Charters: What covid precautions has your school announced for the upcoming year?

[Anonymous]

ITDS never expressed regret about Zoom school and acted as if it were entirely normal to teach young children that way. In the 2020-2021 school year, it was as if word had gone out to the staff to act as if in-person school had never existed. They were asynch two days a week and the teacher's assistant played Candy Crush during class time. You could hear the jingle when she failed to mute.

We withdrew our child mid-year.

We kept tabs on the school into the Spring of 2021 when parents petitioned to open two days a week. The school declined, offering one day of "in-person learning opportunities" per week -- how Orwellian is that?

I'm glad to see more parents are coming to the conclusion we did. The school may never return to normalcy. If masks aren't optional now, when we know Covid poses almost no risk to children, vaccines are available, almost every other school in the country is mask optional, most kids have had Covid, and Covid burden in the community is low, then when?

Unfortunately, many other charters are not doing any better. I suspect we'll see a return now of the old days when middle and upper-middle income families left the city for suburban schools. This will have a ripple effect on everything. As tax collections decline, public services will get worse and crime will rise. The downward spiral has begun.

[Anonymous]

To add: The rumor is that LAMB will allow parents to ask for exemptions from masking. They haven't said that publicly, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have kids who have been at Inspired for many years and I've given the school the benefit of the doubt on lots and lots of decisions and have, by and large, been happy to sit back and let them do their thing.

But, after 2.5 years of pandemic, with CDC guidance where it is, and with literally every other institution relaxing their mitigation strategies, I feel like it's appropriate to give families a lot more explanation than "we are masking."

I'd like to know more so that I can explain to my kids why they are required to wear masks at school and not anywhere else. Because right now? I don't have it in me to carry the school's water on this. I am also really bummed that my kids are starting another year with (at least some) teacher attention diverted to mask compliance vs. building classroom community and teaching/learning.

This is the result of you giving ITDS the "benefit of the doubt" and letting "them do their thing" while other parents have been speaking out about the school's pathetic handling of COVID (closure, masks, on and on). You should have been speaking out and supporting parents who were pushing back on the school years ago. 2.5 years later and your kid is still forced to wear a mask.

Not an ITS parent but I have sympathy for people in this situation. We DID speak up and were immediately told that it was unreasonable to do so, that our suggestions to loosen the mask policy in line with DCPS and CDC guidance would endanger students and staff and "we don't want to go back to virtual, do we?" Like it was some kind of threat.

It's honestly easier to just leave your school than to try and get a school determined to be as Covid cautious as possible to consider science-based arguments for different policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ITDS never expressed regret about Zoom school and acted as if it were entirely normal to teach young children that way. In the 2020-2021 school year, it was as if word had gone out to the staff to act as if in-person school had never existed. They were asynch two days a week and the teacher's assistant played Candy Crush during class time. You could hear the jingle when she failed to mute.

We withdrew our child mid-year.

We kept tabs on the school into the Spring of 2021 when parents petitioned to open two days a week. The school declined, offering one day of "in-person learning opportunities" per week -- how Orwellian is that?

I'm glad to see more parents are coming to the conclusion we did. The school may never return to normalcy. If masks aren't optional now, when we know Covid poses almost no risk to children, vaccines are available, almost every other school in the country is mask optional, most kids have had Covid, and Covid burden in the community is low, then when?

Unfortunately, many other charters are not doing any better. I suspect we'll see a return now of the old days when middle and upper-middle income families left the city for suburban schools. This will have a ripple effect on everything. As tax collections decline, public services will get worse and crime will rise. The downward spiral has begun.

That's really sad. For the record, our DCPS opened to kids with IEPs and other needs in Feb 2021, and then there were spots for almost everyone who wanted in April 2021 for the final term. I think almost 75% of the school was back in person by April 2021, if not more. Really, I fault OSSE for not being on top of charters here. I struggle to understand the pyschology behind ITDS's decisions and certainly will never send my kid there. (They had been a back-up middle school option.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have kids who have been at Inspired for many years and I've given the school the benefit of the doubt on lots and lots of decisions and have, by and large, been happy to sit back and let them do their thing.

