MCPS will now send kids home for ten days based on symptoms only

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I class is sent home until getting a negative test on their own. Let's say that takes 2 days, comes back and 3 days later another kid has a "bad headache " back home again but there's a project at work so this time it takes 3 days to go get the test then back again until a week and a half later someone eats the cafeteria food and has diarrhea so now you're out again for another day.

What a sh"tshow

ok - so what do you propose? No class? No quarantine ever? Only the child that is sick gets sent home (one after another after another -until the entire class is sent home sequentially and the spread continues? What?

Test to stay like Boston (and probably many many other schools are doing)

I'm not sure what MCPS has against using the testing that's been provided by the federal government but irs causing much risk and disruption to not use it.

They don't want to know.

Right. They just want to send them home.

Just do rapid antigen tests as often as you can, and send home anyone positive while keeping everyone that tested negative. Once a classroom crosses a certain threshold of concurrent cases (3-5), shut down the room for 10 days.

Majority of parents aren't agreeing to testing so their only option is to send kids home.

At the very least, they could send the symptomatic kid home and allow others in the room to stay after a negative rapid antigen test. If your child is in the room and you refuse the test, then your child could get sent home too.

The key point is that we absolutely do not need to send everyone home when there's a positive test or a symptomic kid. We're going to be dealing with COVID for a long time. This is not an appropriate or sustainable plan. It's so bad that it only makes sense in the context of trying to force a closure of the district as a whole.

Agreed. Feels like typical MCPS nonsense. They want to stick it to the state and to Hogan (we have seen this nonsense before from MCPS). Instead of closing down the school system, they will freely send grades home and then eventually close schools.

Parents wanted in person. The only way to do that was to reopen as normal or they'd have to do some kind of hybrid which everyone complained about. This isn't about the state or hogan. If parents wanted virtual, they were offered it. So, without following CDC safety protocols, not having testing (or parents opting in), what are you expecting. It was clear it was going to be an issue. You could see it from school systems opening early than us. Stop complain, consent to testing, get your child tested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty easy to get the negative test and get everyone back within a day. Seems like NBD.

how "easy" do you think it is for low income families?

Stop making this about income. Many of them are more careful as it impacts them more than you and county has free testing. This is why MCPS should have 1-2 time a week mandatory testing for anyone in person.

You usually have to pay more- or your insurance does- for expedited PCR tests. Maybe you didn’t know that? So the privileged like yourself can be back in a day and when the regular tests start taking a week again around the holidays the lower income kids are out for as long as it takes. If MCOS would provide the expedited testing, I would be more ok with this.

[Anonymous]

Oh and no one cares if your “careful” family is sending their kids in N95s, they’ll be treated like everyone else in the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t this what daycares have been doing successfully since 2020?

The part about requiring a negative Covid test to return to care, yes. The part about quarantining any close contacts of people with symptoms (before Covid results come back), no.

So mine has done the latter but it’s only happened a couple of times over the past year. Unfortunately one of those times was around the holidays last year and the entire class was sent home for almost a week for what ended up being a negative result. Guessing parents didn’t bother telling anyone they were awaiting test results after that. Pretty sure the directive to quarantine the class while awaiting results came from the county health dept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t this what daycares have been doing successfully since 2020?

The part about requiring a negative Covid test to return to care, yes. The part about quarantining any close contacts of people with symptoms (before Covid results come back), no.

So mine has done the latter but it’s only happened a couple of times over the past year. Unfortunately one of those times was around the holidays last year and the entire class was sent home for almost a week for what ended up being a negative result. Guessing parents didn’t bother telling anyone they were awaiting test results after that. Pretty sure the directive to quarantine the class while awaiting results came from the county health dept.

So you were not in MCPS then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I class is sent home until getting a negative test on their own. Let's say that takes 2 days, comes back and 3 days later another kid has a "bad headache " back home again but there's a project at work so this time it takes 3 days to go get the test then back again until a week and a half later someone eats the cafeteria food and has diarrhea so now you're out again for another day.

What a sh"tshow

ok - so what do you propose? No class? No quarantine ever? Only the child that is sick gets sent home (one after another after another -until the entire class is sent home sequentially and the spread continues? What?

Test to stay like Boston (and probably many many other schools are doing)

I'm not sure what MCPS has against using the testing that's been provided by the federal government but irs causing much risk and disruption to not use it.

They don't want to know.

Right. They just want to send them home.

Just do rapid antigen tests as often as you can, and send home anyone positive while keeping everyone that tested negative. Once a classroom crosses a certain threshold of concurrent cases (3-5), shut down the room for 10 days.

Majority of parents aren't agreeing to testing so their only option is to send kids home.

At the very least, they could send the symptomatic kid home and allow others in the room to stay after a negative rapid antigen test. If your child is in the room and you refuse the test, then your child could get sent home too.

