Last minute plan B if schools don’t open?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This wave will be over before school starts, folks. I’m not a COVID denier (I’ve never stopped masking indoors and we kept DS home all year last year) but I doubt there will be any political will to shut schools down like they did last year. Teachers, kids, parents, and the government all want them back. Barring a very serious/large outbreak in DC, I think they’ll remain open all year (potentially minus small, single-school shut downs).

STICK THIS SENSE OF CALM DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS.

Yes, let me get some of that too.

I felt so absolutely betrayed and shocked by decisions made out of nowhere last year, that I would put nothing past our DC government, school leadership, even other parents.

I don't know where the political will or any other will lies, to be honest.

The War Has Changed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/29/cdc-mask-guidance/

The delta variant of the coronavirus appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants

the agency knows it must revamp its public messaging to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than Ebola or the common cold.

there are 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans.

Because public health officials had emphasized the great efficacy of the vaccines, the realization that they aren’t perfect may feel like a betrayal. “We’ve done a great job of telling the public these are miracle vaccines,” Seeger said. “We have probably fallen a little into the trap of over-reassurance, which is one of the challenges of any crisis communication circumstance.”

f the war has changed, as the CDC states, so has the calculus of success and failure. The extreme contagiousness of delta makes herd immunity a more challenging target, infectious-disease experts said.
“I think the central issue is that vaccinated people are probably involved to a substantial extent in the transmission of delta,” Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University epidemiologist, wrote in an email after reviewing the CDC slides. “In some sense, vaccination is now about personal protection — protecting oneself against severe disease. Herd immunity is not relevant as we are seeing plenty of evidence of repeat and breakthrough infections.”

The message I take from this is that there is no reason to NOT have in-person school, if all kids are going to get it and there's no ability to fight it.

I take from it that we should probably get kids vaccinated before sending them to get infected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This wave will be over before school starts, folks. I’m not a COVID denier (I’ve never stopped masking indoors and we kept DS home all year last year) but I doubt there will be any political will to shut schools down like they did last year. Teachers, kids, parents, and the government all want them back. Barring a very serious/large outbreak in DC, I think they’ll remain open all year (potentially minus small, single-school shut downs).

STICK THIS SENSE OF CALM DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS.

Yes, let me get some of that too.

I felt so absolutely betrayed and shocked by decisions made out of nowhere last year, that I would put nothing past our DC government, school leadership, even other parents.

I don't know where the political will or any other will lies, to be honest.

As a teacher, I’m 100% confident that we will be in person. I just finished DCs leadership academy this week and they have every indication of business as usual 8/30
If I was a parent I’d be real worried that there are no quarantine policies for concurrent teaching. Last year it was easier when we had to shut down bc students were used to virtual learning, and a lot of teachers already had created in person lessons that could be accessible virtually. I’m not sure how that’s all going to work this year. When we ask Dcps we get nothing

This is a whole bucket of yikes. I’m so sick of DCPS’ incompetence. It puts so much stress on principals, teachers, and parents. And they learn nothing from past mistakes or planning failures. Nor are they ever held accountable.

Sounds like they learned from last year’s failure that closing schools is not a good idea and DL doesn’t really work.

I'm sure they, and teachers, learned from last year how to make it work better.
They might not have a choice with respect to closing schools.

Of course they have a choice. And the problems with virtual are intrinsic, so there is no “making it work better”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This wave will be over before school starts, folks. I’m not a COVID denier (I’ve never stopped masking indoors and we kept DS home all year last year) but I doubt there will be any political will to shut schools down like they did last year. Teachers, kids, parents, and the government all want them back. Barring a very serious/large outbreak in DC, I think they’ll remain open all year (potentially minus small, single-school shut downs).

STICK THIS SENSE OF CALM DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS.

Yes, let me get some of that too.

I felt so absolutely betrayed and shocked by decisions made out of nowhere last year, that I would put nothing past our DC government, school leadership, even other parents.

I don't know where the political will or any other will lies, to be honest.