But, after 2.5 years of pandemic, with CDC guidance where it is, and with literally every other institution relaxing their mitigation strategies, I feel like it's appropriate to give families a lot more explanation than "we are masking."

I'd like to know more so that I can explain to my kids why they are required to wear masks at school and not anywhere else. Because right now? I don't have it in me to carry the school's water on this. I am also really bummed that my kids are starting another year with (at least some) teacher attention diverted to mask compliance vs. building classroom community and teaching/learning.

This is the result of you giving ITDS the "benefit of the doubt" and letting "them do their thing" while other parents have been speaking out about the school's pathetic handling of COVID (closure, masks, on and on). You should have been speaking out and supporting parents who were pushing back on the school years ago. 2.5 years later and your kid is still forced to wear a mask.

Not an ITS parent but I have sympathy for people in this situation. We DID speak up and were immediately told that it was unreasonable to do so, that our suggestions to loosen the mask policy in line with DCPS and CDC guidance would endanger students and staff and "we don't want to go back to virtual, do we?" Like it was some kind of threat.

It's honestly easier to just leave your school than to try and get a school determined to be as Covid cautious as possible to consider science-based arguments for different policies.

There's truth to this. The fact is I will never totally understand how the "acceptable" position at our DCPS flipped from "YOU ARE KILLING TEACHERS HOW DARE YOU DEMAND IN PERSON" to "GIVE MY KID AN IN PERSON SEAT RIGHT NOW DAMMIT!" But it seemed to change immediately once most parents were vaccinated or about to be vaccinated. I was one of the few parents willing to speak up, and would always have other parents contact me offline to tell me they agreed, but very few would say it in front of others. I think I credit it to the fact that our teachers are actually really, really good and as much as it probably was stressful to go back in person, they knew full well that virtual was not working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITDS never expressed regret about Zoom school and acted as if it were entirely normal to teach young children that way. In the 2020-2021 school year, it was as if word had gone out to the staff to act as if in-person school had never existed. They were asynch two days a week and the teacher's assistant played Candy Crush during class time. You could hear the jingle when she failed to mute.

We withdrew our child mid-year.

We kept tabs on the school into the Spring of 2021 when parents petitioned to open two days a week. The school declined, offering one day of "in-person learning opportunities" per week -- how Orwellian is that?

I'm glad to see more parents are coming to the conclusion we did. The school may never return to normalcy. If masks aren't optional now, when we know Covid poses almost no risk to children, vaccines are available, almost every other school in the country is mask optional, most kids have had Covid, and Covid burden in the community is low, then when?

Unfortunately, many other charters are not doing any better. I suspect we'll see a return now of the old days when middle and upper-middle income families left the city for suburban schools. This will have a ripple effect on everything. As tax collections decline, public services will get worse and crime will rise. The downward spiral has begun.

That's really sad. For the record, our DCPS opened to kids with IEPs and other needs in Feb 2021, and then there were spots for almost everyone who wanted in April 2021 for the final term. I think almost 75% of the school was back in person by April 2021, if not more. Really, I fault OSSE for not being on top of charters here. I struggle to understand the pyschology behind ITDS's decisions and certainly will never send my kid there. (They had been a back-up middle school option.)

As a relatively new parent in the DC school system, the various charter schools collective responses to COVID has really opened my eyes to how little input parents have in our children's education at charter schools. So who ultimately has oversight over the charter schools? Is there any accountability? If I have a complaint, who would I turn to? Serious question, because I don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITDS never expressed regret about Zoom school and acted as if it were entirely normal to teach young children that way. In the 2020-2021 school year, it was as if word had gone out to the staff to act as if in-person school had never existed. They were asynch two days a week and the teacher's assistant played Candy Crush during class time. You could hear the jingle when she failed to mute.

We withdrew our child mid-year.