The key point is that we absolutely do not need to send everyone home when there's a positive test or a symptomic kid. We're going to be dealing with COVID for a long time. This is not an appropriate or sustainable plan. It's so bad that it only makes sense in the context of trying to force a closure of the district as a whole.

Agreed. Feels like typical MCPS nonsense. They want to stick it to the state and to Hogan (we have seen this nonsense before from MCPS). Instead of closing down the school system, they will freely send grades home and then eventually close schools.

Parents wanted in person. The only way to do that was to reopen as normal or they'd have to do some kind of hybrid which everyone complained about. This isn't about the state or hogan. If parents wanted virtual, they were offered it. So, without following CDC safety protocols, not having testing (or parents opting in), what are you expecting. It was clear it was going to be an issue. You could see it from school systems opening early than us. Stop complain, consent to testing, get your child tested.

This is only an issue because MCPS made it an issue. MCPS said they were going to follow CDC guidance on exposures and quarantines. I expected they would hold true to their word. Obviously that was a mistake on my part and I now realize we can't trust anything said under McKnight's leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what can we do to stop this madness?

By stopping to read the actual guidance, instead of believing a sh1tstirrer who says runny noses will be banned from school.

I’m the OP. As far as I’m aware the actual guidance has not been shared yet. From anecdotal reports at multiple schools I understood that cold symptoms were included, but I’m heartened to hear that where schools have shared written guidance it doesn’t include colds. However coughs, headache and sore throat are all very common. Current test positivity is 3.4 percent.

THREE POINT FOUR PERCENT!

so almost 97% of those cases will lead to unnecessarily keeping entire classes of kids out of school for up to ten days. Ridiculous.

Again - if they do a covid test and test negative - no quarantine, right? So the kid goes home, takes a test, tests negative - everyone back at school within 24 hours. Yay. OR kid goes home, takes COVID test - tests positive, and then we prevent further spread since the kids are all at home and quarantined.

“Yay”??? The entire class is needlessly worried and misses school. And 24 hours is best case scenario.

DP. To avoid this, don’t send your kid to school sick. yay!

But dont you need to tell the teacher or secretary that your kid is sick and will be absent? I actually don’t even know how this works lol, new kindergarten parent here. Can you just be vague or will they start asking for specific symptoms?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what can we do to stop this madness?

By stopping to read the actual guidance, instead of believing a sh1tstirrer who says runny noses will be banned from school.

I’m the OP. As far as I’m aware the actual guidance has not been shared yet. From anecdotal reports at multiple schools I understood that cold symptoms were included, but I’m heartened to hear that where schools have shared written guidance it doesn’t include colds. However coughs, headache and sore throat are all very common. Current test positivity is 3.4 percent.

THREE POINT FOUR PERCENT!

so almost 97% of those cases will lead to unnecessarily keeping entire classes of kids out of school for up to ten days. Ridiculous.

Again - if they do a covid test and test negative - no quarantine, right? So the kid goes home, takes a test, tests negative - everyone back at school within 24 hours. Yay. OR kid goes home, takes COVID test - tests positive, and then we prevent further spread since the kids are all at home and quarantined.

“Yay”??? The entire class is needlessly worried and misses school. And 24 hours is best case scenario.

DP. To avoid this, don’t send your kid to school sick. yay!

I don’t (yay!!) but unfortunately I haven’t yet found a way to control what other people do. If you have tips, do let me know.

There may well be support and/or pressure from the school on the family in question to get the testing done. Our ES is having a parent meeting next Wed to discuss quarantine. I think that’s a much better way of conveying this information and discussing the various scenarios than via email or Twitter. Other schools may do the same.

Can’t the school do the testing since it’s doing random testing anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I class is sent home until getting a negative test on their own. Let's say that takes 2 days, comes back and 3 days later another kid has a "bad headache " back home again but there's a project at work so this time it takes 3 days to go get the test then back again until a week and a half later someone eats the cafeteria food and has diarrhea so now you're out again for another day.

What a sh"tshow

ok - so what do you propose? No class? No quarantine ever? Only the child that is sick gets sent home (one after another after another -until the entire class is sent home sequentially and the spread continues? What?

Test to stay like Boston (and probably many many other schools are doing)

I'm not sure what MCPS has against using the testing that's been provided by the federal government but irs causing much risk and disruption to not use it.

It’s because the county always, always, always has to be “special”. Curriculum, covid, you name it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I class is sent home until getting a negative test on their own. Let's say that takes 2 days, comes back and 3 days later another kid has a "bad headache " back home again but there's a project at work so this time it takes 3 days to go get the test then back again until a week and a half later someone eats the cafeteria food and has diarrhea so now you're out again for another day.

What a sh"tshow

ok - so what do you propose? No class? No quarantine ever? Only the child that is sick gets sent home (one after another after another -until the entire class is sent home sequentially and the spread continues? What?