The War Has Changed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/29/cdc-mask-guidance/

The delta variant of the coronavirus appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants

the agency knows it must revamp its public messaging to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than Ebola or the common cold.

there are 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans.

Because public health officials had emphasized the great efficacy of the vaccines, the realization that they aren’t perfect may feel like a betrayal. “We’ve done a great job of telling the public these are miracle vaccines,” Seeger said. “We have probably fallen a little into the trap of over-reassurance, which is one of the challenges of any crisis communication circumstance.”

f the war has changed, as the CDC states, so has the calculus of success and failure. The extreme contagiousness of delta makes herd immunity a more challenging target, infectious-disease experts said.
“I think the central issue is that vaccinated people are probably involved to a substantial extent in the transmission of delta,” Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University epidemiologist, wrote in an email after reviewing the CDC slides. “In some sense, vaccination is now about personal protection — protecting oneself against severe disease. Herd immunity is not relevant as we are seeing plenty of evidence of repeat and breakthrough infections.”

The message I take from this is that there is no reason to NOT have in-person school, if all kids are going to get it and there's no ability to fight it.

I take from it that we should probably get kids vaccinated before sending them to get infected.

And given that delta is still supposed to result in mild symptoms in kids, I'd rather my kid get it AND have school. Plus the data on the under-12s vaccines is still mixed, and FDA might not even decide to approve a vaccine for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This wave will be over before school starts, folks. I’m not a COVID denier (I’ve never stopped masking indoors and we kept DS home all year last year) but I doubt there will be any political will to shut schools down like they did last year. Teachers, kids, parents, and the government all want them back. Barring a very serious/large outbreak in DC, I think they’ll remain open all year (potentially minus small, single-school shut downs).

STICK THIS SENSE OF CALM DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS.

Yes, let me get some of that too.

I felt so absolutely betrayed and shocked by decisions made out of nowhere last year, that I would put nothing past our DC government, school leadership, even other parents.

I don't know where the political will or any other will lies, to be honest.

The War Has Changed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/29/cdc-mask-guidance/

The delta variant of the coronavirus appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants

the agency knows it must revamp its public messaging to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than Ebola or the common cold.

there are 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans.

Because public health officials had emphasized the great efficacy of the vaccines, the realization that they aren’t perfect may feel like a betrayal. “We’ve done a great job of telling the public these are miracle vaccines,” Seeger said. “We have probably fallen a little into the trap of over-reassurance, which is one of the challenges of any crisis communication circumstance.”

f the war has changed, as the CDC states, so has the calculus of success and failure. The extreme contagiousness of delta makes herd immunity a more challenging target, infectious-disease experts said.
“I think the central issue is that vaccinated people are probably involved to a substantial extent in the transmission of delta,” Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University epidemiologist, wrote in an email after reviewing the CDC slides. “In some sense, vaccination is now about personal protection — protecting oneself against severe disease. Herd immunity is not relevant as we are seeing plenty of evidence of repeat and breakthrough infections.”

The message I take from this is that there is no reason to NOT have in-person school, if all kids are going to get it and there's no ability to fight it.

I take from it that we should probably get kids vaccinated before sending them to get infected.

Why? If vaccinated people can still spread it and since kids don’t usually get very sick, why wait till kids are vaccinated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This wave will be over before school starts, folks. I’m not a COVID denier (I’ve never stopped masking indoors and we kept DS home all year last year) but I doubt there will be any political will to shut schools down like they did last year. Teachers, kids, parents, and the government all want them back. Barring a very serious/large outbreak in DC, I think they’ll remain open all year (potentially minus small, single-school shut downs).

STICK THIS SENSE OF CALM DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS.

Yes, let me get some of that too.

I felt so absolutely betrayed and shocked by decisions made out of nowhere last year, that I would put nothing past our DC government, school leadership, even other parents.

I don't know where the political will or any other will lies, to be honest.

