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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if my kid gets a cold and I decide to keep him home…I should say that we are truant because if I tell them that he is sick, then the entire class will be in quarantine?

Say he had a follow-up visit with a specialist about a chronic condition. Or did they formally allow mental health days yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if my kid gets a cold and I decide to keep him home…I should say that we are truant because if I tell them that he is sick, then the entire class will be in quarantine?

Say he had a follow-up visit with a specialist about a chronic condition. Or did they formally allow mental health days yet?

From now on my kid will never have headache, sore throat, diarrhea, or fever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The policy is reasonable.

1. When a child presents himself with any symptom, there is no way to rule out covid. It might be just sniffles but there is nothing to tell you that it is not covid.
2. So err on side of caution for the greater good. Send everyone home. Have the kid who showed symptoms prove, with a negative test, that it is not COVID, and then resume normal classes.
3. If the kid does turn out to be covid positive, then you have pre-emptively reduced the risk of all his classmates getting infected.

Bottomline: parents dont send your kids with symptoms to school. If you do and LARLA complains, YOU are the reason 25 other kids are being forced to get their kids out of school.

Now an opinion:
YOU are the problem because you are selfish. Stop treating school like daycare that watches over your kid. Kids are remarkably resilient behaviorally and will cope with zoom, just as they have coped with masks or pizza every friday night.

Its you who needs to change your attitude: have some responsibility, some COMMUNAL responsibility for heavens sake. Otherwise folks like you (who send sick kids to school) should be ostracized by society. You selfish stupid people can GFY!

What would your next step be if the family simply declines to get their child tested? Or just doesn’t understand?

I don’t have a problem with the policy but THIS! This is a problem. A whole class is at the mercy of one student, and if that family can’t or won’t test, everyone loses.

Exactly 25 families at the mercy of one. Hence my branding them selfish a-holes.

Absolutely no solution.

Social ostracize these jackasses. Only then they will learn.

[Anonymous]

So if my kid wakes up with runny nose, and I keep them home to get covid tested, does that mean when I email the school to report their absence they’ll send the entire class home until I report a negative covid test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The policy is reasonable.

1. When a child presents himself with any symptom, there is no way to rule out covid. It might be just sniffles but there is nothing to tell you that it is not covid.
2. So err on side of caution for the greater good. Send everyone home. Have the kid who showed symptoms prove, with a negative test, that it is not COVID, and then resume normal classes.
3. If the kid does turn out to be covid positive, then you have pre-emptively reduced the risk of all his classmates getting infected.

Bottomline: parents dont send your kids with symptoms to school. If you do and LARLA complains, YOU are the reason 25 other kids are being forced to get their kids out of school.

Now an opinion:
YOU are the problem because you are selfish. Stop treating school like daycare that watches over your kid. Kids are remarkably resilient behaviorally and will cope with zoom, just as they have coped with masks or pizza every friday night.

Its you who needs to change your attitude: have some responsibility, some COMMUNAL responsibility for heavens sake. Otherwise folks like you (who send sick kids to school) should be ostracized by society. You selfish stupid people can GFY!

Why do you need to completely rule out COVID? Approach mitigations looking for the biggest benefits with the smallest costs. Quarantining a classful of kids has a terrible cost-benefit analysis. That would go against the CDC guidance even if they tested positive. The idea of quarantining students *before* a positive test makes it all the more ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The policy is reasonable.

1. When a child presents himself with any symptom, there is no way to rule out covid. It might be just sniffles but there is nothing to tell you that it is not covid.
2. So err on side of caution for the greater good. Send everyone home. Have the kid who showed symptoms prove, with a negative test, that it is not COVID, and then resume normal classes.
3. If the kid does turn out to be covid positive, then you have pre-emptively reduced the risk of all his classmates getting infected.

Bottomline: parents dont send your kids with symptoms to school. If you do and LARLA complains, YOU are the reason 25 other kids are being forced to get their kids out of school.

Now an opinion:
YOU are the problem because you are selfish. Stop treating school like daycare that watches over your kid. Kids are remarkably resilient behaviorally and will cope with zoom, just as they have coped with masks or pizza every friday night.

Its you who needs to change your attitude: have some responsibility, some COMMUNAL responsibility for heavens sake. Otherwise folks like you (who send sick kids to school) should be ostracized by society. You selfish stupid people can GFY!