We kept tabs on the school into the Spring of 2021 when parents petitioned to open two days a week. The school declined, offering one day of "in-person learning opportunities" per week -- how Orwellian is that?

I'm glad to see more parents are coming to the conclusion we did. The school may never return to normalcy. If masks aren't optional now, when we know Covid poses almost no risk to children, vaccines are available, almost every other school in the country is mask optional, most kids have had Covid, and Covid burden in the community is low, then when?

Unfortunately, many other charters are not doing any better. I suspect we'll see a return now of the old days when middle and upper-middle income families left the city for suburban schools. This will have a ripple effect on everything. As tax collections decline, public services will get worse and crime will rise. The downward spiral has begun.

That's really sad. For the record, our DCPS opened to kids with IEPs and other needs in Feb 2021, and then there were spots for almost everyone who wanted in April 2021 for the final term. I think almost 75% of the school was back in person by April 2021, if not more. Really, I fault OSSE for not being on top of charters here. I struggle to understand the pyschology behind ITDS's decisions and certainly will never send my kid there. (They had been a back-up middle school option.)

As a relatively new parent in the DC school system, the various charter schools collective responses to COVID has really opened my eyes to how little input parents have in our children's education at charter schools. So who ultimately has oversight over the charter schools? Is there any accountability? If I have a complaint, who would I turn to? Serious question, because I don't know.

You can file a lawsuit. That's it.

Your individual school's board is unlikely to listen to parents, because why would they? They don't care if the school succeeds. The DCPCS body doesn't care about parents.

Your other option is to leave the school (because hey you always have your IB).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITDS never expressed regret about Zoom school and acted as if it were entirely normal to teach young children that way. In the 2020-2021 school year, it was as if word had gone out to the staff to act as if in-person school had never existed. They were asynch two days a week and the teacher's assistant played Candy Crush during class time. You could hear the jingle when she failed to mute.

We withdrew our child mid-year.

We kept tabs on the school into the Spring of 2021 when parents petitioned to open two days a week. The school declined, offering one day of "in-person learning opportunities" per week -- how Orwellian is that?

I'm glad to see more parents are coming to the conclusion we did. The school may never return to normalcy. If masks aren't optional now, when we know Covid poses almost no risk to children, vaccines are available, almost every other school in the country is mask optional, most kids have had Covid, and Covid burden in the community is low, then when?

Unfortunately, many other charters are not doing any better. I suspect we'll see a return now of the old days when middle and upper-middle income families left the city for suburban schools. This will have a ripple effect on everything. As tax collections decline, public services will get worse and crime will rise. The downward spiral has begun.

That's really sad. For the record, our DCPS opened to kids with IEPs and other needs in Feb 2021, and then there were spots for almost everyone who wanted in April 2021 for the final term. I think almost 75% of the school was back in person by April 2021, if not more. Really, I fault OSSE for not being on top of charters here. I struggle to understand the pyschology behind ITDS's decisions and certainly will never send my kid there. (They had been a back-up middle school option.)

As a relatively new parent in the DC school system, the various charter schools collective responses to COVID has really opened my eyes to how little input parents have in our children's education at charter schools. So who ultimately has oversight over the charter schools? Is there any accountability? If I have a complaint, who would I turn to? Serious question, because I don't know.

You can file a complaint with the Charter Board if you file a complaint with the school that they do not resolve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITDS never expressed regret about Zoom school and acted as if it were entirely normal to teach young children that way. In the 2020-2021 school year, it was as if word had gone out to the staff to act as if in-person school had never existed. They were asynch two days a week and the teacher's assistant played Candy Crush during class time. You could hear the jingle when she failed to mute.

We withdrew our child mid-year.

We kept tabs on the school into the Spring of 2021 when parents petitioned to open two days a week. The school declined, offering one day of "in-person learning opportunities" per week -- how Orwellian is that?

I'm glad to see more parents are coming to the conclusion we did. The school may never return to normalcy. If masks aren't optional now, when we know Covid poses almost no risk to children, vaccines are available, almost every other school in the country is mask optional, most kids have had Covid, and Covid burden in the community is low, then when?