The War Has Changed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/29/cdc-mask-guidance/

The delta variant of the coronavirus appears to cause more severe illness than earlier variants

the agency knows it must revamp its public messaging to emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than Ebola or the common cold.

there are 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans.

Because public health officials had emphasized the great efficacy of the vaccines, the realization that they aren’t perfect may feel like a betrayal. “We’ve done a great job of telling the public these are miracle vaccines,” Seeger said. “We have probably fallen a little into the trap of over-reassurance, which is one of the challenges of any crisis communication circumstance.”

f the war has changed, as the CDC states, so has the calculus of success and failure. The extreme contagiousness of delta makes herd immunity a more challenging target, infectious-disease experts said.
“I think the central issue is that vaccinated people are probably involved to a substantial extent in the transmission of delta,” Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University epidemiologist, wrote in an email after reviewing the CDC slides. “In some sense, vaccination is now about personal protection — protecting oneself against severe disease. Herd immunity is not relevant as we are seeing plenty of evidence of repeat and breakthrough infections.”

The message I take from this is that there is no reason to NOT have in-person school, if all kids are going to get it and there's no ability to fight it.

I take from it that we should probably get kids vaccinated before sending them to get infected.

Hey, if the vaccine isn't protective because we have breakthrough infections, why wait for it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This wave will be over before school starts, folks. I’m not a COVID denier (I’ve never stopped masking indoors and we kept DS home all year last year) but I doubt there will be any political will to shut schools down like they did last year. Teachers, kids, parents, and the government all want them back. Barring a very serious/large outbreak in DC, I think they’ll remain open all year (potentially minus small, single-school shut downs).

STICK THIS SENSE OF CALM DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS.

Yes, let me get some of that too.

I felt so absolutely betrayed and shocked by decisions made out of nowhere last year, that I would put nothing past our DC government, school leadership, even other parents.

I don't know where the political will or any other will lies, to be honest.

As a teacher, I’m 100% confident that we will be in person. I just finished DCs leadership academy this week and they have every indication of business as usual 8/30
If I was a parent I’d be real worried that there are no quarantine policies for concurrent teaching. Last year it was easier when we had to shut down bc students were used to virtual learning, and a lot of teachers already had created in person lessons that could be accessible virtually. I’m not sure how that’s all going to work this year. When we ask Dcps we get nothing

Thanks, PP. what would that actually mean in practice, then? Kids get sent home with packets? Absolutely nothing for the quarantine period? Would you be allowed to develop your own plan if DCPS doesn’t develop one?

[Anonymous]

No communicated plan for learning during forced quarantines does not suggest to me that DCPS has learned from the past 18 months.

[Anonymous]

Everybody has to get it at some point, get the vaccine. I’m a single mom I had to move my ex in to help with the kids as I am an essential employee. Staying at home was terrible for my kids and now my ex want to work things out. For the love of god I can’t take another year of this. When I was in college a good friend got chicken pox as an adult bc his parents were antivax. He was hospitalized for months, things like this are so preventable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody has to get it at some point, get the vaccine. I’m a single mom I had to move my ex in to help with the kids as I am an essential employee. Staying at home was terrible for my kids and now my ex want to work things out. For the love of god I can’t take another year of this. When I was in college a good friend got chicken pox as an adult bc his parents were antivax. He was hospitalized for months, things like this are so preventable.

How old are you? The chicken pox vaccine was approved in 1995.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/varicella.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everybody has to get it at some point, get the vaccine. I’m a single mom I had to move my ex in to help with the kids as I am an essential employee. Staying at home was terrible for my kids and now my ex want to work things out. For the love of god I can’t take another year of this. When I was in college a good friend got chicken pox as an adult bc his parents were antivax. He was hospitalized for months, things like this are so preventable.

How old are you? The chicken pox vaccine was approved in 1995.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/varicella.pdf

When you are lying it’s hard to keep the dates straight

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This wave will be over before school starts, folks. I’m not a COVID denier (I’ve never stopped masking indoors and we kept DS home all year last year) but I doubt there will be any political will to shut schools down like they did last year. Teachers, kids, parents, and the government all want them back. Barring a very serious/large outbreak in DC, I think they’ll remain open all year (potentially minus small, single-school shut downs).