Why do you need to completely rule out COVID? Approach mitigations looking for the biggest benefits with the smallest costs. Quarantining a classful of kids has a terrible cost-benefit analysis. That would go against the CDC guidance even if they tested positive. The idea of quarantining students *before* a positive test makes it all the more ridiculous.

Do the cost benefit analysis when your kid is a statistic....

[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.

I’m fairly sure they did. I will need to review the old guidance but it was very strict.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if my kid gets a cold and I decide to keep him home…I should say that we are truant because if I tell them that he is sick, then the entire class will be in quarantine?

Say he had a follow-up visit with a specialist about a chronic condition. Or did they formally allow mental health days yet?

From now on my kid will never have headache, sore throat, diarrhea, or fever.

I got it: say he had an acute singultus attack that resolved with rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The policy is reasonable.

1. When a child presents himself with any symptom, there is no way to rule out covid. It might be just sniffles but there is nothing to tell you that it is not covid.
2. So err on side of caution for the greater good. Send everyone home. Have the kid who showed symptoms prove, with a negative test, that it is not COVID, and then resume normal classes.
3. If the kid does turn out to be covid positive, then you have pre-emptively reduced the risk of all his classmates getting infected.

Bottomline: parents dont send your kids with symptoms to school. If you do and LARLA complains, YOU are the reason 25 other kids are being forced to get their kids out of school.

Now an opinion:
YOU are the problem because you are selfish. Stop treating school like daycare that watches over your kid. Kids are remarkably resilient behaviorally and will cope with zoom, just as they have coped with masks or pizza every friday night.

Its you who needs to change your attitude: have some responsibility, some COMMUNAL responsibility for heavens sake. Otherwise folks like you (who send sick kids to school) should be ostracized by society. You selfish stupid people can GFY!

You've laid out why the procedure is so stupid. One kid can hold the class hostage, either intentionally or not. I'm so glad I moved out of this backwards district. I feel bad for the kids stuck with this continued incompetence.

[Anonymous]

Before school started this Monday, I got a doctor clearance note and negative covid test to send my girl who had some coughing from a summer cold. She was no longer contagious, but she had lingering coughing from itchy throat.

With this new announcement, does my girl need to tested AGAIN for covid for next Wednesday school. She may cough a few times full day, and that is it. I wonder if the one I send earlier was good enough or need a new test result? How do you define coughing? A few times a day , is that considered covid symptom? Or has to be persistent coughing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The policy is reasonable.

1. When a child presents himself with any symptom, there is no way to rule out covid. It might be just sniffles but there is nothing to tell you that it is not covid.
2. So err on side of caution for the greater good. Send everyone home. Have the kid who showed symptoms prove, with a negative test, that it is not COVID, and then resume normal classes.
3. If the kid does turn out to be covid positive, then you have pre-emptively reduced the risk of all his classmates getting infected.

Bottomline: parents dont send your kids with symptoms to school. If you do and LARLA complains, YOU are the reason 25 other kids are being forced to get their kids out of school.

Now an opinion:
YOU are the problem because you are selfish. Stop treating school like daycare that watches over your kid. Kids are remarkably resilient behaviorally and will cope with zoom, just as they have coped with masks or pizza every friday night.

Its you who needs to change your attitude: have some responsibility, some COMMUNAL responsibility for heavens sake. Otherwise folks like you (who send sick kids to school) should be ostracized by society. You selfish stupid people can GFY!

Why do you need to completely rule out COVID? Approach mitigations looking for the biggest benefits with the smallest costs. Quarantining a classful of kids has a terrible cost-benefit analysis. That would go against the CDC guidance even if they tested positive. The idea of quarantining students *before* a positive test makes it all the more ridiculous.

Do the cost benefit analysis when your kid is a statistic....

This is one of the dumber retorts around. Why do anything in this world at all because you could just end up a statistic...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if my kid wakes up with runny nose, and I keep them home to get covid tested, does that mean when I email the school to report their absence they’ll send the entire class home until I report a negative covid test?

Runny nose is not on their list as covid symptom as far as I know.
Oh mine, there has been virus going on for summer cold with coughing and runny nose, but not covid. How do we survive and I work in person as well.