Unfortunately, many other charters are not doing any better. I suspect we'll see a return now of the old days when middle and upper-middle income families left the city for suburban schools. This will have a ripple effect on everything. As tax collections decline, public services will get worse and crime will rise. The downward spiral has begun.

That's really sad. For the record, our DCPS opened to kids with IEPs and other needs in Feb 2021, and then there were spots for almost everyone who wanted in April 2021 for the final term. I think almost 75% of the school was back in person by April 2021, if not more. Really, I fault OSSE for not being on top of charters here. I struggle to understand the pyschology behind ITDS's decisions and certainly will never send my kid there. (They had been a back-up middle school option.)

As a relatively new parent in the DC school system, the various charter schools collective responses to COVID has really opened my eyes to how little input parents have in our children's education at charter schools. So who ultimately has oversight over the charter schools? Is there any accountability? If I have a complaint, who would I turn to? Serious question, because I don't know.

You can file a complaint with the Charter Board if you file a complaint with the school that they do not resolve.

Have you ever done that and was it effective?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have kids who have been at Inspired for many years and I've given the school the benefit of the doubt on lots and lots of decisions and have, by and large, been happy to sit back and let them do their thing.

But, after 2.5 years of pandemic, with CDC guidance where it is, and with literally every other institution relaxing their mitigation strategies, I feel like it's appropriate to give families a lot more explanation than "we are masking."

I'd like to know more so that I can explain to my kids why they are required to wear masks at school and not anywhere else. Because right now? I don't have it in me to carry the school's water on this. I am also really bummed that my kids are starting another year with (at least some) teacher attention diverted to mask compliance vs. building classroom community and teaching/learning.

This is the result of you giving ITDS the "benefit of the doubt" and letting "them do their thing" while other parents have been speaking out about the school's pathetic handling of COVID (closure, masks, on and on). You should have been speaking out and supporting parents who were pushing back on the school years ago. 2.5 years later and your kid is still forced to wear a mask.

+100. Giving any school the benefit of the doubt is naïve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITDS never expressed regret about Zoom school and acted as if it were entirely normal to teach young children that way. In the 2020-2021 school year, it was as if word had gone out to the staff to act as if in-person school had never existed. They were asynch two days a week and the teacher's assistant played Candy Crush during class time. You could hear the jingle when she failed to mute.

We withdrew our child mid-year.

We kept tabs on the school into the Spring of 2021 when parents petitioned to open two days a week. The school declined, offering one day of "in-person learning opportunities" per week -- how Orwellian is that?

I'm glad to see more parents are coming to the conclusion we did. The school may never return to normalcy. If masks aren't optional now, when we know Covid poses almost no risk to children, vaccines are available, almost every other school in the country is mask optional, most kids have had Covid, and Covid burden in the community is low, then when?

Unfortunately, many other charters are not doing any better. I suspect we'll see a return now of the old days when middle and upper-middle income families left the city for suburban schools. This will have a ripple effect on everything. As tax collections decline, public services will get worse and crime will rise. The downward spiral has begun.

That's really sad. For the record, our DCPS opened to kids with IEPs and other needs in Feb 2021, and then there were spots for almost everyone who wanted in April 2021 for the final term. I think almost 75% of the school was back in person by April 2021, if not more. Really, I fault OSSE for not being on top of charters here. I struggle to understand the pyschology behind ITDS's decisions and certainly will never send my kid there. (They had been a back-up middle school option.)

As a relatively new parent in the DC school system, the various charter schools collective responses to COVID has really opened my eyes to how little input parents have in our children's education at charter schools. So who ultimately has oversight over the charter schools? Is there any accountability? If I have a complaint, who would I turn to? Serious question, because I don't know.

You can file a complaint with the Charter Board if you file a complaint with the school that they do not resolve.

Have you ever done that and was it effective?