STICK THIS SENSE OF CALM DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS.

Yes, let me get some of that too.

I felt so absolutely betrayed and shocked by decisions made out of nowhere last year, that I would put nothing past our DC government, school leadership, even other parents.

I don't know where the political will or any other will lies, to be honest.

As a teacher, I’m 100% confident that we will be in person. I just finished DCs leadership academy this week and they have every indication of business as usual 8/30
If I was a parent I’d be real worried that there are no quarantine policies for concurrent teaching. Last year it was easier when we had to shut down bc students were used to virtual learning, and a lot of teachers already had created in person lessons that could be accessible virtually. I’m not sure how that’s all going to work this year. When we ask Dcps we get nothing

Thanks, PP. what would that actually mean in practice, then? Kids get sent home with packets? Absolutely nothing for the quarantine period? Would you be allowed to develop your own plan if DCPS doesn’t develop one?

From my experience, it's going to be every teacher for themselves. I like using tech in my lessons so it was easier to include students on screen when they were in quarantine last year, but its still a drop off for sure. Assuming best intentions, some newer teachers just might not have the bandwidth or tech savvy or skill set to run concurrent lessons and I feel like that's where DCPS will need to have at least a skeleton system to support them, as this is a whole new realm

[Anonymous]

I am somewhat confident that we will not have to go to Plan B...but I am wavering a bit lately.

Plan B for us is to immediately go and rent a 2 BR apartment in the closest MD or VA district that is open, and my husband and I and our son will live there. We can handle a long commute for a year (no, we will not commit residency fraud and keep living in our DC house while we attend school elsewhere). DS is a senior in high school, and I am desperate for him to have one full, in-person year to finish it out.

[Anonymous]

The CDC guidance on "close contacts" for k-12 is what is giving me hope:


Close Contact through Proximity and Duration of Exposure: Someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period (for example, three individual 5-minute exposures for a total of 15 minutes). An infected person can spread SARS-CoV-2 starting from 2 days before they have any symptoms (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days before the positive specimen collection date), until they meet criteria for discontinuing home isolation.

Exception: In the K–12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) where
both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks; and
other K–12 school prevention strategies (such as universal and correct mask use, physical distancing, increased ventilation) were in place in the K–12 school setting.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/appendix.html#contact

That suggests there's won't be the quarantines that we think, if we are masking.

OBVIOUSLY, no mitigation strategies will be followed perfectly, but that's a ridiculous standard and is unenforceable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am somewhat confident that we will not have to go to Plan B...but I am wavering a bit lately.

Plan B for us is to immediately go and rent a 2 BR apartment in the closest MD or VA district that is open, and my husband and I and our son will live there. We can handle a long commute for a year (no, we will not commit residency fraud and keep living in our DC house while we attend school elsewhere). DS is a senior in high school, and I am desperate for him to have one full, in-person year to finish it out.

This is our Plan B as well. Easier with one portable elementary aged child for sure. What I really don't want is to start my child at her new school, have her get acclimated, then have things go haywire and have to disrupt her again socially for the sake of in person learning. DL was very bad on her mental health last year, but continued disruptions will also be bad in a different way. Really hoping the updated CDC guidelines reduce the amount of quarantining that will have to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am somewhat confident that we will not have to go to Plan B...but I am wavering a bit lately.

Plan B for us is to immediately go and rent a 2 BR apartment in the closest MD or VA district that is open, and my husband and I and our son will live there. We can handle a long commute for a year (no, we will not commit residency fraud and keep living in our DC house while we attend school elsewhere). DS is a senior in high school, and I am desperate for him to have one full, in-person year to finish it out.

Fairfax will be stay open because of the governor's race. The Republican candidate is running in part on a platform that schools need to be open. The democrat will lose if schools close. I bet Fairfax stays open through hell or high water this school year.