[Anonymous]

So dumb. My child was sick with all the covid symptoms day 3 of school. I got her tested that day, it was negative so I emailed the negative test the next day and said we will be out to prevent spread. Simple. The class stays in session and my kid gets better and rejoins. How hard is that? I also am a teacher and have 1 in quarantine with the whole family with covid but they never made it to school. Whole grades are out at my school, 2 to be exact, but it does not have to be that way. Many of my first graders cannot read, count to 20 or identify all their letters and sounds. That is more pressing.

[Anonymous]

September 3rd update at 6:34 from the Acting Superintendent

UPDATED QUARANTINE GUIDANCE FOR UNVACCINATED STUDENTS
Under the direction of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services and in alignment with the Maryland State Department of Health and the Maryland State Department of Education, MCPS is implementing the following updated guidelines regarding the quarantine of unvaccinated students:

Unvaccinated students who have been in close contact with an individual who is displaying any single symptom of COVID-19 will be sent home.
Students who are sent home because they have been in close contact with an individual with symptoms may return if the individual with symptoms tests negative, or has an alternate diagnosis from a medical provider.
In the absence of a negative COVID-19 test or alternate medical diagnosis of that individual, all students who were in close contact with the individual are required to quarantine for 10 days.
As a result of this guidance from the county, MCPS will quarantine:

An individual who tests positive
Those who are unvaccinated and in close contact to an individual who tests positive or has one or more COVID-19 symptoms
An individual with one or more COVID-19 symptoms
Close contact is:

Being 3 feet or less away in the classroom for 15 or more minutes during a 24-hour period, regardless of mask use.
Being 6 feet or less away while eating or outdoors for 15 minutes or more during a 24-hour period, regardless of mask use.
COVID-19 symptoms include:

Fever of 100.4 degrees or higher
Sore throat
Cough
Difficulty breathing
Diarrhea or vomiting
New onset of severe headache
New onset of loss of taste or smell

If a Student is Quarantined MCPS will minimize learning disruption when students are in isolation or quarantine. At the elementary level, individual students in isolation or quarantine will receive live, virtual instruction from a teacher on a separate schedule from their peers; if an entire class is in quarantine, the teacher will provide virtual instruction for the class. At the secondary level, students in isolation or quarantine will have opportunities to connect with their teachers for live check-ins.

Shouldn't be a problem for HS where everyone has had the opportunity to get the vaccine. Subjective determination (was there close contact?) could be a problem for MS and ES students who can't get the vaccine yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:September 3rd update at 6:34 from the Acting Superintendent

UPDATED QUARANTINE GUIDANCE FOR UNVACCINATED STUDENTS
Under the direction of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services and in alignment with the Maryland State Department of Health and the Maryland State Department of Education, MCPS is implementing the following updated guidelines regarding the quarantine of unvaccinated students:

Unvaccinated students who have been in close contact with an individual who is displaying any single symptom of COVID-19 will be sent home.
Students who are sent home because they have been in close contact with an individual with symptoms may return if the individual with symptoms tests negative, or has an alternate diagnosis from a medical provider.
In the absence of a negative COVID-19 test or alternate medical diagnosis of that individual, all students who were in close contact with the individual are required to quarantine for 10 days.
As a result of this guidance from the county, MCPS will quarantine:

An individual who tests positive
Those who are unvaccinated and in close contact to an individual who tests positive or has one or more COVID-19 symptoms
An individual with one or more COVID-19 symptoms
Close contact is:

Being 3 feet or less away in the classroom for 15 or more minutes during a 24-hour period, regardless of mask use.
Being 6 feet or less away while eating or outdoors for 15 minutes or more during a 24-hour period, regardless of mask use.
COVID-19 symptoms include:

Fever of 100.4 degrees or higher
Sore throat
Cough
Difficulty breathing
Diarrhea or vomiting
New onset of severe headache
New onset of loss of taste or smell

If a Student is Quarantined MCPS will minimize learning disruption when students are in isolation or quarantine. At the elementary level, individual students in isolation or quarantine will receive live, virtual instruction from a teacher on a separate schedule from their peers; if an entire class is in quarantine, the teacher will provide virtual instruction for the class. At the secondary level, students in isolation or quarantine will have opportunities to connect with their teachers for live check-ins.

Shouldn't be a problem for HS where everyone has had the opportunity to get the vaccine. Subjective determination (was there close contact?) could be a problem for MS and ES students who can't get the vaccine yet.

If close contact was actually applied that way, this wouldn't nearly be at tragic as what's happening and being discussed here. But they're effectively considering close contact to be anybody who has driven by the school in the past few years.