Test to stay like Boston (and probably many many other schools are doing)

I'm not sure what MCPS has against using the testing that's been provided by the federal government but irs causing much risk and disruption to not use it.

Exactly this. Kids in the “exposed” class should get a rapid antigen test each morning for ~7 days, and if negative can come to class that day.

It’s really not that hard. I also don’t know why PP assumes that one positive child would lead to a room full of positive kids, assuming they’re all masked.

Poor quality masks + lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I class is sent home until getting a negative test on their own. Let's say that takes 2 days, comes back and 3 days later another kid has a "bad headache " back home again but there's a project at work so this time it takes 3 days to go get the test then back again until a week and a half later someone eats the cafeteria food and has diarrhea so now you're out again for another day.

What a sh"tshow

ok - so what do you propose? No class? No quarantine ever? Only the child that is sick gets sent home (one after another after another -until the entire class is sent home sequentially and the spread continues? What?

Test to stay like Boston (and probably many many other schools are doing)

I'm not sure what MCPS has against using the testing that's been provided by the federal government but irs causing much risk and disruption to not use it.

They don't want to know.

Right. They just want to send them home.

Just do rapid antigen tests as often as you can, and send home anyone positive while keeping everyone that tested negative. Once a classroom crosses a certain threshold of concurrent cases (3-5), shut down the room for 10 days.

Majority of parents aren't agreeing to testing so their only option is to send kids home.

At the very least, they could send the symptomatic kid home and allow others in the room to stay after a negative rapid antigen test. If your child is in the room and you refuse the test, then your child could get sent home too.

The key point is that we absolutely do not need to send everyone home when there's a positive test or a symptomic kid. We're going to be dealing with COVID for a long time. This is not an appropriate or sustainable plan. It's so bad that it only makes sense in the context of trying to force a closure of the district as a whole.

No, because if those other kids are asymptomatic, they could have a huge spread. Parents need to be responsible. If your child is sick keep them home.[/quote

I said test the other kids. If they're not testing positive on a rapid antigen test, they're unlikely to transmit in a masked environment.

Why is risk management such a foreign concept to people? We don't demand zero risk in any other aspect of our lives.

[Anonymous]

Aren’t the rapid tests really unreliable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I give up. It's probably just easier to do virtual until our kids can get vaccinated than deal with the roadblocks this idiotic Board wants to throw up. At least there's stability with virtual.

They need to stop the spread. Some people are clearly ok with getting covid as they don't care about anyone but themselves, even their kids and send them to school sick and don't care the impact it has on others.

I don't get the complaining. It was clear this would happen, so deal with it. Just like the same families told those of us concerned to just deal with it. Your turn. Virtual has a waitlist and isn't taking new families but go ahead and apply.

+1. Such suckers!! Virtual will be the far superior Avenue this year because it will be consistent.

Well, my kids are in Virtual Academy, and my 6th grader's teachers spent nearly all week doing icebreakers. The AIM math teacher insisted several times there would be no math at all for the first week. So glad I requested a switch to Algebra. My 11th grader did have academic content in AP classes, but not as much as I thought. It seems they're starting off students slowly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I class is sent home until getting a negative test on their own. Let's say that takes 2 days, comes back and 3 days later another kid has a "bad headache " back home again but there's a project at work so this time it takes 3 days to go get the test then back again until a week and a half later someone eats the cafeteria food and has diarrhea so now you're out again for another day.

What a sh"tshow

ok - so what do you propose? No class? No quarantine ever? Only the child that is sick gets sent home (one after another after another -until the entire class is sent home sequentially and the spread continues? What?

Test to stay like Boston (and probably many many other schools are doing)

I'm not sure what MCPS has against using the testing that's been provided by the federal government but irs causing much risk and disruption to not use it.

They don't want to know.

Right. They just want to send them home.

Just do rapid antigen tests as often as you can, and send home anyone positive while keeping everyone that tested negative. Once a classroom crosses a certain threshold of concurrent cases (3-5), shut down the room for 10 days.

Majority of parents aren't agreeing to testing so their only option is to send kids home.

At the very least, they could send the symptomatic kid home and allow others in the room to stay after a negative rapid antigen test. If your child is in the room and you refuse the test, then your child could get sent home too.

The key point is that we absolutely do not need to send everyone home when there's a positive test or a symptomic kid. We're going to be dealing with COVID for a long time. This is not an appropriate or sustainable plan. It's so bad that it only makes sense in the context of trying to force a closure of the district as a whole.

No, because if those other kids are asymptomatic, they could have a huge spread. Parents need to be responsible. If your child is sick keep them home.

I said test the other kids. If they're not testing positive on a rapid antigen test, they're unlikely to transmit in a masked environment.

Why is risk management such a foreign concept to people? We don't demand zero risk in any other aspect of our lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t the rapid tests really unreliable?

Only when viral load is low, in which case they're probably not infectious.