amusing? that people who have lived through the same things I've lived through in the last two years are dead-set on the idea that they can predict what is coming next. We can't. Certainly not enough to move to shut down the thing we desperately needed on the front end of this and didn't have until Fall 2021. Keep the Virtual Academy open--we all may need back into it before this is really over (as opposed to "over" on the internet).

What do you mean by “over”? There is no “over”- COVID is never going away. Perhaps it will end up like the flu, with different variants popping up from time to time, some more serious than others. Life moves on, though. It is ridiculous to think we’re going to keep up COVID mitigations forever.

Keeping virtual options for kids/families is fine, as I’ve repeatedly said in this thread. But you seem to have unrealistic goals for COVID. You should work on acceptance. Life is filled with risks. With vaccines, the known and unknown risks of COVID blend into the background noise. That’s not to say the risk is zero, or that something bad won’t come along a month, year or decade from now. But that’s life. I can’t imagine the sheltered life someone would have had to live to not understand that.

Why do you care if someone makes different life choices than you, especially during a health pandemic? Why is the only acceptable way, your way? Why do we have to agree to risk getting covid because you tell us we do?

You decide what risks you want to take for your family and we'll decide for us. Getting covid is not something our family wants to risk. But, I am fortunate to have kids who do well in virtual, they can count on us to support them and are very understanding of health issues and the impact of covid should one of us get it. We have really enjoyed the extra time together.

You have in person. So, how is this even a debate as it has zero impact on you? Actually, it has a positive impact as it reduces the number of in person kids at your kids school, which makes it safer for them.

And as I’ve said again and again, I think the state should provide a permanent and sustainable virtual learning option for all students in Maryland, including your kids. I’m not trying to force your kids, or any others, back into schools.

DP who has their kids in virtual this year and I agree- anyone who thinks the MCPS will keep VA beyond this year is delusional. At the state level there could be more course offerings for upper grades too. I’ve been writing MSDE and I’d recommend anyone who wants virtual beyond this year to do the same.

They already announced it’s here to stay. You are delusional to think they will do it better at the state level. The state offers two programs. Private pay. They are basically homeschooling programs. You can use them if you’d like.

Can you provide a link to the announcement please? And how it would work considering enrollment would likely be lower next year? TIA!

FWIW, I have family with direct experience with state-administered programs (not private pay) in other states. In one case it was for a child undergoing cancer treatment and they were grateful to have the option. You're oddly dismissive of a state run program but it can work and offer a consistent option for kids all over the state.

[Anonymous]

They already announced it’s here to stay. You are delusional to think they will do it better at the state level. The state offers two programs. Private pay. They are basically homeschooling programs. You can use them if you’d like.


Can you provide a link to the announcement please? And how it would work considering enrollment would likely be lower next year? TIA!

FWIW, I have family with direct experience with state-administered programs (not private pay) in other states. In one case it was for a child undergoing cancer treatment and they were grateful to have the option. You're oddly dismissive of a state run program but it can work and offer a consistent option for kids all over the state.

I shortened the quotes to take up less space. Thanks PP for your perspective. I think that a state-run program is the way to go too so that each county doesn't have to create its own. Can you describe more benefits of a state-run virtual learning academy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What do you mean by “over”? There is no “over”- COVID is never going away. Perhaps it will end up like the flu, with different variants popping up from time to time, some more serious than others. Life moves on, though. It is ridiculous to think we’re going to keep up COVID mitigations forever.

Keeping virtual options for kids/families is fine, as I’ve repeatedly said in this thread. But you seem to have unrealistic goals for COVID. You should work on acceptance. Life is filled with risks. With vaccines, the known and unknown risks of COVID blend into the background noise. That’s not to say the risk is zero, or that something bad won’t come along a month, year or decade from now. But that’s life. I can’t imagine the sheltered life someone would have had to live to not understand that.

Before the pandemic phase of COVID is over, you pedant.

You're dishing out insults based on an argument I'm not making, so perhaps you should be the one doing some self-examination here.

When does the "pandemic phase" end? You act like there's some sort of explicit or clear cut off between pandemic and endemic. It's a spectrum. And different areas of the country will get there at different times. A high vaccinated area like MoCo is likely approaching what endemic looks like- a moderate number of cases, but low hospitalizations/deaths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are VA students allowed to participate in in-person activities at their assigned schools?

It depends on the home school. Allowed, yes. But, not all schools are agreeing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What do you mean by “over”? There is no “over”- COVID is never going away. Perhaps it will end up like the flu, with different variants popping up from time to time, some more serious than others. Life moves on, though. It is ridiculous to think we’re going to keep up COVID mitigations forever.

Keeping virtual options for kids/families is fine, as I’ve repeatedly said in this thread. But you seem to have unrealistic goals for COVID. You should work on acceptance. Life is filled with risks. With vaccines, the known and unknown risks of COVID blend into the background noise. That’s not to say the risk is zero, or that something bad won’t come along a month, year or decade from now. But that’s life. I can’t imagine the sheltered life someone would have had to live to not understand that.

Before the pandemic phase of COVID is over, you pedant.

You're dishing out insults based on an argument I'm not making, so perhaps you should be the one doing some self-examination here.

When does the "pandemic phase" end? You act like there's some sort of explicit or clear cut off between pandemic and endemic. It's a spectrum. And different areas of the country will get there at different times. A high vaccinated area like MoCo is likely approaching what endemic looks like- a moderate number of cases, but low hospitalizations/deaths.

Why do you feel the need to convince peoples it’s fully safe? Why do we have to live by your standards? Do you not understand not everyone has the same opinion of safe? Do you not realize all families are not in VA because of Covid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

They already announced it’s here to stay. You are delusional to think they will do it better at the state level. The state offers two programs. Private pay. They are basically homeschooling programs. You can use them if you’d like.


Can you provide a link to the announcement please? And how it would work considering enrollment would likely be lower next year? TIA!

FWIW, I have family with direct experience with state-administered programs (not private pay) in other states. In one case it was for a child undergoing cancer treatment and they were grateful to have the option. You're oddly dismissive of a state run program but it can work and offer a consistent option for kids all over the state.

I shortened the quotes to take up less space. Thanks PP for your perspective. I think that a state-run program is the way to go too so that each county doesn't have to create its own. Can you describe more benefits of a state-run virtual learning academy?

The counties have already created them.