No, but I am thinking about doing it now that my kids will have to mask at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITDS never expressed regret about Zoom school and acted as if it were entirely normal to teach young children that way. In the 2020-2021 school year, it was as if word had gone out to the staff to act as if in-person school had never existed. They were asynch two days a week and the teacher's assistant played Candy Crush during class time. You could hear the jingle when she failed to mute.

We withdrew our child mid-year.

We kept tabs on the school into the Spring of 2021 when parents petitioned to open two days a week. The school declined, offering one day of "in-person learning opportunities" per week -- how Orwellian is that?

I'm glad to see more parents are coming to the conclusion we did. The school may never return to normalcy. If masks aren't optional now, when we know Covid poses almost no risk to children, vaccines are available, almost every other school in the country is mask optional, most kids have had Covid, and Covid burden in the community is low, then when?

Unfortunately, many other charters are not doing any better. I suspect we'll see a return now of the old days when middle and upper-middle income families left the city for suburban schools. This will have a ripple effect on everything. As tax collections decline, public services will get worse and crime will rise. The downward spiral has begun.

That's really sad. For the record, our DCPS opened to kids with IEPs and other needs in Feb 2021, and then there were spots for almost everyone who wanted in April 2021 for the final term. I think almost 75% of the school was back in person by April 2021, if not more. Really, I fault OSSE for not being on top of charters here. I struggle to understand the pyschology behind ITDS's decisions and certainly will never send my kid there. (They had been a back-up middle school option.)

As a relatively new parent in the DC school system, the various charter schools collective responses to COVID has really opened my eyes to how little input parents have in our children's education at charter schools. So who ultimately has oversight over the charter schools? Is there any accountability? If I have a complaint, who would I turn to? Serious question, because I don't know.

You have zero input. Just know that going in...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have kids who have been at Inspired for many years and I've given the school the benefit of the doubt on lots and lots of decisions and have, by and large, been happy to sit back and let them do their thing.

But, after 2.5 years of pandemic, with CDC guidance where it is, and with literally every other institution relaxing their mitigation strategies, I feel like it's appropriate to give families a lot more explanation than "we are masking."

I'd like to know more so that I can explain to my kids why they are required to wear masks at school and not anywhere else. Because right now? I don't have it in me to carry the school's water on this. I am also really bummed that my kids are starting another year with (at least some) teacher attention diverted to mask compliance vs. building classroom community and teaching/learning.

This is the result of you giving ITDS the "benefit of the doubt" and letting "them do their thing" while other parents have been speaking out about the school's pathetic handling of COVID (closure, masks, on and on). You should have been speaking out and supporting parents who were pushing back on the school years ago. 2.5 years later and your kid is still forced to wear a mask.

Not an ITS parent but I have sympathy for people in this situation. We DID speak up and were immediately told that it was unreasonable to do so, that our suggestions to loosen the mask policy in line with DCPS and CDC guidance would endanger students and staff and "we don't want to go back to virtual, do we?" Like it was some kind of threat.

It's honestly easier to just leave your school than to try and get a school determined to be as Covid cautious as possible to consider science-based arguments for different policies.

We were at another HRCS which had a similar COVID approach. I spoke up also, and was told the same thing, and kept on speaking up, particularly when fellow parents (many of whom had special needs kids who were not getting the services they were legally entitled to) asked me for support. But I was dismayed at how many parents did not; and these are parents who purport to be "allies" of various social justice movements (but I guess special needs isn't trendy enough).

Ultimately, did it have impact? Not likely, but I still felt it was important to push back. (Although nearly half my daughter's upper elementary school grade is not returning this year.) We spent last year formulating an exit strategy so we wouldn't have to return this year. We're going the private school route. I have forever soured on charter schools.

[Anonymous]

Has DCB announced its policies yet?

[Anonymous]

We learned this lesson as well. We’re lucky enough to lottery into a WOTP DCPS. Otherwise we would have moved or done private. The lack of accountability for charters is really problematic. I am really sorry that so many of you are still dealing with this.